Lapsed or Dormant? Leveraging Statistical Analysis in Fundraising

Addressing this issue highlights a critical yet subtle difference between a dormant donor and a lapsed donor. While a nonprofit organization can re-engage a dormant donor through its development activities, such as direct marketing, a lapsed donor does not respond to these efforts. Given that these fundraising efforts incur a cost, resources are better allocated to those donors who are dormant rather than spent on donors who have truly lapsed. The key is to distinguish between these two types of donors based on the information available to the organization.