133. Take Back Your Week, Grow Your Major Gifts
About this episode
Some weeks, your calendar looks full of “important” meetings, but your top donors barely hear from you.
In 2026, with rising donor expectations, rapid AI adoption, and constant internal demands, that tension is very real. You’re busier than ever, yet you may feel further away from the kind of deep donor work that grows major gifts over time.
In my experience, your calendar will tell the truth about your priorities long before your strategic plan does. The good news is, you can change that story.
A new way to look at your week
Here’s one simple lens I’ve found incredibly helpful when coaching major gift fundraisers and leaders.
Ask a “ninety-day question.”
Look at your calendar and ask, “If I repeat this schedule for the next ninety days, will my top donors feel more connected, more understood, and more inspired to give?” If the answer is no, it’s time for a shift.
Name the calendar chaos.
Before you fix anything, you have to see it clearly. How many hours last week went to donor conversations, and how many went to internal meetings, email, and admin? One approach I’ve seen work well is to quickly categorize each block as “donor-facing,” “donor-supporting,” or “other.”
Protect three essential blocks.
For healthy major gifts work, I focus my week around three types of time: outreach, live donor meetings, and follow-up or thinking time. When these are solidly on the calendar, everything else has to fit around them, not the other way around.
Treat internal pushback as a strategy conversation.
Instead of saying, “I’m too busy for that meeting,” try, “I’m protecting Tuesday and Thursday mornings for donor work because we want to grow major gifts. Can we schedule this internal conversation in the afternoon?” You’re reframing your boundaries as a revenue strategy, not personal preference.
Let AI become your junior assistant, not your replacement.
In my experience, the fundraisers who get the most lift from artificial intelligence are the ones who let it handle repetitive work, like summarizing notes or drafting follow-up, so they can spend more time building real human relationships.
Three must have time blocks
Let me break down those three blocks more clearly. They’ve become essential in my own practice and in the teams I support.
1. Outreach time
This is where you initiate and deepen donor relationships. In this block, you:
Call donors to request visits.
Send thoughtful, personalized emails or texts.
Record quick thank you videos or voice memos.
I like to schedule outreach when my energy is strong, often mid-morning. In my experience, even ninety focused minutes twice a week can dramatically increase the number of donor conversations you’re having.
This is a great place to invite AI in as a helper. You can ask an AI assistant to draft personalized outreach messages based on your notes, then you tweak them so they sound like you. That way, more of your time is spent connecting, not staring at a blank screen.
2. Donor meeting time
These are your live conversations, in person or virtual. One approach I’ve seen work well is to cluster meetings on specific days, such as Tuesdays and Thursdays.
This rhythm helps you:
Stay in “donor mode” instead of constantly switching between internal and external focus.
Plan your energy better, with short breaks between meetings for notes and a quick reset.
When your calendar clearly shows donor meeting days, it also sends a signal to colleagues that those times are reserved for revenue-producing work.
3. Follow-up and thinking time
In my experience, this block is the most neglected and one of the most powerful. It is where you:
Capture notes from donor conversations.
Update your CRM, your donor database.
Plan thoughtful next steps and touchpoints.
I often place this block right after or the morning following a donor meeting day. Artificial intelligence can be incredibly helpful here. You can feed in your notes or a transcript and ask for key themes, potential interests, and a draft of next steps, then you refine it using your experience and your understanding of the donor.
Without this block, you risk having lots of conversations that never turn into a coherent cultivation journey.
Three quick actions you can take this week
If you have just thirty to sixty minutes, here are three focused steps you can take to start shifting your week.
Action 1: Do a fast calendar audit.
Pull up last week’s calendar. In fifteen to twenty minutes, mark each block as:
D for donor-facing.
S for donor-supporting.
O for other.
Count your donor-facing hours. In my experience, this quick snapshot can be eye-opening and incredibly motivating.
Action 2: Block your “big three” for the next two weeks.
Choose:
One outreach block of sixty to ninety minutes each week.
One donor meeting block of at least half a day.
One follow-up and thinking block of sixty minutes.
Put them on your calendar with clear labels like “Major Donor Outreach” or “Donor Follow Up and Strategy.” Treat them like appointments with your top donor.
Action 3: Test one AI workflow.
Pick one repetitive task to offload:
Summarize one donor meeting’s notes into key themes and next steps.
Draft three donor follow-up emails based on your bullet points.
Create a list of outreach call scripts customized for a segment of your portfolio.
In my experience, even one small AI workflow can save you enough time to add another donor call or visit to your week.
Want to take a deeper dive?
If this is resonating, I’d love for you to listen to this week’s episode of The Intentional Fundraiser podcast, “Take Back Your Week, Grow Your Major Gifts.”
I walk through the “ideal week” concept in more detail, share real examples of how fundraisers have negotiated calendar boundaries with their leaders, and talk more about how to use AI as a support tool for your donor work, not a substitute for it.
I’d love to hear from you
What’s the hardest part about protecting donor time in your current role? Connect with me on LinkedIn and tell me one small change you’re willing to try in your calendar over the next two weeks.
Your work in major gifts carries real emotional weight and responsibility. In my experience, when you take back your week and protect your best donor work, you not only raise more money, you feel more aligned with the reason you got into this work in the first place.
“Time blocks aren’t about perfection. They’re about protecting enough space for the donor work that only you can do.”
Tammy Zonker, Major Gift Expert, Keynote Speaker, Author
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