Mary Petersen
Founder
@
Hey Fundraiser
Mary Petersen helps nonprofits secure transformational major gifts through practical fundraising coaching.
Bio
Mary Petersen is a major gift strategist, nonprofit coach and author with 25 years of frontline fundraising experience. She is the founder of Hey Fundraiser, a coaching brand that helps nonprofit executive directors and fundraising professionals build sustainable major gift programs without the guesswork or burnout.
Mary has helped hundreds of mission-driven fundraisers close five-, six- and seven-figure gifts using a shortened cultivation model that challenges the industry’s conventional wisdom that major gifts require 18 months to close. Her approach — built on smaller, more intentional donor portfolios and permission-based relationship strategies — has helped organizations of all sizes achieve breakthroughs in major gift fundraising.
She is the author of What to Say: 12 Major Gift Asks to Get a YES and the forthcoming Small Table Big Philanthropy. Her work has been featured across the nonprofit sector, and she hosts the Hey Fundraiser podcast, a weekly resource for development professionals.
Mary brings energy, practicality and 25 years of hard-won experience to every room she’s in, and leaves audiences with tools they can use the same week.