Top 12 Development Associate Skills to Put on Your Resume

In the competitive field of development, standing out as a candidate means showing a balanced mix of technical savvy, relationship building, and sharp strategy on your resume. Development associates who blend data fluency with storytelling, systems thinking with agility, make a louder splash—and move faster.

Development Associate Skills

1. Salesforce
2. Raiser's Edge
3. Grant Writing
4. SQL
5. Python
6. Tableau
7. Excel
8. Google Analytics
9. Adobe Creative Suite
10. Mailchimp
11. Project Management
12. CRM Management

1. Salesforce

Salesforce is a cloud CRM platform used to manage relationships, track pipelines, automate workflows, and build custom applications. For a Development Associate, it’s a home base for donors, campaigns, and reporting—plus a sandbox for creating time-saving automations.

Why It's Important

It centralizes data, streamlines outreach, and powers segmentation and personalization. And with Apex, Lightning, and robust integrations, it scales from simple data entry to sophisticated, automated fundraising operations.

How to Improve Salesforce Skills

1. Lean into Flow (not Process Builder): Build automation with Flow for approvals, updates, and reminders. Process Builder is being phased out—migrate old processes.
2. Code smart when needed: Follow Apex and Lightning best practices—bulkify, test thoroughly, and document triggers and handlers.
3. Source control and packaging: Use Salesforce DX with Git, scratch orgs, and CI to keep changes clean, tested, and reversible.
4. Data quality: Standardize picklists, validation rules, and duplicate rules. Schedule imports and audits with Data Loader or Data Import Wizard.
5. Security and access: Tighten profiles, permission sets, and sharing rules. Keep PII safe and traceable.
6. Keep learning: Work through Trailhead modules, join the Salesforce community, and track release notes—features shift quickly.

Small improvements compound fast: fewer clicks, better data, cleaner dashboards.

How to Display Salesforce Skills on Your Resume

2. Raiser's Edge

Raiser’s Edge is donor management and fundraising software built for nonprofits. It tracks gifts, pledges, constituents, appeals, and moves management, giving development teams a clear view of relationships and revenue.

Why It's Important

It ties donor history to strategy—who gave, why, and when—so you can segment wisely, forecast accurately, and run campaigns that actually land.

How to Improve Raiser's Edge Skills

1. Data hygiene first: De-duplicate, standardize addresses and salutations, and enforce naming conventions. Schedule quarterly cleanups.
2. Customize thoughtfully: Use custom fields, attributes, and categories that map to your programs and stewardship steps.
3. Automate the routine: Build recurring tasks for acknowledgments, lapsed donor follow-ups, and pledge reminders. Integrate with email and accounting tools where possible.
4. Sharper reporting: Create dashboards for pipeline, LYBUNT/SYBUNT, and appeal performance. Standardize definitions across teams.
5. Train the team: Invest in Blackbaud training and internal SOPs so data entry and list pulls stay consistent.
6. Feedback loop: Gather user input, refine layouts, and prune unused fields to keep the system fast and friendly.

How to Display Raiser's Edge Skills on Your Resume

3. Grant Writing

Grant writing means researching opportunities, aligning projects to funder priorities, crafting persuasive proposals, and delivering airtight budgets and evaluation plans.

Why It's Important

It brings in restricted and unrestricted funding that fuels programs, pilots new ideas, and stabilizes operations.

How to Improve Grant Writing Skills

1. Matchmaker mindset: Study funder missions, past grants, and geographic focus. Only pursue tight fits.
2. Follow instructions precisely: Formatting, word counts, attachments, deadlines—treat them as non-negotiable.
3. Write plainly: Clear headings, crisp outcomes, no jargon fog. Let the impact do the heavy lifting.
4. Plan the project: Logic model, timeline, roles, procurement, and budget that actually ties to activities.
5. Measure what matters: Define indicators, baseline, data collection, and reporting cadence.
6. Edit ruthlessly: Peer review, read aloud, proof. Cut fluff.
7. Debrief losses: Ask for feedback. Track themes. Adjust strategy.

Workshops and practice reps speed up your arc—templates and a tidy grants calendar help even more.

How to Display Grant Writing Skills on Your Resume

4. SQL

SQL is the language of relational databases—querying, updating, and shaping data so it can be analyzed, audited, and trusted.

Why It's Important

Development work runs on lists, segments, metrics, and models. SQL turns messy tables into clean insights and repeatable reports.

