The Breakthru Podcast
Welcome to the Breakthru Podcast – I’m J.Paul Fridenmaker and I am amazed by all you folks who do fundraising, inviting generous people to resource causes all over the world. In the Breakthru Podcast, we interview high net worth givers globally to listen and learn about how we, as fundraisers, can do our best work in inviting people to the party.
Thanks for listening in!
Interspersed throughout the great guest interviews, you'll see audio readings from The Breakthru Blog. Each of those are titled with the length of the reading and the date of original post. The link to the written versions are included in the show notes of each reading.
Enjoy! And send me a note with your feedback. I read every comment and you all make the content that much better!
Episodes
Jul 17, 2026
Jul 17, 2026
8 min
Follow J.Paul on LinkedIn, X, or BlueSky for daily pro tips and reflections on major gift fundraising. (http://linkedin.com/in/jpaulfridenmaker, https://x.com/jpaulfry, and https://bsky.app/profile/jpfry.bsky.social)
Subscribe to The Breakthru Newsletter to have free guides like this delivered to your email each week. (https://mailchi.mp/55b75ef0bc13/breakthru_newsletter)
Schedule a free 30-minute consult with J.Paul (https://calendar.app.google/SnDhUpJfcm3uNWF38)
Jul 10, 2026
Jul 10, 2026
10 min
Follow J.Paul on LinkedIn, X, or BlueSky for daily pro tips and reflections on major gift fundraising. (http://linkedin.com/in/jpaulfridenmaker, https://x.com/jpaulfry, and https://bsky.app/profile/jpfry.bsky.social)
Subscribe to The Breakthru Newsletter to have free guides like this delivered to your email each week. (https://mailchi.mp/55b75ef0bc13/breakthru_newsletter)
Schedule a free 30-minute consult with J.Paul (https://calendar.app.google/SnDhUpJfcm3uNWF38)
Jul 3, 2026
Jul 3, 2026
6 min
Follow J.Paul on LinkedIn, X, or BlueSky for daily pro tips and reflections on major gift fundraising. (http://linkedin.com/in/jpaulfridenmaker, https://x.com/jpaulfry, and https://bsky.app/profile/jpfry.bsky.social)
Subscribe to The Breakthru Newsletter to have free guides like this delivered to your email each week. (https://mailchi.mp/55b75ef0bc13/breakthru_newsletter)
Related links in this series:Blog post "The Shape Of Service" (https://www.jpaulfridenmaker.com/blog/the-shape-of-service)
Blog post "The Shape Of Quality" (https://www.jpaulfridenmaker.com/blog/the-shape-of-quality)
Blog post "The Shape of Competition" (www.jpaulfridenmaker.com/blog/the-shape-of-competition)
Jun 26, 2026
Jun 26, 2026
8 min
Follow J.Paul on LinkedIn, X, or BlueSky for daily pro tips and reflections on major gift fundraising. (http://linkedin.com/in/jpaulfridenmaker, https://x.com/jpaulfry, and https://bsky.app/profile/jpfry.bsky.social)
Subscribe to The Breakthru Newsletter to have free guides like this delivered to your email each week. (https://mailchi.mp/55b75ef0bc13/breakthru_newsletter)
Related links in this series:Blog post "The Shape Of Service" (https://www.jpaulfridenmaker.com/blog/the-shape-of-service)
Blog post "The Shape Of Quality" (https://www.jpaulfridenmaker.com/blog/the-shape-of-quality)
Jun 20, 2026
Jun 20, 2026
7 min
Follow J.Paul on LinkedIn, X, or BlueSky for daily pro tips and reflections on major gift fundraising. (http://linkedin.com/in/jpaulfridenmaker, https://x.com/jpaulfry, and https://bsky.app/profile/jpfry.bsky.social)
Subscribe to The Breakthru Newsletter to have free guides like this delivered to your email each week. (https://mailchi.mp/55b75ef0bc13/breakthru_newsletter)
Link referred to in this episode:Blog post "The Shape Of Service" (https://www.jpaulfridenmaker.com/blog/the-shape-of-service)
Jun 13, 2026
Jun 13, 2026
8 min
Follow J.Paul on LinkedIn, X, or BlueSky for daily pro tips and reflections on major gift fundraising. (http://linkedin.com/in/jpaulfridenmaker, https://x.com/jpaulfry, and https://bsky.app/profile/jpfry.bsky.social)
Subscribe to The Breakthru Newsletter to have free guides like this delivered to your email each week. (https://mailchi.mp/55b75ef0bc13/breakthru_newsletter)
Jun 5, 2026
Jun 5, 2026
7 min
Follow J.Paul on LinkedIn, X, or BlueSky for daily pro tips and reflections on major gift fundraising. (http://linkedin.com/in/jpaulfridenmaker, https://x.com/jpaulfry, and https://bsky.app/profile/jpfry.bsky.social)
Subscribe to The Breakthru Newsletter to have free guides like this delivered to your email each week. (https://mailchi.mp/55b75ef0bc13/breakthru_newsletter)
Links referred to in the episode:
Post #5 in The Invitation Series - "When They Start Asking You" (https://www.jpaulfridenmaker.com/blog/when-they-start-asking-you)
May 30, 2026
May 30, 2026
7 min
Follow J.Paul on LinkedIn, X, or BlueSky for daily pro tips and reflections on major gift fundraising. (http://linkedin.com/in/jpaulfridenmaker, https://x.com/jpaulfry, and https://bsky.app/profile/jpfry.bsky.social)
Subscribe to The Breakthru Newsletter to have free guides like this delivered to your email each week. (https://mailchi.mp/55b75ef0bc13/breakthru_newsletter)
Links referred to in the episode:
First post in The Invitation series: Let's Party (https://www.jpaulfridenmaker.com/blog/lets-party)
Second post: Acute Invitational Misalignment Syndrome (AIMS) (https://www.jpaulfridenmaker.com/blog/acute-invitational-misalignment-syndrome-aims)
Third post: The Cost Of Getting It Wrong (https://www.jpaulfridenmaker.com/blog/the-cost-of-getting-it-wrong)
Fourth post: Before The Ask Ever Happens (https://www.jpaulfridenmaker.com/blog/before-the-ask-ever-happens)
Fifth post: When They Start Asking You (https://www.jpaulfridenmaker.com/blog/when-they-start-asking-you)
May 22, 2026
May 22, 2026
7 min
Follow J.Paul on LinkedIn, X, or BlueSky for daily pro tips and reflections on major gift fundraising. (http://linkedin.com/in/jpaulfridenmaker, https://x.com/jpaulfry, and https://bsky.app/profile/jpfry.bsky.social)
Subscribe to The Breakthru Newsletter to have free guides like this delivered to your email each week. (https://mailchi.mp/55b75ef0bc13/breakthru_newsletter)
Links referred to in the episode:
First post in The Invitation series: "Let's Party" (https://www.jpaulfridenmaker.com/blog/lets-party)
May 15, 2026
May 15, 2026
9 min
Follow J.Paul on LinkedIn, X, or BlueSky for daily pro tips and reflections on major gift fundraising. (http://linkedin.com/in/jpaulfridenmaker, https://x.com/jpaulfry, and https://bsky.app/profile/jpfry.bsky.social)
Subscribe to The Breakthru Newsletter to have free guides like this delivered to your email each week. (https://mailchi.mp/55b75ef0bc13/breakthru_newsletter)
Links referred to in the episode:
First post in The Invitation series: "Let's Party" (https://www.jpaulfridenmaker.com/blog/lets-party)