Hi, I'm Mary Petersen! And I've been exactly where you are.
I started out as a fundraiser, sitting across from donors, making asks, losing sleep before major gift meetings, and figuring out through hard-won experience what actually works and what just sounds good in a fundraising training manual.
The most important thing I learned? It's almost never about talent or passion. The fundraisers who struggle aren't struggling because they don't care enough. They're struggling because nobody ever taught them the exact words to say, the right-sized portfolio to carry, or the strategy that actually closes gifts, as opposed to the strategy that sounds plausible in a conference breakout session.
That's the gap Hey Fundraiser exists to close. And if that's what you've been missing, you're in the right place.
I'm here to give you the exact language and proven strategy you need to close your next major gift, with confidence and even a little joy.
What I had to learn the hard way, you get on day one.
For my first decade I prepared for asks with stomach pain and hoped the donor would offer first. Here's what I wish someone had handed me.
- The exact words for the ask, so you stop stalling in "one more coffee" cultivation.
- A portfolio small enough to actually work, so your time goes to the donors who will give.
- A plan your CEO and board recognize, so you stop explaining and start reporting.
- A room of people who have your job, so you don't burn out doing this alone.
Fundraisers who have these stay in the work longer, ask with more confidence, and give donors a far better experience. That's what Hey Fundraiser exists for.
Start here if...
Pick the sentence that sounds like you.
One year. Three trainings. A lot more confidence.
The Growth Pass bundles the Major Gift Intensive, The Ask Workshop, and the Small Table Intensive. You finish 2027 with a program, a track record, and a story for your next performance review. Save $894.
Explore the Growth PassAbout Mary Petersen
Mary Petersen is a nationally recognized fundraising strategist, award-winning author, speaker, and coach, trusted by nonprofits of every size to unlock transformational 5-, 6-, and 7-figure gifts.
For more than 25 years, Mary has done the actual work of major gifts. She is not a theorist who studied fundraising from the outside or someone who was never in the field asking for major gifts. She is a practitioner who has sat across the table from donors, made the ask, and closed the gift. Her results-driven approach has helped organizations raise hundreds of millions of dollars, launch record-breaking campaigns, and build donor relationships that last a lifetime, including a 9-figure gift she closed in just seven months that transformed an institution forever.
Mary is the host of the weekly Hey Fundraiser podcast, where she shares the practical scripts, strategies, and tactics that help fundraisers and executive directors close major gifts with confidence. She is the author of the award-winning What to Say: 12 Major Gift Asks to Get a YES and Small Table Big Philanthropy, books that hand readers the exact language and philosophy behind her work.
A member of the Forbes Nonprofit Council and a frequent contributor, Mary is a sought-after speaker for the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) and the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy (AHP). She has taught at Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania and Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, speaks to Women in Development chapters across the country, leads fundraising book clubs through AFP, and mentors rising fundraisers through AFP's Emerging Leaders program. Her work has appeared in The Major Gifts Report. From her home in Bend, Oregon, she also leads half-day intensives and 2.5-day immersive retreats where small groups of fundraisers go deep on real strategy.
What sets Mary apart is that her methods are not theoretical. They are built on closing real gifts, and they are designed so any fundraiser can step into their next donor conversation feeling ready.
Today, Mary leads Major Gift Momentum, a monthly coaching community for fundraisers and Executive Directors who want to close bigger gifts, stay in the work they love, and become the confident closers they were always meant to be.