Top 12 Development Assistant Skills to Put on Your Resume
In the competitive world of development assistance, standing out with a resume that spotlights the skills that move the needle is essential. A mix of technical fluency, clear communication, and steady project coordination makes you easier to hire, easier to trust, and easier to promote.
Development Assistant Skills
- Salesforce
- Raiser's Edge
- Microsoft Excel
- Google Analytics
- Adobe Creative Cloud
- SQL
- Python
- Mailchimp
- Asana
- Tableau
- QuickBooks
- WordPress
1. Salesforce
Salesforce is a cloud CRM platform used to manage constituents, donations, campaigns, and workflows. For nonprofits, that often means using Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) or the newer Nonprofit Cloud to track relationships, pledges, grants, and moves management—without drowning in spreadsheets.
Why It's Important
It centralizes donor data, automates follow-ups, and surfaces insights quickly. That means cleaner records, better stewardship, and fewer missed opportunities.
How to Improve Salesforce Skills
Zero in on the tools that cut busywork. Learn Flow (now the preferred automation tool), master Reports and Dashboards, and get comfortable with Data Import Wizard and Data Loader for bulk updates. Use Permission Sets over profiles for flexible access. Keep fields tidy, enforce validation rules, and set up duplicate and matching rules to protect data quality. If you work with NPSP/Nonprofit Cloud, configure levels, recurring donations, and engagement plans to fit your fundraising rhythm. Turn on MFA and review audit trails regularly.
How to Display Salesforce Skills on Your Resume
2. Raiser's Edge
Raiser’s Edge (including Raiser’s Edge NXT) is nonprofit fundraising software for donor records, gifts, events, and analytics. It’s built for development teams that need accuracy and speed.
Why It's Important
A single source of truth for donors and gifts makes campaigns smoother, acknowledgments faster, and reporting painless when it counts.
How to Improve Raiser's Edge Skills
Work from the ground up: clean constituent data, standardize codes and attributes, and enforce gift entry conventions. Build smart lists and queues for recurring tasks. Use NXT dashboards and Insight Designer visuals to monitor pipelines. Create letter and email templates for quick acknowledgments. Schedule standard reports, and document data entry SOPs so the whole team stays aligned. Review security roles and audit changes routinely.
How to Display Raiser's Edge Skills on Your Resume
3. Microsoft Excel
Excel is the backbone of quick data work: analysis, lists, budgets, imports, and sanity checks before anything hits your CRM.
Why It's Important
You can reconcile gifts, build forecasts, and clean messy exports rapidly. Less manual effort, more reliable numbers.
How to Improve Microsoft Excel Skills
Lean into modern functions: XLOOKUP, FILTER, SORT, UNIQUE, and dynamic arrays. Use PivotTables with Power Pivot for model-based analysis, and Power Query (Get & Transform) to clean and combine data. Conditional formatting for instant pattern-spotting. Data validation to reduce typos. Learn basic macros for repetitive steps. Co-authoring and version history smooth team work. Bonus points: LAMBDA and LET for reusable logic.
How to Display Microsoft Excel Skills on Your Resume
4. Google Analytics
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) tracks web and app behavior with an event-based model, showing how supporters discover, engage, and convert.
Why It's Important
It reveals which pages drive donations, where supporters drop off, and what content actually works—so your campaigns aren’t guessing.
How to Improve Google Analytics Skills
Set up GA4 properly: data streams, enhanced measurement, and conversions that mirror key actions (donations, subscribes, volunteer sign-ups). Use Google Tag Manager to deploy events without code changes. Define audiences for remarketing. Explore funnel and path analysis to fix drop-offs. Link BigQuery for deeper analysis and long-term storage. Keep filters and internal traffic rules clean, and run periodic audits so data stays trustworthy.
How to Display Google Analytics Skills on Your Resume
5. Adobe Creative Cloud
Adobe Creative Cloud (the modern successor to Creative Suite) bundles tools like Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere Pro, and Acrobat for design, video, and publication work.
Why It's Important
Compelling visuals raise response rates. Clean one-pagers, sharp donor decks, and on-brand social assets win attention and trust.
How to Improve Adobe Creative Suite Skills
Pick two or three core apps and go deep—often Photoshop for imagery, InDesign for layouts, Illustrator for vector graphics. Build reusable templates and brand libraries. Learn non-destructive editing, color profiles, and export presets for web and print. Use shared libraries for team consistency. Keep files organized, named, and versioned so handoffs never stall. Practice constantly on real campaign needs.
How to Display Adobe Creative Suite Skills on Your Resume
6. SQL
SQL is the language for querying and shaping data in relational databases. It pulls exactly what you need, no fluff.
