Pathfinder question

I am attempting to knock out the front of some outlined, grouped and overlaid type with the pathfinder exclude front function and only the first set of objects are modified. I'm presuming because Illy is looking for one overlay instance instead of a group. I more or less verified that by using the group selection tool for individual sets and the procedure worked. My question is: Is there a way to tell Illustrator to process all selected?

Thanks to those who know more than me,

Joe