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Hey Fundraiser!

Mary Petersen

Welcome to Hey Fundraiser, the podcast for nonprofit Executive Directors and major gift officers who are done guessing.

Each week, host Mary Petersen pulls back the curtain on what actually works in major gifts. Not theory. Not whiteboard frameworks. Real scripts, real strategy, and the exact moves you can use in your next donor meeting. Mary spent 25+ years as a working major gift officer and built a methodology that closes 5 and 6-figure gifts in months, not years, by going deep with a focused portfolio instead of chasing volume.

If you've ever frozen up before an ask, stared at a "wish list" of donors with no idea who to call first, or wondered why the industry keeps telling you a major gift takes 18 months to close, this is your show.

You'll leave every episode with one clear thing to do on Monday morning. Hit follow and start building real momentum.

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29 episodes
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Avg 29 min
English

Episodes 29

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May 15 · 13 min
The Mid-Year Check-In: Are You Actually on Track?
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't require working 80 hours a week. 🎓 The Professional Development Budget Kit. Free Download! Everything you need to get your organization to say "yes" to funding your growth: templates, talking points, and an ROI calculator. 💸 Major Gift Intensives. We're headed to 6 cities in 2027. Are we headed to yours? Join us for a 3 day deep dive into major gifts! Only 30 seats per city. 🌻 The 2027 Growth Pass. Only 5 seats available. The Growth Pass bundles Mary's three flagship live experiences into one powerful year of learning. One Major Gift Intensive. One Ask Workshop. One Small Table Intensive. 🪑 The Small Table Intensive. Half a day. Build or rebuild your major gift program around fewer donors and deeper relationships, using the methodology from my book Small Table Big Philanthropy. 🎯 The Ask Workshop. Half a day. The exact words to use when it's time to ask for 5 and 6-figure gifts. Walk in nervous about the ask. Walk out with the scripts. 💻 Connect with Mary Petersen Website: heyfundraiser.com YouTube: @...
May 8 · 15 min
The Stewardship Multiplier: How Great Thank-Yous Build Bigger Next Gifts
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 vs. treating them like ATMs. Grab Small Table Big Philanthropy at heyfundraiser.com. If this episode resonated, leave a review — it helps more fundraisers find the show. 🎓 The Professional Development Budget Kit. Free Download! Everything you need to get your organization to say "yes" to funding your growth: templates, talking points, and an ROI calculator. 💸 Major Gift Intensives. We're headed to 6 cities in 2027. Are we headed to yours? Join us for a 3 day deep dive into major gifts! Only 30 seats per city. 🌻 The 2027 Growth Pass. Only 5 seats available. The Growth Pass bundles Mary's three flagship live experiences into one powerful year of learning. One Major Gift Intensive. One Ask Workshop. One Small Table Intensive. 🪑 The Small Table Intensive. Half a day. Build or rebuild your major gift program around fewer donors and deeper relationships, using the methodology from my book Small Table Big Philanthropy. 🎯 The Ask Workshop. Half a day. The exact words to use when it's time to ask for 5 and 6-figure gifts. Walk in nervous about the ask. Walk out with the scripts. 💻 Connect with Mary Petersen Website: heyfundraiser.com YouTube: @...
May 1 · 22 min
From Reading the Book to Doing
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 Professional Development Budget Kit. Free Download! Everything you need to get your organization to say "yes" to funding your growth: templates, talking points, and an ROI calculator. 💸 Major Gift Intensives. We're headed to 6 cities in 2027. Are we headed to yours? Join us for a 3 day deep dive into major gifts! Only 30 seats per city. 🌻 The 2027 Growth Pass. Only 5 seats available. The Growth Pass bundles Mary's three flagship live experiences into one powerful year of learning. One Major Gift Intensive. One Ask Workshop. One Small Table Intensive. 🪑 The Small Table Intensive. Half a day. Build or rebuild your major gift program around fewer donors and deeper relationships, using the methodology from my book Small Table Big Philanthropy. 🎯 The Ask Workshop. Half a day. The exact words to use when it's time to ask for 5 and 6-figure gifts. Walk in nervous about the ask. Walk out with the scripts. 💻 Connect with Mary Petersen Website: heyfundraiser.com YouTube: @...
