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Contents
What Matters Most
Why This Fundraising Resume Works
How to Write a Fundraising Specialist Resume That Gets Interviews
What to Include in a Fundraising Specialist Resume
Fundraising Specialist Resume Summary Examples
Fundraising Specialist Work Experience Examples
Top Fundraising Specialist Skills
Certifications for a Fundraising Specialist
Common Fundraising Specialist Resume Mistakes
Fundraising Specialist Resume FAQs
Summary
Fundraising specialist with nine years raising money for charities and a university in Canterbury, across major donors, grants, corporate partnerships and campaigns. Builds donor relationships, writes compelling cases for support, secures grants and gifts, and runs the appeals that fund frontline work. Secured the largest single grant in a charity's history through a sustained funder relationship and a strong bid. Manages a portfolio of donors and funders, writes grant applications and reports, plans campaigns and events, and stewards supporters so they give again. Strong on both the relationship craft and the writing and numbers behind successful asks. Genuinely motivated by the causes and trusted by donors. Looking for a fundraising, development or partnerships role with a charity or organisation doing work worth funding.
Work Experience
Fundraising Specialist
Kent Community Charity, Canterbury, UK
Apr 2016 – Present
- Raise funds across the major donors, the grants, the corporate partnerships and the public campaigns.
- Secured the largest single grant in the charity's history through a sustained, patient funder relationship.
- Write the compelling cases for support, the grant applications and the impact reports for funders.
- Manage a portfolio of donors and funders and steward each of them carefully so they give again.
- Plan and run all the fundraising campaigns, the appeals and the donor events across the year.
- Work hard to the income targets while keeping all the fundraising ethical and genuinely donor-focused.
Fundraising Officer
South East Charitable Trust, Canterbury, UK
Aug 2013 – Mar 2016
- Supported fundraising across grants, events and individual giving for the trust.
- Wrote the applications and thank-you communications for the charity's supporters regularly.
- Learned donor stewardship, bid writing and campaign planning on the job.
- Gained the fundraising certification and then a full specialist fundraising role.
Charity Fundraising Assistant
South East Charitable Trust, Canterbury, UK
Jun 2011 – Jul 2013
- Assisted the fundraising team with the events, mailings and donor records daily.
- Helped run appeals and kept the donor database accurate and current.
- Learned the basics of fundraising, stewardship and bid support on the job.
- Then earned the move into a full fundraising-officer role from there.
Education
BA (Hons) Communications & Marketing, Communications
University of Kent, Canterbury
Sep 2010 – Jun 2013
- Degree in communications and marketing covering messaging, campaigns and audiences, with a charity placement. The placement led into fundraising. Built the communication foundation behind successful appeals.
Chartered Institute of Fundraising Certificate, Fundraising
Chartered Institute of Fundraising
Jan 2016 – Jun 2016
- Certificate in fundraising covering major donors, grants, ethics and stewardship. It professionalised the fundraising craft applied daily. Applied directly to grant bids and donor relationship management.
Certifications
Chartered Institute of Fundraising Certificate
Chartered Institute of Fundraising
Jun 2016 – Present
- Certificate in fundraising covering major donors, grants, ethics and stewardship. It professionalised the fundraising craft applied daily. Applied directly to grant bids and donor relationship management.
Bid Writing & Grant Fundraising
Chartered Institute of Fundraising
Apr 2019 – Present
- Certificate in grant and trust fundraising covering bid writing, budgets and reporting. It sharpened the applications that have secured major, multi-year grants for the charity.
Campaigns & Appeals
Capital Appeal
Jan 2019 – Mar 2020
- Planned and ran a capital appeal for a major project, combining major-donor asks, grants and a public campaign to hit a demanding target ahead of the deadline.
Corporate Partnership Programme
Jan 2021 – Dec 2021
- Built a corporate-partnership programme from scratch, turning one-off sponsorships into multi-year partnerships that gave the charity a steadier, more predictable income base.
Highlights
Record-breaking grant
- Secured the largest single grant in a charity's history through a sustained funder relationship and a strong bid. A transformational gift like that can fund frontline work for years.
Donors who give again
- Stewards supporters so they stay engaged and give repeatedly rather than just once. Retained, committed donors are worth far more than constantly chasing new ones.
Languages
- English (UK) — Native or Bilingual Proficiency
- French — Limited Working Proficiency
Technical Skills
- Major Donor Fundraising
- Grant Writing
- Corporate Partnerships
- Campaign Planning
- Donor Stewardship
- Case for Support
- Relationship Building
- Impact Reporting
- Events
- CRM & Pipeline
Personal Skills
- Communication
- Persuasion
- Relationship Building
- Resilience
- Empathy
Activities & Interests
- Cooking
- Xbox
- Ice Hockey
- Meet People
- Ice Skating
What Matters Most
Before the detail, here is what decides whether a fundraising specialist resume gets a callback from a head of development:
- Lead with money raised and gifts closed, not tasks performed - "secured a six-figure multi-year trust grant" beats "responsible for grant applications" every time.
