Book A Gameplan Call
I've Been Exactly Where You Are.
Twenty-five years in the trenches. One $100 million gift. And a deep belief that the fundraisers
who are struggling the most are often the ones trying the hardest — with the wrong tools.
MARY'S STORY
I didn't start out as a coach.
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 training manual.
For 25 years, that was my work. Not theorizing about major gifts from a stage. Doing them. Building relationships, making the ask, closing gifts — and learning, in excruciating detail, what separates the fundraisers who thrive from the ones who stay stuck.
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.
THE MOMENT THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING
In seven months, I closed a $100 million gift.
I'm not sharing that to impress you — I'm sharing it because of what it proved. Not just that the methodology works, but that the right language, the right relationships, and the right approach can do things that the conventional fundraising wisdom said were impossible. Eighteen months to close a major gift? That's the industry standard. It doesn't have to be yours.
That gift — and everything I learned in the years leading up to it — is the foundation of everything I teach.
WHAT HEY FUNDRAISER IS
Hey Fundraiser is a coaching platform for nonprofit fundraisers and Executive Directors who are done guessing and ready for a system that actually produces results.
Here, you'll find:
Major Gift Momentum — my signature membership program with weekly live coaching, a community of nonprofit peers who actually get it, and a library of practical tools you can use this week. Not someday. This week.
What to Say: 12 Major Gift Asks to Get a YES — my first book. The word-for-word language for the moment most fundraising education skips entirely: the ask itself. Twelve scenarios. Twelve scripts. Ready to adapt and use in your next donor meeting.
Small Table Big Philanthropy — my second book, and the strategic foundation underneath everything. You don't need more donors. You need the right donors, at a smaller, more intentional table, with a strategy designed to go deep instead of wide.
The Hey Fundraiser Podcast — weekly episodes on major gift strategy, donor relationships, and what it actually takes to lead a thriving development program. Real talk, no fluff.
