Learn About Donor Retention Metrics

How engaged are your donors? Do they come back year after year? Are you seeing the impacts of your fundraising and outreach efforts in bringing back lapsed donors? Donor retention metrics in your MonkeyPod can provide valuable insights to answer these types of questions and help you to build stronger relationships with your supporters!

What are MonkeyPod's donor retention metrics?

Donor retention metrics examine the percentage of donors who give from one year to the next, and the amount given. A high donor retention rate means you're doing a great job stewarding these important relationships. 

MonkeyPod provides four areas for you to evaluate your donor retention:

• Retention Metrics
• Monthly Donors
• LYBUNT (Last Year But Unfortunately Not This year)
• SYBUNT (Some Year But Unfortunately Not This year).

Where can I find donor retention metrics in my MonkeyPod?

From the Reports menu, choose Donor Retention.

When examining donor retention, first choose the time period you're interested in. Use the controls at the top of the page to select a specific date range, or choose the option for "Past 12 Months" or "Fiscal YTD" .

Next, explore the tabs for "Retention Metrics", "Monthly Donors", "LYBUNT" and "SYBUNT" to learn about your donors' engagement for that time period.

How do I interpret the retention metrics?

On the "Retention Metrics" tab, there are a number of insights into your donors' engagement with your organization.

Baseline: The "Baseline" section shows the number of unique donors and the amount raised for the matching time period prior to the range you specified. This is used for comparison to see if retention has improved or not.

Retention: The "Retention" section includes the complete set of metrics for donors from the selected time period. Definitions for these sections are listed below.

• Donors Retained: A donor has at least one donation, pledge, or grant during the selected time period and also during the baseline period.
• % Retained: Retained donors as a percentage of unique donors from the baseline period. (# (Donors Retained / # Unique donors)
• Raised from Retained Donors: Donations, pledges, and grants received during the selected date range by donors who also donated during the prior (baseline) period.
• Re-engaged Donors: Donors with at least one donation, pledge, or grant before the prior time period and again during the selected date range, but not in the interim period. These donors lapsed for an entire period but have resumed donations.
• Donations from Re-engaged Donors: Donations, pledges, and grants received during the selected date range by existing donors who did not give during the prior (baseline) period.
• First-Time Donors: Supporters who donated for the first time during the selected date range.
• Donations from First-Time Donors: Donations, pledges, and grants received during the selected date range by first-time donors.

Want to take a deep dive into the details behind the summary numbers? Just click the corresponding "Download" link, and choose what information you would like included the generated spreadsheet.

Monthly donors

Monthly donors are a special category of supporters who show an ongoing, reliable commitment to your organization.

The "Monthly Donors" tab displays a list of all of your monthly donors, their donation amount, and the date of their first and latest donations. You can also filter your list of monthly donors by their status ("Active" or "Ended"), or by their name, organization or email.

MonkeyPod displays the monthly total for these donations as well. You may view the annual total by clicking the link to "View by year".

Note: In MonkeyPod, "monthly donors" are specifically defined as those who give "recurring donations" each month. For more information about setting up recurring donations in your MonkeyPod, see How to Record a Recurring Donation.

Lapsed donors: LYBUNT / SYBUNT

The "LYBUNT" and "SYBUNT" tabs refer to two metrics commonly used to evaluate donor retention. They can be incredibly valuable for segmenting your donors and developing targeted retention and engagement strategies.

• LYBUNT: A LYBUNT report (i.e. "last year but unfortunately not this" year) lists donors who gave in the prior fiscal year but have not yet contributed during the current fiscal year. This is a great group to focus on as you work toward improving donor retention by re-engaging donors before too much time has elapsed.
• SYBUNT: A SYBUNT report (i.e. "some year but unfortunately not this" year) lists donors who gave before the prior fiscal year but did not contribute last year and have not yet contributed during the current fiscal year. This report is helpful to identify and re-engage lapsed donors.

Once you have your list of lapsed donors you should consider reengaging them before asking for another donation, particularly if they haven't donated for a few years.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I improve my organization's donor retention?

Improving your donor retention metrics is a smart and cost-effective way to boost your fundraising. Send a survey to lapsed donors to ask about their interests and why they donated in the past. Or send an impact update about a specific program or campaign that resonated with them. Or thank them for their previous donation and inform them about the latest news of your mission. You could even add your lapsed donors to a pipeline for moves management and tracking.

How can I reach out to lapsed donors via email campaigns or track them using pipelines?

Use MonkeyPod's Advanced Search to identify your lapsed donors and send them targeted emails to bring them back into the fold.

1. From the main menu, choose Relationships > Advanced Search.
2. Select the "Financial Activity" filter and choose the following "Contribution" settings:

• For LYBUNT: Set contributions to "At Least $1.00 Last Fiscal Year", click "And Also" and add "At Most $0.00 This Fiscal Year".

• For SYBUNT: Set contributions to "At Least $1.00 Lifetime", click "And Also" and add "At Most $0.00 This Fiscal Year".

4. If you want to include just donors (or exclude relationships with certain roles), select the "Roles" filter at the top of the page and make your selections there to refine your list.
5. Review your list of lapsed donors displayed at the bottom of the page.
6. Click "Subscribe to Mailing List" to engage these donors via an email campaign. Or click "Add All to Pipeline" for moves management and tracking.

Check out How to Make Email Campaigns and How to Use Pipelines for more information!

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