- Name the income streams you own: major donors, trusts and foundations, corporate partnerships, individual giving, legacies, community and events. Recruiters screen by stream.
- Show donor retention and stewardship, not just acquisition - a stated repeat-gift or renewal rate signals you understand lifetime value, which every fundraising director cares about.
- Quantify grant success: bids submitted, win rate, average and largest gift, and multi-year value. A bid-to-award ratio is the single most persuasive number on the page.
- Signal the CIoF or CFRE credential and the Fundraising Regulator's Code of Practice - ethical, compliant asks are non-negotiable in the sector.
- Match the CRM and the cause: naming Raiser's Edge, Salesforce NPSP or Donorfly, plus the type of cause you have raised for, tells a hiring manager you can start fast.
Why This Fundraising Resume Works
Read against the sample above, here is what a development lead would notice in the first fifteen seconds:
- The summary opens on breadth across all four income streams - major donors, grants, corporate partnerships and campaigns - then anchors it with the standout claim of the largest single grant in the charity's history, so the reader gets scope and proof in one breath.
- The lead experience bullet names ownership of the whole fundraising mix rather than a single task, signalling a specialist who can carry a portfolio, not an assistant who supports one.
- It pairs the relationship craft with the writing and numbers - cases for support, applications and impact reports - which reassures a recruiter the candidate can both build a funder relationship and evidence the outcome.
- Stewardship is called out explicitly, with the point that retained donors are worth more than chased ones - exactly the lifetime-value thinking directors promote for.
- The career arc reads clean: assistant, then officer, then specialist across nine years, with a professional fundraising qualification marking the step up, so progression needs no explaining.
- The campaigns section turns claims into worked examples - a capital appeal and a corporate-partnership programme built from scratch - giving concrete projects a hiring manager can ask about in interview.
How to Write a Fundraising Specialist Resume That Gets Interviews
Fundraising hires on evidence of income raised, so build every section to answer one question: how much money have you brought in, and how reliably. These are the moves that separate a shortlisted resume from a filed one:
Open the summary with your income and your streams
State years in fundraising, the streams you own, and a headline figure in the first two lines - "nine years across major donors, trusts and corporate partnerships; raised over £1.2m last year." A development manager reads for total raised and stream fit before anything else, so put both where the eye lands first.
Quantify every bullet with a fundraising KPI
Attach a real number to each achievement: total raised, number and size of gifts, grant win rate, donor retention or renewal rate, ROI on an appeal, average gift uplift. "Grew regular-giving income 34% by redesigning the welcome journey" tells a recruiter far more than "managed individual giving." No number means no evidence.
Show the whole gift cycle, not just the ask
Fundraising directors hire people who steward, not just solicit. Give a bullet to cultivation, one to the ask, and one to stewardship and reporting - show a donor moving from first gift to renewed major gift. Naming a lifetime-value or retention figure proves you think past the single transaction.
Prove your grant and bid track record
For trust and foundation roles, state bids submitted, win rate, average award and largest multi-year grant. "Won 18 of 30 bids for £640k including a three-year £250k Lottery grant" is a case for support in one line. If you write compelling cases and impact reports, say so - it is the core craft.
Name your CRM, your tools and your compliance
List the database you run - Raiser's Edge NXT, Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack, Donorfly, Beacon - plus Gift Aid, the Fundraising Regulator's Code and GDPR consent handling. These are ATS keywords and trust signals at once; a fundraiser who ignores compliance is a risk no charity will take.
Tailor to the cause and mirror the job ad
Charities want fundraisers who believe in the mission, so reflect the cause area and echo the advert's exact stream language - if it says "philanthropy" don't only say "major donors." Start from a clean structure you can shape to each vacancy; you can build it on a fundraising-ready template and drop your own gifts and figures straight in.
What to Include in a Fundraising Specialist Resume
A strong fundraising resume is organised around income and relationships. Include these, in roughly this priority:
A summary line stating years in fundraising, the income streams you own, and total raised or your standout gift.
Experience bullets grouped by stream - major donors, trusts and foundations, corporate, individual giving, legacies, community and events - each with a figure.
A results or campaigns section for named appeals: target, amount raised, timeframe and your role in the ask.
Grant metrics: bids submitted, win rate, average and largest award, and total multi-year value secured.
Donor retention and stewardship evidence - renewal rate, repeat-gift rate, or a supporter journey you built.
CRM and tools - Raiser's Edge NXT, Salesforce NPSP, Donorfly, Beacon, plus Gift Aid and Mailchimp or Dotdigital.
Credentials and compliance - CIoF or CFRE, and familiarity with the Fundraising Regulator's Code of Practice and GDPR.
