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Hey Fundraiser!: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Mary Hackett
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.
Latest Episodes
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- 2 days ago31 min
If I Had to Build a Major Gift Program From Scratch, Here’s Exactly What I’d Do
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 endless database cleanup. She walks through how to build a Money Map of the donors who can actually move...
- 1 weeks ago36 min
How to Inspire Unrestricted Major Gifts and Build Donor Trust
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 scarcity thinking, and how to reframe overhead as the investment required to produce strong outcomes. M...
- 2 weeks ago33 min
5 Questions I Get As a Major Gift Coach
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 often in her major gift coaching conversations and digs into the strategy behind each one. She sha...
- 3 weeks ago34 min
Fundraisers: It’s Time to Make an Ask for Yourself
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 professional development, calculate the ROI, identify the gift that would make the investment pay for itsel...
- Aug 21, 202638 min
Why Your Best Fundraiser Is About to Quit (And How to Stop It)
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. Replacing one costs an estimated $127,650 before you count the real damage, which is the donor relationships t...
- Aug 14, 202627 min
Red Flags: How to Spot the Wrong Fundraising Help Before You Pay For It
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 you hire anyone. If you've ever wondered why the binder on your shelf didn't raise a dollar, this o...
- Aug 7, 202633 min
Ask Better Questions. Raise More Money
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 what Small Table is really designed to do: build relationships. Mary shares how to turn financial ...
- Jul 31, 202634 min
The Four-Hour Major Gift Program: What Busy Executive Directors Should Do and What They Can Ignore
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 conversations and follow-up, move the right people toward an ask, and ignore the complicated systems, perfect...
About 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.
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