Top 12 Development Officer Skills to Put on Your Resume
In the competitive world of development and fundraising, a strong resume needs more than titles and tenure. A sharp mix of technical know-how, persuasive communication, and data sense signals you can build pipelines, nurture relationships, and push campaigns from spark to finish.
Development Officer Skills
- Salesforce
- Raiser's Edge
- Grant Writing
- DonorPerfect
- Google Analytics
- Microsoft Excel
- Tableau
- Constant Contact
- Adobe Creative Cloud (formerly Creative Suite)
- Microsoft Dynamics 365 (CRM)
- Mailchimp
- QuickBooks
1. Salesforce
Salesforce is a cloud CRM that helps development teams manage donors, moves, campaigns, and reporting across the full lifecycle—from first touch to long-term stewardship.
Why It's Important
It centralizes donor data, automates routine work, and turns activity into insight. Better segmentation. Faster follow-up. Clearer dashboards. Stronger revenue.
How to Improve Salesforce Skills
Data quality first: Tighten validation rules, required fields, and duplicate management. Clean records drive credible reports.
Move to Flow: Retire legacy Process Builder where possible. Build automations in Flow for scalability and easier maintenance.
Tailor the model: Use custom fields, record types, and page layouts that match your cultivation stages and grant pipeline.
Integrate key tools: Sync forms, email marketing, event platforms, and accounting for a unified donor view.
Level up analytics: Build dashboards with custom report types, row-level formulas, and filters that mirror KPIs you actually track.
Adopt nonprofit features: Implement Nonprofit Success Pack or Nonprofit Cloud capabilities for donations, recurring gifts, and households.
Governance and security: Use profiles, permission sets, field history tracking, and audit logs to protect data and processes.
Refine the system, then let it work for you—consistently and visibly.
How to Display Salesforce Skills on Your Resume
2. Raiser's Edge
Raiser's Edge (including NXT) is a donor management and fundraising platform built for nonprofits—gift processing, constituent records, campaigns, appeals, events, moves, the works.
Why It's Important
It organizes complex donor activity and makes targeted outreach easier, accelerating cultivation and sharpening what gets measured and improved.
How to Improve Raiser's Edge Skills
Invest in training: Master lists, queries, workflows, work center, and NXT web view features specific to your role.
Customize for clarity: Create custom fields and codes for segments, stages, and restrictions so reporting mirrors reality.
Keep data clean: Schedule deduping, global changes, address updates, and inactive record policies.
Use dashboards and exports: Standardize report packs for leadership, board updates, and campaign pacing.
Integrate touchpoints: Connect email, events, wealth screening, and finance systems to reduce manual entry.
Leverage analytics: Employ wealth and propensity scores, lapsed/reactivation lists, and portfolio performance views.
Cleaner data plus consistent workflows equals steadier revenue.
How to Display Raiser's Edge Skills on Your Resume
3. Grant Writing
Grant writing packages a need, a plan, and a promise of impact into a funder-ready proposal—evidence, budget, milestones, and evaluation included.
Why It's Important
It fuels programs, expands reach, and stabilizes revenue. Solid proposals also clarify strategy internally—what you’ll do, by when, and how you’ll prove it.
How to Improve Grant Writing Skills
Align to funder intent: Study priorities, past awards, timing, and eligibility. Fit is king.
Follow directions exactly: Formatting, page limits, attachments, fonts—small misses tank good ideas.
Tell a crisp story: Define the problem, target beneficiaries, your method, and the change you’ll measure.
Set SMART objectives: Specific, measurable, time-bound outcomes with clear indicators and baselines.
Budget with integrity: Tie costs to activities, include fair admin, and note matching or in-kind support.
Plan evaluation: Show data collection, responsibilities, and reporting cadence upfront.
Edit hard, get feedback: Peer review for clarity, consistency, and plain language.
Track the pipeline: Maintain a grant calendar, deadlines, statuses, and post-award requirements.
Precision wins. So does proof.
How to Display Grant Writing Skills on Your Resume
4. DonorPerfect
DonorPerfect is a fundraising platform for tracking donors, gifts, acknowledgments, events, and campaigns with flexible reporting.
