Top 12 Fundraiser Skills to Put on Your Resume

Crafting an effective resume as a fundraiser means surfacing the skills that actually move dollars and deepen loyalty. Show how you spark generosity, manage the pipeline, and steer campaigns from glimmer to goal. When those strengths are clear and concrete, your resume rises above the noise.

Fundraiser Skills

1. Salesforce
2. Raiser's Edge
3. DonorPerfect
4. Grant Writing
5. Event Planning
6. Social Media
7. Email Marketing
8. Data Analysis
9. Financial Forecasting
10. Relationship Building
11. Public Speaking
12. Negotiation

1. Salesforce

Salesforce is a cloud CRM platform that lets fundraisers track donors, pledges, and pipelines; orchestrate outreach; and surface insights that sharpen strategy and raise more, faster.

Why It's Important

It centralizes donor history, automates stewardship, and powers reporting. That mix boosts personalization, trims busywork, and supports better decisions across every campaign.

How to Improve Salesforce Skills

Make Salesforce work like a fundraiser’s nerve center:

1. Configure for fundraising: Use the Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) to model donors, households, recurring gifts, soft credits, and campaigns.
2. Automate with Flow: Replace manual tasks with Flows for acknowledgments, pledge reminders, lapsed-donor nudges, and moves management. Flow is the modern path forward over legacy Process Builder.
3. Integrate smartly: Connect email, forms, events, and payment processors via AppExchange apps or native connectors so data lands cleanly in one place.
4. Level up analytics: Build dashboards and explore trends with CRM Analytics (formerly Einstein Analytics). Track retention, LYBUNT/SYBUNT, pipeline velocity, and campaign ROI.
5. Invest in training: Ramp staff with Trailhead modules and sandbox practice. Create internal playbooks for gift entry, data hygiene, and stewardship steps.
6. Guard data quality: Standardize fields, dedupe regularly, and schedule audits. Tidy data means sharper segmentation and fewer misfires.

Dial in the model, automate the routine, and let insights steer the rest.

How to Display Salesforce Skills on Your Resume

2. Raiser's Edge

Raiser’s Edge (and Raiser’s Edge NXT) is donor management software built for nonprofits, combining gift processing, constituent records, and campaign tracking in one system.

Why It's Important

It streamlines gift entry and acknowledgment, supports targeted segmentation, and keeps a rich history of touchpoints—fuel for smarter asks and long-term stewardship.

How to Improve Raiser's Edge Skills

1. Deepen user skills: Lift team proficiency through formal training and a shared SOP for data entry, pledge workflows, and coding standards.
2. Work the analytics: Use NXT dashboards and custom lists to spot lapsing donors, upgrade potential, and channel performance.
3. Automate the routine: Templates, queues, and schedules for thank-yous, reports, and tasks cut time and errors.
4. Clean the data: Standardize attributes and solicit codes; dedupe and validate addresses on a cadence.
5. Integrate the stack: Connect email, events, and online giving tools so your records stay synchronized.
6. Lean on the community: Tap user groups and peer forums for tips, queries, and configuration patterns that actually work.

How to Display Raiser's Edge Skills on Your Resume

3. DonorPerfect

DonorPerfect is fundraising software for tracking donors, gifts, forms, and communications, with tools for online giving and reporting.

Why It's Important

It simplifies donor management and acknowledgment, supports segmentation and appeals, and helps teams move quickly without losing detail.

How to Improve DonorPerfect Skills

1. Connect your tools: Tie in forms, email, events, and payment gateways. Use automation platforms to bridge gaps.
2. Customize reporting: Build dashboards for retention, upgrades, and channel ROI. Schedule the essentials.
3. Use engagement features: Deploy emails, receipting, and triggered follow-ups to keep donors warm.
4. Go mobile: Tap mobile apps for on-the-go lookups, notes, and gift entry after meetings or events.
5. Optimize online forms: Keep forms short, branded, mobile-friendly, and set for recurring options by default.
6. Train routinely: Keep staff current with webinars and refreshers; update your internal playbook as processes evolve.

How to Display DonorPerfect Skills on Your Resume

4. Grant Writing

Grant writing means researching aligned funders, crafting proposals with crisp outcomes and budgets, and managing the compliance that follows a “yes.”

