CEOs play a crucial role in major gift fundraising, but not all of them are natural fundraisers. In this episode, we’ll discuss how to prepare and coach your CEO for major donor meetings, including messaging, body language, and overcoming objections. Learn how to position them as the ideal storyteller and ambassador for your mission.

🪑 The Small Table Intensive. Half a day. Build or rebuild your major gift program around fewer donors and deeper relationships, using the methodology from my book Small Table Big Philanthropy.

🎯 The Ask Workshop. Half a day. The exact words to use when it's time to ask for 5 and 6-figure gifts. Walk in nervous about the ask. Walk out with the script.

More from Mary:

📘 Mary's books. What to Say and Small Table Big Philanthropy. The books behind the methodology.

🔥 Major Donor Meeting Mastery. My step-by-step system for donor meetings that move the relationship forward.

👩🏻‍💻 Momentum Training. My complete packaging + ask system, all in one place.

💻 Connect with Mary Petersen

• Website: heyfundraiser.com
• YouTube: @heyfundraisers
• Instagram: @heyfundraiser
• LinkedIn: ...

This is a different kind of episode, and it might be one of Mary's favorites yet! No theory, no framework from the top down. Just three real questions sent in by fundraisers like you, answered live.

Mary digs into how to do prospect research in-house with zero fancy tools (hint: your donor database already knows more than you think), how to translate big campaign priorities into asks that actually feel personal to a donor, and how to build a real system for stewardship and donor upgrades so gratitude doesn't rely on one exhausted fundraiser's memory. She closes it out with the story of how she got into fundraising in the first place, and yes, a 22-foot python named Rajiv is involved.

Got a question of your own? Send it to mary@heyfundraiser.com or drop a voice memo on Speakpipe. It might be the next episode!

🪑 The Small Table Intensive. Half a day. Build or rebuild your major gift program around fewer donors and deeper relationships, using the methodology from my book Small Table Big Philanthropy.

🎯 The Ask Workshop. Half a day. The exact words to use when it's time to ask for 5 and 6-figure gifts. Walk in nervous about the ask. Walk out with the script.

More from Mary:

📘 Mary's books. What to Say and Small Table Big Philanthropy. The books behind the methodology.

🔥 Major Donor Meeting Mastery. My step-by-step system for donor meetings that move the relationship forward.

👩🏻‍💻 Momentum Training. My complete packaging + ask system, all in one place.

💻 Connect with Mary Petersen

• Website: heyfundraiser.com
• YouTube: @heyfundraisers
• Instagram: @heyfundraiser
• LinkedIn: ...

In this episode, I walk you through what we built together and answer the six questions that came up in the room, because I guarantee you're asking them too. Does the dinner have to be in someone's home? What do you do with loyal donors who won't return your calls? Can you invite people who have never given? And the big one: do you ask for the gift at the table, or the next morning? (The answer to that last one took me years and a lot of money left on the table to learn.)

If you've read Small Table Big Philanthropy and thought "okay Mary, now help me actually build mine," this episode is your preview of exactly what we do in the Small Table Intensive.

🪑 The Small Table Intensive. Half a day. Build or rebuild your major gift program around fewer donors and deeper relationships, using the methodology from my book Small Table Big Philanthropy.

🎯 The Ask Workshop. Half a day. The exact words to use when it's time to ask for 5 and 6-figure gifts. Walk in nervous about the ask. Walk out with the script.

More from Mary:

📘 Mary's books. What to Say and Small Table Big Philanthropy. The books behind the methodology.

🔥 Major Donor Meeting Mastery. My step-by-step system for donor meetings that move the relationship forward.

👩🏻‍💻 Momentum Training. My complete packaging + ask system, all in one place.

💻 Connect with Mary Petersen

• Website: heyfundraiser.com
• YouTube: @heyfundraisers
• Instagram: @heyfundraiser
• LinkedIn: ...