How to Become a Fundraiser With a General Studies Degree (2026)

What Does a Fundraiser Do?

A fundraiser organizes activities to raise money and other kinds of donations for an organization. The word activities covers a lot. On one day you're writing the appeal, and the handbook's phrase for that is creating a strong fundraising message that appeals to potential donors. On another you're organizing a campaign or an event to solicit those donations, training the volunteers who'll work it in fundraising procedures and practices, and afterward making sure every legal reporting requirement is satisfied.

The digital side has become its own job within the job. Fundraisers develop strategies for using social media and other digital platforms to connect with potential donors, so you'll be building an email appeal or a giving-day campaign as often as you're booking a room for a dinner. And underneath all of it is data. The handbook says fundraisers deal with large volumes of it, including lists of people's names and phone numbers, and must comply with state and federal regulations about how it's handled.

The part the job title hides is the ask. A fundraiser needs to clearly explain the message and goals of the organization to prospective donors, and then ask them for money, in writing, on the phone and in a room. Plenty of people who are good at the planning find the ask hard, and it doesn't move to someone else's desk as you go. If you can't picture yourself asking a stranger for a gift, this is the job to be honest with yourself about before you start.

The fundraiser job sits next to two others on this site. A meeting and event planner runs the dinner without owning the money it raises, and a public relations specialist writes for the public rather than for donors. A fundraiser does the writing, the event and the ask.

Where Do Fundraisers Work?

Fundraisers work mostly for nonprofits. Religious, grantmaking, civic, professional, and similar organizations employ 41 percent of them, the largest share of the roughly 140,900 fundraiser jobs the handbook counted in 2025. That category is the charity sector in the plain sense: the foundation, the congregation, the professional association, the community organization. And the growth the handbook projects comes from nonprofits' continued need to collect donations to run their operations, so the sector you'd be entering is the one adding the jobs.

Most fundraisers work full time, and some attend fundraising events in the evenings or on weekends, which adds hours. The events are where the donors are, so the extra hours cluster around campaign deadlines and event dates rather than spreading evenly through the year. Ask any organization you interview with how many evening events a year the role carries and whether those hours come back as time off, because the handbook says the extra hours are possible and leaves the arrangement to the employer.

For a general studies graduate, the 41 percent figure is the door. The organizations in that category hire on the strong communication and organizational skills the handbook pairs with the bachelor's degree, and the handbook says fundraisers come from a variety of academic backgrounds. You'll be sitting across from people who studied communications, business and social science, and a general studies degree with an emphasis in one of those is the same preparation with a different name on it.

How Do You Become a Fundraiser With a General Studies Degree?

You become a fundraiser with a general studies degree by completing the bachelor's, which the handbook lists as the entry education, and pairing it with the strong communication and organizational skills the handbook puts in the same sentence. Fundraisers come from a variety of academic backgrounds, and the common degree fields are communications, business and social science, so a general studies degree with an emphasis in one of those is well inside the norm for the job.

The thing that decides whether you get hired is previous fundraising experience, which the handbook calls often important, even if in a position other than full-time employment. That's the opening for a general studies student. Volunteer fundraising, a student phone campaign, a drive for a campus organization, all of it counts as the experience an employer wants to see, and none of it needs a particular major. The steps below walk from the emphasis choice through that experience to the first application.

Is a General Studies Degree Enough to Become a Fundraiser?

A general studies degree is enough to become a fundraiser, because the handbook says fundraisers need a bachelor's degree and strong communication and organizational skills, and that they come from a variety of academic backgrounds. The common fields, communications, business and social science, are areas a general studies program can build an emphasis in, so the degree doesn't only clear the gate. It matches the description.

What the handbook says employers look for beyond the degree is experience. Previous fundraising experience is often important, even if in a position other than full-time employment, and that's the piece a general studies student has to plan for. Choose an emphasis in communications for the message writing, and put business or social science alongside it for the data and the planning. Ask the program whether its capstone or its service-learning courses can be a real campaign for a real organization, because a finished campaign with a dollar total is the experience the handbook is describing.

Then add the skills the handbook names: planning and organization for the campaigns and events, plain explanation of the organization's goals for the donors, and comfort with large volumes of data under state and federal rules. None of those is a course title, so you build them by doing. If you're choosing a program, the bachelor's in general studies rankings compare programs on federal graduation and cost figures, and the online bachelor's rankings cover the programs you can finish while volunteering for the organization you'd want to work for.

How Much Does a Fundraiser Make in 2026?

A fundraiser makes a median of $72,550 a year , and most earn between $46,630 to $115,820, the 10th and 90th percentiles, in the May 2025 federal wage survey , which counts 111,040 people in the job. The middle half earn between $57,480 and $92,180, so the median is a midpoint and not an offer.

Pay by state runs from $80,840 in District of Columbia down to $50,190 in Arkansas. The bars below list every state with a published median, highest first, with the number employed there beside each.

Pay for fundraisers by metro area and by industry, with government against private pay, is in the fundraiser salary guide.

What Is the Job Outlook for Fundraisers?

The job outlook for fundraisers is 6 percent projected growth from 2025 to 2035, which the handbook rates faster than the average for all occupations. The reason is structural. Nonprofit organizations have a continued need to collect donations in order to run their operations, and the handbook expects that need to drive the growth. As long as charities run on gifts, they need someone whose job is to bring the gifts in.

About 10,000 openings are projected each year on average over the decade, against 7,800 net new jobs across the whole period, so most openings are replacements for fundraisers who move on. A projection is a projection, and the number will move with the economy. For someone entering now, the practical meaning is that the sector is hiring at a steady clip and the entry ticket is experience rather than a specialty degree. A graduate who ran one real campaign as a volunteer is applying for a job the handbook expects to keep existing.