Why It's Important

Grants unlock program launches, expansion, and stability. Strong proposals translate mission into measurable results and win funding that fuels real impact.

How to Improve Grant Writing Skills

1. Study the funder: Align with priorities, eligibility, and cycles. Federal? Start with Grants.gov; many private funders share patterns through resources from Candid.
2. Follow directions exactly: Formatting, length, attachments, deadlines—precision wins.
3. Define outcomes: Clear goals, measurable objectives, and realistic timelines. Use SMART criteria to tighten focus.
4. Tell a vivid story: Need, solution, evidence, and anticipated change—supported by data and voices from the field.
5. Build a crisp budget: Tie line items to activities. Explain assumptions and indirect costs plainly.
6. Peer review: Fresh eyes catch gaps, jargon, and inconsistencies.
7. Close the loop: Request feedback after decisions. Improve the next proposal immediately.

How to Display Grant Writing Skills on Your Resume

5. Event Planning

Event planning for fundraising pulls together logistics, run of show, volunteer power, sponsorships, and an experience that nudges giving higher without breaking the budget.

Why It's Important

Well-run events raise money and momentum. They create stories donors will tell—and reasons they’ll come back.

How to Improve Event Planning Skills

1. Start with the goal: Revenue targets, costs, audience, and KPIs. Every choice flows from these.
2. Budget with guardrails: Lock vendor caps, build contingency, and track actuals weekly.
3. Design the experience: Frictionless check-in, tight program, emotional arc, short speeches, clear ways to give now.
4. Secure sponsors: Offer tiered benefits that align with sponsor goals; include in-kind support where it makes sense.
5. Mobilize volunteers: Clear roles, short shifts, quick training, and a point person for real-time fixes.
6. Promote in waves: Staggered announcements, social proof, countdowns, and last-mile reminders.
7. Debrief fast: Survey attendees, capture lessons, and document changes for the next run.

How to Display Event Planning Skills on Your Resume

6. Social Media

Social media platforms let you tell stories, rally communities, and move donors from interest to action—often in minutes.

Why It's Important

Reach expands, messages spread, and supporters share with their own networks. Visibility compounds into gifts.

How to Improve Social Media Skills

1. Lead with story: Faces, outcomes, and urgent needs. Video and captions that invite response.
2. Use consistent tags: Branded hashtags and campaign codes make discovery and tracking easier.
3. Partner up: Influencers, ambassadors, and corporate allies extend your reach fast.
4. Show up in comments: Reply quickly, ask questions, and keep conversations alive.
5. Cross-post smartly: Tailor copy to each platform; don’t just duplicate.
6. Share progress: Milestones, match challenges, and real-time updates spark momentum.
7. Make the ask obvious: Prominent donate buttons, short URLs, and clear next steps.

How to Display Social Media Skills on Your Resume

7. Email Marketing

Email marketing is targeted outreach to subscribers and donors with messages that educate, inspire, and—at the right moment—convert.

Why It's Important

It’s direct, personal, measurable, and cost-effective. You own the channel and the relationship.

How to Improve Email Marketing Skills

1. Segment deeply: Interests, recency, gift size, behavior. Speak to what each group cares about.
2. Write irresistible subject lines: Clear, specific, and curiosity-sparking. Test and keep a swipe file of winners.
3. Make the CTA unmissable: One primary action, repeated. Buttons that actually stand out.
4. Design for phones: Short paragraphs, scannable sections, big tap targets.
5. Tell human stories: Before-and-after impact, beneficiary voices, and short videos or GIFs.
6. A/B test often: Subject, sender name, imagery, CTA placement, send time. Small lifts add up.
7. Measure and respect consent: Track opens, clicks, conversions, and unsubscribe reasons. Follow permission and privacy rules.

How to Display Email Marketing Skills on Your Resume

8. Data Analysis

Data analysis turns raw records into patterns you can act on—who gives, when they lapse, what messages convert, which channels pay off.

Why It's Important

Better targeting. Smarter budgets. Faster course-correction. Data keeps guesses in check.

