# Fundraisers

US SOC code 13-1131. Markdown version of https://futurehistory.earth/timeline/13-1131

Also called: Development officer, Director of development, VP of development, Major gifts officer, Annual giving director.

## In brief

In May 2025, [BLS](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm25nat.zip) counted **111,040** US fundraisers, with median pay of **$72,550** a year. Of the BLS counts since 2012, the May 2025 count is the highest. The earliest figure here is [an estimate](https://colossal.org/news/the-history-and-evolution-of-modern-fundraising) of **200** from 1913, not measured the same way as today's count. The last full technology era for fundraisers: Mobile giving, social fundraising, crowdfunding, and peer-to-peer platforms, 2010 to 2022.

## What the sources say

### Official outlook

BLS projects employment to grow 5.5% from 2025 to 2035. Source: [BLS Employment Projections 2025-35](https://data.bls.gov/projections/nationalMatrix?queryParams=13-1131&ioType=o).

### AI exposure studies

- **49%** of this job's tasks are exposed to large language models. Not a forecast of job losses. [Eloundou and others, 2023](https://github.com/openai/GPTs-are-GPTs/blob/main/data/occ_level.csv)

Data as of BLS OEWS May 2025; BLS Employment Projections 2025-35. BLS publishes these counts as yearly survey snapshots and cautions against reading them as a precise trend. In May 2021 BLS changed how it estimates these counts (a model-based method using three years of survey data) and moved fully to the 2018 occupation codes, so part of a change across 2021 can come from the method rather than the work.

## Fundraisers employment and pay by year

- On record since: 1905
- Latest US employment: 111,040 (May 2025). Source: BLS OEWS May 2025 [5]
- Latest US median pay: $72,550 (May 2025). Source: BLS OEWS May 2025 [8]
- Outlook: +5.5% by 2035. Source: BLS Employment Projections 2025-35 [23]

### All 20 years of cited US data

| Year | US employment | Annual pay (median unless marked) | Source |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1913 | 200 (estimate) | n/a | Est., Colossal.org [1] |
| 1950 | 5,000 (estimate) | n/a | Est., CauseVox [2] |
| 1960 | n/a | $6,500 (estimate) | Est., AFP [6] |
| 1981 | 30,000 (estimate) | n/a | Est., AFP [3] |
| 1990 | n/a | $32,000 (estimate) | Est., CauseVox [7] |
| 2000 | 70,000 (estimate) | n/a | Est., BLS Monthly Labor Review [4] |
| 2012 | 48,530 | $50,680 | BLS OEWS May 2012 [5] |
| 2013 | 50,530 | $51,580 | BLS OEWS May 2013 [5] |
| 2014 | 55,230 | $52,430 | BLS OEWS May 2014 [5] |
| 2015 | 62,720 | $52,970 | BLS OEWS May 2015 [5] |
| 2016 | 68,910 | $54,130 | BLS OEWS May 2016 [5] |
| 2017 | 72,920 | $55,640 | BLS OEWS May 2017 [5] |
| 2018 | 75,700 | $56,950 | BLS OEWS May 2018 [5] |
| 2019 | 81,660 | $57,970 | BLS OEWS May 2019 [5] |
| 2020 | 82,140 | $59,610 | BLS OEWS May 2020 [5] |
| 2021 | 82,080 | $60,660 | BLS OEWS May 2021 [5] |
| 2022 | 94,630 | $61,190 | BLS OEWS May 2022 [5] |
| 2023 | 101,730 | $64,160 | BLS OEWS May 2023 [5] |
| 2024 | 105,930 | $66,490 | BLS OEWS May 2024 [5] |
| 2025 | 111,040 | $72,550 | BLS OEWS May 2025 [5] |

