TLDR
Donor retention reporting calculates year-over-year retention by cohort, produces LYBUNT and SYBUNT lists on demand, tracks each donor through a defined lifecycle (new, active, lapsing, lapsed, reactivated), and scores lapse risk using recency and frequency. The numbers are computed on live gift history, so the retention rate on a board report matches the retention rate a development director pulls the morning of the meeting.
Donor retention reporting calculates year-over-year retention by cohort, produces LYBUNT and SYBUNT lists on demand, tracks each donor through a defined lifecycle (new, active, lapsing, lapsed, reactivated), and scores lapse risk using recency and frequency. The numbers are computed on live gift history, so the retention rate on a board report matches the retention rate a development director pulls the morning of the meeting.
TL;DR
- Year-over-year retention cohorts using AFP methodology
- LYBUNT and SYBUNT lists generate on request, not on a monthly batch
- Five-stage donor lifecycle with configurable criteria
- Lapse risk scoring based on each donor’s own giving cadence
- Segmentation by acquisition channel, program, and gift level
What this feature does
Retention reporting is how you know whether the money you spent to acquire donors last year is still giving this year. It is the single metric that separates development programs that compound from programs that churn. GrantPipe computes the retention metrics the AFP Fundraising Effectiveness Project publishes: overall retention, new-donor retention, repeat-donor retention, and monthly-donor retention, all on your actual gift history.
How it works
- Gift history is tagged to fiscal year, acquisition channel, program designation, and gift level
- Each donor’s lifecycle stage recomputes nightly against their own cadence
- Retention cohorts compute on demand; a typical pull is three seconds
- LYBUNT and SYBUNT lists apply suppression flags (do-not-solicit, deceased, board-excluded) at export
- Lapse risk scores update nightly using recency and frequency relative to personal history
- Export to CSV or push to an outreach queue for stewardship action
Who it’s for
Development directors who report retention to the board quarterly and cannot reconcile the number with the one from last quarter. Executive directors evaluating whether a capital campaign is retaining its acquired donors. Annual fund managers who need the LYBUNT list on the first of the month without waiting for a database administrator.
Who it’s for
Stewardship coordinators running win-back campaigns who need an accurate lapsing list, not a stale extract. Finance leads projecting individual giving revenue for the next twelve months against actual retention rates rather than aspirational assumptions.
Why GrantPipe built it this way
Retention rates are easy to get wrong in three ways: inconsistent fiscal year definition, uncounted recurring gifts, and snapshot-vs-live reporting mismatches. The architectural decision was to treat retention as a computed view, not a stored table. Every query runs against the source gift records with a single canonical fiscal year definition per organization. Recurring gifts roll up to annualized figures automatically. There is no nightly snapshot that can go stale; there is no export that can drift from the source. The tradeoff is that a retention query is slightly more expensive than a stored rollup; the benefit is that two people asking the same question always get the same answer.
What it replaces
- The annual retention calculation done manually in a spreadsheet from a gift export
- The LYBUNT list that required a database admin ticket
- The donor CRM that reports retention but cannot explain which cohort drove the change
- The board slide that says retention is 52 percent without showing which segment is pulling the average
- The reactivation campaign that went to deceased donors because suppression was not enforced at export
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Source: AFP Fundraising Effectiveness Project 2024 Quarterly Reports
Source: Giving USA 2024
Q&A
What is a good donor retention rate?
The AFP Fundraising Effectiveness Project reports overall donor retention around 43 percent and first-time donor retention around 20-25 percent across the sector. Rates above 50 percent overall and above 30 percent for new donors are strong signals.
Q&A
How do retention cohorts help planning?
Cohorts reveal whether a campaign that acquired 500 donors in 2023 is still worth the CAC two years later. If retention of that cohort drops below 15 percent by year two, the channel underperforms and budget should shift.
Q&A
How often do reports refresh?
Retention cohorts and lapse risk scores recompute nightly. LYBUNT and SYBUNT lists recompute on request so they reflect gifts posted through the previous close.
Q&A
Can donors be suppressed from lists?
Yes. Do-not-solicit, deceased, and board-excluded flags suppress donors from LYBUNT, SYBUNT, and outreach exports. Suppression is enforced at export, not after.
Frequently asked