Donor Retention: 11 Proactive Strategies to Build Loyalty

Donor fatigue is on the rise – over 85% of nonprofits identified recurring giving, donor engagement, and year-over-year growth as top challenges, and donor churn is incredibly costly. After all, acquisition gets expensive, and the opportunity cost of missed potential donations can be substantial.

The key to reducing churn isn’t just asking for more gifts. It’s creating authentic donor relationships. When supporters feel seen, appreciated, and connected to your mission, they stay involved and their giving grows.

Donor retention starts with communicating intentionally and making the right asks at the right time. In this guide, we’ll walk through:

• FAQs About Retaining Donors
• Calculating Your Donor Retention Rate
• 11 Impactful Donor Retention Strategies

With the right strategies and tools, it’s easy for teams of any size to tackle stewardship and retention.

FAQs About Retaining Donors

First, let’s answer common questions nonprofits have about retaining their donors.

What is Donor Retention?

Donor retention is the percentage of donors who continue giving to your nonprofit year after year.  It tracks how many supporters come back after their first gift – showing you who is committed to your mission beyond a one-time donation. When donor retention is high, you can trust that your nonprofit has a dedicated group of supporters it can rely on long-term.

Why is Donor Retention Important?

Returning donors are the foundation of sustainable fundraising. If donors only give once, you end up wasting valuable time and resources on acquisition efforts that don’t pay off. For example, imagine that it costs you $50 to acquire a new donor. If that donor gives $20 and never donates again, your organization loses money – and the opportunity for future engagement.

On the other hand, nonprofits with high donor retention rates see repeat donors return to them with less time and money spent. This allows them to dedicate more time to deepening those existing relationships and furthering their mission, rather than consistently trying to educate new donors about their cause. If you spend $50 to acquire a new donor who eventually contributes $2,000 over the next two years, you’re in a much better position.

By investing in donor retention and reducing churn, you’ll build a community of loyal supporters that will significantly enhance your impact over time.

Why Do Donors Lapse?

Your resources and your team’s time are finite. You’re constantly juggling pursuing your mission, reaching new donors, retaining and growing relationships with existing donors, and turning a positive fundraising ROI so that your mission can keep growing. For many organizations, the difficulty of finding the balance between these activities means that stewardship and retention often slip down the to-do list.

Many organizations naturally focus their attention on major donors, since those gifts have an immediate, high financial impact.  But when most stewardship efforts are directed toward top donors, small and mid-level donors can feel overlooked – resulting in preventable lapses.

Plus, small nonprofits with limited resources face an even greater challenge of choosing where to focus their attention to generate the most impact.

What Do You Need to Boost Donor Retention?

Truly sustainable donor retention strategies encompass methods that are scalable, efficient, and easily repeatable in stewarding donors. That’s where technology comes in.

Machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) have become accessible tools you can easily integrate into your existing processes. This technology can streamline or completely eliminate the parts of traditional stewardship activities that typically make them so unfeasible for small or busy teams, such as segmentation for appeals, complicated data analysis, and deciding who to contact and when. This makes it possible to devote more of your attention to sustainable, highly-targeted donor retention efforts.

Beyond machine learning software, other essentials for donor retention include:

• Fundraising and event management software
• A CRM with donation and relationship data
• Outreach tools for email, social media, phone, and text message communications
• Data mining tools to measure donor propensities based on your data

With these tools and resources, you’ll have what you need to start boosting retention thoughtfully and strategically.

Calculating Your Donor Retention Rate

To understand where your nonprofit stands, you need to calculate your year-over-year donor retention rate. This metric tells you how many donors from the previous year gave again the following year.

Choose two consecutive years to analyze, then plug your CRM’s fundraising data into the following formula to calculate donor retention rate:

(Returning Donors in Year 2 / Total Donors in Year 1) x 100 = Donor Retention Rate

For example, let’s say that your nonprofit received donations from 346 individuals in 2024. If 115 of those donors contributed again in 2025, your calculation process would look like this:

• 115 / 346 = 0.332
• 0.332 x 100 = 33.2%

This means your nonprofit has an overall 33.2% retention rate for 2024-2025.