## Sources (72)

### Employment series

1. [Colossal.org — "The History and Evolution of Modern Fundraising" (Ward and Pierce 1913 international campaigns)](https://colossal.org/news/the-history-and-evolution-of-modern-fundraising), Colossal.org / fundraising history synthesis
2. [CauseVox — "120 Years Of Fundraising History: What Can We Learn?" (Community Chest growth and professionalization timeline)](https://www.causevox.com/blog/fundraising-history/), CauseVox
3. [AFP — History of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP/NSFRE founding 1960, CFRE first conferred 1981)](https://afpglobal.org/history-association-fundraising-professionals), Association of Fundraising Professionals
4. [BLS Monthly Labor Review — "Nonprofits in America: new research data on employment, wages, and establishments" (nonprofit sector growth through 1990s)](https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2016/article/nonprofits-in-america.htm), Bureau of Labor Statistics
5. BLS OEWS, national cross-industry estimates (flat file), Bureau of Labor Statistics. Editions: [2012](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm12nat.zip), [2013](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm13nat.zip), [2014](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm14nat.zip), [2015](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm15nat.zip), [2016](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm16nat.zip), [2017](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm17nat.zip), [2018](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm18nat.zip), [2019](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm19nat.zip), [2020](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm20nat.zip), [2021](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm21nat.zip), [2022](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm22nat.zip), [2023](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm23nat.zip), [2024](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm24nat.zip), [2025](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm25nat.zip)

### Wage series

6. [AFP — History of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (1960 founding context; NSFRE salary environment inferred from contemporaneous nonprofit administrator data)](https://afpglobal.org/history-association-fundraising-professionals), Association of Fundraising Professionals
7. [CauseVox — "120 Years Of Fundraising History" (1980s nonprofit sector growth; direct-mail era salary context)](https://www.causevox.com/blog/fundraising-history/), CauseVox
8. BLS OEWS, national cross-industry estimates (flat file), Bureau of Labor Statistics. Editions: [2012](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm12nat.zip), [2013](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm13nat.zip), [2014](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm14nat.zip), [2015](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm15nat.zip), [2016](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm16nat.zip), [2017](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm17nat.zip), [2018](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm18nat.zip), [2019](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm19nat.zip), [2020](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm20nat.zip), [2021](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm21nat.zip), [2022](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm22nat.zip), [2023](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm23nat.zip), [2025](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm25nat.zip)
9. [BLS OEWS May 2024, national cross-industry estimates (flat file)](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm24nat.zip), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

### Tool eras

10. [Colossal.org — "The History and Evolution of Modern Fundraising" (Ward and Pierce capital campaign methods, 1905-1913)](https://colossal.org/news/the-history-and-evolution-of-modern-fundraising), Colossal.org
11. [CauseVox — "120 Years Of Fundraising History: What Can We Learn?" (Ward-Pierce technique and Community Chest growth)](https://www.causevox.com/blog/fundraising-history/), CauseVox
12. [United Way — Wikipedia (Community Chest history: 245 organizations in 1925 to 800 by 1945; War Chests conversion post-WWI)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Way), Wikipedia
13. [AFP — History of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (professional association founded 1960 as NSFRE)](https://afpglobal.org/history-association-fundraising-professionals), Association of Fundraising Professionals
14. [Wikipedia — Direct mail fundraising (ZIP Code and computer enabled wide use; nonprofit sector quadrupled in 1980s with direct mail expansion)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_mail_fundraising), Wikipedia
15. [NPR — "McGovern Campaign Marked Beginning Of Direct Mail" (Viguerie direct-mail growth from 34,000 to 870,000 donors by 1980)](https://www.npr.org/2012/08/01/157739995/mcgovern-campaign-marked-beginning-of-direct-mail), NPR
16. [CASE — The Evolution of CASE (CASE founded 1974 from merger of American Alumni Council and American College Public Relations Association)](https://www.case.org/about-case/evolution-case), Council for Advancement and Support of Education
17. [SocialWorker.com — "Catching Up: Internet Fundraising From the 1980s to the 2020s" (1997: 18% of US households online; PayPal 1998; email replaces direct mail for mass appeals)](https://www.socialworker.com/nonprofit/fundraising-tech/catching-up-internet-fundraising-1980s-to-2020s/), SocialWorker.com
18. [Blackbaud — Raiser's Edge NXT (Raiser's Edge original release 1989; dominant CRM for nonprofit major-donor management through 1990s and 2000s)](https://www.blackbaud.com/products/blackbaud-raisers-edge-nxt), Blackbaud
19. [PRIDE Philanthropy — "The Evolution of Fundraising: From Traditional Methods to Digital Trends" (text-to-give Haiti earthquake 2010; Giving Tuesday launched 2012; peer-to-peer fundraising growth)](https://pridephilanthropy.com/blog/the-evolution-of-fundraising), PRIDE Philanthropy
20. [AFP — "Beyond ChatGPT: How Fundraisers Can Use AI to Build Real Donor Relationships in 2026": AI Equity Project 2025: 80% of nonprofits using AI, only 9% feel ready; stewardship must feel human for donor retention](https://afpglobal.org/news/beyond-chatgpt-how-fundraisers-can-use-ai-build-real-donor-relationships-2026), Association of Fundraising Professionals
21. [Instrumentl — AI grant management platform; AI drafting saves 3.3 hours per application; William and Mary: 96% reduction in application preparation time; $55M Summit Partners investment April 2025](https://www.instrumentl.com/), Instrumentl
22. [Gravyty Raise — AI frontline fundraiser enablement; administrative tasks historically 70% of frontline fundraiser time; organizations reach 4x more donors with AI-powered outreach](https://gravyty.com/raise/), Gravyty

