Hey Fundraiser!

You found the perfect major gift prospect. Great capacity, strong giving history, real connection to your mission...and they will not respond. In this episode of Hey Fundraiser! , Mary tackles one of the hardest parts of major gift fundraising: getting in the door. You’ll learn why generic “would you like to grab coffee?” emails fall flat, how to make your invitation genuinely worth saying yes to,...

If Mary walked into a nonprofit tomorrow and had one year to build a major gift program from scratch, what would she do first, what would she ignore, and where would she spend her time? In this episode of Hey Fundraiser! , Mary breaks down the seven things she would prioritize to build a focused, effective major gift program without getting buried in software, policies, giant portfolios, or endles...

Why do donors happily fund programs but hesitate to fund the people, systems, and infrastructure that make those programs possible? In this episode of Hey Fundraiser! , Mary breaks down how to inspire more unrestricted major gifts by building deeper donor trust. You’ll learn why restrictions often reveal where trust stops, how phrases like “we do so much with so little” can reinforce harmful scarc...

How many times can you follow up with a donor before you become annoying? How do you actually know when it’s time to ask? What happens if you ask for too much? Do you need a polished proposal before you ever talk about money? And where do you even begin when your major gift portfolio is completely overwhelming? In this episode of Hey Fundraiser! , Mary tackles five of the questions she hears most...

What if the professional development line in your budget isn’t an expense, but one of the smartest revenue investments your organization can make? In this episode, Mary shares what happened when 15 Executive Directors and fundraisers gathered at her home in Bend for the VIP Intensive and went deep on their actual major gift work. Mary walks you through how to build the business case for profession...

Your best gift officer is going to get a recruiter's call this quarter. What happens next was decided by how you led this quarter. This week I'm sharing a session I delivered for nonprofit leaders at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management on the problem nobody budgets for: keeping your most successful development officers. The average frontline fundraiser stays 16 to 18 months....

  Should you hire a fundraising coach or a consultant? Most fundraisers pay for the wrong one. In this episode, Mary breaks down the real difference: a consultant hands you the plan, but a coach gets in the car with you. You'll hear the story of Anna and her major gift ask, learn exactly when each type of support makes sense, and get the questions to ask (and red flags to watch for) before yo...

What should you actually talk about at a Small Table? In this episode, Mary breaks down one of the biggest mistakes nonprofits make when they finally get the right donors around the right table: turning an intimate conversation into a miniature fundraising presentation. When leadership wants to talk about budget deficits and board members want to lead with statistics, it is easy to lose sight of w...

Executive directors are pulled in a thousand directions, but major gifts still need focused attention. In this episode, Mary shares a practical strategy for leaders who have only four to eight hours each week to devote to fundraising. You’ll learn how to identify the 15 to 20 donors who deserve your personal attention, structure a simple four-hour major gift schedule, prioritize donor conversation...

 CEOs play a crucial role in major gift fundraising, but not all of them are natural fundraisers. In this episode, we’ll discuss how to prepare and coach your CEO for major donor meetings, including messaging, body language, and overcoming objections. Learn how to position them as the ideal storyteller and ambassador for your mission.  🎓 The Professional Development Budget Kit. Free Download! Eve...

This is a different kind of episode, and it might be one of Mary's favorites yet! No theory, no framework from the top down. Just three real questions sent in by fundraisers like you, answered live. Mary digs into how to do prospect research in-house with zero fancy tools (hint: your donor database already knows more than you think), how to translate big campaign priorities into asks that act...

In this episode, I walk you through what we built together and answer the six questions that came up in the room, because I guarantee you're asking them too. Does the dinner have to be in someone's home? What do you do with loyal donors who won't return your calls? Can you invite people who have never given? And the big one: do you ask for the gift at the table, or the next morning?...

Your year-end success is being decided right now. Not by your appeal letter, not by your Giving Tuesday plan, but by what you're doing with your top donors today. In this episode, Mary steps back from the tactics and hands you the thinking that makes every year-end move actually land: ask a major donor once, then thank them for the next 180 days. The Year-End Major Gift Playbook: Mary's...

