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.
Episodes
69 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...
Your Next Major Donor Is Already in Your Database
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 s...
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 actual...
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 eve...
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 ...
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...
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 stairca...
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 g...
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 ...
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 relati...
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 s...
Objections Clinic: The 7 Objections + The 3-Step Response Framework
In this episode, Mary Petersen demystifies donor objections, showing fundraisers how to handle them with confidence and trust-building techniques. Learn the seven most common objections, a simple three-step response framework, and tips on tone ...
The Three Donor Types: Head / Heart / Gut (And How to Adjust Your Approach)
In this episode, Mary Petersen talks about a simple yet powerful framework to personalize your fundraising conversations based on donor decision-making styles—head, heart, or gut—and significantly increase your success.#fundraisi...
Offers & Outcomes: Why Donors Fund Outcomes (Not Programs) + How to Package Yours
In this episode, Mary Petersen talks about the key difference between describing your organization’s activities and showcasing the real results that inspire donors to give. Explore practical strategies to reframe your messaging around impactful...
The First 5 Minutes of a Donor Meeting
In this episode, Mary Petersen provides a master class on the critical first five minutes of donor meetings, emphasizing their importance in setting the tone, creating depth, and leading the conversation towards meaningful engagement. She outli...
Valentine’s Day special: Fall Back in Love With Fundraising
In this Valentine's Day special episode, Mary Petersen discusses the challenges of fundraising burnout and offers practical advice for rekindling passion for the work. She emphasizes the importance of relationship-building over task-oriented ap...
Silence After the Ask: How to Use It Without Being Weird (And What To Do Right After)
In this episode of the Hey Fundraiser podcast, Mary Petersen discusses the critical importance of silence after making a major gift ask. She emphasizes that the moments following the ask are crucial for allowing donors to process their decision...
Why Donors Say No: The 5 Real Reasons (And the Fix for Each)
In this episode, Mary Petersen discusses the common experience of receiving 'no' from donors in fundraising. She emphasizes that a 'no' often signifies a need for more information or clarity rather than a definitive rejection. Petersen outlines...
The Permission-Based “Runway” to the Major Gift Ask (5 Questions That Make the Ask Easy)
In this episode, Mary Petersen discusses the concept of permission-based fundraising, emphasizing the importance of clarity and collaboration in donor relationships. She outlines five key questions that fundraisers can use to create a natural t...
How to Know When Someone Is Ready to Be Asked for a Major Gift
In this podcast episode, Mary Petersen discusses the critical signals that indicate when a donor is ready to be asked for a major gift. She emphasizes the importance of understanding engagement, values alignment, capacity, timing, and ownership...
Your Major Gift Portfolio: How to Decide Who Gets Your Time This Week
In this episode of the Hey Fundraiser podcast, Mary Petersen discusses the importance of portfolio triage in fundraising. She emphasizes that the scarce resource in major gifts is the fundraiser's time and attention, not the donors themselves. ...