You can dive into this data further by calculating retention rates for specific groups, such as first-time and major donors, and comparing them to the current averages. According to the latest Fundraising Effectiveness Project data, nonprofits retain about 7.1% of new donors and 25.4% of repeat donors on average.

11 Impactful Donor Retention Strategies

If your organization’s retention rates are declining, use these strategies to deepen connections with donors.

1. Maintain a Frictionless Giving Experience

An easy donation experience doesn’t just boost conversions – it builds loyalty. With a user-friendly giving page, you’re much more likely to keep your donors returning year after year.

Today’s donors expect fast, user-friendly online experiences just like the ones they have with their favorite brands.  Your donation page should meet that expectation by making the process quick, clear, and mobile-friendly. With the right donation page software, your organization can:

• Offer giving flexibility: Expand your donation options beyond simple credit card and ACH payments. Accept donations via Apple Pay, Google Pay, and donor-advised funds (DAFs).
• Streamline the giving experience: Make donating simple with mobile-friendly pages and digital wallet payments. Giving with a phone is now faster and easier than ever!
• Simplify the design process: Set up a polished, branded online donation page in minutes, complete with your nonprofit’s logos and style.

Once you’ve optimized your donation page, address other aspects of your organization’s giving experience, such as fundraising events and text-to-give.

The best fundraising software will help you streamline all aspects of giving. The OneCause Fundraising Platform is easy to use with a simple menu that guides supporters through everything from the event homepage to viewing or bidding on live and silent auction items. This navigational ease ensures donors can quickly get the information they need and show their support without any headaches or confusion.

2. Dig Into Past Retention Data

Once you’ve improved your giving processes, investigate the current state of donor retention at your nonprofit. Analyze the data in your CRM to determine last year’s retention rate and compare it with previous years, paying special attention to any declines for specific groups, such as mid-level or major donors. Calculate your average donor lifetime value (LTV), too. This will give you a good idea of how much donors give throughout their entire relationship with your nonprofit.

Using these insights, lay out a vision for improvement. Set specific goals and begin to track your progress toward achieving them. For instance, you might set key performance indicators (KPIs) like:

• Conversion rates for specific fundraising appeals
• Email engagement metrics, like open rate and clickthrough rate
• Change in donor retention rate for a specific group (e.g., mid-level recurring donors)
• Recapture rate for lapsed donors
• Number of phone call responses
• Total touchpoints or moves with prospects before they donate

The exact data points you choose to record will vary depending on the strategies you roll out, and any software you use should help track results. This data should flow into your CRM for easy future reference (and to help your machine learning software continue refining its predictions). Keep adjusting in real time as your metrics and priorities evolve.

3. Identify Immediate Churn Risks

The most immediate drain on your potential revenue is donor churn. To get ahead of it, you’ll have to start identifying at-risk donors before they lapse out of your regular giving program. Retaining at-risk donors can have massive benefits for your bottom line, but the manual process isn’t feasible for most organizations.

Fortunately, AI can point you in the right direction. Rather than trying to figure out exactly who’s at risk of churning on your own, machine learning software can screen your database and identify the deep trends that lead to churn. 

From there, it will rank your donors by their likelihood to stop giving in the near future. These predictions are based on the entirety of your historical data (not just a handful of metrics) and update automatically. When integrated with your CRM, this tool makes it easy to generate a quick list of the most at-risk donors and start proactively engaging them.

4. Reach Out to At-Risk Donors

Don’t ask the donors you’ve identified as churn risks for more money. A poorly-timed ask can be detrimental to your relationships, especially if they’re already on the fence about staying involved. Instead, reach out with other engagement opportunities that keep your mission top-of-mind.

Our top recommendation is to engage with your most at-risk donors via telephone. We’ve found that phone calls are the best way to measurably reduce churn among at-risk donors. Here’s what this process might look like:

1. Use AI to generate lists of at-risk donors on a regular basis.
2. Funnel these at-risk donors into a dedicated “engage and retain” communication cadence. Ideally, this will involve a rolling call program.
3. Contact these donors with simple thank-you messages, updates about your organization, and tangible details about the impact of their gifts. Lean into your storytelling strategies!
4. Repeat your identification and call process monthly or every other month.
5. Track your results and churn KPIs over time.