Most fundraisers treat summer like the slow season. That's the mistake. Summer is the single best relationship-building season of the year, and what you do with your donors in July and August is what you'll close in October and November. In this episode, Mary makes the case for summer as your secret weapon and hands you the exact moves to use it. You'll learn the low-stakes cultivat...

Mary shares highlights from her keynote at the AFP Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties Summer Symposium, a full morning with 110 fundraisers built entirely around major gift confidence. She covers the difference between cultivation and avoidance, the relationship rhythm that moves donors forward without feeling transactional, and why confidence isn't a personality trait – it's a skill set...

Mary teaches the board fundraising framework from Small Table Big Philanthropy — the one that works because it doesn't ask board members to do anything that feels like selling. She covers the 3-questions exercise (30 minutes, dozens of new prospects), the 4 board fundraising roles (none of which require 'the ask'), the small table approach to activating board networks, and how to ce...

Mary makes the case for summer as the most strategic cultivation season of the year. She covers the summer small table strategy (the backyard dinner, the outdoor lunch, the informal gathering at a board member's home), the fall calendar booking strategy (book October visits now, while calendars are still open), and the specific summer actions that directly lead to Q4 gift closures. She also a...

Mary teaches from What to Say and her 25+ years of major gift experience on the single most common response to a major gift ask. This episode breaks down the in-the-moment response, the 48-hour follow-up, how to create structure without pressure, and the difference between 'thinking about it' and a quiet no. She also covers the 4 most common objections in her book: 'I need to think...

Mary teaches the 4 hidden major gift prospect profiles that live in almost every donor database — and the conversations that unlock them. She covers the 3-filter database review, the re-qualification conversation, and the staircase model that shows exactly how a $500-a-year loyal donor becomes a $50,000 major gift. This episode is full of practical language you can use this week. Mary shares examp...

Mary walks through the full mid-year major gift program evaluation. This episode is built on the Engineer step of her 4-step system: the phase where you get crystal clear on whether your strategy is working. She covers the 5 metrics that actually matter, how to run a pipeline health assessment, the 3 most common mid-year diagnoses, and how to build a realistic Q3 course-correction plan that doesn&...

Mary teaches the stewardship system from Small Table Big Philanthropy — the one that turns $1,000 donors into $10,000 donors and $10,000 donors into $100,000 donors. She covers the 48-hour post-gift sequence (why a phone call beats a letter every time), the mid-year impact update format that actually gets read, the annual stewardship visit agenda, and the math behind treating donors like royalty v...

In this episode, I will share how shifting from large galas to small, intimate dinners can exponentially increase major gift fundraising. Discover her three-step strategy to build sustainable donor relationships and learn about her Small Table Intensive workshop designed to turn theory into actionable plans.   #fundraising #donorrelationships #philanthropy #majorgifts #marypetersen  🪑 The Small T...

Order Small Table Big Philanthropy at https://stbp.heyfundraiser.com/ . This is the book your entire development team need. If you want to go beyond the book and actually build this out with me — live — I just opened registration for the Small Table Intensive . This is a 4-hour working session, limited to 30 organizations, where we don't just talk about the Dinner-Match-Upgrade strategy. We b...

A week before the April 30 launch, Mary does a live teaching from the heart of the book. She covers the small table philosophy (why intimacy beats scale in major gift fundraising), the three-part strategy (Dinner → Match → Upgrade), the staircase mindset ($1,000 → $10,000 → $100,000), and the courage it takes to invite someone into something bigger. This episode is part teaching, part behind-the-s...

Mary pulls from her book What to Say to teach the full anatomy of a major gift ask conversation. She covers the 5 elements of a strong ask (set-up, ask, silence, donor response, fundraiser response), how donors give from their head, heart, or gut and why matching your ask style to your donor's giving style changes everything, and the exact language of asking for a specific amount. She also di...