Occupation
Fundraising and development officer
Fundraising and development officers bring money into a charity or public institution through grant applications, donor relationships, campaigns, and events. It is a target-driven role built on writing and relationship management, with a database of donors behind it. Rejection is routine, and most of the work is preparation rather than the public-facing moment.
Also known as: Fundraiser · Development officer · Charity fundraiser · Grants and development officer
Occupation content
Part of Community, social and public services
What the work involves
- Research grant, foundation, and corporate funding opportunities that fit the organisation
- Write proposals, cases for support, and grant reports against funder criteria
- Build and maintain relationships with donors, sponsors, and funder contacts
- Plan campaigns and fundraising events with colleagues and volunteers
- Maintain donor records, gift acknowledgements, and pipeline data in the CRM
- Track results against targets and report progress to management or the board
How people commonly enter
- A bachelor's degree in communications, marketing, business, nonprofit management, or a social science
- Professional fundraising certification or accredited short courses, which are common in the sector
- Moving across from sales, marketing, communications, or account management
- Starting as a fundraising assistant, events assistant, or database coordinator
Typical training: Bachelor's degree
Licensing: Certification common, not usually required
Typical work context
Team based · Public facing · Desk based · Involves travel · Hybrid office
Related interests
Enterprising (leading) · Social (helping) · Conventional (organizing)
Related aptitude preparation
These are preparation links only. They do not measure eligibility for this occupation and no score here qualifies or disqualifies anyone.
Skills to practise
- Written communication
- Numerical reasoning
- Data interpretation
- Planning and scheduling exercises
- Verbal reasoning
Practice suites
Related learning
Family-level learning links for Community, social and public services.
Official sources
Labour-market facts such as pay and employment projections are not reproduced here. Open an official source below for figures, with its own geography and reference period.
- O*NET OnLine — occupation search: fundraiser · United States
Link checked
- UK National Careers Service — Charity fundraiser job profile · United Kingdom
Link checked
- Canada Job Bank — Career planning and occupation exploration (ESDC) · Canada
Link checked
Labour-market context (not part of exploration match)
This is broad family-level context for Community, social and public services in Canada, not a figure for Fundraising and development officer. It does not affect matching scores and is not an eligibility determination.
This is a broad Community, social and public services family. Explore the official profile for the chosen occupation; entry education and training can differ within the family.
Canada Job Bank Career Planning · Canada · Current official profile; consult source for its release period
Community, social and public services: education pathways
Some roles in Community, social and public services may be regulated. Confirm whether the specific role requires registration, certification, or a jurisdiction-specific licence.
Canada Job Bank Career Planning · Canada · Current official profile; consult source for its release period
Community, social and public services: licensing
Find jobs
These are live, user-controlled searches on each source's own site for “ Fundraising and development officer”. Novus Learn does not fetch, store, or rank these results, and job availability never changes your exploration match score.
- Search Canada Job Bank · Canada
- Search USAJOBS · United States federal
- Search EURES · European Union / EEA
- Search Indeed · International (choose location on Indeed)