My worst December as a fundraiser?

I spent it chasing a stock transfer with no name on it.

My plan had been "we'll get serious after the gala."

The gala ended in mid-November. You can guess how that year went.

Here's what I learned the hard way. December isn't where year-end is won. It's where you find out how well you planned in October.

And year-end 2026 raises the stakes. New tax rules. Donors who "bunched" their giving into last year. Complex gifts that need more lead time than ever.

On this week's episode of The Intentional Fundraiser Podcast, "Stacking the Deck for Year-End Major Gifts," I walk through:

• What's changed for donors this year, and the one question to ask about it
• The Year-End Countdown, five checkpoints planned backward from December 31
• A one-page dashboard and a 15-minute Monday huddle that keep your whole team focused

Give it a listen this week, then share it with a colleague who's heading into Q4 with a long list and a short runway.

More from Tammy Zonker

Author of Calling All Heroes: Combining the Best of Donor-Centered and Community-Centered Fundraising for Greater Impact

Founder of Fundraising Transformed

President of Modern Institute for Charitable Giving

Book Tammy to Keynote Your Next Event

Reserve your spot at the upcoming Excellence in Major Gift Fundraising Seminar

Subscribe to the Scaling Major Gifts newsletter

Connect with Tammy Zonker on LinkedIn

Resources: Show notes, links, and resources mentioned in this episode.

Review my show: Please review my show. After you click the link, scroll to the bottom, first tap to rate with five stars, and then tap “Write a Review.” Then, let me know what you liked most about this particular episode or how you find my podcast helpful, valuable, insightful, or inspiring in some way.

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One page changed everything.

A donor said it was the first report she'd ever kept.

Two years later, she made the largest gift in the organization's history.

It wasn't a glossy annual report. No pie charts. No forty pages.

Just one number she cared about, one note from a teacher, and one honest line about what the team was learning.

The difference? Her development director asked her what success looked like before she made the gift.

That's what this week's episode of The Intentional Fundraiser is all about.

I talk about:

• What donors really want to know (hint: it's not how many workshops you held)
• How to co-create and right-size impact metrics with your major donors
• Simple formats that work in 2026, from brief impact notes to 90-second phone videos
• Where AI helps, and where your judgment still matters most

Listen to "Impact Reporting That Deepens Commitment" and share it with a colleague who's rethinking donor reporting.

More from Tammy Zonker

Author of Calling All Heroes: Combining the Best of Donor-Centered and Community-Centered Fundraising for Greater Impact

Founder of Fundraising Transformed

President of Modern Institute for Charitable Giving

Book Tammy to Keynote Your Next Event

Reserve your spot at the upcoming Excellence in Major Gift Fundraising Seminar

Subscribe to the Scaling Major Gifts newsletter

Connect with Tammy Zonker on LinkedIn

Resources: Show notes, links, and resources mentioned in this episode.

Review my show: Please review my show. After you click the link, scroll to the bottom, first tap to rate with five stars, and then tap “Write a Review.” Then, let me know what you liked most about this particular episode or how you find my podcast helpful, valuable, insightful, or inspiring in some way.

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One question. A lasting legacy. Andrea almost didn't ask it.

She was afraid it would muddy her donor's renewal.

Her donor, Walter, had given faithfully for eleven years.

He was about to renew his major gift. And he kept asking one thing: "Will this program still be here someday?"

Andrea realized Walter was already having the legacy conversation. She just hadn't joined it yet.

So she asked: "What would you want this program to look like twenty years from now?"

That question led to a renewed and increased gift, and a legacy commitment to sustain the program for years to come.

On this week's episode of The Intentional Fundraiser, "Today's Gifts, Tomorrow's Legacy," I share:

• Why integrating planned giving and major gifts matters so much right now
• Five signals a donor is ready, plus conversation starters that feel hopeful, not morbid
• How to partner with planned giving specialists and donors' advisors

Here's what I'm wondering

What's holding you back from raising legacy giving with your major donors?

Listen to this episode, then share it with a colleague or board member who cares about your mission's future.

