Hey Fundraiser!

The 5 Habits and Mindsets of High-Performing Major Gift Officers

• Mary Petersen

Share episode

In this episode, Mary Petersen pulls back the curtain on the habits, mindsets, and metrics that consistently drive 5-, 6-, and 7-figure gifts. Whether you’re new to major gifts or ready to elevate your game, this episode breaks down what the best MGOs do differently — and how you can model their success starting today.

You’ll learn:
 ✨ The five daily habits every top MGO swears by
 📆 Why time-blocking and prioritizing the right donors changes everything
📊 The key metrics high performers track (and which ones to ditch)
🧠 How to shift your mindset from “petitioner” to “partner”
🔥 Why energy management is a fundraising superpower

By the end, you’ll know exactly what to focus on, how to measure the right work, and how to reframe your day-to-day to bring in bigger gifts — without burning out.

🧩 Key Takeaways:

  1. Time-block donor work — Protect 90–120 minutes every day for strategy, outreach, and follow-up.
  2. Prioritize by relationship stage, not recency. Responding to the latest email isn’t the same as advancing a relationship.
  3. Know your top 25 cold. Keep them visible — whiteboard, sticky note, or list.
  4. Track actions, not just dollars. Celebrate meaningful moves that build momentum.
  5. Always plan the next step. Never leave a meeting without a clear follow-up.

💡 Bonus Metrics:

  • 15–20 meaningful donor interactions per month
  • 12–16 major gift asks per year
  • 80% portfolio coverage every 6 months
  • Track average gift size per officer

And remember — top MGOs think like partners, not petitioners. They don’t take “no” personally, and they know that rest and reflection fuel long-term success.

💻 Connect with Mary Petersen

🎯 Ready to Level Up Your Donor Meetings?

If you’re tired of leaving donor meetings with no gift, no timeline, and no follow-up plan, it’s time to learn the strategy that changes everything.
Check out Major Donor Meeting Mastery — my signature course that shows you exactly how to create momentum in the meeting, not after it.

➡️ Learn more

SPEAKER_00:

