OverviewSalaryAboutEducationWhere are the jobsEmploymentGenderRace/Origin
Overview
Organize activities to raise funds or otherwise solicit and gather monetary donations or other gifts for an organization. May design and produce promotional materials. May also raise awareness of the organization's work, goals, and financial needs.
Highlights
Undergraduate program resulting in the highest median salary ($85K): Finance
Largest undergraduate program (8.2% of workers): Communications
Explore Pathways
Titles for this career often contain these words
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Responsibilities and activities
Fundraisers typically do the following:
- Research prospective donors
- Create a strong fundraising message that appeals to potential donors
- Identify and contact potential donors
- Use online platforms to raise donations
- Organize campaigns or events to solicit donations
- Maintain records of donor information
- Evaluate the success of previous fundraising events
- Train volunteers in fundraising procedures and practices
- Ensure that all legal reporting requirements are satisfied
Fundraisers plan and oversee campaigns and events to raise money and other kinds of donations for an organization. They ensure that campaigns are effective by researching potential donors and examining records of those who have given in the past.
Fundraisers who work for political campaigns must be knowledgeable about campaign finance laws, such as the contribution limits of an individual giving to a specific candidate.
The following are examples of types of fundraisers:
Annual campaign fundraisers solicit donations once a year for their organization. Many nonprofit organizations have annual giving campaigns.
Capital campaign fundraisers raise money for a specific project, such as the construction of a new building at a university. Capital campaigns also raise money for renovations and the creation or expansion of an endowment.
Major-gifts fundraisers specialize in face-to-face interaction with donors who can give large amounts.
Planned-giving fundraisers solicit donations from those who are looking to pledge money at a future date or in installments over time. These fundraisers must have specialized training in taxes regarding gifts of stocks, bonds, charitable annuities, and real estate bequests in a will.
Salary
Median salary: $59,610 annually
Half of those employed in this career earn between $45,170 and $78,990.
Context: Median Salary
How do salaries for this career compare to other jobs' salaries?
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Salary growth for fundraisers
Is this job likely to reward you for sticking with it through pay raises and promotions? The higher a job’s “experience quotient,” the more you are likely to get as you stay there.
Experience quotient percentile
Take a minute to look at how much you might expect your salary to increase with each five years' experience, as well as how the numbers working at each age change. Does this seem to be a job for the young or the old, or could it be a career offering steady salary growth for many years?
Salary distribution
Number employed
About Fundraisers
How do benefits for this career compare to other jobs? The availability of health care, especially employer provided health care, and pension plans can add significantly to the value of compensation you receive in a career. These charts compare how this career compares to other careers with regard to health care and pension plans.
Employee has health insurance
Employer is providing health insurance
Employer-provided pension plan is available
Worker concerns
Some jobs are more stressful than others, and some are just plain dangerous. The following list gives the percentages of fundraisers who report hazardous or difficult situations typically occurring at least once a week.
- Time Pressure (60%)
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Personality and skills
Can you see yourself in the ranks of Fundraisers? Here are the skills and traits that could lead to success.
Communication skills
Fundraisers need strong communication skills to clearly explain the message and goals of their organization so that people will make donations.
Detail oriented
Fundraisers must be detail oriented because they deal with large volumes of data, including lists of people’s names and phone numbers, and must comply with state and federal regulations. Failing to do so may result in penalties.
Interpersonal skills
Fundraisers need strong interpersonal skills to develop and maintain relationships with donors.
Organizational skills
Fundraisers manage large campaigns and events. They must have strong planning and organizational skills in order to succeed.
Education pathways to this career
Education attained by fundraisers
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), fundraisers typically hold a bachelor's degree.
Sometimes the typical education identified by the BLS differs a bit from the reality of the how much education current workers actually have. The donut shows the education level held by people currently working as fundraisers as reported in responses to the American Community Survey.
Details: Education and training recommended for fundraisers
Although fundraisers have a variety of academic backgrounds, employers typically prefer a candidate with a bachelor’s degree in public relations, journalism, communications, English, or business. Degrees in other subjects also may be acceptable.
Details: Licensing and certification recommended for fundraisers
Laws vary by state, but many states require some types of fundraisers to register with a state authority. Check with your state for more information.
Education level of Fundraisers
About 88% of fundraisers have at least a bachelor's degree.
