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Development officer skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025
5 min read
Quoted expert
Allen Redmon Ph.D.
Development officer example skills
Below we've compiled a list of the most critical development officer skills. We ranked the top skills for development officers based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 18.2% of development officer resumes contained stewardship as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a development officer needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 development officer skills for your resume and career

1. Stewardship

Here's how development officers use stewardship:
  • Managed all aspects of donor prospecting, cultivation, stewardship, and budget/vendor/consultant management for special events and individual giving.
  • Developed grant proposals, researched funding opportunities and wrote donor solicitation and stewardship materials for president and department chairs.

2. Alumni

Alumni is a term used for graduate students of a school, college, university, or any other educational institution. The term is also used for employees of a company or a previous member of a group or an organization that has been retired. Alumni represent the institutions or organizations that they were previously associated with.

Here's how development officers use alumni:
  • Collaborated with programming, identifying strong alumni, initiated and executed a mentor program and other projects interfacing both offices.
  • Conducted the Alumni Campaign Committee volunteer training sessions and developed the supporting solicitation and training materials.

3. Customer Service

Customer service is the process of offering assistance to all the current and potential customers -- answering questions, fixing problems, and providing excellent service. The main goal of customer service is to build a strong relationship with the customers so that they keep coming back for more business.

Here's how development officers use customer service:
  • Provided excellent customer service while collaborating one-on-one with more than 20 community volunteers, regional presidents, board and cabinet members.
  • Provided excellent customer service to every potential donor, every time.

4. Patients

Here's how development officers use patients:
  • Collaborated to conduct focused group discussion among HIV/AIDS infected patients.
  • Manage a portfolio of 200+ prospects, including grateful patients, foundations, individual donors and businesses.

5. Business Development

Business development is the ideas or initiatives that work to make business work better. Selling, advertising, product development, supply chain management, and vendor management are only a few of the divisions involved with it. There is still a lot of networking, negotiating, forming alliances, and trying to save money. The goals set for business development guide and coordinate with all of these various operations and sectors.

Here's how development officers use business development:
  • Fostered business development in economically depressed areas in Illinois by collaborating with financial institutions, community organizations, and small businesses.
  • Researched and prepared company's executives to participate in international business development conferences with Middle Eastern countries.

6. Donor Relations

Here's how development officers use donor relations:
  • Encouraged and facilitated cooperation and collaboration between the Foundation and Financial Aid office to manage Foundation scholarship activity and donor relations.
  • Strengthen donor relations by delivering targeted communications, meeting one-on-one, and creating an environment of open communication.

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7. Financial Support

Financial support is the financial resource or money provided to an organization to support its operations. Financial support is generally provided by the government, or private institutes such as non-profits, or aid institutes. Financial support usually does not have any interests or benefits to be returned.

Here's how development officers use financial support:
  • Gained an understanding of the University, its organizational structure, and its annual needs for financial support.
  • Develop, implement and execute year round corporate partnership strategies to increase financial support of UWKC.

8. CRM

CRM stands for Customer relationship management and it is a complete process through which a business or organization monitors and administers its interactions with the customers. A process in which large amounts of data are collected through marketing via a company's website, polls, surveys, and other social media applications. The basic goal of CRM is to target the right audience for their product, and then fulfill their needs, to increase the sales and revenue of the company.

Here's how development officers use crm:
  • Managed databases (CRM), as well as executed the opening of bank accounts abroad, for the company.
  • Performed data entry and vetting of data, built queries and reports via CRM database.

9. Professional Development

Professional development means to have the essential training certification or education with the purpose of earning and having a successful career. Every job requires a different set of skills. However, new skills may be needed in the future. Professional development, in this regard, helps people to develop and polish the skills and become efficient workers.

Here's how development officers use professional development:
  • Developed and implemented Continuing Professional Development (CPD) program for professionals working in the built environment and community development.
  • Standardized hiring practices for external wholesalers and created a program of professional development for sales force.

10. Donor Prospects

Here's how development officers use donor prospects:
  • Collaborate with colleagues, discussing donor prospects, sharing advice/information, and coordinating activity on prospects.
  • Collaborated with faculty to identify major donor prospects.

11. Donor Database

Donor database refers to the system or central hub that nonprofits use to store the information they have about their contacts.

Here's how development officers use donor database:
  • Managed donor database by entering and updating all appropriate information pertaining to donors and donations.
  • Oversee donor database, updating information and recognizing contributions.

12. Event Planning

Here's how development officers use event planning:
  • Designed and managed renewable energy programs including lectures, production of informational brochures, media outreach activities and event planning.
  • Supported all development department activities including event planning and volunteer management.

13. Database Management

Here's how development officers use database management:
  • Maintain high level writing, computer and database management skills 1.
  • Developed efficient knowledge and use of Blackbaud's Raiser's Edge database management system.

14. Strategic Plan

Here's how development officers use strategic plan:
  • Involved in strategic planning and coordination of numerous standards projects including the Canadian electronic health records initiative.
  • Worked with Executive Director to develop annual strategic plan and accompanying modified zero-sum budget for three foundations.

15. Individual Donors

Here's how development officers use individual donors:
  • Participated in the development and implementation of donor cultivation events targeting individual donors and major gift prospects.
  • Cultivated and nurtured relationships with current and potential corporate & foundation sponsors, and individual donors
top-skills

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Allen Redmon Ph.D.

Dean, College of Arts and Sciences, Texas A&M University - Central Texas

One essential job trait that doesn’t get discussed enough is empathy, the ability to develop processes, statements, and objectives with the client, customer, or user in mind. Those employees or companies who start from a place of empathy will always outpace those who do not.

List of development officer skills to add to your resume

Development officer skills

The most important skills for a development officer resume and required skills for a development officer to have include:

  • Stewardship
  • Alumni
  • Customer Service
  • Patients
  • Business Development
  • Donor Relations
  • Financial Support
  • CRM
  • Professional Development
  • Donor Prospects
  • Donor Database
  • Event Planning
  • Database Management
  • Strategic Plan
  • Individual Donors
  • Donor Cultivation
  • HR
  • Corporate Donors
  • Capital Campaign
  • Community Development
  • Individual Giving
  • Economic Development
  • Program Development
  • Community Organizations
  • Donor Recognition
  • Event Management
  • Government Agencies
  • Community Events
  • Cultivation Events
  • Facebook
  • Technical Assistance
  • Press Releases
  • Promotional Materials
  • Community Outreach
  • Ministry
  • Development Projects
  • Financial Reports
  • Twitter
  • Training Programs
  • In-Kind Donations
  • Corporate Sponsors
  • Social Justice
  • Fundraising Strategy
  • Fundraising Campaigns
  • Collateral Materials
  • Commercial Banking
  • Local Government
  • Government Officials

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

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