Fundraising Specialist Resume Summary Examples
Your summary is a two-line case for support with yourself as the ask. Here are three, written for different stages and specialisms so you can borrow the shape that fits your own record:
Entry-level resume summary example
Fundraising officer with three years across individual giving, community fundraising and events for a regional health charity. Runs supporter appeals, writes small-trust applications and stewards regular givers, working confidently in Raiser's Edge and comfortable with Gift Aid and the Fundraising Regulator's Code. Grew the regular-giving base by 22% in one year by rebuilding the donor welcome journey and cutting first-year lapse. Personable on the phone and precise on the page, equally at home thanking a £10 donor and drafting a £5k trust bid. Looking to move into a dedicated trusts or major-gifts role and take ownership of a named income stream.
Mid-level resume summary example
Fundraising specialist with seven years raising income across trusts, corporate partnerships and major donors for arts and community causes. Writes the cases for support and multi-year applications that win grants, and manages a portfolio of forty funders and mid-level donors through cultivation, ask and stewardship. Secured 19 of 32 bids last year worth £610k, including a three-year £180k foundation grant, and lifted major-donor retention to 78% by rebuilding the reporting cycle. Strong on the numbers behind a pipeline and the relationship craft that renews a gift. Seeking a senior fundraising or partnerships role with a charity whose mission is worth the ask.
Senior-level resume summary example
Senior fundraising manager with twelve years and a CFRE, leading multi-stream income for national charities across major gifts, trusts, corporate and legacy fundraising. Builds and coaches fundraising teams, sets income strategy and owns a seven-figure target, having grown voluntary income from £2.1m to £3.4m over three years. Closed the largest single grant in the organisation's history through a sustained funder relationship and a rigorously evidenced bid, and set the stewardship standards that hold major-donor retention above 80%. Fluent in Raiser's Edge NXT, board reporting and the Code of Fundraising Practice. Looking for a head of development role driving sustainable, ethical growth.
Fundraising Specialist Work Experience Examples
Recruiters skim work history for figures and stream ownership. These bullets are grouped by specialism - borrow the structure, then swap in your own gifts, win rates and causes:
Grouping these bullets by income stream, each led by a figure, is what lets a head of development skim your history for ownership rather than tasks. To hold that structure clean while you swap in your own win rates and gift sizes, you can lay your experience out stream by stream on a template built to carry the numbers.
Trusts & foundations fundraiser
- Submitted 32 trust and foundation applications in the year and won 19, a 59% success rate worth £610k, by matching each case for support tightly to the funder's stated priorities and outcomes.
- Secured a three-year £250k National Lottery Community Fund grant through an 18-month cultivation, a site visit and an evidenced theory of change, funding two frontline posts for the full period.
- Wrote the cases for support and impact reports for a rolling portfolio of 45 trusts, lifting the repeat-funder rate to 71% by reporting against agreed outcomes on time, every time.
- Built and maintained the grants pipeline in Salesforce, forecasting income by probability and giving the director a reliable quarterly figure that came within 8% of actual across the year.
- Rescued a stalled £80k relationship with a family foundation by rebuilding trust after a reporting lapse, then converting it into a renewed multi-year commitment worth £120k over three years.
Major donor & individual giving
- Managed a portfolio of 60 major donors giving £1k-£50k, moving 14 up the giving ladder through personal cultivation and tailored asks and growing portfolio income 41% to £480k in two years.
- Closed a £75k gift for a capital project by matching a donor's motivation to a named naming opportunity, then stewarded them into a £25k annual pledge that continues three years on.
- Redesigned the regular-giving welcome journey across email, post and phone, cutting first-year attrition from 34% to 21% and adding an estimated £90k of retained annual income within twelve months.
- Ran two tax-year appeals to a warm list of 4,800 supporters, raising £128k at a 6:1 return and lifting the average gift 18% by segmenting the ask tightly around each donor's giving history and interests.
- Stewarded a legacy-pledger programme of 90 supporters, growing confirmed pledges by 12 in a single year through personal contact, gentle in-memory conversations and a redesigned free-will offer with local solicitors.
Corporate partnerships fundraiser
- Built a corporate-partnership programme from scratch, converting six one-off sponsorships into multi-year partnerships worth a combined £220k a year and giving the charity its first predictable corporate income base.
- Won a two-year £150k charity-of-the-year partnership against three competing charities by pitching a staff-engagement plan with clear volunteering, payroll-giving and matched-fundraising targets.
- Grew payroll giving from 40 to 260 employee donors across four corporate partners, adding £36k of unrestricted annual income by running on-site sign-up sessions and a simple impact feedback loop.
- Managed the account relationships end to end - reporting, PR, employee events and renewal - achieving an 80% partnership renewal rate and two unprompted referrals to new corporate prospects.