How to Improve Data Analysis Skills

1. Define the questions: Retention, upgrade paths, acquisition cost, lifetime value. Set goals first.
2. Collect what matters: Standardize fields and track source codes, recency-frequency-monetary (RFM), and engagement signals.
3. Pick the right tools: Spreadsheets for quick cuts; BI dashboards for trend views; scripts for heavier lifting.
4. Visualize clearly: Simple charts over clutter. Show change over time and segment comparisons.
5. Test, then scale: A/B experiments on audience, channel, and creative. Keep a testing backlog.
6. Act on insights: Tighten segments, shift budget, refine timing. Close the loop with results.
7. Monitor continuously: Weekly dashboards and monthly deep dives; document learnings.

How to Display Data Analysis Skills on Your Resume

9. Financial Forecasting

Financial forecasting estimates income, costs, and net for campaigns and events so you can set targets, pace progress, and avoid surprises.

Why It's Important

Clarity on runway and ROI keeps programs funded and plans realistic. No guesswork, fewer fire drills.

How to Improve Financial Forecasting Skills

1. Anchor in history: Use prior campaigns, seasonality, pledge collection rates, and channel performance as your baseline.
2. Model scenarios: Best case, expected, conservative. Include matches, sponsorships, and in-kind offsets.
3. Track leading indicators: RSVP rates, email click-throughs, average gift by segment, and pledge conversion.
4. Use fit-for-purpose tools: Spreadsheets for agility; accounting and BI tools for control and audit trails.
5. Update often: Rolling forecasts beat static plans. Adjust weekly as signals shift.
6. Align stakeholders: Share assumptions and risks. Get buy-in before you commit spend.

How to Display Financial Forecasting Skills on Your Resume

10. Relationship Building

Relationship building is the steady, thoughtful cultivation of donors and partners so giving feels personal, meaningful, and ongoing.

Why It's Important

Trust compounds. With it, gifts grow, volatility drops, and supporters become champions.

How to Improve Relationship Building Skills

1. Listen first: Interests, values, constraints, and timing. Tailor everything to what you learn.
2. Personalize: Reference past gifts and program preferences. Small details, big effect.
3. Steward on a calendar: Map touches year-round—updates, behind-the-scenes notes, quick wins.
4. Show impact: Photos, metrics, and honest stories about progress and setbacks.
5. Say thank you often: Fast acknowledgments, handwritten notes, and unexpected appreciation.
6. Invite feedback: Make space for donor input. Act on it and report back.
7. Build community: Events, briefings, and peer connections help donors feel part of something larger.

How to Display Relationship Building Skills on Your Resume

11. Public Speaking

Public speaking for fundraising is delivering messages that move people—from passive interest to active giving—in rooms big and small.

Why It's Important

A strong voice builds credibility, unlocks emotion, and makes the ask land cleanly.

How to Improve Public Speaking Skills

1. Know the room: Who’s there, what they value, how they prefer to give. Adjust stories and the ask.
2. Craft a tight arc: Hook, need, proof, impact, and a clear call to action. Leave fluff on the floor.
3. Practice aloud: Rehearse with timing, gestures, and pauses. Record and review.
4. Use stories and data: Human moments plus credible numbers. Heart and head together.
5. Mind body language: Eye contact, open posture, purposeful movement. Silence can be powerful.
6. Invite engagement: Questions, quick polls, or a show of hands. Keep energy two-way.
7. Seek feedback: Iteration turns good into captivating.

How to Display Public Speaking Skills on Your Resume

12. Negotiation

Negotiation, in fundraising, means aligning donor or sponsor interests with your mission—so support flows, terms are fair, and partnerships last.

Why It's Important

It maximizes resources while safeguarding your values. The right deal accelerates impact; the wrong one drains focus.

How to Improve Negotiation Skills

1. Prepare relentlessly: Objectives, must-haves, walk-away points, and a crisp value proposition. Study the other side’s goals.
2. Build rapport: Trust smooths friction and widens the zone of possible agreement.
3. Listen for drivers: Constraints, timelines, branding needs, recognition preferences. Solve for those.
4. Trade, don’t concede: Package benefits; swap low-cost, high-value items for your counterpart.
5. Seek win-win: Sustainable agreements beat short-term wins. Protect mission fit.
6. Be ready to pause: A strategic break—or walking away—can save you from a lopsided deal.
7. Document clearly: Memorialize benefits, deliverables, and timelines in writing.

How to Display Negotiation Skills on Your Resume