Torchora
Back to Home

Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Development Assistant

💰 $35,000 - $60,000 (USD)

NonprofitFundraisingAdministrativeDevelopment

🎯 Role Definition

The Development Assistant is a mission-focused administrative and fundraising professional who supports the fundraising and donor stewardship lifecycle by coordinating grant applications, maintaining donor databases, preparing compelling proposals and reports, assisting with events and campaigns, and ensuring timely, accurate communications with supporters and program teams. This role requires strong organizational skills, attention to detail, CRM proficiency, and the ability to synthesize program data into donor-ready content.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Administrative Assistant in nonprofit or corporate settings
  • Volunteer Coordinator or Community Outreach Assistant
  • Communications Assistant or Marketing Coordinator

Advancement To:

  • Development Coordinator / Fundraising Coordinator
  • Grants Manager or Donor Relations Manager
  • Senior Development Officer or Development Director

Lateral Moves:

  • Program Coordinator or Program Officer
  • Communications Specialist / Content Coordinator

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Coordinate and manage the donor and prospect database (e.g., Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud, Raiser’s Edge, DonorPerfect), ensuring accurate records of gifts, pledges, communications, and contact information while running regular data hygiene and segmentation reports for targeted outreach.
  • Draft, proofread, and format grant proposals, letters of inquiry, and concept notes by collaborating with program staff to extract programmatic outcomes, budgets, and supporting documents, ensuring submission deadlines and donor guidelines are strictly followed.
  • Prepare timely, high-quality donor reports and stewardship materials that translate program metrics into compelling narratives and impact statements tailored to varying donor audiences and reporting templates.
  • Support the planning, logistics, and execution of fundraising events, cultivation activities, site visits, and stewardship meetings, including vendor coordination, attendee registration, materials preparation, and post-event reporting and follow-up.
  • Maintain and update fundraising calendars, proposal trackers, and submission pipelines to monitor deadlines, responsibilities, and next steps for individual funders and institutional prospects.
  • Process donations, gifts-in-kind, and sponsorships; reconcile receipts, issue donor acknowledgements and gift receipts in accordance with organizational policies and tax regulations.
  • Assist in the development and distribution of fundraising communications including direct mail, email campaigns, newsletters, social media fundraising posts, and web content to support appeals and donor acquisition/retention campaigns.
  • Support prospect research and wealth screening activities using both free and subscription research tools to identify giving capacity, philanthropic interests, and potential corporate or foundation matches.
  • Coordinate and prepare donor stewardship packages, impact reports, newsletters, and personalized communications that maintain long-term relationships and encourage repeat support.
  • Track and manage restricted fund allocations, ensuring program teams and finance are aligned on budget burn rates, restricted fund balances, and donor-imposed conditions.
  • Compile and analyze fundraising metrics and campaign performance data (e.g., response rates, ROI, donor retention) and prepare regular dashboards and insights for the development team and senior leadership.
  • Create and maintain proposal templates, budget templates, and standard attachments to improve efficiency and consistency across grant submissions and donor communications.
  • Liaise with program staff, finance, and external partners to gather required supporting documentation for proposals and contracts such as M&E plans, organizational charts, legal documents, and audited financial statements.
  • Assist in contract and donor agreement administration by ensuring deliverables, reporting timelines, and compliance requirements are tracked and communicated to relevant stakeholders.
  • Support the development and maintenance of donor recognition programs, honorary societies, and membership benefits to enhance cultivation and acknowledgement strategies.
  • Coordinate volunteer involvement for fundraising initiatives, managing recruitment, scheduling, onboarding and thank-you processes for volunteer fundraisers and event volunteers.
  • Maintain digital and physical filing systems for grant files, donor correspondence, MOUs, contracts and compliance records to ensure audit readiness and quick retrieval.
  • Support the development team in creating visually appealing donor-facing materials such as case statements, impact one-pagers, slide decks and proposal annexes in alignment with brand guidelines.
  • Assist with basic monitoring and evaluation tasks such as collecting and formatting beneficiary stories, case studies, quantitative indicators and other outputs for inclusion in donor reports.
  • Manage small special projects—like donor segmentation refreshes, pledge campaigns, or pilot fundraising initiatives—from planning through completion while tracking results and lessons learned.
  • Facilitate internal communications between development, program, finance and executive teams to ensure alignment on fundraising priorities, reporting deadlines and donor visits.
  • Keep abreast of donor trends, foundation priorities and competitor fundraising activity to suggest new funding opportunities and improve outreach strategies.
  • Provide backup administrative support for the development director and senior staff, including calendar management, travel arrangements for donor visits, and preparation of briefing materials and talking points.
  • Ensure adherence to donor privacy and data security best practices and organizational policies when handling sensitive donor information.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis to inform fundraising strategy and donor communications.
  • Contribute to the organization's fundraising strategy and development roadmap by providing operational insights and process improvement recommendations.
  • Collaborate with program and finance teams to translate program needs into clear budget narratives and donor-facing deliverables.
  • Participate in project planning, team meetings and agile-style development cycles to help prioritize development tasks and continuous improvement of fundraising operations.
  • Provide training and onboarding for staff on donor database best practices, gift entry procedures and report generation.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • CRM proficiency (Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud, Raiser’s Edge, DonorPerfect, Bloomerang or equivalent) for gift entry, segmentation, and report building.
  • Grant writing and proposal development experience including creating budgets, theory of change summaries, and logical frameworks.
  • Strong Microsoft Excel skills (pivot tables, v-lookups, basic formulas) for donor analysis, budget reconciliation and reporting.
  • Familiarity with donor reporting templates, compliance requirements and basic budget-to-actual tracking.
  • Experience with email marketing platforms and marketing CRMs (Mailchimp, Constant Contact, HubSpot) for segmented outreach and analytics.
  • Basic design and presentation skills using PowerPoint, Canva or Adobe Spark to produce donor-facing materials and impact summaries.
  • Experience with fundraising event logistics and ticketing/registration platforms (Eventbrite, GiveLively).
  • Knowledge of prospect research tools and techniques (Foundation Directory Online, LinkedIn, wealth screening services).
  • Basic financial literacy for reading P&Ls, budgets and reconciling restricted funds with finance teams.
  • Familiarity with content management systems (WordPress or similar) to update fundraising pages and campaigns.
  • Data hygiene and record-keeping best practices, including GDPR/PII stewardship and secure data handling.
  • Ability to prepare monitoring and evaluation summaries and synthesize program indicators into donor-friendly narratives.