More from Tammy Zonker

Author of Calling All Heroes: Combining the Best of Donor-Centered and Community-Centered Fundraising for Greater Impact

Founder of Fundraising Transformed

President of Modern Institute for Charitable Giving

Book Tammy to Keynote Your Next Event

Reserve your spot at the upcoming Excellence in Major Gift Fundraising Seminar

Subscribe to the Scaling Major Gifts newsletter

Connect with Tammy Zonker on LinkedIn

Resources: Show notes, links, and resources mentioned in this episode.

Review my show: Please review my show. After you click the link, scroll to the bottom, first tap to rate with five stars, and then tap “Write a Review.” Then, let me know what you liked most about this particular episode or how you find my podcast helpful, valuable, insightful, or inspiring in some way.

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He went quiet for two months.

She thought she'd blown the ask.

She hadn't.

The donor had watched his business take a hit, watched the news every night, and frozen. He wasn't saying no to her $250,000 proposal. He was saying he didn't know how to say yes to anything right now.

Here's what she finally did.

She sent a note that had nothing to do with the gift. She just asked how he was thinking about the year ahead.

He called at 8:15 the next morning and talked for forty minutes. About his company. His kids. How unsure everything felt.

She didn't re-pitch. She asked one question near the end: what would make a commitment feel manageable for you right now?

Five years instead of three, he said. And a conversation each January.

He signed for $300,000.

The gift got bigger because the risk got smaller.

In this week's episode of The Intentional Fundraiser, I'm walking you through the emotional layer of giving in 2026, the four conversational moves I use with anxious donors, and five gift structures that help people feel safe saying yes to something big.

Here's my question for you. When a donor hesitates, is your first instinct to shrink the number or to shrink the risk?

Listen to the episode, then share it with someone on your team who has an anxious donor conversation coming up this week.

More from Tammy Zonker

Author of Calling All Heroes: Combining the Best of Donor-Centered and Community-Centered Fundraising for Greater Impact

Founder of Fundraising Transformed

President of Modern Institute for Charitable Giving

Book Tammy to Keynote Your Next Event

Reserve your spot at the upcoming Excellence in Major Gift Fundraising Seminar

Subscribe to the Scaling Major Gifts newsletter

Connect with Tammy Zonker on LinkedIn

Resources: Show notes, links, and resources mentioned in this episode.

Review my show: Please review my show. After you click the link, scroll to the bottom, first tap to rate with five stars, and then tap “Write a Review.” Then, let me know what you liked most about this particular episode or how you find my podcast helpful, valuable, insightful, or inspiring in some way.

Privacy Policy: See Privacy Policy at https://www.fundraisingtransformed.com/policies

She gave me four minutes. It changed my career.

Almost thirty years ago, I had a donor meeting with a man who genuinely intimidated me. My development director stopped by my desk and asked what I planned to ask him.

I recited my agenda. She listened, then said, "That's fine. But what do you really want to know about him?"

I said I wanted to know why he kept giving to us when he clearly didn't need us.

She said, "Ask him that."

He talked for twenty minutes about his mother, a scholarship, and a debt he'd been paying back for forty years. He made our largest gift that year.

Four minutes at my desk. No budget. No program. No conference.

That's the whole thing I want us to understand about developing the next generation of major gift fundraisers. We keep trying to hire our way out of what is really a coaching problem.

If someone on your team told a story like that about you ten years from now, what would they say you did?

This week on The Intentional Fundraiser Podcast, I walk through what's different about the fundraisers coming up now, the four competencies they need, five coaching moves that cost nothing, and what it quietly costs your donors when you skip all of it.

Give it a listen, then share it with a manager who's carrying a team and wondering why hiring hasn't fixed it.

More from Tammy Zonker

Author of Calling All Heroes: Combining the Best of Donor-Centered and Community-Centered Fundraising for Greater Impact

Founder of Fundraising Transformed

President of Modern Institute for Charitable Giving

Book Tammy to Keynote Your Next Event

Reserve your spot at the upcoming Excellence in Major Gift Fundraising Seminar

Subscribe to the Scaling Major Gifts newsletter

Connect with Tammy Zonker on LinkedIn

Resources: Show notes, links, and resources mentioned in this episode.

