Close major gifts.
Become the fundraiser your organization can't afford to lose.
The right donors, the exact words, and a plan your board trusts. Close the gift, earn the credibility, and love this job again.
Find Your Path
Where are you right now?
Tell me where you are and I will tell you where you could be in 90 days, and what to do first.
I am the whole development department.
"And fundraising is one of the nine jobs I do."
What's possible
You know which 15 to 25 donors deserve your time, and you have stopped apologizing for the rest.
Our whole year rides on the gala.
"And I would like it to stop."
What's possible
One small dinner is doing the work the gala used to, and your board has seen the numbers.
I know who to ask. I freeze when it is time to ask.
"The relationship is there. The words are not."
What's possible
You have made the ask you were putting off, out loud, in your own words.
I need to build the whole thing, properly, this year.
"Not a tactic. A program."
What's possible
You are executing a written plan your board recognizes, and reporting progress instead of explaining delays.
What changes when major gifts start working
You stop dreading the ask.
You walk in with the words already in your mouth.
Your board stops asking.
"Where are the major gifts?" You show them.
You build a track record of success.
For your next review, your next raise, or your next role.
You stay in the job, and raise more.
With people who understand it, and with the job you love.
Every Stage
Advance your career.
A clear path from your first donor meeting to leading philanthropy for your organization. Each step moves you one further along.
For Executive Directors & Senior Leaders
You carry the mission. Let's fund it.
Whether you lead the development shop or you are the whole shop, these two experiences turn major gifts from the thing you keep postponing into the thing you are known for.
The Major Gift Intensive
Leave with a major gift program you can run the Monday you get back.
Two and a half days, thirty people, six US cities plus two virtual cohorts. Build your major gift program from the ground up: a prospect list, a money map, solicitation scripts, and a written 180-day plan.
- A real portfolio, not a mailing list
- A Money Map tied to each donor's capacity
- Word-for-word ask language you can use
- A written 180-day plan your board will recognize as a plan
The VIP Intensive
Lead philanthropy like the senior leader you are.
A 2.5-day retreat at Mary's home in Bend, Oregon. Twenty senior leaders, four times a year. For those responsible for the revenue, the board, and often the team.
- Your real portfolio, worked through with Mary
- The confidence to brief your board on major gifts without hedging
- A peer room of leaders who carry the same weight
- A strategy your team can run and be successful with
Both fill up quickly. Apply now and Mary will review your application personally.
Learn from someone who has sat in your seat...
Mary Petersen spent 25 years as a working major gift officer before she ever started teaching. She's not a consultant who studied fundraising from the outside. She did it, in real organizations, with real donors, for real missions that depended on the outcome.
She closed a $100 million gift in 7 months using the same methodology she teaches inside Major Gift Momentum. Not by following the industry playbook. Not by spending 18 months in slow cultivation. By building a smaller, focused portfolio and going deeper with the right people, faster than anyone told her was possible.
Mary is the author of What to Say: 12 Major Gift Asks to Get a YES, the book that hands fundraisers the exact words for the conversation they've been putting off, and Small Table Big Philanthropy, her newest work on why depth beats volume every time in major gift fundraising.
She speaks at conferences and nonprofit gatherings nationwide, and coaches Executive Directors and development professionals who are doing this work largely without a team, a playbook, or anyone who truly gets what they're up against.
Everything she teaches is what she wishes someone had handed her in year one.
Work With Mary
Where do you want to be a year from now?
Pick the result you need. The format follows.
Never figure out a donor situation alone again.
Major Gift Momentum
Group coaching twice a month, community, full curriculum. $650/month.
Walk into your next ask with the words already in your mouth.
The Ask Workshop
4-hour live virtual workshop. $997.
Replace the exhausting gala with one dinner that raises more.
Small Table Intensive
Half-day live virtual intensive. $997.
Build a program you can run on Monday.
Major Gift Intensives
2.5 days, 30 people, 6 cities plus 2 virtual. $2,950.
Fix one specific problem this week.
On-Demand Courses
Self-paced. From $19.
Get the exact words tonight.
Books
What to Say and Small Table Big Philanthropy. From $29.99.
One year. Three rooms. A different career by December.
The Growth Pass bundles the Major Gift Intensive, The Ask Workshop, and the Small Table Intensive. You finish 2027 with a working program, a track record of closed gifts, and a story for your next performance review. Save $994.
Explore the Growth PassListen to the Podcast
Books by Mary Petersen
The books that change how you ask
From word-for-word ask scripts to the philosophy of depth over volume, these are required reading for anyone serious about major gifts.
What to Say
12 word-for-word major gift ask scripts to get a YES. The book that hands fundraisers the exact language for the conversation they've been putting off.
Small Table Big Philanthropy
The fundraiser's playbook for major gifts. Learn why depth beats volume every time and how to move donors from $1,000 to transformational gifts without burning out.
Fortune 500 Expectations. Bake Sale Budget.
The bold case for unrestricted major gifts and why donors need to trust nonprofits again. Mary's most provocative book yet.
Professional Development Budget Kit
It's budget time and there's nothing better to invest in than your own education. Get the exact templates, scripts, and budget calculator to secure funding for your professional growth.
Templates, scripts & a budget calculator
Council
Ready to master the ask and start closing?