By backing this type of structure with AI-generated churn likelihood insights, you can see some serious improvements to your donor retention rates.

From there, you can continually build on your retention program to streamline long-term contact. For example, once you’ve called an at-risk donor to reinforce your relationship and express your gratitude, you’ll need to stay in touch. Try creating a dedicated retention email stream designed to boost long-term engagement with more impact stories, event invites, and constituent updates.

5. Create a Retention Cadence and Stick to It

Develop a communication cadence specifically for reaching out to at-risk donors via phone calls, emails, event invites, and other channels. You can build out the phone call process from the last section and add more engagement opportunities – just don’t ask for another donation for a while.

Each interaction should reinforce your appreciation. Thank the donor for their past support, highlight the impact they’ve helped make, and ask if they have any questions or feedback. This kind of pressure-free, people-first outreach goes a long way in reminding donors that they are valued and that their contributions matter.

The beauty of this AI-driven approach is that it’s efficient and feasible for nonprofits of any size. Personal outreach would typically be a time-consuming and unsustainable use of your team’s time, but AI-generated lists give you the focus and prioritization that traditional approaches lack. This same approach works for donation upgrades and stewarding high-value donors (which we cover below!).

6. Offer More Long-Term Engagement Options

Concrete re-engagement strategies will give you an invaluable foundation for reducing churn, but you should also take steps to address the root causes of disengagement. In many cases, churn is driven by a lack of diverse engagement opportunities.

If you only ever ask supporters to donate and don’t take steps to actively promote your other activities and programs, they might begin feeling disengaged or unvalued. To avoid this risk and boost long-term donor retention, make sure your donors have more ways to engage with your nonprofit than just making donations.

Give them plenty of opportunities to stay involved over the long run, such as:

• Volunteer opportunities: Volunteers are the heart of any nonprofit. Let your existing donors know about upcoming chances to get hands-on with your work, and emphasize that it’s a great way to turn interest into action.
• Membership or VIP programs: Shout out your membership or VIP program if you have one. Explain the perks and exclusive benefits so supporters can see how joining adds extra value to their experience with your organization.
• Upcoming events or initiatives: Let your guests know about your upcoming community events and any new initiatives to keep them excited and engaged.
• Peer-to-peer fundraising opportunities: Empower donors to participate in the fundraising process with peer-to-peer campaigns. Provide resources to launch both time-bound campaigns and DIY-style giving pages to activate all types of social donors.

Design promotional strategies to ensure that your donors actually hear about these opportunities. After all, an exciting event or social media contest isn’t worth much for your retention efforts if donors don’t know about it.

7. Create Memorable Event Experiences

Hosting relevant, engaging events should be a cornerstone of your donor retention strategy. Events are one of the best ways to drive long-term loyalty – just take a look at these findings from our 2025 State of Nonprofit Auctions Report:

• 82% of auction guests said they would attend another event in the future.
• 83% said they were likely to become an annual donor.
• 64% of attendees said they were likely to become a monthly donor.
• 91% of guests said they were likely to make a one-time donation within 12 months after the auction.

Clearly, supporters who engage with nonprofit events like auctions are much more likely to continue giving long-term. These sentiments show that donors are not only seeking smooth donation experiences. They also want to attend memorable events that will set the bar high for future involvement.

To maximize engagement with your organization’s events, leverage event software that’s built to power the most successful fundraising events. Platforms like the OneCause Fundraising Platform include innovative tools like mobile bidding, dynamic ticketing, AI-powered auction recommendations, online fundraising tools, and more.

Using best-in-class tools to create exciting, unique experiences at your event can ignite enthusiasm and foster a deeper emotional connection with your donors.

8. Survey Current Donors

Whether you’ve just hosted a new event or launched your at-risk donor outreach program, retention surveys can help you gauge their success and get actionable insights directly from donors.

Ask donors for their direct feedback with open-ended survey questions. Once you’ve re-engaged an at-risk donor, try sending them a survey to learn more about how they like to engage with your mission and what types of messages are the most meaningful to them. These surveys are valuable from both an individual standpoint and for engaging your donor base as a whole.

