Advancement · Community & Giving

Who gave again.
Who did not.

Paste last year’s and this year’s giving by donor ID. The page sorts every donor into new, recaptured, upgraded, same, downgraded or lapsed, sets the gains against the losses, and hands you the list to call first.

Open the dashboardWhat you get
$19one-time · every device you sign in on
Buy · $19

Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Or get it in the Development and giving kit, $39 for 19 items.

The retention dashboard

The worked example is made up: 150 donor records from an annual fund, 100 of whom gave in FY25 and 83 in FY26. Type over it, or start blank.

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What you get

Advancement · Community & Giving$19 · included with Classroom and Whole-school licenses

What you finish with
Donor retention overall, for first-time donors and for repeat donors; the recapture rate; the share of last year’s dollars retained; donors and dollars gained against donors and dollars lost, with the net; every donor placed in one category (new, recaptured, upgraded, same, downgraded, lapsed after a first gift, lapsed repeat); retention by gift size; an estimate of what a few more points of retention would have brought in; and the lists to act on, largest first. Year pairs can be saved and compared. Prints a report and downloads every donor with a category as a spreadsheet.
Who it is for
Directors of development and advancement, annual fund and database managers, heads of school and executive directors, and board development committees at schools and nonprofits. Donor IDs only; the page refuses a name.
Format
Browser tool. Paste the giving data and the results update as you type. Prints a report; downloads spreadsheets (.csv); export and import a file.
Access
$19 one-time, yours on every device you sign in on; the tool opens once you are signed in with it. Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Also in the Development and giving kit ($39) and the Advancement Suite pass ($99), and 1 more bundle. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The Community & Giving space in Caveat Advancement.
Support
Questions, a correction or a request: team@caveatacademic.com.

How to use it

  1. From your donor database, export one line per donor with four columns: the donor ID, everything given before last year, last year’s total and this year’s total. Leave names and addresses out.
  2. Paste the lines into the box and name the two years.
  3. Read retention for first-time donors beside repeat donors, then the gains against the losses. The gap between them is usually where the work is.
  4. Open Donors. Lapsed lists last year’s largest gifts first; Gave less and New follow. Download the categories and load them back into your database as a call list.
  5. Save the pair of years. Next year, paste the new export and compare the two under Saved.

Open the dashboard

How the numbers are made

Every donor lands in one category; the rates and the dollars follow from the counts.

1 Sort every donorGave in FY25100 donors$31,775Gave again45 retained15 up · 20 same · 10 downDid not give55 lapsed31 after a first giftGave in FY2683 donors$23,63045 retained + 30 new+ 8 recaptured2 RetentionDonor retention45 ÷ 100 = 45.0%gave both years ÷ gave last yearDollars retained$18,105 ÷ $31,775 = 57%their FY26 gifts ÷ all FY25 gifts3 Gains against losses, in dollarsGains$7,950$5,525 new and back + $2,425 upgradesLosses$16,095lapsed $15,450 + downgrades $645$7,950 − $16,095 = −$8,145, the change from $31,775 to $23,630.1 Sort every donorGave in FY25100 donors$31,775Gave again45 retained15 up, 20 same, 10 downDid not give55 lapsed31 after a first giftGave in FY2683 donors45 retained + 30 new + 8 recaptured2 RetentionDonor retention45 ÷ 100 = 45.0%gave both years ÷ gave last yearDollars retained$18,105 ÷ $31,775 = 57%their FY26 gifts ÷ all FY25 gifts3 Gains against lossesGains$7,950new + recaptured + upgradesLosses$16,095lapsed + downgradesNet −$8,145: $31,775 to $23,630.
The worked example: 45 of 100 FY25 donors gave again. New and recaptured donors and upgrades brought in $7,950; lapsed donors and smaller gifts took away $16,095.

The categories

A donor who gave in both years is retained, and is upgraded, same or downgraded by whether this year’s total is more than, equal to or less than last year’s. A donor who gave last year and not this year is lapsed: lapsed new if last year was their first gift, lapsed repeat otherwise. A donor who gave this year and not last year is new if they never gave before and recaptured if they did. These are the categories the Fundraising Effectiveness Project reports.

The rates

Donor retention is the donors who gave in both years divided by the donors who gave last year. The page works it three ways: for everyone, for donors whose first gift was last year, and for donors who had given before. Dollars retained is what retained donors gave this year divided by everything given last year. The recapture rate is the donors who came back divided by the earlier donors in your file who skipped last year.

For scale: the Fundraising Effectiveness Project’s quarterly reports have put overall donor retention in the low to mid 40 percent range in recent years, with first-time donors kept at roughly half that rate. Your own trend matters more than the national figure.

Gains and losses

Gains are this year’s gifts from new and recaptured donors plus the increases from upgrades. Losses are last year’s gifts from lapsed donors plus the decreases from downgrades. Gains minus losses always equals the change in revenue, and the build checks that identity on the worked example. Seeing the two sides apart shows whether a flat year hid heavy churn.

The estimate of what more retention is worth multiplies the extra donors by the average gift of the donors who did come back. It is a planning figure, not a forecast.

Sources

  1. Fundraising Effectiveness Project (Association of Fundraising Professionals Foundation for Philanthropy and GivingTuesday Data Commons). Quarterly Fundraising Reports: definitions of donor retention, new and repeat donor retention, recapture and dollars retained, and recent national rates.
  2. Association of Fundraising Professionals and the Urban Institute. Fundraising Effectiveness Survey Report (annual). The gain and loss categories used here: new, recaptured, upgraded, same, downgraded, lapsed new and lapsed repeat.
  3. Sargeant, A. (2001). Relationship fundraising: How to keep donors loyal. Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 12(2), 177–192.
  4. Sargeant, A., & Jay, E. (2004). Building Donor Loyalty: The Fundraiser’s Guide to Increasing Lifetime Value. Jossey-Bass. On why small gains in retention compound over a donor’s years of giving.

The worked example is made up, including every donor ID and amount. Totals depend on how your database counts pledges, soft credits and household gifts; decide that before you export. This page counts and sorts; it gives no legal, tax or accounting advice. Giving data stays in this browser. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.