### Forecasts and exposure studies

23. [BLS Employment Projections 2025-35, National Employment Matrix: 13-1131 Fundraisers (2025: 140.9 thousand; 2035: 148.7 thousand; +5.5%)](https://data.bls.gov/projections/nationalMatrix?queryParams=13-1131&ioType=o), Bureau of Labor Statistics
24. [Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin & Rock (2023), "GPTs are GPTs", occupation-level exposure data occ\_level.csv (O\*NET-SOC 13-1131.00, human-rated β 0.49)](https://github.com/openai/GPTs-are-GPTs/blob/main/data/occ_level.csv), OpenAI

### Historical notes

25. [American Red Cross -- Significant Dates in Red Cross History (June 17, 1917: first War Fund drive surpassed $100 million goal in one week)](https://www.redcross.org/about-us/who-we-are/history/significant-dates.html), American Red Cross
26. [Giving USA Foundation -- history of Giving USA and AAFRC founding (Giving USA began 1956 as AAFRC publication)](https://givingusa.org/), Giving USA Foundation
27. [AFP -- History of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (founding June 21, 1960; three founders: Sklar, Simms, Rosen)](https://afpglobal.org/history-association-fundraising-professionals), Association of Fundraising Professionals
28. [AFP -- AFP Fact Sheet (AFP Code of Ethical Principles and Standards; donor bill of rights; nearly 30,000 members in 200+ chapters)](https://afpglobal.org/afp-fact-sheet), Association of Fundraising Professionals
29. [AFP -- "Beyond ChatGPT: How Fundraisers Can Use AI to Build Real Donor Relationships in 2026" (pandemic acceleration of digital relationship management; AFP 2026 guidance on AI and donor trust)](https://afpglobal.org/news/beyond-chatgpt-how-fundraisers-can-use-ai-build-real-donor-relationships-2026), Association of Fundraising Professionals

### Predecessors & successors

30. [Colossal.org -- "The History and Evolution of Modern Fundraising" (pre-Ward-Pierce charity solicitation as volunteer activity)](https://colossal.org/news/the-history-and-evolution-of-modern-fundraising), Colossal.org
31. [CauseVox -- "120 Years Of Fundraising History" (Ward-Pierce YMCA campaign method and first paid campaign managers)](https://www.causevox.com/blog/fundraising-history/), CauseVox
32. [CASE -- The Evolution of CASE (American Alumni Council founded 1913, merged into CASE 1974)](https://www.case.org/about-case/evolution-case), Council for Advancement and Support of Education
33. [O\*NET 13-1131.00 -- career transition and adjacent occupations (development director to executive director pipeline)](https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/13-1131.00), O\*NET / BLS

