How does your donor retention stack up?

Have you taken a close look at your donor retention from last year?

Specifically, you want to discover what percentage of your donors from 2 years ago gave a gift in the past year or so far in the current year.

Measuring your retention rates each year is hugely important because it’s a critical indicator of whether your fundraising is improving… or not.

Some donor management systems have started calculating this automatically which is certainly handy.

But you’ll want to make sure you take the time to measure and write down the difference from year-to-year. This is a more important measure than even comparing your organization to non-profit sector-wide retention rates.

In case you need to understand exactly what this measurement entails, here’s a quick reminder of how to calculate your own retention rates:

  1. From your database, find the number unique donors (not gifts) in the calendar year two years prior. In current year 2027, you’ll want the number of unique donors in 2025. Count each donor only once.

  2. Query donors who gave in both years two years prior and the prior year (donors who gave in 2025 and 2026).

  3. Take your answer from #2 and divide by your answer to #1; multiply by 100. Add a % sign.

  4. This is your retention rate for the prior year – The % of donors from 2 years prior who renewed their giving the next year.

For example, let’s say we had 1100 unique donors in 2025. Of those donors, 640 also gave in 2026.

[640/1100 =.581] x 100 = 58.1]  Our 2026 retention rate would be 58%, which we calculate in 2027.

Compare Yourself to Others

Once you’ve found your retention rate, you’ll want to get a sense of how you compare with other nonprofits. You can find this in the Fundraising Effectiveness Project.

Other Important Things-to-Do in the First Quarter of the Year

In addition to calculating your retention rate for the prior year, I’m also a huge advocate of the annual donor review, which ideally should be done in February of each year (but any time is a good time!). This uncovers trends and helps you understand the gift potential within your donor database. What you learn through this process informs your individual fundraising strategy for the coming year.

In the world of nonprofit fundraising, February is the time to take a break from the intensity of year-end. But there is important work to be done this month.  It’s the perfect time to schedule a quiet day, grab a coffee, and take a look at what happened over the past year. Then you’ll be able to determine where you want to go in the year ahead.