April 30 · 16 min
Small Table Big Philanthropy is Available TODAY!
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 build it. Together. #fundraising #donorrelationships #philanthropy #majorgifts #marypetersen 🎓 The Professional Development Budget Kit. Free Download! Everything you need to get your organization to say "yes" to funding your growth: templates, talking points, and an ROI calculator. 💸 Major Gift Intensives. We're headed to 6 cities in 2027. Are we headed to yours? Join us for a 3 day deep dive into major gifts! Only 30 seats per city. 🌻 The 2027 Growth Pass. Only 5 seats available. The Growth Pass bundles Mary's three flagship live experiences into one powerful year of learning. One Major Gift Intensive. One Ask Workshop. One Small Table Intensive. 🪑 The Small Table Intensive. Half a day. Build or rebuild your major gift program around fewer donors and deeper relationships, using the methodology from my book Small Table Big Philanthropy. 🎯 The Ask Workshop. Half a day. The exact words to use when it's time to ask for 5 and 6-figure gifts. Walk in nervous about the ask. Walk out with the scripts. 💻 Connect with Mary Petersen Website: heyfundraiser.com YouTube: @...
April 24 · 27 min
Small Table Big Philanthropy: A Sneak Peek Inside the Book
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-scenes look at how the book came to be, and part permission slip for fundraisers who are ready to try a more human approach. Pre-order Small Table Big Philanthropy at heyfundraiser.com. Launches April 30. This is the book your entire development team needs. #fundraising #majorgifts #relationshipbuilding #smalltablebigphilanthropy 🎓 The Professional Development Budget Kit. Free Download! Everything you need to get your organization to say "yes" to funding your growth: templates, talking points, and an ROI calculator. 💸 Major Gift Intensives. We're headed to 6 cities in 2027. Are we headed to yours? Join us for a 3 day deep dive into major gifts! Only 30 seats per city. 🌻 The 2027 Growth Pass. Only 5 seats available. The Growth Pass bundles Mary's three flagship live experiences into one powerful year of learning. One Major Gift Intensive. One Ask Workshop. One Small Table Intensive. 🪑 The Small Table Intensive. Half a day. Build or rebuild your major gift program around fewer donors and deeper relationships, using the methodology from my book Small Table Big Philanthropy. 🎯 The Ask Workshop. Half a day. The exact words to use when it's time to ask for 5 and 6-figure gifts. Walk in nervous about the ask. Walk out with the scripts. 💻 Connect with Mary Petersen Website: heyfundraiser.com YouTube: @...
April 17 · 25 min
What to Say When You're Ready to Ask
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 digs into what most fundraisers get wrong — and the one sentence that causes more lost gifts than any other mistake. Get What to Say and Small Table Big Philanthropy. Small Table launches on April 30. Go get your copy. #fundraising #majorgifts #donorrelationships 🎓 The Professional Development Budget Kit. Free Download! Everything you need to get your organization to say "yes" to funding your growth: templates, talking points, and an ROI calculator. 💸 Major Gift Intensives. We're headed to 6 cities in 2027. Are we headed to yours? Join us for a 3 day deep dive into major gifts! Only 30 seats per city. 🌻 The 2027 Growth Pass. Only 5 seats available. The Growth Pass bundles Mary's three flagship live experiences into one powerful year of learning. One Major Gift Intensive. One Ask Workshop. One Small Table Intensive. 🪑 The Small Table Intensive. Half a day. Build or rebuild your major gift program around fewer donors and deeper relationships, using the methodology from my book Small Table Big Philanthropy. 🎯 The Ask Workshop. Half a day. The exact words to use when it's time to ask for 5 and 6-figure gifts. Walk in nervous about the ask. Walk out with the scripts. 💻 Connect with Mary Petersen Website: heyfundraiser.com YouTube: @...
April 10 · 22 min
The No-Agenda Visit: Your Most Powerful Cultivation Tool