Why It's Important
It simplifies complex engagement and gives teams a reliable view of donor history, preferences, and timely next steps.
How to Improve DonorPerfect Skills
Automate routine work: Configure SmartActions and scheduled tasks for acknowledgments, assignment, and reminders.
Standardize entry: Use consistent codes, required fields, and templates to keep reporting dependable.
Segment with intention: Build lists by recency-frequency-monetary (RFM), interests, and capacity for targeted appeals.
Use reporting deeply: Create dashboards and recurring report packets for campaigns, LYBUNT/SYBUNT, and retention.
Optimize online giving: Streamline donation forms, recurring options, and mobile responsiveness to lift conversion.
Keep learning: Schedule periodic refreshers on new features and admin best practices.
Consistency compounds—especially in acknowledgments and follow-up.
How to Display DonorPerfect Skills on Your Resume
5. Google Analytics
Google Analytics (GA4) tracks how people find and use your site, so you can refine content, funnels, and campaigns that drive donations and signups.
Why It's Important
It turns web behavior into strategy—what pulls people in, where they stall, and which channels actually convert.
How to Improve Google Analytics Skills
Set up GA4 correctly: Configure data streams, consent, internal traffic filters, and enhanced measurement.
Track what matters: Define key events (donation, pledge start, subscribe) and mark true conversions.
Tag campaigns: Use UTM parameters consistently for email, social, and partner promotions.
Build Explorations: Create funnel, cohort, and path analyses for high-impact journeys.
Leverage Audiences: Segment by engagement, geography, or behavior for targeted remarketing.
Connect tools: Link Search Console and build Looker Studio dashboards for stakeholder-friendly views.
Audit regularly: Check event accuracy, deduplicate conversions, and keep naming conventions tight.
Measurable goals, tidy tagging, and honest reporting—non-negotiable.
How to Display Google Analytics Skills on Your Resume
6. Microsoft Excel
Excel is the backbone for budgets, forecasts, lists, and analysis—fast tables, sharp charts, and repeatable models.
Why It's Important
It helps you track revenue, model scenarios, and present numbers that persuade stakeholders to move.
How to Improve Microsoft Excel Skills
Modern functions: Learn XLOOKUP, FILTER, UNIQUE, TEXTSPLIT, LET, and LAMBDA to simplify complex sheets.
Pivot mastery: Build PivotTables and PivotCharts with slicers and timelines for quick, interactive insights.
Power tools: Use Power Query for cleaning/combining data and Power Pivot for larger models and DAX measures.
Visual clarity: Apply consistent formatting, sparing conditional formats, and clean chart design.
Data integrity: Add data validation, structured tables, named ranges, and documentation tabs.
Automation: Record macros or use Office Scripts to cut repetition.
Speed and accuracy win budgets—and save days of work.
How to Display Microsoft Excel Skills on Your Resume
7. Tableau
Tableau turns raw tables into visual stories—trends, segments, forecasts—so decisions are based on evidence, not hunches.
Why It's Important
Stakeholders digest visuals quickly. You spot patterns faster. Performance conversations get concrete.
How to Improve Tableau Skills
Go beyond basics: Use level-of-detail expressions, table calcs, and parameters to answer nuanced questions.
Prep your data: Clean and reshape with Tableau Prep or SQL; good structure halves dashboard complexity.
Design with purpose: Emphasize hierarchy, consistent color scales, and minimal ink. Guide attention.
Add analytics: Use trend lines, forecasting, clustering, and Explain Data for deeper insight.
Make it interactive: Actions, filters, and tooltips that let users self-serve the next question.
Keep it fresh: Schedule extract refreshes and monitor performance recording for speed.
Dashboards should answer “so what?” in seconds.
How to Display Tableau Skills on Your Resume
8. Constant Contact
Constant Contact is an email platform for building, sending, and tracking campaigns that keep donors informed and engaged.
Why It's Important
Email remains a high-ROI channel. Smart lists and steady touchpoints lift retention and response.
How to Improve Constant Contact Skills
Segment deeply: Group by giving history, interests, geography, and engagement to boost relevance.
Personalize: Merge fields, dynamic content, and tailored CTAs tied to each segment’s motivation.
Automate journeys: Welcome series, reactivation drips, birthday or anniversary notes, and post-gift stewardship.
