Hey Fundraiser!
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.
Hey Fundraiser!
Latest Episodes
The Summer Move that Makes Your Year-End Easy
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....
How One AFP Chapter Creatively Supported Its Members
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...
How to Activate Your Board for Major Gifts (Without Making Them Hate You)
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 pros...
Summer Cultivation: Your Best Season for Major Gift Development
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...
What to Say When Major Donors Say 'I Need to Think About It'
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 pressur...