### Present-day analysis

- [O\*NET 30.3 — Fundraisers (13-1131.00): 10 tasks, median annual wage $66,490, 134,400 employed 2024, 3-4% projected growth 2024-2034, 90% bachelor's degree required](https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/13-1131.00), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Eloundou et al. 2024 — GPTs are GPTs (Science): occupational LLM exposure framework; fundraiser text-intensive tasks (grant writing, donor communications, prospectus documents) carry significant LLM β-exposure; major gift cultivation and donor trust-building remain defensible](https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.10130), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Fundraise Up — AI fundraising platform; AI ask-amount optimization yields 10-15% more revenue and 2x donor acquisition; 26% of recurring plans from AI upsells; 30% higher avg gift size; 87% of donors cover fees when AI determines optimal prompting; cancellation AI saves 27% of at-risk recurring donors (product documentation, 2025-2026)](https://fundraiseup.com/platform/fundraising-ai/), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Instrumentl — AI grant management platform; raised $55M from Summit Partners April 2025; AI drafting saves 3.3 hours per application; William & Mary: 96% reduction in application prep time; Fall 2025: AI RFP analysis, Smart Section Builder, Cross-Grant Knowledge Library; 400,000+ funder profiles](https://www.instrumentl.com/), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Grantable — AI grant writing platform; GrantGraph™ cross-references 990 filings with web-sourced giving data; persistent organizational memory compounds intelligence across sessions; pricing starts $25/mo for orgs under $500K budget](https://grantable.co/), accessed 2026-05-24
- [DonorSearch AI (EverTrue, 2025 acquisition) — AI prospect research; 1B+ data points; accuracy above 90%; DonorSearch Ai predictive modeling identifies prospects most likely to respond; ProspectView Online 2 generates personalized briefing reports in seconds; users report 20% higher avg gift amounts and 17% faster major donor journey (product documentation, 2025-2026)](https://www.donorsearch.net/donorsearch-ai/), accessed 2026-05-24
- [iWave by Kindsight — donor prospect research; 44+ vetted sources; 228M verified charitable gift records (VeriGift); customizable predictive scoring; Live Profiles with real-time updates; AI-powered fundraising platform with real-time donor intelligence launched 2025 (PR Newswire 2025)](https://kindsight.io/iwave/), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Virtuous CRM + Momentum AI — Momentum acquired August 2025; AI fundraising agent prioritizes MGO inboxes, drafts cultivation emails, builds engagement plans in seconds; enables 5x more donor relationships; 75% increase in monthly donor retention; major gifts move 17% faster through pipeline (Virtuous press release, 2025)](https://virtuous.org/blog/virtuous-acquires-momentum/), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Bloomerang + Penny AI — Penny AI fundraising strategist launched beta March 31, 2026; natural language queries against donor data; lapsed-donor alerts; step-by-step strategic guidance; donor segmentation; first-draft content creation; grounded in 2,000+ nonprofit consulting wins; Dataro predictive intelligence integration](https://bloomerang.com/news/bloomerang-penny-ai-fundraising-strategist-nonprofits), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT + Development Agent — Development Agent (Agents for Good) GA March 17, 2026: supervised autonomous donor-engagement workflows; Prospect Insights Pro GA February 2026: deeper predictive intelligence and prescriptive guidance for next best action; Strategy Assistant with Benchmarks for constituent opportunity analysis](https://www.blackbaud.com/products/blackbaud-raisers-edge-nxt), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud + Agentforce — autonomous AI agents research donors, draft personalized communications; early adopters save 4-6 hours weekly on donor research, engagement up 23%; Fundraising Gift Proposals: generative AI personalized ask documents; Einstein Summaries: major donor meeting briefs embedded in workflow](https://www.salesforce.com/news/stories/ai-tools-for-nonprofits/), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Gravyty Raise — AI frontline fundraiser enablement; administrative tasks historically 70% of fundraiser time; Raise automates: daily prioritized donor lists, personalized email drafts, call prompts, stewardship messages; 4x more donors reached per gift officer; integrates with Raiser's Edge NXT and Salesforce](https://gravyty.com/raise/), accessed 2026-05-24
- [AFP — "Beyond ChatGPT: How Fundraisers Can Use AI to Build Real Donor Relationships in 2026": affirms AI for administrative efficiency while warning stewardship must feel human; AI Equity Project 2025: 80% of nonprofits using AI, only 9% feel ready to use it responsibly, only 6.9% have internal AI policies](https://afpglobal.org/news/beyond-chatgpt-how-fundraisers-can-use-ai-build-real-donor-relationships-2026), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Virtuous 2026 Nonprofit Fundraising Benchmark Report — 771 mid-sized and large US nonprofits; median gift up 20% YoY; growth driven by relationship depth not donor volume acquisition; 68% of nonprofits use AI for data analysis; AI propensity scoring users report 15-30% portfolio conversion improvement (AFP 2025 benchmarking)](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/virtuous-releases-2026-nonprofit-fundraising-benchmark-report-median-gift-up-20-as-donors-who-stay-give-more-often-and-more-generously-302748571.html), accessed 2026-05-24

How to read these figures: https://futurehistory.earth/methodology. Every figure links to its own source; gaps stay gaps.