Articles
Donor analytics, stewardship, and the numbers behind them
Guides to reading a donor file well: retention, lifetime value, segmentation, recurring giving, and the metrics worth putting in front of your board. Every figure traces to sector research you can open.
Four Gives, One Ask: The 14-Day Nurture Sequence, Built
Part 2: the exact cadence, the daily story stream a secular organization can send, what each email does, and the packet with all of it written out.
September 2, 2026 · 13 min read
A daily read on stewarding donors well
One short article most mornings on donor retention, lifetime value, and the numbers behind a healthy donor file. Written for the people who steward donors at nonprofits and other organizations.
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Donor retention
How to Calculate Donor Retention Rate (Formula, Example, Benchmarks)
The formula takes two minutes. Reading it well is where the money is.
8 min read
Donor Retention Benchmarks by Donor Type (First-Time, Repeat, Recurring, Major)
One blended average is close to useless. Benchmark each donor type on its own.
9 min read
Lapsed Donor Reactivation: A Data-Driven Win-Back Playbook
The whole lapsed list is not one audience. Win back the donors most likely to come back, first.
9 min read
Donor economics
The Donor File Health Check: Five Numbers That Reveal a Leak
The year-end total can rise while the file rots. Five metrics tell you which is happening.
7 min read
Net Revenue Retention for Nonprofits
Borrowed from subscription businesses: how many dollars this year's file kept from last year's donors.
7 min read
The Cost of Donor Attrition
A lapsed donor takes future gifts with them. That loss carries a number you can put in dollars.
7 min read
The Reactivation Window: How Long a Lapsed Donor Stays Winnable
How long after a lapse a donor is still reachable, and how to work the reactivation file in the right order.
7 min read
What Does It Cost to Acquire a New Donor?
The first gift rarely covers what it cost to win. The payback comes from the years that follow.
7 min read
When Does a New Donor Pay Back What They Cost?
The first gift is not the scoreboard. Payback is the moment a donor stops costing and starts paying.
7 min read
Channel Attribution: Which Channel Gets Credit for a Gift?
A donor rarely gives on the first touch. How you credit the channels in between decides which ones you fund.
7 min read
Lifetime Value by Source: Judge Sources by Who Stays
Cost per donor tells you what a source charged. Lifetime value tells you what it was worth.
7 min read
The First-Gift Welcome Series: Turning One Gift Into Two
The weeks right after a first gift are when a donor is most reachable. A welcome series is how you use them.
7 min read
From a New Email to a First Gift: The Nurture Series That Gets There
What ecommerce, digital subscriptions, and fundraising all learned about the same problem: earning a first purchase, first upgrade, or first gift from a brand-new email.
12 min read
How Fast Should You Thank a Donor?
Thank before you ask again. Speed and specifics in the thank-you shape whether the next gift ever comes.
6 min read
The Second Gift: Why It Decides Whether a Donor Stays
The gift after the first one is where a donor relationship is kept or lost.
7 min read
How to Calculate Donor Lifetime Value (and Why the Simple Formula Lies)
The three-number formula is easy. It also overstates what a donor is worth, because it assumes retention never changes.
9 min read
Average Gift Size, and What It Hides
A single average sits on top of a lopsided file. Read past it before you trust it.
7 min read
Donor Personas: Segmenting Beyond RFM
RFM tells you whom to prioritize. Personas and motivation tell you what to say once you do.
7 min read
The Missing Middle: Why Mid-Level Donors Are Under-Served
The donors between your grassroots base and your major gifts are the ones most often left to drift.
7 min read
The Major-Gift Pipeline: Moves Management, Start to Finish
Major gifts do not close by luck. They move through stages, one relationship at a time.
8 min read
Moving Donors Up: Upgrade Strategy and Ask Strings
A donor rarely gives more than you invite. The invitation is a craft.
7 min read
Grassroots vs Major Donors: What a Healthy Mix Looks Like
Breadth and depth pull against each other. The health of a file is in the balance, not either end.
8 min read
Building a Monthly Giving Program That Sticks
Recurring gifts are the steadiest money a nonprofit has. Here is how to build the program that produces them.
7 min read
The Sustainer Retention Curve: Why Monthly Donors Stay
Monthly donors keep giving far longer than one-time donors, yet the early months decide who stays. The curve is where the value is.
7 min read
Recovering Failed Recurring Payments: The Cheapest Revenue You Have
The donors lost to a declined card never decided to go. Winning them back is the cheapest revenue a monthly program has.
7 min read
Voluntary vs Involuntary Donor Churn: Why the Split Matters
A donor who chose to leave and a card that quietly declined are different problems. Telling them apart is the first fix.
7 min read
Segmentation & portfolio
RFM Segmentation for Nonprofits: A Step-by-Step Stewardship Map
Score every donor on three things you already know, then read the result as who to thank, steward, or re-engage.
9 min read
Donor Concentration Risk: If One Major Donor Walks, What Breaks?
Most of your budget may depend on a handful of people. The fix starts with measuring exactly how few.
8 min read
Donor Cohort Analysis: Read Your File the Way a Fund Reads a Portfolio
Group donors by when they joined, then watch each group age. The average never told you this.
9 min read
Recurring giving
Metrics & dashboards
Deep dives
charity: water Built the Model Everyone Copies. What Do the Public Numbers Say Now?
An independent read of charity: water's public filings, and the donor questions only its own giving records can answer.
16 min read
Best Friends Animal Society Nearly Doubled Its Revenue. What Do the Public Numbers Say Now?
An independent read of Best Friends Animal Society's public filings, and the donor questions only its own file can answer.
8 min read
No Kid Hungry Raised $160M in a Crisis Year. What Can the Public Numbers Show About the Base?
An independent read of Share Our Strength's public filings, and the surge-donor questions only its own file can answer.
8 min read
A daily read on stewarding donors well
One short article most mornings on donor retention, lifetime value, and the numbers behind a healthy donor file. Written for the people who steward donors at nonprofits and other organizations.
By subscribing you agree to our Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe from any email.