Donor Retention Analysis

Under Year-to-date retention, you can quickly analyze constituents who gave gifts of any type — excluding soft credits — during both the current and previous fiscal years — and their giving — compared to the previous fiscal year.

• Retained donors — How many of the current year's donors gave gifts of any type — excluding soft credits — during the previous year.

• Donor retention rate — How many of the previous year's donors — as a percentage — gave again during the current year.

• Retained revenue — How much your retained donors gave — in total — during the current year.

• Revenue retention rate — How the Retained revenue amount compares to the previous year's overall giving from retained donors. For example, if last year's retained donors gave $1M, and you've received $500K from this year's retained donors, your retained revenue rate is 50%.

• LYBUNT donors — How many constituents gave "Last Year, But Unfortunately Not This" year. These at-risk or lapsing donors — who gave during the previous fiscal year but not yet during the current year — are good candidates for retention efforts.

  Tip: LYBUNT donors may still consider their giving as recent and not truly be at risk. Carefully craft your messaging with these donors to not offend your loyal supporters. For more information, see Donor Attrition.

Tip: For deeper analysis, use these metrics in tandem. For example, to determine giving trends of your retained donors, compare Donor retention rate to Revenue retention rate; if the donor retention rate is high but the retained revenue rate is low, many of last year's donors give again during the current year, but in smaller gift amounts than last year's retained donors.

To view a list of retained donors or their gifts, select the Retained donors total or Retained revenue amount. For a list of donors to include in retention efforts, select the LYBUNT donors total. For further analysis, select Create list to open the list in Lists, where you can apply additional filters, choose columns, and save for future reuse. For more information, see Lists.

Gaining a new donor is great, but keeping that donor year-over-year is even better. To help gauge how well you retain newly acquired donors, you can analyze those who gave their first gift — of any type — during the previous fiscal year and again during current year under First year donor retention (Year to date).

• Retained donors — How many of the current year's donors gave their first gift — of any type — during the previous year.

• Donor retention rate — How many of the previous year's first-year donors — as a percentage — gave again during the current year.

• Retained revenue — How much your newly retained donors gave — in total — during the current year.

• Revenue retention rate — How the Retained revenue amount compares to the previous year's overall giving from retained first-year donors. For example, if last year's newly retained donors gave $1M, and you've received $500K from this year's retained first-time donors, your retained revenue rate is 50%.

• LYBUNT donors — How many first-year donors gave "Last Year, But Unfortunately Not This" year. These at-risk or lapsing donors — who gave their first gift during the previous fiscal year but not yet during the current year — are good candidates for retention efforts.

Tip: For deeper analysis, use these metrics in tandem. For example, to determine giving trends of your newly retained donors, compare Donor retention rate to Revenue retention rate; if the donor retention rate is high but the retained revenue rate is low, many of last year's first-time donors give again during the current year, but with less cash-in-hand giving than last year's newly retained donors.

To view a list of your newly retained donors or their gifts, select the Retained donors total or Retained revenue amount. For a list of constituents to include in retention efforts, select the LYBUNT donors total. For further analysis, select Create list to open the list in Lists, where you can apply additional filters, choose columns, and save for future reuse. For more information, see Lists.

Under Year-over-year donor retention, you can compare the Donor retention rate percentage under Year-to-date retention to retention over the previous two fiscal years. To help keep donors engaged, assign them to fundraisers who can provide regular interaction and chances for involvement. If this year's retention rate takes a downward trend compared to previous years', see Donor Acquisition and Retention for suggestions to help acquire and retain donors.

Under Year-over-year revenue retention, you can compare the Revenue retention rate percentage under Year-to-date retention to giving from retained donors over the previous two fiscal years. As you compare annual giving, set realistic goals and keep in mind any windfalls from previous years that you shouldn't expect to replicate, such as an unusually large one-time major gift.

Note: This report is based on the lifecycle status of the donor and will not update with gift filters.

To track retention over the past five years rather than by fiscal year, analyze how many donors are considered retained — as of each month — under Rolling donor retention. As with the donor lifecycle status, these retained donors gave within 12 to 15 months since their previous gift. If retention starts to take a downward trend, see Donor Acquisition and Retention for suggestions to help retain donors.

Tip: To gauge retention compared to other stages of the donor lifecycle, see Donor Lifecycle Analysis.

To view a list of the donors considered retained as of a specific month, select its data point. For further analysis, select Create list to open the list in Lists, where you can apply additional filters, choose columns, and save for future reuse. For more information, see Lists.