Education attained by fundraisers
None
High School
Some College
Associate's Degree
Bachelor's Degree
Master's Degree
Professional Degree
Doctorate
Top college degrees
Here are the top college degrees held by the 86% of people in this job who have at least a bachelor's degree. Some of degrees may link to multiple programs due to the way Census classifies college majors. Click on a program to learn more about career opportunities for people who major in that field.
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College majors held by fundraisers
This table shows the college majors held by people working as fundraisers. If you see "**" before the name of a degree/program, that means this field is one that the Department of Education believes is preparatory for this career. However, you can see from this list that those recommendations are far from your only path to this job!
Major
Select any title to learn more about that degree
Salary comparison for bachelor's only
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Career salary (tail) versus Career/Major salary (dot)
Does the bachelor's-only salary rise or fall with this major?
Salary for bachelor's-only
For people with this career and major
Median
Middle 50%
Middle 80%
Salary for all workers
For people with this career and major
Median
Middle 50%
Middle 80%
Education for Career and Major
Bachelor's
Master's
Professional
Doctorate
Workers with this career/major
Percentage in this career with this major
Not so much?
The link between degrees and this career
With the following sankey diagram, you can follow the top ten bachelor's degrees held by people working as fundraisers, and then, in turn, you can see the 10 occupations that hire the most of each degree's graduates. We hope this provides ideas for similar jobs and similar fields of study.
Expand degrees
Where are the jobs
State-by-state employment numbers
Some careers tend to be centered in specific parts of the country. For example, most jobs in fashion are in New York or California. Let's see if your dream job is easy to find in your dream location! We have a few choices for viewing the data that can help you get a full employment picture.
Select a state to see local area details
Number of Fundraisers per 1,000 workers (ACS)
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Job density versus job count
Which states hire the most fundraisers? We wonder if that's a fair question since states come in all sizes, so instead let's start with the question of which states have the highest density of people working as fundraisers. You can choose to view the number of jobs per state if you prefer.
Salaries by state
Let's get a feel for where fundraisers earn the highest salaries. There are several choices for which data we consider and how we view that data, and each can lead to different conclusions, so please read on...
Median salary versus state ratio
We use two methods to compare salaries across states:
- In-state comparisons: the ratio of median (middle) salaries for fundraisers compared to the median salary for all people working in each state, or
- Median salary: the unaltered median salaries for fundraisers.
The darkest shading corresponds to states in which fundraisers earn the highest salary when compared to other jobs in the state. We think this figure might be a better indicator than the actual salary for your buying power as a state resident.
Select a state to see local area details
Location-adjusted median salary for Fundraisers (ACS)
Employment
17% of Fundraisers are working part time.
We’ve found that some jobs have a huge number of part-time workers, and typically that is because they are unable to find full-time work or the job itself can’t provide full-time hours. With 17% part-time workers, this occupation has a higher percentage of part-time workers than 61% of careers.
Employer types
This donut shares the break-down of workers by employer type, giving us a picture of what employers most typically hire for this career.
Employers of undefined (ACS)
Private for-profit
Private not-for-profit
Local government
State government
Federal government
Self-employed incorporated
Self-employed not incorporated
Working without pay
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Distribution: Salaries of fundraisers by type of employer
Here are the salary distributions based on employer type.
Gender
Fundraisers and gender
With 72% women, this occupation has a higher percentage of women than 83% of careers.
Gender of Fundraisers
Men (28%)
Women (72%)
Distribution: salaries by gender
Does gender greatly influence your salary in this career? The closer the bars are, the less discrepancy there is.
We only include salary data when the survey error is less than 20%, so you may see only partial information for some categories.
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Context: Women in the workforce
How does this career compare to other careers with regard to the percentage of women in the career.
Context: Salary inequity
The median salary for all full-time male workers in the
US exceeds the full-time median salary for women
by 19%.
The situation is a little better for fundraisers, with the
median salary for men 8%
higher than the median salary for women.
Race/Origin
Race and origin of Fundraisers
This donut shows the distribution of race and origin among those employed as Fundraisers.
Race/origin of fundraisers
White (87% )
Black (6% )
Asian (3% )
Multiracial (2% )
Other (1% )
Hispanic (1% )
American Indian (0% )
Pacific Islander (0% )
Distribution: salaries by race/origin
Some careers might have a pay disparity based on race or origin, the closer the below bars are the less of a discrepancy is present.
We only include salary data when the survey error is less than 20%, so you may see only partial information for some categories.
