Donor Retention: Why It's Decreasing and 5 Things You Can Do About It

In 2024, donor retention continued to decrease. The Fundraising Effectiveness Project shows that through 2024’s third quarter — the latest data available — 2024 is on pace to be the fourth year of this trend. Now that 2025 is in full swing, it is important to take a beat and consider why this is and what fundraisers can do to turn this trend around. 

Donors Are Complex

Donors are people, and people respond and react to society. This means they are constantly evolving as society evolves. I try to find time to keep a running list of all of the things that have changed in society over the past 10 years and how those changes impact philanthropic giving. Many of these changes were accelerated by COVID-19. These things may seem like they are not connected to donations and people’s desire or ability to support the missions they care about, but they all play a role. Here are a few examples:

Church attendance has declined. Declining church attendance not only decreases the exposure of faith-based nonprofits but also decreases the understanding of problems within someone's immediate community. 

The Silent Generation is declining. Baby boomers and millennials have different driving forces than the Silent Generation who lived through world wars and grew up without computers and cellphones. These things matter as data shows their giving and behaviors are different from previous generations.

Mobile device usage is increasing. The increase in mobile device usage means that people expect immediacy. It also often means that people are transacting through digital wallets and placing trust in  organizations asking for their support via visual cues — secure donation graphics, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates, charity rating badges, etc. 

Children are staying home longer. Children staying home longer means discretionary spending with boomers and older millennials has been reduced as utility bills, groceries, etc., are higher with more people are in the house all the time. 

Pondering society and how it has changed allows us to examine fundraising and how it has changed. It shows reasons donor retention is decreasing and sheds light on what we can do about it. 

What You Can Do

Here’s my list of five impactful things that nonprofits are doing today to increase retention and build strong donor communities.

1. Show Real Impact

People connect to causes emotionally and then justify their support rationally, so try to use and real photos and videos with faces shown to tell your story. Show what you do instead of just telling it and use engaging media that people can easily digest in your communications. Remember people need to connect with you before they will continue to give you their hard-earned dollars.  

The Holy Family Hospital Foundation does a great job of this. Its social media feeds and website are media-heavy resources that show the organization’s impact. 

Related story: The Impact Report: A Vital Tool in the Nonprofit’s Toolbox

2. Show Gratitude

Donors support causes that they want to see succeed. They are often not on the frontlines to experience the daily impact that refuels their helper’s high. Therefore it falls to nonprofits to show gratitude and ensure their supporters feel like they are an important part of the solution. 

There are times throughout the year and the donor journey where this makes sense — after a donation, nearing 12 months since a previous donation, Thanksgiving, etc. Showing gratitude does not have to take a ton of time but does require a certain level of thoughtfulness. 

The Nature Conservancy does a great job connecting with and showing donors their impact at key moments. These personalized communications go a long way to making donors feel like they are doing more than making a donation. 

3. Provide Payment Options

As more audiences move online, it’s important to include payment options that people feel comfortable transacting through. Venmo can increase the conversion rate of donation pages, digital wallets are used for a large portion of gifts, and cryptocurrency is becoming more mainstream leading to nonprofits like Save the Children accept cryptocurrency donations. 

4. Make Communication a Two-Way Street

People support causes they care about and nonprofits they have a relationship with. This takes time and requires two-way communication. 

No Kid Hungry, a program from Share Our Strength, does a great job at creating a conversion on social media through a robust community engagement program. As a result, the organization is able to increase the reach and engagement on its posts. This leads to a true community of supporters who believe in their mission and have a relationship with the nonprofit. 

5. Create Non-Monetary Opportunities

Similar to showing gratitude, it’s important to ensure that communication with donors provides opportunities outside of just monetary gifts to support the causes. 

All gifts matter, so ensuring that thank-you emails and pages on the website make it easy for donors to share their support of your mission. One strategy that I’ve seen more recently is organizations asking donors to share a short video about why they gave and why the mission matters. TechnoServe, an organization that fights poverty around the globe, does this. 

The organization used the videos as part of an email campaign leading up to GivingTuesday. Donor stories can create a sense of fear of missing out (FOMO) and encourage others to make a gift. This approach provides existing donors the opportunity to increase their value but also creates user-generated content that can help a nonprofit’s communications team immensely.   

There are more than 1.8 million nonprofits in the U.S. This means there is a lot of competition for donors and dollars. Nonprofits that connect with people and invest in building relationships with them retain donors. This takes effort. It takes thought. It takes time. 

I do not believe that society cares less about the missions to which so many people dedicate their lives.  I believe people’s definition of philanthropy is changing and the ways people give are changing and the competition around causes is increasing. But fundraisers, when they take a step back and look at the landscape, can build strong, robust donor files that can propel the organizations for which they work forward for many years to come.  

The preceding post was provided by an individual unaffiliated with NonProfit PRO. The views expressed within do not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of NonProfit PRO.