Review my show: Please review my show. After you click the link, scroll to the bottom, first tap to rate with five stars, and then tap “Write a Review.” Then, let me know what you liked most about this particular episode or how you find my podcast helpful, valuable, insightful, or inspiring in some way.

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The lobby test.

Your website is the lobby of your building.

It never closes the gift. But it absolutely sets the tone for everything that happens around it.

In this week's episode of The Intentional Fundraiser, I tell the story of a six-figure donor who tried to give on her phone in December, gave up three screens in, and mailed a check instead.

The gift still came. The dashboard still looked healthy.

And a loyal donor quietly filed away one piece of information about the organization she loves: this is harder than it should be.

We talk about why digital shapes what your largest donors believe about you, even the ones you have lunch with.

The four elements that matter most to a donor giving at the top of your file.

And the digital behavior signals sitting in your data right now that point toward your next major gift conversation.

Then I give you a twenty-minute audit you can run before your next staff meeting.

Here's my question for you: if a financial advisor researched your organization tomorrow, what one sentence would they report back to your donor?

Give it a listen, and share it with the person on your team who owns your website. This one is better as a conversation than a solo listen.

More from Tammy Zonker

Author of Calling All Heroes: Combining the Best of Donor-Centered and Community-Centered Fundraising for Greater Impact

Founder of Fundraising Transformed

President of Modern Institute for Charitable Giving

Book Tammy to Keynote Your Next Event

Reserve your spot at the upcoming Excellence in Major Gift Fundraising Seminar

Subscribe to the Scaling Major Gifts newsletter

Connect with Tammy Zonker on LinkedIn

Resources: Show notes, links, and resources mentioned in this episode.

Review my show: Please review my show. After you click the link, scroll to the bottom, first tap to rate with five stars, and then tap “Write a Review.” Then, let me know what you liked most about this particular episode or how you find my podcast helpful, valuable, insightful, or inspiring in some way.

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"What's our plan if we only raise nine?"

A campaign chair asked that in a planning meeting for a $14 million campaign, and the room went completely quiet.

She wasn't being negative. She'd run a manufacturing business for thirty years, and she said, "I've never run a three-year plan that came in exactly where the model said it would."

So we built an answer. Three of them, honestly. Conservative, moderate, and optimistic, all built around one internal working goal.

Eighteen months later, the $4 million lead gift came in at $1.8 million.

In most campaigns, that's an emergency board meeting. In this one, it was a Tuesday, because everyone already knew what to do.

They finished at $11.4 million, and the board called it a success.

In this episode, I walk through what a working goal really is, the three scenarios you build around it, how to write triggers you can see coming, and the five sentences that keep a board steady when the number moves.

Give it a listen, then share it with someone on your team who's been waiting for a better moment to launch.

More from Tammy Zonker

Author of Calling All Heroes: Combining the Best of Donor-Centered and Community-Centered Fundraising for Greater Impact

Founder of Fundraising Transformed

President of Modern Institute for Charitable Giving

Book Tammy to Keynote Your Next Event

Reserve your spot at the upcoming Excellence in Major Gift Fundraising Seminar

Subscribe to the Scaling Major Gifts newsletter

Connect with Tammy Zonker on LinkedIn

Resources: Show notes, links, and resources mentioned in this episode.

Review my show: Please review my show. After you click the link, scroll to the bottom, first tap to rate with five stars, and then tap “Write a Review.” Then, let me know what you liked most about this particular episode or how you find my podcast helpful, valuable, insightful, or inspiring in some way.

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A donor wall almost cost them their best donor.

At the opening of a gorgeous new wall, one of their most generous donors leaned in and said, "I didn't give so my name could be up there. I gave for the kids. I wish the wall told me about them."

That one sentence is the whole episode.

On this week's Intentional Fundraiser Podcast, Recognition That Feels Right Today, I dig into what donors are signaling about recognition now, fresh mission-centered practices you can borrow, and how to handle sensitive naming questions without walking into a landmine.