Top Fundraising Specialist Skills
Fundraising hiring managers screen for a specific blend of income-generation craft and relationship discipline. Weight your skills section toward these:
Hard skills
- Major Donor Fundraising
- Trusts & Foundations Grant Writing
- Corporate Partnerships
- Individual & Regular Giving
- Legacy Fundraising
- Case for Support Writing
- Bid Writing & Applications
- Impact Reporting
- Donor Stewardship & Retention
- Prospect Research
- Pipeline & Portfolio Management
- Campaign & Appeal Planning
- Fundraising Events
- CRM (Raiser's Edge NXT, Salesforce NPSP)
- Gift Aid & Tax-Effective Giving
- Budgeting & Income Forecasting
- GDPR & Fundraising Regulator Compliance
- Community & Challenge Events
Soft skills:
- Relationship Building
- Persuasive Communication
- Resilience
- Empathy
- Negotiation
- Storytelling
- Attention to Detail
Certifications for a Fundraising Specialist
No single certificate is legally required to fundraise, but the right credential signals professionalism and ethical practice to a hiring charity. These are the ones that carry genuine weight:
-
CFRE
— CFRE International Optional but the global gold-standard fundraising credential; needs demonstrated experience, education and results, and marks a senior professional.
-
CIoF Qualifications
— Chartered Institute of Fundraising The UK sector standard; the Certificate covers major donors, grants, ethics and stewardship, and membership signals Code of Practice compliance.
-
bCRE-Pro
— Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Optional foundational credential covering core fundraising competencies; a useful stepping stone toward CFRE.
-
CNP
— Nonprofit Leadership Alliance Optional; broad nonprofit-management credential that strengthens a fundraiser stepping into development-leadership roles, mainly recognised in the US.
-
GPC
— Grant Professional Certification Institute Optional, worth it for grant-heavy roles; evidences bid-writing and grant-management competence to trust and foundation funders.
Extra tips
Charities often check for live Chartered Institute of Fundraising membership and Code of Practice sign-up, separate from any qualification.
Say you're a current member, not only that you passed the course.
Common Fundraising Specialist Resume Mistakes
These are the errors that quietly sink fundraising applications - all of them specific to how this job is judged:
- Listing duties instead of income. "Responsible for grant applications" says nothing; "won 19 of 32 bids worth £610k" is the whole point. No figures reads as no results.
- Claiming a headline gift without owning your part. If you say the charity raised £1m, state what you personally cultivated, wrote or closed - recruiters know team totals hide passengers.
- Ignoring stewardship and retention. A resume that is all acquisition and no renewal signals a fundraiser who chases new donors and loses them; name a retention or repeat-gift rate.
- Omitting the CRM and compliance. Leaving off Raiser's Edge or Salesforce and any mention of Gift Aid, GDPR consent or the Code of Fundraising Practice makes you look untrained or risky.
- Blurring the income streams. "Fundraising" alone is too vague; a trusts role and a corporate role want different evidence, so name the streams you own and lead with the one they are hiring for.
- Generic cause language. Charities hire for mission fit - a resume that could be sent to any cause with no reflection of the sector reads as indifferent to the work.
Fundraising Specialist Resume FAQs
The questions candidates most often search when writing a fundraising resume:
Lead with your income-generating skills: major donor fundraising, grant and bid writing, corporate partnerships, donor stewardship and CRM. Pair them with the soft skills that close gifts - relationship building, persuasive writing and resilience - and name the fundraising database you actually use.
Use the sector's real KPIs: total raised, number and size of gifts, grant win rate, donor retention or renewal rate, and return on an appeal. "Won 19 of 32 bids worth £610k" or "grew regular giving 34%" beats any adjective. Always show your personal contribution, not just the team total.
No certification is legally required to fundraise in the UK or US, but the CIoF qualifications and the CFRE credential carry real weight with charities. They signal ethical, professional practice, and CFRE in particular marks a senior fundraiser - useful but never a substitute for a track record of income raised.
One page for up to about eight years of experience, two pages for a senior or multi-stream career with a long list of grants and campaigns. Keep every line earning its place with a figure or a named result - length should come from evidence, not padding.
Yes - name the cause areas, because charities hire heavily on mission fit and sector experience. A funder relationship built in health or arts often transfers, and showing you understand a specific cause tells the hiring charity you will care about theirs from day one.
Give it its own evidence: a retention or renewal rate, a repeat-gift figure, or a supporter journey you designed. "Lifted major-donor retention to 78% by rebuilding the reporting cycle" proves you understand lifetime value, which every development director promotes for.
An officer resume shows supporting work across streams and learning the craft; a specialist resume shows ownership of an income stream and the gifts closed within it. Move from "assisted with applications" to "secured a three-year £250k grant" - ownership and outcomes are what mark the step up.
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