Nonprofits are all too familiar with the reality of donor churn. No matter how much time, energy, and investments are put into different fundraising strategies, there are always donors who give once and never again.

Long-term fundraising success relies not only on acquiring new donors each year, but keeping the ones you’ve already earned. With the right data, strategies, and technology in place, nonprofits can reduce donor churns and keep their existing donors loyal and committed to the mission for the long haul.

What is Donor Churn?

Donor churn is the percentage of your donors that stop donating to your organization during a specific period of time. It’s the exact opposite of donor retention, or the percentage of supporters that gave to your organization last year and returned to donate again in the current year.

High donor churn rates mean that a nonprofit is consistently losing donors instead of retaining them, and actions need to be taken to keep these donors engaged. Donor churn is a normal part of nonprofit operations and there will inevitably be donors that choose to stop donating, but taking the right steps to keep them committed to your mission will reduce your churn rate and keep loyal donors connected to your organization for longer.

How to Calculate Donor Churn Rate

To calculate the donor churn rate, simply take the number of donors that have stopped giving, and divide that by the total number of donors in your database. Multiply this by 100, and you will have the direct donor churn rate.

For example, if you start the year with 20,000 donors and 200 of them fail to renew their gift over the course of the year, then the donor churn rate would be (200/20,000) x 100, or 1%.

While calculating the overall donor churn rate is important for measuring the overall health of your donor database, consider measuring other donor churn rates as well, such as the first-time donor churn rate and segmented churn rates of different groups, such as your monthly donors, major donors, or those who give in a specific campaign.

Types of Donor Churn

There are two main types of donor churn:

• Voluntary Donor Churn: The donor has made a conscious, active decision to stop contributing to your organization.
• Involuntary Donor Churn: Unintentional donor lost due to technical issues, such as an expired credit card or failed bank transaction that has prevented the recurring payment.

Voluntary donor churn is often caused by donors feeling disconnected from your organization, whether through a lack of communication, feeling undervalued as a donor, or simply a lack of motivation to continue giving again.

Involuntary donor churn is easily preventable, caused by technical issues that can be fixed. The good news with involuntary donor churn is that this is not due to a donor feeling disconnected from your mission, but rather that there is an obstacle blocking them from giving again. Quickly fixing these issues should easily bring these donors back with minimal disruption.

Biggest Causes of Donor Churn

Here are some of the biggest reasons why donors drop off and stop giving to your organization after the first gift:

1. Poor Donor Acknowledgement: If donors do not receive timely and personal follow up after they make their first gift to your organization, there’s a high likelihood that they lose the motivation to donate again. It’s critical to thank your donors immediately after their gift has been made and acknowledge the impact of their contributions on your mission.
2. Generic, Impersonalized Communication: If a donor receives a message that is impersonalized and not connected to them in any way, they may feel disconnected from your organization and gain the impression that they are not a valued member of the community. Personalization is becoming an expectation for donors, and communications need to reference them directly to be noticed.
3. Unclear Impact Reporting: Donors need to see the tangible results of their donations and the impact they have had on furthering the organization’s mission. If it’s unclear to them what their gift is funding, they may not feel motivated to donate again.
4. Weak Donor Segmentation: Poor donor segmentation can cause the wrong messages to be sent to donors. Messy data in your CRM that doesn’t accurately depict a full view of all donor interactions can run the risk of poor donor segmentation when planning communications. For example, if you send an appeal to join your monthly giving program to a donor that is already giving monthly, it can send the message that your organization is unorganized.
5. Lack of Recurring Giving Strategy: Recurring giving is quickly becoming they key to long-term fundraising success for many nonprofits, and should be at the forefront of your fundraising strategy. If there are no clear paths to become a recurring donor on your donation form or in your communications, donors may simply forget or be unaware of how to become a recurring giver.
6. Payment Failures: Failed credit card payments and outdated information can cause highly avoidable involuntary donor churn. When payments fail, be sure to immediately reach out to donors to receive updated credit card information. Also consider a payment processor with advanced billing technology that can conduct automatic payment retries and automatically update credit card information.

Strategies to Reduce Donor Churn

Reducing donor churn requires strategy and a well-thought out plan to keep donors giving repeatedly. Here are 5 strategies to reduce donor churn and keep your donors engaged and committed to your mission.

1. Acknowledge Donors Immediately: Donors should receive acknowledgements and a follow up thanking them for their contribution almost immediately after the gift has been made. Begin with a thank-you email at minimum, expressing your gratitude for the donation. Donors should then be consistently dripped upon with content related to your mission, invitations for other ways that they can get involved, and a gradual ask to continue supporting.
2. Start Impact Reporting Early: As soon as a donor makes a gift to your organization, they should receive communications that highlight the impact of their gift. Consider sharing an impact report with these donors, adding them to your newsletter for consistent updates on your ongoing activities, or even sharing a simple impact statement in your thank you email.
3. Personalize Communications: Personalized communications are no longer a nice to have for donors, they’re an expectation. Generic, impersonal communications are often ignored by donors. When sending communications to your donors, include an element of personalization in each, using information from their donor record to inform the message. Having a full view of your donor database and all their behaviors can help inform what communications are sent to them based on their demographic information, behaviors, and interests.
4. Launch a Recurring Giving Program: Recurring giving is the key to long-term fundraising success, and should be at the forefront of your donor retention and fundraising strategies. By launching a formalized recurring giving program and encouraging your one-time donors to join the program and become loyal supporters, donors will have a clear path to become a recurring donor to your organization.
5. Leverage Marketing Automations: Marketing automations can help guide donors through the correct nurture channels to keep them engaged in the long-term. This article details 13 different marketing automations that you can enter your donors to continue to share information about your organization and encourage them to give again.

Donor churn is an important metric for your organization to track when assessing the overall health of your donor database and fundraising strategy. Taking the right steps to understand where and why donors are dropping off and reduce the numbers of donors who stop giving year over year will help organizations maintain a community of loyal donors who are committed to the organization and mission’s long-term success.