Combine these insights with quantitative data on your retention strategies to get the full picture:

• Which events and outreach communications worked best?
• Which fell flat?
• How is your retention rate changing over time?

A robust CRM platform that integrates with your various engagement tools will make it easy to answer questions like these.

9. Personalize All Communications

Personalization can take your donor retention strategy to the next level. There are many small yet impactful ways to forge lasting connections through personalized outreach. Something as simple as referring to your donor by name or referencing one of their interests can go a long way toward building a lasting relationship!

Use the following best practices to get started

• Sort through your donor data (or leverage AI to do it for you) and begin segmenting donors based on their giving and engagement history. For example, if they’ve previously participated in your spring run/walk/ride, be sure to include them in this year’s outreach.
• Use multiple channels. To maximize engagement, leverage a multichannel approach in your outreach and follow-up. Keep your messaging consistent across every platform.
• Continue to engage donors year-round. Encourage interaction in your outreach to foster a sense of community all year. Use social media polls, feedback surveys, and other interactive content to remind donors about your ongoing work.

Don’t stop with online communications, either. At events, encourage your volunteers or staff to warmly greet each guest by name during registration. Engage donors in friendly, personal conversations throughout the evening. As the event wraps up, station volunteers at the exit to personally thank guests for their support and participation.

Beyond boosting retention, these strategies will also keep your mission at the top of supporters’ minds.

10. Showcase Impact Often

According to the Giving Experience Study, knowing that their donations would make a difference was the number one reason supporters gave. Additionally, 38% of donors said they were motivated because it was clear the organization used funds wisely, and 26% listed impact communications as a top reason for giving.

This data proves that showcasing your nonprofit’s impact is a core part of donor retention. To share the good your nonprofit has accomplished and keep donors coming back, try these ideas:

• Share success stories: Consider featuring a beneficiary or their family who can share how your cause has made a difference in their life when updating donors.
• Provide updates throughout the year: Keep the momentum going year-round by giving regular updates on fundraising progress, program impact, and your latest initiatives.
• Use visual aids to showcase impact: Include infographics along with impactful images of your staff, volunteers, or beneficiaries to illustrate how your mission is making a difference.

Impact communications are also a natural place to remind donors how much you appreciate them. Genuine recognition and appreciation can amplify your donor retention efforts even more, so don’t hesitate to thank donors often.

11. Keep an Eye Out For Upgrade Opportunities

The same tools that help you spot at-risk donors can also help you uncover supporters who are ready to give more. Strengthening donor retention isn’t just about preventing churn — it’s also about recognizing when loyal donors are primed for deeper involvement.

Run AI measurements of donors’ likelihood to join your recurring giving program or to upgrade their existing donation if they’ve already joined. Machine learning software can analyze all the trends that have historically led to larger gifts for your organization and generate lists of individuals likely to make a mid-size or major gift in the coming year.

With a list of individuals who have upgrade potential, put together an email or direct mail appeal explaining the benefits and impact of increased support. From there, you can confidently kickstart the cultivation process.

Major gift cultivation is always a highly personal, one-on-one task, which shouldn’t change. However, using AI to refine your prospect lists beforehand can take the guesswork out of growing your giving program over time. It lets you focus on making the asks most likely to generate results rather than sending everyone a blanket request to upgrade.

Retain More Donors with the OneCause Fundraising Platform

Your nonprofit should view donor churn as a solvable problem, not an unavoidable reality. Donor retention is crucial to the long-term success and health of any nonprofit, and there are plenty of direct steps you can take to improve it. By leveraging innovative tools like OneCause and creating memorable involvement opportunities, you can foster deeper connections and encourage donors to stay involved with your organization year-round.

If you’re looking for more insight as you build out your retention strategies, check out these additional resources from our team:

• eBook: Ultimate Nonprofit Guide to Donor Retention. For a deeper dive into the donor retention strategies we discussed, download our free eBook.
• How to Engage Today’s Donors: 7 Donor Engagement Ideas. Retaining donors takes a variety of strategic outreach methods. Learn how to better engage today’s donors here.
• 14 Top Fundraising Software Tools to Maximize Giving. Explore the latest and greatest advancements in fundraising technology and how these tools can improve your donor retention efforts.