How to Improve SQL Skills

1. Nail the basics: SELECT, JOINs, WHERE, GROUP BY, HAVING. Understand how joins actually behave with nulls and duplicates.
2. Think in sets: Window functions, CTEs, and subqueries simplify complex logic and keep queries readable.
3. Optimize early: Indexes, explain plans, selective filters, and smaller result sets. Avoid “SELECT *”.
4. Design matters: Normalize when needed, denormalize for analytics, and document schemas.
5. Practice with real data: Rebuild common reports, cohort analyses, and retention views.
6. Standards and linting: Consistent casing, aliases, and formatting make team queries maintainable.
7. Learn your flavor: PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server—each has quirks and superpowers.

How to Display SQL Skills on Your Resume

5. Python

Python is a versatile language for automation, data analysis, APIs, and light ETL—quick to write, rich with libraries, and great for stitching systems together.

Why It's Important

It turns manual workflows into scripts, raw exports into clean datasets, and repetitive tasks into one-click jobs.

How to Improve Python Skills

1. Foundations first: Data types, control flow, functions, modules, packaging. Read and write idiomatic code.
2. Use the batteries: Pandas, Requests, SQLAlchemy, Jupyter. Pick tools that fit the job.
3. Style and structure: Follow PEP 8, type hints where helpful, and meaningful docstrings.
4. Automate real tasks: Imports, dedupes, email merges, API syncs. Ship scripts that save your team time.
5. Test and log: Unit tests, simple logging, and error handling so jobs don’t silently fail.
6. Review and refactor: Small functions, clear names, fewer side effects. Ask for feedback.

How to Display Python Skills on Your Resume

6. Tableau

Tableau turns rows of data into dashboards and visual stories you can filter, click, and share. Ideal for donor trends, campaign performance, and forecasts.

Why It's Important

Good visuals cut through noise. Stakeholders act faster when they can see the pattern, not just read about it.

How to Improve Tableau Skills

1. Design for decisions: Start with the question, pick the right chart, reduce clutter, and label what matters.
2. Data modeling: Clean joins, relationships, and extracts. Pre-aggregate when it helps performance.
3. Calculated fields: Table calcs, LOD expressions, parameters, and dynamic titles elevate dashboards.
4. Performance tuning: Limit quick filters, optimize data sources, and use extracts when live is slow.
5. Dashboard craft: Consistent color scales, intuitive layout, mobile-friendly sizing.
6. Publish and govern: Share via Tableau Server or Tableau Cloud, set permissions, and schedule refreshes.

How to Display Tableau Skills on Your Resume

7. Excel

Excel is the workhorse for tracking, cleaning, analyzing, and presenting data—functions, pivot tables, charts, and VBA all in one place.

Why It's Important

It’s universal, flexible, and fast for ad hoc analysis, list building, and quick modeling—no heavy setup required.

How to Improve Excel Skills

1. Modern formulas: XLOOKUP, INDEX/MATCH, FILTER, UNIQUE, SORT, TEXTSPLIT, LET, and LAMBDA to simplify logic.
2. Pivots and Power: Master PivotTables, PivotCharts, Power Query for cleaning, and Power Pivot for data models and DAX.
3. Clean visuals: Use sparklines, clear labels, minimal gridlines, and consistent number formats.
4. Data validation: Drop-downs, input rules, and conditional formatting to keep sheets trustworthy.
5. Macros when it helps: Automate repetitive steps with recorded macros or simple VBA.
6. Templates and checklists: Build re-usable models for appeals, forecasts, and donor cohort reports.
7. Shortcuts and standards: Keyboard fluency and a shared formatting style guide save hours.

How to Display Excel Skills on Your Resume

8. Google Analytics

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) measures how people find and use your website or landing pages—traffic, engagement, conversions—so you can tune content and campaigns.

Why It's Important

It connects the dots between outreach and action, revealing which channels pull weight and where users fall off.

How to Improve Google Analytics Skills

1. Implement GA4 correctly: Use Google Tag Manager to deploy tags, configure consent, and keep versions tidy.
2. Clean data: Exclude internal traffic and bots. Verify events fire once, with consistent naming.
3. Model your conversions: Mark key events as conversions (donations, sign-ups, downloads). Map funnels.
4. Campaign tracking: Use UTM parameters consistently for email, social, and ads. Standardize naming.
5. Enhanced measurement and ecommerce: Turn on relevant automatic events and implement ecommerce where applicable.
6. Custom reports and explorations: Build audiences, pathing analyses, and cohort views tailored to your goals.
7. Search performance: Connect to Search Console to see queries, clicks, and landing page lift.
8. Audit regularly: Spot-check tags, compare to backend numbers, and document changes.
9. Share insights, not just charts: Add narrative context and clear recommendations to every dashboard.