Recognition, done right, isn't a plaque. It's a window into the change a donor made possible.

Is your recognition making donors feel important, or connected?

Give it a listen, then share it with someone wrestling with their own donor wall.

More from Tammy Zonker

Author of Calling All Heroes: Combining the Best of Donor-Centered and Community-Centered Fundraising for Greater Impact

Founder of Fundraising Transformed

President of Modern Institute for Charitable Giving

Book Tammy to Keynote Your Next Event

Reserve your spot at the upcoming Excellence in Major Gift Fundraising Seminar

Subscribe to the Scaling Major Gifts newsletter

Connect with Tammy Zonker on LinkedIn

Resources: Show notes, links, and resources mentioned in this episode.

Review my show: Please review my show. After you click the link, scroll to the bottom, first tap to rate with five stars, and then tap “Write a Review.” Then, let me know what you liked most about this particular episode or how you find my podcast helpful, valuable, insightful, or inspiring in some way.

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Urgency can steal our future.

I’ve watched it happen in nonprofit teams everywhere.

We race from grant deadlines to events to year-end goals, doing everything possible to meet today’s needs.

But somewhere along the way, the relationship-building work that creates tomorrow’s major gifts gets pushed aside.

In my conversation with Mark Stuart, President and CEO of San Diego Foundation, I was reminded that fundraising is not just a development department responsibility.

It is a team sport. 🤝

When we make room for curiosity, courageous conversations, and long-term planning, we give donors something more meaningful than a transaction.

We give them agency to help shape a better future.

So here’s my question:

What important fundraising work are you protecting this quarter, even when urgency is loud?

🎧 Listen to this episode for practical inspiration on building for what’s next, then share it with a fundraiser, executive leader, or board member who needs this reminder.

More from Tammy Zonker

Author of Calling All Heroes: Combining the Best of Donor-Centered and Community-Centered Fundraising for Greater Impact

Founder of Fundraising Transformed

President of Modern Institute for Charitable Giving

Book Tammy to Keynote Your Next Event

Reserve your spot at the upcoming Excellence in Major Gift Fundraising Seminar

Subscribe to the Scaling Major Gifts newsletter

Connect with Tammy Zonker on LinkedIn

Guest: Mark Stuart, President and CEO of San Diego Foundation

Resources: Show notes, links, and resources mentioned in this episode.

Review my show: Please review my show. After you click the link, scroll to the bottom, first tap to rate with five stars, and then tap “Write a Review.” Then, let me know what you liked most about this particular episode or how you find my podcast helpful, valuable, insightful, or inspiring in some way.

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What if the ask isn't for money? What if it's a question?

A donor of fifteen years told one of my clients, "Nobody ever asked me what I thought. They just told me what they'd done." He'd made peace with being a checkbook.

I keep hearing versions of that story. Loyal donors who'd give more, and stay longer, if we simply asked them what they see.

On this week's episode of The Intentional Fundraiser, I make the case that listening is a fundraising strategy, not a courtesy. We get into how to design listening sessions and donor advisory councils, and the one step almost everyone skips: closing the loop so donors see what changed because they spoke up.

When's the last time you asked a major donor, "What are we missing?"

Listen to this week's episode, then share it with someone who needs the reminder that donors want to be heard, not just thanked.

More from Tammy Zonker

Author of Calling All Heroes: Combining the Best of Donor-Centered and Community-Centered Fundraising for Greater Impact

Founder of Fundraising Transformed

President of Modern Institute for Charitable Giving

Book Tammy to Keynote Your Next Event

Reserve your spot at the upcoming Excellence in Major Gift Fundraising Seminar

Subscribe to the Scaling Major Gifts newsletter

Connect with Tammy Zonker on LinkedIn

Resources: Show notes, links, and resources mentioned in this episode.

Review my show: Please review my show. After you click the link, scroll to the bottom, first tap to rate with five stars, and then tap “Write a Review.” Then, let me know what you liked most about this particular episode or how you find my podcast helpful, valuable, insightful, or inspiring in some way.

Privacy Policy: See Privacy Policy at https://www.fundraisingtransformed.com/policies