Hi friends, welcome to the Hey Fundraiser Podcast. I'm your host, Mary Peterson, and whether you're a frontline fundraiser, an executive director, a board member, or someone just wanting to make an impact in your community, this podcast is for you. We cover all facets of fundraising, and our main objective is to give you ideas and inspiration to help you raise more money. Join us as we grow, learn, and make an impact together. Hey fundraiser. Today we are going to pull back the curtain on what does it really take to raise five, six, and seven-figure gifts? So if you don't know who I am, my name is Mary Peterson, and today we're going to ask the juicy question. What makes a major gift officer truly successful? Like, is it charisma? Is it tenure? Is it luck? Spoiler, it's really none of those things. So today I'm going to share you with you actual habits, mindsets, and metrics that high-performing MGOs rely on every single day to build meaningful relationships and raise serious money for their organization. So let's demystify the job and help you make your role a whole lot more doable. Let's start at square one. What does success really look like in major gifts these days? So we're going to define success because it's really not about vanity metrics and it's not about volume. Top major gift officers in the US are not writing the most emails. They are not attending every event and spending most of their time at the rotary and things like that. And they are definitely not saying yes to every single internal task. Instead, they're doing much fewer things, but much more consistently. They're doing things like prioritizing the right donors. They're moving relationships forward every single week. They are asking for more. They are not apologizing for asking. And they're operating with clear strategies and the right metrics to measure the right work. Success in major gift fundraising is not about doing everything. It's about doing the right things very consistently. So I want to give you my top five habits for the high-performing major gift officers. And these are like the day-to-day behaviors that I see over and over in the most effective major gift officers in the country. First and foremost, they time block their donor work. Like 90 to 120 minutes every single day is completely sacred. It's for calls, it's for emails, it's for thinking, prepping, planning, strategy. Every single day. And it's every morning before all of their, you know, administrative meetings and things happen. So the best practice for major gift officers is time blocking and prioritizing their actual donor work. They prioritize based on relationship stage, not recency. So let's really unpack this because there's a lot here. They're not just responding to who emailed most recently, they are nurturing their top prospects with very intentional touches, even when there's no deadline. So they're looking at who am I going to close in the next four weeks? And what do I need to do with those people today to bring that gift in in the next 30 days? They don't pay attention to, you know, somebody just texted me. They are focused. I mean, they're going to respond to those texts, but they're not going to use all their brain power on that. They're going to use their brain power based on who is closest to closing the gift. The other thing that I've noticed about these super successful major gift officers, they know their top 25 prospects cold. They can tell you the names, the giving histories, the giving interests, the next step that they have on every single one of the prospects without even opening up a dashboard. I mean, they know. They know who they want to close this year. They know who their top 20, 25 are. In fact, they oftentimes they'll keep like a list on their desk or, you know, something like I have a whiteboard to my left here, and they'll keep a list like, you know, Sandra G, John S, you know, they don't list the name out just in case, you know, people are walking through their office, but they will put it, their top 20, 25, on a list, and they will look at it every single day of work. The next thing they do is they track action. They don't just track dollars. I mean, major gift officers, and I highly recommend this, they celebrate meetings booked, they celebrate discovery calls completed, they celebrate cultivation steps taken. They don't wait for just a closed gift to like celebrate. They celebrate along the way, which keeps the energy high. And it's just like mini goals, and you're reaching these mini goals instead of having this long-term goal that's eight months in the future. So they're tracking action, they're celebrating those things. And then lastly, they always have the next step planned. So before every donor meeting, they ask themselves, what do I want to learn from this donor meeting? And what's the next step if it goes well? That means there's never a dead end. They're always guiding donors forward. They're thinking the several steps ahead. They're not just merely in the moment, even though they're present at donor meetings. They're still thinking about what is next, how can I move this prospect or donor closer to a gift? So these five habits are paramount. So time blocking the donor work, prioritizing effort based on relationship stage, not necessarily who is the most recent person that left a voicemail. They know they're top 20, 25, they're tracking actions and celebrating them, and they always have the next step planned. So a lot of times I get questions about metrics because what happens is anything that's measured matters. Somebody very smart said that. So it's very true. When you know you're being measured on something, you're going to do those things. So a lot of times, fundraising shops have either too many metrics or not the right metrics. And so your gift officers are focusing on the wrong things. If you want to perform like the best, you have to measure what they measure. And here are some of the things that they measure. They measure meaningful one-on-one donor interactions per month. Now it doesn't have to necessarily be a meeting. You can have a meaningful donor interaction via text, via email, on the phone. And they aim for 15 to 20 per month. So I think there's like 20 work, 20, 22 work days in the month. So they're having at least one meaningful donor interaction every day. They also measure the number of asks that they're making. Most gift officers like to make at least a dozen asks a year, which means that you're asking for a major gift at least once a month. Now that's the bare minimum. Really successful major gift officers are asking for like 14 to 16 in a year. So just kind of keep that in your back pocket. The other thing that they measure is the percentage of portfolio that's actually engaged. This is my favorite metric. It is called coverage. And what it does is it measures the percentage of your portfolio that you have had a quality interaction with in the last six months. So if your coverage metric is 40%, and let's just say for easy math, that your portfolio is 100 people, and in the last six months you've only talked to 40 people out of 100. Like, what's happening with those 60? Like they're just hanging out with like no communication. So that's really why I believe in much smaller portfolios. That's a whole nother video. But coverage metric ensures that you have the portfolio that's the right size for you. The metric for coverage is 80%. 