Donor Retention Analysis

The goal of your acquisition efforts is to turn new donors into retained supporters who give again and again for the long term. To analyze how many donors give year-over-year and their giving, refer to the metrics under Development Overview, Retention from Analysis, Dashboards.

Tip: By default, the metrics under Retention include all constituents.

Under Year-to-date retention, you can quickly analyze donors 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%.

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 with less cash-in-hand giving than last year's retained donors.

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.

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.