Donor retention
What Is a Good Donor Retention Rate? Pick the Benchmark That Looks Like You
Four retention benchmarks published in 2026 sit 22 percentage points apart because each counts different donors at different organizations. A good rate is one measured against a sample like yours, segment by segment.
By Donor Insights · Published October 11, 2026 · Updated September 25, 2026 · 8 min read
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Key takeaways
- Four widely cited donor retention benchmarks published in 2026 range from 32.41% (Neon One, non-recurring donors at 4,107 nonprofits, 2025) to 54.73% (Virtuous, gross retention at 771 mid-sized and large nonprofits), a spread of about 22 percentage points.
- The Fundraising Effectiveness Project put overall 2025 retention at 43.3% across 15,102 organizations, and M+R Benchmarks put online one-time donor retention at 48% across 180 participants.
- The four reports differ in which donors they count (all donors, one-time donors only, online donors only, or a gross rate whose definition is not published) and in which organizations they sample, so their figures are not four measurements of the same thing.
- Virtuous and Neon One both break their full reports down by organization size, and M+R sorts participants by online revenue, but the free summaries cited here do not publish those size cuts, so size is a likely but unconfirmed part of the spread.
- A good donor retention rate is one compared against the report whose donors and organizations most resemble your own, and compared separately for first-time, repeat, and recurring donors.
A good donor retention rate is one that holds up against a benchmark built from donors and organizations like yours, and the published benchmarks disagree by more than 20 points. Donor retention rate is the share of last year's donors who gave again this year. The Virtuous 2026 Nonprofit Fundraising Benchmark Report, released in April 2026, found 54.73% across 771 mid-sized and large US nonprofits, while Neon One's 2026 Recurring Donor Report found 32.41% for non-recurring donors across 4,107 nonprofits in 2025. An organization at 45% is above one benchmark and below the other. Which comparison is right depends on who each report counted.
What do the 2026 donor retention benchmarks say?
Four reports published in 2026 carry donor retention figures, three of them stated for 2025. Besides Virtuous and Neon One, the Fundraising Effectiveness Project's Q4 2025 report put overall retention at 43.3%, up from 43.1%, across 15,102 organizations, and M+R Benchmarks 2026 reported that 48% of online one-time donors from 2024 made another online one-time gift in 2025. The chart puts the four figures side by side.
| Category | Donor retention rate |
|---|---|
| Neon One, non-recurring | 32.4% |
| FEP, all donors | 43.3% |
| M+R, online one-time | 48% |
| Virtuous, gross retention | 54.7% |
Why do donor retention benchmarks disagree?
The reports disagree because they count different donors. A retention rate has a numerator (donors who gave again) and a denominator (donors who gave last year), and each report draws the denominator differently:
- Neon One's 32.41% covers non-recurring donors only, meaning donors who gave one-off gifts rather than a scheduled monthly gift. The same report found that recurring donors were retained at 78% to 80% in each year from 2023 to 2025. Leaving the recurring donors out of the denominator pulls the figure down.
- M+R's 48% covers online one-time gifts only. A donor who gave online in 2024 and by check in 2025 counts as lost. M+R also reports its figures as medians, the middle value among participants.
- FEP's 43.3% counts all donors reported by its participating organizations across channels. Virtuous's release does not define which donors its 54.73% gross retention counts, and it reports recurring giving as a separate metric.
The reports also sample different organizations. Virtuous describes its 771 participants as mid-sized and large. FEP's 15,102 organizations together reported 7.8 million donors and $13.2 billion in gifts, according to the FEP Q4 2025 report, which works out to an average of about $874,000 raised per organization (a mean, which a few very large organizations pull up). M+R's 180 participants range from under $1 million to over $10 million in online revenue alone. Neon One's public summary does not describe the size of its 4,107 organizations, although its full report includes separate benchmarks for small, mid-size, and large nonprofits.
What is a good donor retention rate for your organization?
