Crash Course in Retaining Donors

With the average cost of getting a new donor being five times greater than retaining an existing one, you need a plan for retaining your donors for the longevity of your mission.

This guide shares more on what you can do to steward existing donors to inspire them to donate year after year. Read on for the basics of donor retention and retention strategies for your organization to implement.

Donor Retention 101

In a recent poll, we asked nonprofits what their current donor retention rate was, and the majority—six in 10—didn’t know the answer.

Regardless of what that number looks like at your organization, statistically, retaining an existing donor is far less expensive than acquiring a new donor.

Higher retention rates statistically mean higher fundraising totals. Now is the time to understand what you can do to influence retention rates!

How to track retention rates

The formula for tracking your organization’s donor retention is pretty simple. To calculate your donor retention rate, you need to know how many people donated to your organization each year and how many repeat donors you had. Divide the number of repeat donors from year two by the number of total donors the year before. This gives you the percentage of people who returned to give.

This exercise may take time and could involve a bit of manual work depending on the capabilities of your CRM. But, with this information, you’ll learn so much about your support network such as which donors are most invested in your mission or what motivates your donors. Plus, you’ll gain insight into those who dropped, all so you can best communicate with and steward your supporters.

GiveSmart Donor CRM is the simple, donor-centered solution to move your mission forward.

From large, global non-profits to smaller, local operations, we've helped them all meet and exceed their fundraising goals. Our Donor CRM is the simple, donor-centered solution to best enable tracking, stewardship, and retention.

Check out a recent demo webinar today:

Looking for an automated way to track donor retention? Request a walkthrough of GiveSmart’s Donor CRM today!

An ongoing effort

Aside from the cost savings, why should organizations invest time into learning about why donors continue to give or don’t?

Top 3 Reasons Donors Don’t Give Again

#1 They were never thanked for their donation

#2 Not asked to give again

#3 They received no information on how their money made an impact. ₃

Most major gifts are made after a donor has consistently given to an organization for about five years. And, those whose gift amounts that are higher tend to be most willing to give again. Knowing that, make sure to segment your donor population by gift amount to best strategically target your donors to encourage them to further support your mission.

Existing donors can be persuaded to upgrade their giving, make additional donations, volunteer, become a member, purchase merchandise, become champion peer-to-peer fundraisers, plan legacy gifts, and more.