Soft Skills

  • Exceptional written and verbal communication skills with the ability to craft persuasive, donor-focused narratives and clear internal briefings.
  • Highly organized with superior attention to detail and the ability to manage multiple deadlines across proposals, events and reports.
  • Strong interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence for stewarding relationships with donors, volunteers and internal stakeholders.
  • Proactive problem-solver who identifies bottlenecks and proposes practical solutions to operational challenges.
  • Team-oriented collaborator who can work cross-functionally and build trust with program, finance and executive teams.
  • Time-management and prioritization skills; comfortable working in a fast-paced environment with shifting priorities.
  • Confidentiality and discretion when handling sensitive donor, financial and program information.
  • Adaptability and resilience in response to changing donor requirements, campaign timelines and organizational priorities.
  • Cultural competence and sensitivity when producing materials or engaging with diverse communities and international donors.
  • Customer-service orientation focused on responsiveness, follow-through and positive donor experiences.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Associate degree in business administration, communications, nonprofit management, or related field; or equivalent professional experience in fundraising or administrative roles.

Preferred Education:

  • Bachelor’s degree in Nonprofit Management, Communications, Business Administration, Public Administration, International Development, or related discipline.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Nonprofit Management
  • Communications / Public Relations
  • Business Administration / Finance
  • International Development
  • Public Policy / Social Sciences

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 1–3 years of experience in fundraising, development operations, grants administration, or nonprofit program support.

Preferred: 2–4 years of progressively responsible experience supporting development teams in nonprofits, foundations, or mission-driven organizations; direct experience with donor databases, grant writing and event coordination preferred.

Explore More Careers