Mary introduces the no-agenda visit as the cornerstone of the cultivation phase in her 4-step system (Engineer → Culivate → Solicit → Steward). This isn't 'showing up without a plan' — it's showing up with a completely different plan: the plan to listen. In this episode, you'll learn how to prepare for a visit where you're not pitching, the 5 questions that open every real donor conversation, how to read relationship readiness signals, and the follow-up routine that turns every no-agenda visit into meaningful next steps. Mary also shares the story of a $250,000 gift that came from a visit where nobody asked for anything. PREORDER: Small Table Big Philanthropy - comes out April 30th! DOWNLOAD: The No-Agenda Visit Guide #fundraising #donorrelationships #noagendavisit #cultivation #majorgifts 🪑 The Small Table Intensive. Half a day. Build or rebuild your major gift program around fewer donors and deeper relationships, using the methodology from my book Small Table Big Philanthropy. 🎯 The Ask Workshop. Half a day. The exact words to use when it's time to ask for 5 and 6-figure gifts. Walk in nervous about the ask. Walk out with the script. More from Mary: 📘 Mary's books. What to Say and Small Table Big Philanthropy. The books behind the methodology. 🔥 Major Donor Meeting Mastery. My step-by-step system for donor meetings that move the relationship forward. 👩🏻‍💻 Momentum Training. My complete packaging + ask system, all in one place. 💻 Connect with Mary Petersen Website: heyfundraiser.com YouTube: @heyfundraisers Instagram: @heyfundraiser LinkedIn: ...
#14
April 3 · 29 min
Why Donors Really Leave (And It's Not What You Think)
Donor retention is the most under-discussed topic in major gift fundraising — and the most expensive mistake organizations make. In this episode, Mary digs into the real reasons donors go quiet, the exact moment most organizations lose a relationship they didn't know they were losing, and what the organizations with 80%+ retention rates do differently. Spoiler: it's not a better newsletter. This episode is grounded in a chapter from Small Table Big Philanthropy about what it really means to treat your $1,000 donors like royalty — and how that mindset compounds into major gifts. Grab Small Table Big Philanthropy at heyfundraiser.com — launching April 30. And if this episode helped you, share it with one fundraiser who needs to hear it. 🪑 The Small Table Intensive. Half a day. Build or rebuild your major gift program around fewer donors and deeper relationships, using the methodology from my book Small Table Big Philanthropy. 🎯 The Ask Workshop. Half a day. The exact words to use when it's time to ask for 5 and 6-figure gifts. Walk in nervous about the ask. Walk out with the script. More from Mary: 📘 Mary's books. What to Say and Small Table Big Philanthropy. The books behind the methodology. 🔥 Major Donor Meeting Mastery. My step-by-step system for donor meetings that move the relationship forward. 👩🏻‍💻 Momentum Training. My complete packaging + ask system, all in one place. 💻 Connect with Mary Petersen Website: heyfundraiser.com YouTube: @heyfundraisers Instagram: @heyfundraiser LinkedIn: ...
March 27 · 34 min
After the Ask: The Follow-Up Rhythm That Protects the Relationship (and Moves It Forward)
This episode explores the art of follow-up in major gift fundraising, emphasizing a steady, relational, permission-based approach that preserves trust and moves opportunities forward. Learn practical strategies for timing, messaging, handling silence, and maintaining integrity after the ask. #fundraising #donorfollowup #relationshipmanagement 🪑 The Small Table Intensive. Half a day. Build or rebuild your major gift program around fewer donors and deeper relationships, using the methodology from my book Small Table Big Philanthropy. 🎯 The Ask Workshop. Half a day. The exact words to use when it's time to ask for 5 and 6-figure gifts. Walk in nervous about the ask. Walk out with the script. More from Mary: 📘 Mary's books. What to Say and Small Table Big Philanthropy. The books behind the methodology. 🔥 Major Donor Meeting Mastery. My step-by-step system for donor meetings that move the relationship forward. 👩🏻‍💻 Momentum Training. My complete packaging + ask system, all in one place. 💻 Connect with Mary Petersen Website: heyfundraiser.com YouTube: @heyfundraisers Instagram: @heyfundraiser LinkedIn: ...

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