A good donor retention rate is the one that compares favorably with the report whose sample most resembles yours, measured the same way that report measures it. The table matches each benchmark to the kind of organization it fits.
| Report | Retention | Donors counted | Organizations sampled | Best comparison for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virtuous 2026 | 54.73% | Gross retention (definition not published in the release) | 771 mid-sized and large US nonprofits | Larger organizations with multichannel programs |
| M+R Benchmarks 2026 | 48% | Online one-time donors | 180 participants, online revenue from under $1M to over $10M | Your online one-time donors only |
| FEP Q4 2025 | 43.3% | All donors, all channels | 15,102 organizations, about $874,000 raised each on average | A broad sector baseline |
| Neon One 2026 | 32.41% | Non-recurring donors | 4,107 nonprofits (size cuts in the full report only) | Your one-time donors, with recurring donors removed |
The recurring figure is the reason to compare segment by segment. A file with many monthly donors will post a high overall rate even if its one-time donors are leaving, because monthly donors are retained at more than twice the rate of one-time donors in Neon One's data. M+R Benchmarks measures recurring retention differently, by month for online monthly donors, and found that "after a full year, 71% of sustainers are still active", so the recurring benchmark itself depends on the definition. Split your file into first-time donors, repeat donors, and recurring donors, and compare each group with the benchmark that counts the same group. The donor retention benchmarks by donor type guide lists those segment figures, and the donor retention rate formula guide shows how to compute each one.
How does one organization's rate look against each benchmark?
Consider a fictional organization, Harbor Street Food Pantry, with 2,000 donors in 2024, of whom 900 gave again in 2025, an overall retention rate of 45%. Of the 2,000, 200 were monthly donors and 1,800 gave one-off gifts. Of the monthly donors, 158 kept giving. Of the one-off donors, 742 gave again. The figures are illustrative.
| Harbor Street measure | Its rate | Benchmark | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| All donors | 45% | Virtuous 54.73% | Below |
| All donors | 45% | FEP 43.3% | Slightly above |
| One-off donors (742 of 1,800) | 41% | Neon One 32.41% | Above |
| Monthly donors (158 of 200) | 79% | Neon One 78% to 80% | In line |
Against Virtuous alone, Harbor Street looks behind. Against the segment benchmarks that count the same kinds of donors, its one-off donors are retained above the published rate and its monthly donors in line with it. Neither verdict is the whole story. The useful next question is which segment is moving from year to year, and that answer comes from the organization's own history rather than from any outside report.
How should you track retention against your own history?
- 1.Pick one benchmark whose donors and organizations resemble yours, and write down which donors it counts.
- 2.Compute your rate the same way, with the same donors in the denominator.
- 3.Split the rate into first-time, repeat, and recurring donors, and compare each separately.
- 4.Record the same figures every year, so your own trend becomes the primary benchmark and the published report becomes context.
That last step replaces a borrowed number with your own. Donor Insights reads your contacts and gifts and computes retention for each segment the same way every year, so the comparison in step three is ready without a spreadsheet. The methodology starts from your own giving records, and the platform shows each segment's rate beside its history, which is the benchmark that describes your donors best.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a good donor retention rate?
- Benchmarks published in 2026 range from 32.41% to 54.73% depending on which donors and organizations each report counted. A good rate is one that compares well against the report whose sample most resembles your organization, measured the same way, and ideally one that is rising against your own prior years.
- What is the average donor retention rate in 2025?
- The Fundraising Effectiveness Project, the broadest panel with 15,102 organizations, put overall 2025 retention at 43.3%. Virtuous found 54.73% at 771 mid-sized and large nonprofits, M+R found 48% for online one-time donors, and Neon One found 32.41% for non-recurring donors.
- Why is recurring donor retention so much higher?
- A recurring gift continues until the donor or a failed payment stops it, so the donor does not have to decide to give again each year. Neon One's data showed recurring donors retained at 78% to 80% from 2023 to 2025, against 32.41% for non-recurring donors in 2025. M+R, which measures online monthly donors month by month, found 71% still active after a full year.
- Should a small nonprofit compare itself with the Virtuous benchmark?
- Probably not as the main comparison. Virtuous describes its 771 organizations as mid-sized and large. A small organization will usually find a closer match in a broader panel such as the Fundraising Effectiveness Project, and a closer still match in its own prior years.
- How do I calculate donor retention rate?
- Divide the number of last year's donors who gave again this year by the number of donors who gave last year. Count new donors from this year separately, because they cannot be retained until next year.
Sources
- Virtuous (2026). 2026 Nonprofit Fundraising Benchmark Report, released April 21, 2026. Giving data from 771 mid-sized and large US nonprofits
- Neon One (2026). 2026 Recurring Donor Report: key findings. Transaction data from 4,107 nonprofits, 2023-2025 (vendor data)
- Fundraising Effectiveness Project (2026). Q4 2025 report. 15,102 organizations, 7.8 million donors, $13.2 billion, 2025 data
- M+R (2026). M+R Benchmarks 2026: Fundraising. Online giving, 2025 data, medians
- M+R (2026). M+R Benchmarks 2026: About the study (180 participants, size tiers by online revenue)
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