Why It's Important
When you can join tables, filter precisely, and aggregate cleanly, reporting speeds up and errors shrink. Decisions get crisper.
How to Improve SQL Skills
Master SELECTs with WHERE, GROUP BY, and HAVING. Write readable JOINs. Use CTEs for clarity, window functions for rankings and running totals, and CASE for conditional logic. Learn to read EXPLAIN plans and add indexes thoughtfully. Practice on real datasets, then refactor queries for speed and simplicity. Naming conventions and comments help future you.
How to Display SQL Skills on Your Resume
7. Python
Python is a versatile programming language fit for automation, data wrangling, web tasks, and quick scripts that chip away at repetitive work.
Why It's Important
Automated imports, deduping routines, scheduled reports—Python turns recurring headaches into quiet background jobs.
How to Improve Python Skills
Get fluent with the standard library and virtual environments. Use pandas for data manipulation, requests for APIs, and openpyxl or csv for file handling. Write small utilities first, then stitch them into reliable workflows. Follow PEP 8 style, add docstrings, and log sensibly. Tests catch regressions; scheduling (cron or task schedulers) keeps things humming. Read other people’s code and iterate.
How to Display Python Skills on Your Resume
8. Mailchimp
Mailchimp is an email marketing and automation platform for newsletters, journeys, and light CRM audience work.
Why It's Important
Email still converts. Good segmentation and timely automations boost donations, event sign-ups, and volunteer interest.
How to Improve Mailchimp Skills
Tag and segment by behavior, interest, and lifecycle stage. Build Customer Journeys for welcomes, re-engagement, and post-donation stewardship. Personalize with merge tags and dynamic content. Run A/B tests on subject lines, send times, and content blocks. Keep lists clean; prune inactive contacts. Authenticate sending domains (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) to meet current inbox requirements and lift deliverability. Tie campaigns to tracked goals so you know what moved the needle.
How to Display Mailchimp Skills on Your Resume
9. Asana
Asana is a work management platform for tasks, projects, timelines, and cross-team coordination.
Why It's Important
Everyone sees what’s due, who’s on point, and what’s blocked. Less chasing. More shipping.
How to Improve Asana Skills
Use templates for recurring project types. Create custom fields that mirror how your team reports. Set Rules to auto-assign, update statuses, and move tasks as work progresses. Manage big efforts with Timeline, Portfolios, and Goals. Intake work with Forms, then triage in a central board. Keep conversations inside tasks and use @mentions to cut back email clutter. Review dashboards weekly and clear stale tasks so the signal stays strong.
How to Display Asana Skills on Your Resume
10. Tableau
Tableau turns data into interactive visuals and dashboards that decision-makers actually use.
Why It's Important
It shortens the path from questions to answers—spot trends, share stories, act faster.
How to Improve Tableau Skills
Start with tidy data: dimensions, measures, and clear data types. Learn calculations, table calcs, and parameters to make dashboards flexible. Use actions for drill-downs and filtering. Follow design basics—consistent color, restrained labels, and focused layouts. Publish to Tableau Cloud/Server with scheduled refreshes. Add data source certifications and descriptions so others can trust and reuse your work.
How to Display Tableau Skills on Your Resume
11. QuickBooks
QuickBooks (especially QuickBooks Online) manages accounting for donations, invoices, expenses, payroll, and financial reporting.
Why It's Important
Accurate books power credible reporting to leadership, boards, and funders. No surprises at audit time.
How to Improve QuickBooks Skills
Turn on bank feeds and build rules to categorize transactions. Use classes or locations to track programs and grants. Reconcile accounts monthly—religiously. Create memorized reports for board packets and budget-to-actuals. Map your donation platform to proper items and accounts for clean revenue recognition. Lock closed periods and review user permissions. Keep a monthly close checklist so nothing slips.
How to Display QuickBooks Skills on Your Resume
12. WordPress
WordPress is a flexible content management system for websites—from simple landing pages to donor hubs and blogs.
Why It's Important
You can publish quickly, keep content fresh, and support campaigns without waiting on a developer.
How to Improve WordPress Skills
Keep WordPress core, themes, and plugins updated. Use the block editor effectively and adopt reusable blocks/patterns for speed and consistency. Add caching and image compression, serve modern formats like WebP, and lazy-load media to punch up performance. Harden security with strong roles, 2FA, and a reputable security plugin. Use a CDN and reliable hosting. Clean the database periodically. Build child themes for safe customizations. Make it responsive and accessible, and monitor Core Web Vitals to stay fast.
How to Display WordPress Skills on Your Resume
