The Intentional Fundraiser Podcast
Welcome to The Intentional Fundraiser Podcast. I'm your host, Tammy Zonker, and I'm thrilled you're here. I've spent nearly three decades specializing in major gifts. I’ve seen how major gifts often form the backbone of an organization’s financial stability, and yet, I know many of us find this area particularly challenging. Time and again, I’ve been approached by fundraisers and nonprofit leaders eager to establish or supercharge their major gift programs. It’s become crystal clear that there’s a growing hunger for training and expertise in this area. I’ve had the incredible privilege of working with nonprof...
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Building Predictable Major Gifts Revenue
<p>What if your major donors wanted to commit longer?</p><p>Most of them already do. They just haven't been asked.</p><p>In this week's episode of The Intentional Fundraiser podcast, I'm talking about one of the most underused strategies in major gifts: recurring and multi-year commitments.</p><p>Not because donors resist them.</p><p>Because most fundraisers don't have the language to invite them in.</p><p>Here's what we cover:</p>Why predictable revenue lets your organization plan in mission mode, not survival modeThe exact invitation language I've seen open multi-year conversations naturallyA stewardship framework...
Beyond Cash: Unlocking Asset-Based Major Gifts
<p>$5k a year. For 12 years. </p><p>Then she sold her business.</p><p>The fundraiser said, "congratulations," and changed the subject.</p><p>Sixty days later, with one different question, that same donor transferred $400,000 in appreciated stock before the sale closed.</p><p>Same donor. Same relationship. Different question.</p><p>This week on The Intentional Fundraiser, I'm pulling back the curtain on what most major gift teams are quietly missing in 2026: asset-based gifts.</p><p>Stock. DAFs. Closely held business interests. Real estate.</p><p>These are not "planned giving department" conversations anymore. They are the next...
Leading from the Major Gifts Seat
<p>Your CEO is not your critic. </p><p>They might be your scariest internal customer.</p><p>Once I understood that, everything changed.</p><p>For years I walked into meetings with my ED ready to defend my portfolio. Why hadn't the gift closed. Why we were behind. Why the donor needed more time.</p><p>I left those meetings smaller. He left them more anxious. And the donor at the center of it had no idea any of it was happening.</p><p>Then I learned the move that changed my career.</p><p>I stopped reporting at...
Story and Data: What Major Donors Really Need
<p>$150,000 gift. One question.</p><p>90 seconds.</p><p>"Who is this changing for?" </p><p>A development director walked into a meeting with a fund-of-funds founder and a 12-page impact report. He flipped through it in ninety seconds and asked one question:</p><p>"Who is this changing for, and how do you know?"</p><p>She closed the report. Told one story. Showed one chart. One photo. Nine minutes.</p><p>Six days later, the $150K gift came in.</p><p>When she called to thank him, he said something I think about every week: "I don't need...
Designing Impact Together with Donors
<p>"You brought me a brochure, not a conversation."</p><p>A donor said that to one of my clients.</p><p>It changed how we prep every donor visit now.</p><p>In this week's episode of The Intentional Fundraiser podcast, I share the story of a $250,000 ask that became a $400,000 partnership plus two warm introductions, all because we changed one thing.</p><p>We stopped presenting.</p><p>We started designing.</p><p>Inside the episode you'll get:</p>The five-part co-design meeting flow you can use this weekThe donor psychology that makes this work so wellThe tools...
Peer Power: Ambassadors and Giving Circles
<p>A $100,000 gift, made in a kitchen.</p><p>The major gift officer wasn't there.</p><p>Another donor was. ☕</p><p>She invited three friends over for coffee. She told them why she gave. She didn't pitch. She didn't ask. Six weeks later, one of those friends called me ready to make a major gift.</p><p>That moment changed how the major gift officer thinks about major gift strategy.</p><p>🎙️ On this week's episode of The Intentional Fundraiser podcast, I unpack peer power, ambassadors, and giving circles, and why peer voices carry more weight than staff voices in 2026...
Rethinking Major Gifts Metrics in 2026
<p>Bad metrics ruin good fundraisers.</p><p>Slowly. Quietly. Cycle after cycle.</p><p>And almost nobody on the team is allowed to say it out loud.</p><p>In this week's episode of The Intentional Fundraiser, I'm sharing why the metrics most major gift programs lean on, raw visit counts, dollars to goal, dials made, often miss the actual work. </p><p>I'm walking through:</p><p>→ The hidden cost of using lagging indicators to coach behavior</p><p>→ Five leading indicators worth tracking instead</p><p>→ Why AI inside your CRM should help you ask better questions, not de...
Pruning Your Portfolio to Grow Your Results
<p>Pruning isn't loss. It's care. </p><p>For years, fundraisers have been told that a bigger portfolio means a healthier pipeline. In my experience, the opposite is usually true.</p><p>A focused list closes more gifts, and a focused fundraiser feels more human at the end of the week.</p><p>In this week's episode of The Intentional Fundraiser, I walk through the four lenses I use to decide who stays on an active portfolio, who graduates to stewardship, and who pauses for now. I also share the language to use with leadership when you propose a leaner...
Crafting Offers for Transformational Giving
<p>"Fuzzy is the enemy of yes."</p><p>That line came up this week while I was recording the podcast.</p><p>And I cannot stop thinking about it. </p><p>Most major gift offers I see in 2026 are not failing because the relationship is weak or the mission is unclear. They are failing because the offer itself is fuzzy. A program description with a price tag at the bottom is not an offer. It is a proposal. And sophisticated donors can feel the difference.</p><p>In this week's episode of The Intentional Fundraiser podcast, I walk through...
Trust-Building Conversations with Major Donors
<p>Two donors. Same problem.</p><p>Completely different outcomes. </p><p>One development officer waited too long to call. By the time she reached out about a delayed project, the donor had already pulled back. A significant gift quietly disappeared.</p><p>The other officer called early. She was honest. She said, "Here's what happened, here's what we learned, and here's what we did to fix it." The donor's response?</p><p>"I really appreciate you telling me that. Most organizations only call when they want something."</p><p>The difference between those two outcomes wasn't strategy or skill...