80% of your portfolio should have a meaningful touch point in the last six months. So if you're only reaching 40 of your hundred people, then your portfolio, if you are really aiming for 80% coverage, your portfolio should be 50 people and you have significant contact with 40. That's 80%. So it really helps you prioritize. It helps with your portfolio size, and it ensures that people just aren't like parked in portfolios with no communication. Major Gift Momentum is hands down one of the best continuing education programs in fundraising. No tote bags, no vague inspiration, just five, six, and seven-figure results. Inside Major Gift Momentum, you get access to my entire major gift curriculum and weekly coaching calls where we dig into your specific fundraising strategies. We're going to hone your prospect list, tighten up your ask, and build a plan that gets you results faster. Need a pep talk before a big solicitation? I am available and in your corner. Major Gift Momentum is for fundraisers who want to crush goals, build confidence, and close transformational gifts fast. This is real-world fundraising support that actually moves the needle. If you're ready for the big league, head to hey fundraiser forward slash momentum. You're not alone anymore, fundraiser, and the money's out there waiting for you. Okay, the other core metric, very important to measure, is average gift size. And this is this is not for the team, this is by gift officer. For my major gift momentum members and for my private coaching clients, the average gift size that is being closed is around$200,000. So that means that you know some are$10,000, some are$2 million. But you want to figure out what is the right average gift for you and really work to make sure that average calculates. Okay, now if you're if you're really a straight A student and you want some bonus metrics, and I will say these are probably a little vanity-esque, but if you need it, um two that I kind of like to look at is how many touches does it take to close a gift? And not just per donor, but like it's really nice to know from the organization, like, okay, it takes 16 touches or moves to go from identification to gift in the door. So you can measure that. And then the other interesting metric is the top 10 donors, what is that percentage of total dollars raised? Now, when you're thinking about all these metrics, you want to track the inputs and then also the outcomes because both are going to tell stories. We're talking about metrics that like the right metrics to make sure that you've are working on the right work. The other piece to this is the mindset that really sets top major gift officers apart from the rest. And this is where the magic happens. Great major gift officers think differently. They are not afraid to ask, they believe so wholeheartedly in the mission. Secondly, they don't take rejection personally. A no for top performing major gift officers is not a failure. It's just more information about the prospect or the donor. So, a no, they they don't consider a no a no. They consider a no a not right now. Top major gift officers are also, they think like partners, not petitioners. They're not begging, they're working to build something with the donor. They're not just trying to like plug and play, like, oh, this donor and this program, da-da-da. No, no. They're much more strategic and they want long-term partnerships that lead to larger and larger and larger gifts, which leads to deeper, deeper, deeper relationships. And lastly, they invest in their own energy. They know they can't pour from an empty cup, so they rest and they reflect and they reset, they take vacation, they go to the theater, you know, once a quarter. They are out doing things in the community that rejuvenates them. So they understand that they have to reset and regroup in order to bring their best self forward. So, do you want to build habits like this? Do you want to think like top major gift officers? If you do, I'm going to put a link in the show notes below on a free download that is like all about high-performing major gift officers. Like, what are they tracking? What are they doing? How are they spending their time? All the things. You don't need to guess what great major gift officers are doing. You just heard all the things. But if you want to behave like them, then you want to you can restructure your time, you can really rethink how you view your job, identify some of the mindsets that are aligned with what top major gift officers are doing, and maybe some that aren't, and really work on the ones that aren't. And remember, it's really all about the right work. Top major gift officers, they're not writing the most emails, they're not attending every single event that they can go to, they're not saying yes to everything. They're prioritizing the right donors, they're moving relationships forward, they're asking for more, they understand their metrics, and they're doing the right work. So, fundraiser, I hope that you found this helpful. If you did, leave a review, follow us on YouTube, and also on the podcast, and share it with somebody, maybe a colleague, who's ready to level up their major gift work. Okay, thanks, fundraiser. Until next time. Hey Fundraiser, thanks so much for being here today. Did you know that we create a special page for each episode that contains helpful links, episode highlights, standout quotes, and freebies? Check it out in today's podcast description. If you loved what you heard today, would you kindly give us a rating and review? It really helps other fundraising professionals find our Hey Fundraiser community. I'm Mary Peterson and thank you for listening.