Major gifts made doable
Get the exact words, scripts, and strategies to confidently close major gifts.
What to Say: 12 Major Gift Asks to Get a YES
Physical: $39.99 (includes shipping) · eBook: $29.99
Finally, a fundraising book that tells you exactly what to say when asking for a major gift. Drawing on 25+ years of experience, Mary Petersen gives you word-for-word scripts, real-world examples, and confidence-boosting strategies to make your next donor conversation clear, comfortable, and successful. Whether you're a new major gift officer or a seasoned pro, this book will help you stop stalling, start asking, and hear more joyful yeses.
Small Table Big Philanthropy: The Fundraiser's Playbook for Major Gifts
Physical: $39.99 (includes shipping) · eBook: $29.99
Major gifts don't come from bigger donor lists. They come from smaller, more intentional tables, and the courage to invite people to sit down.
Small Table Big Philanthropy gives you the exact strategy to move donors from $1,000 to $10,000 to transformational gifts without burning out, without a massive portfolio, and without ever feeling like you're "selling."
This is the book your whole development team needs.
Fortune 500 Expectations.
Bake Sale Budget.
The bold case for unrestricted major gifts and why donors need to trust nonprofits again. This book flips the script on how organizations ask, how donors give, and what real partnership looks like.
Buying for Your Team, Board, or Conference?
Whether you need 10 copies for your development team, 50 for your board, or 200 for an upcoming conference, we offer volume pricing and can coordinate shipping to make it seamless. Reach out to Mary directly to discuss your needs.
Email Mary About Bulk Orders
About the Author
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.
Read Full BioReady to stop guessing and start closing?
Or start with the book, What to Say: 12 Major Gift Asks to Get a YES