How to Display Google Analytics Skills on Your Resume

9. Adobe Creative Suite

Adobe Creative Suite (now delivered as Adobe Creative Cloud) bundles tools for design, video, and web—Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere Pro, and more.

Why It's Important

Development teams need sharp visuals—event collateral, donor one-pagers, impact reports, social graphics—that look professional and on-brand.

How to Improve Adobe Creative Suite Skills

1. Pick your core apps: Focus on the ones you’ll use weekly—Photoshop for images, Illustrator for vector logos, InDesign for multipage layouts.
2. Speed up with libraries: Brand colors, paragraph styles, and components stored in Creative Cloud Libraries keep materials consistent.
3. Template everything: Reusable report layouts, social post templates, and event signage files save cycles.
4. Non-destructive workflow: Smart objects, adjustment layers, and master pages keep edits flexible.
5. Optimize exports: Right formats, compression, and color profiles for web, print, and email.
6. Shortcuts and presets: Keyboard fluency and export presets shave minutes off every task.
7. Collaborate smoothly: Commenting, version history, and shared assets prevent chaos.

How to Display Adobe Creative Suite Skills on Your Resume

10. Mailchimp

Mailchimp is an email and marketing platform for building lists, segmenting audiences, sending campaigns, and automating follow-ups—plus reporting.

Why It's Important

Email still drives donations and event sign-ups. With clean segments and strong content, Mailchimp turns quiet lists into engaged communities.

How to Improve Mailchimp Skills

1. Clean lists, clear tags: Use tags and segments for lifecycle stage, interests, and giving history.
2. Personalize: Merge fields, conditional content, and dynamic product or program blocks where relevant.
3. Automations: Welcome series, re-engagement flows, post-donation stewardship, event reminders.
4. Test smart: A/B subject lines, send times, and content blocks. Keep learnings in a playbook.
5. Mobile-first templates: Single-column designs, big tap targets, compressed images.
6. Deliverability: Set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. Prune inactives and warm up new domains.
7. Integrate: Connect to your CRM, forms, and donation platform so data stays in sync.
8. Measure what moves: Track conversions, not just opens. Tie campaigns to revenue or sign-ups.

How to Display Mailchimp Skills on Your Resume

11. Project Management

Project management means shaping scope, schedules, budgets, and teams—then steering the work to done without drama.

Why It's Important

It keeps campaigns on time, grant packages clean, and handoffs predictable—so fundraising doesn’t wobble when things get busy.

How to Improve Project Management Skills

1. Goals with guardrails: Write SMART objectives and clear acceptance criteria. Define “done.”
2. Plan lightly, iterate often: Break work into milestones. Use Kanban or Agile rituals where they fit.
3. Communicate early: Weekly check-ins, decisions logged, risks visible. No surprises.
4. Track the critical path: Identify dependencies, pad for review cycles, and unblock quickly.
5. Risks and lessons: Maintain a RAID log (Risks, Assumptions, Issues, Dependencies). Run retros and actually change the process.
6. Right tools: Use a shared task board, timelines, and templates. Keep files and comments in one hub.

How to Display Project Management Skills on Your Resume

12. CRM Management

CRM management is the care and feeding of your relationship system—configuration, training, integrations, data stewardship, and governance.

Why It's Important

It makes personalization possible at scale and keeps teams rowing in the same direction with the same source of truth.

How to Improve CRM Management Skills

1. Integrate the stack: Connect forms, donation platforms, email, and analytics. Reduce manual imports.
2. Data standards: Naming conventions, required fields, dedupe rules, and regular audits.
3. User adoption: Role-based training, simple page layouts, and clear SOPs increase data quality.
4. Permissions and privacy: Principle of least privilege, field-level security, and audit logs. Respect consent and compliance.
5. Actionable reporting: Build dashboards for pipeline, retention, and donor movement. Define metrics consistently.
6. Change management: Version releases, documentation, and stakeholder demos prevent chaos.

How to Display CRM Management Skills on Your Resume