Test and learn: A/B subject lines, send times, and layouts. Keep the winners, drop the rest.
Design for mobile: Responsive templates, scannable copy, and clear buttons.
Read the numbers: Track open, click, conversion, and unsubscribe rates; iterate quickly.
Connect systems: Sync with your CRM to close the loop on attribution and next steps.
Right message, right moment, right person.
How to Display Constant Contact Skills on Your Resume
9. Adobe Creative Cloud (formerly Creative Suite)
Creative Cloud tools power brand assets—impactful visuals, polished PDFs, quick social graphics, event collateral, even light video edits.
Why It's Important
Compelling creative lifts response rates, clarifies your story, and gives campaigns a recognizable spine.
How to Improve Adobe Creative Suite Skills
Build reusable systems: Set up brand kits, shared libraries, templates, and styles for consistency and speed.
Master the essentials: Focus on Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Premiere Pro features you use weekly.
Automate the tedious: Use actions, batch processing, and scripts where repetition creeps in.
Collaborate smoothly: Share for review, manage versions, and comment in-app to cut feedback loops.
Export smart: Optimize file formats for print vs. web, compress wisely, and bake in accessibility where possible.
Design systems save hours and sharpen your brand.
How to Display Adobe Creative Suite Skills on Your Resume
10. Microsoft Dynamics 365 (CRM)
Dynamics 365 is Microsoft’s CRM platform for tracking constituents, gifts, tasks, and outreach—deeply connected to Outlook, Teams, and the Power Platform.
Why It's Important
It enables personalized engagement at scale, clear pipelines, and analytics that align fundraising with operations.
How to Improve CRM Dynamics Skills
Customize to fit: Configure tables, forms, views, and business rules that reflect your cultivation stages.
Automate with Power Automate: Build flows for assignments, reminders, approvals, and data syncs.
Use the Microsoft stack: Integrate Outlook, SharePoint, and Teams; surface insights in Power BI dashboards.
Keep data tidy: Duplicate detection, data import templates, and field-level validation policies.
Secure smartly: Apply roles, teams, and field security to protect sensitive donor information.
Explore Marketing: Build donor journeys, segments, and event flows if your license includes it.
One connected ecosystem, fewer silos.
How to Display CRM Dynamics Skills on Your Resume
11. Mailchimp
Mailchimp is a marketing platform centered on email—campaigns, automations, landing pages, and audience management.
Why It's Important
It brings structure and insight to donor communications, making personalization and testing straightforward.
How to Improve Mailchimp Skills
Segment like a pro: Tags, groups, and behavioral segments tied to gift levels and interests.
Automate journeys: Welcome flows, nurture drips, event follow-ups, and post-donation stewardship.
Test rigorously: A/B subject lines, sender name, content sections, and send times.
Polish content: Reusable blocks, image compression, and clear CTAs linked to a single goal.
Read reports: Track opens, clicks, revenue attribution, and list growth; prune inactive contacts.
Connect your CRM: Sync fields and activity so fundraising and comms tell one cohesive story.
Make every send count.
How to Display Mailchimp Skills on Your Resume
12. QuickBooks
QuickBooks manages accounting, budgets, and reporting—vital for transparency, compliance, and clear funding decisions.
Why It's Important
For development, it clarifies restricted vs. unrestricted funds, program costs, and what resources you truly have to deploy.
How to Improve QuickBooks Skills
Set it up for nonprofits: Build a chart of accounts that separates programs, admin, and fundraising; use classes or locations for grants and projects.
Budget by class: Track grant or program budgets against actuals monthly; flag variances early.
Reconcile relentlessly: Automate bank feeds, use rules, and reconcile accounts every month without fail.
Standardize entries: Recurring transactions, memorized reports, and checklists reduce errors.
Integrate donations: Sync online giving platforms or import files so gifts post cleanly with donor detail.
Report with intent: Create board-ready reports—Statement of Activity, cash flow, grant spend—to answer the questions leaders ask.
Tighten controls: Close books monthly, manage user roles, keep an eye on the audit trail, and attach receipts.
Clean books build trust—with leadership, auditors, and funders.
How to Display QuickBooks Skills on Your Resume
