The Great Donor Decline Isn’t the Crisis You Think It Is: Part 2

In last month’s blog post, I talked about how fundraising can feel like trying to fill a leaky bucket. Focusing on new donor acquisition over retention is like putting quantity over quality. The result is more work with worse results.

Now, let’s explore what it actually looks like to plug the holes in your bucket.

Improving donor retention isn’t accomplished through one campaign or strategy. It requires making donor relationships a priority at every level of your organization.

Change Your System

Leadership often wants to see immediate growth without considering what measurements are meaningful indicators of success. To make that happen, they’ll direct development officers to spend their time doing new donor outreach.

More names in the database may sound important, but will it really have the intended effect?

When organizations respond to fewer donors giving by reducing staff or doubling down on donor acquisition, they’re leaving fewer resources available to nurture existing donor relationships, the proven catalyst for long-term growth.

I once sat with the CEO of a large hospital system and asked, “How many visits does your major gift officer make each week with existing donors?”

You cannot improve donor retention without devoting actual resources to donor relationships. If retention is a priority, it has to receive the time, staff, and attention that any other organizational priority receives.

“Two to three,” the chief executive proudly reported.

“What, then, is that person doing with the other 35 hours in the week?”

As we continued talking, I discovered that the major gift officer was indeed very busy. 85% of her time was devoted to tasks wholly unrelated to fundraising.

That organization wanted better donor retention but simply wasn’t structured to achieve it. You cannot improve donor retention without devoting actual resources to donor relationships. If retention is a priority, it has to receive the time, staff, and attention that any other organizational priority receives.

Points of Contact

Time is part of the equation, but what happens during those interactions matters, too.

Organizations can easily mistake communication for connection. Donors receive newsletters, annual reports, campaign updates, email reminders, social media posts, event invitations, and a steady stream of other information. If you skimmed that sentence, I don’t blame you. Now imagine how a donor feels getting inundated with information.

Flooding donors with organizational news and updates can have the opposite effect intended. Donors may begin tuning out altogether.

Donors want to know their support matters. They want genuine appreciation and some sense the organization recognizes them as individuals.

Consider the difference between receiving a mass email thanking everyone who supported a campaign and receiving a personal note from a development officer who knows what motivated you to make your gift. Both communicate gratitude. Only one creates a relationship.

Former Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh built the company’s customer service philosophy around personal connection: “We want people to call us. We believe that forming personal, emotional connections with our customers is the best way to provide great service.”

Hsieh reported that approximately 75% of the company’s orders came from repeat customers, while the company spent very little on traditional customer acquisition.

While retail and philanthropy are obviously different, the principle behind retention remains: people return to organizations where they feel valued and connected.

Building those connections takes time, which requires being intentional. In my May blog post on time management, I discussed how I batch tasks so that I know when and how I will get them done. Just as I respond to emails and phone calls in allotted time slots, you can batch writing notes to donors. Don’t underestimate the power of a handwritten letter. They’re increasingly rare these days.

Social Media Has a Purpose

Social media creates another temptation to confuse communication with connection.

Many nonprofits now rely on social media to communicate with their supporters. These platforms can be useful, but their purpose is limited.

What is your organization’s social media presence designed to accomplish?

You can use it to provide resources or show the impact of your organization’s work. Celebrate supporters. Keep your organization visible and give people a reason to remain engaged with your mission.

These are valuable functions. But social media should complement donor relationships, not replace them.

Social media cannot, by itself, know why a donor first became interested in your organization or what they hope their generosity will accomplish over the course of their life. But it can show them what their gift accomplished, celebrate their years of support, or remind them about an upcoming event or volunteer opportunity.

The distinction becomes particularly important when organizations begin replacing personal contact with digital communication. Digital communication works best when there is a real relationship behind it.

Make Retention Matter

What you measure and monitor tends to improve.

Most organizations already understand this principle. They track dollars raised, the number of gifts received, and the number of new donors acquired. Those measurements help them understand whether fundraising efforts are working.

Donor retention deserves the same attention from organizational leadership.

If an organization isn’t measuring its retention rate, leadership may have little idea whether its donor relationships are actually strengthening. And if retention is tracked but rarely discussed, it is unlikely to receive the attention necessary to improve it.

Put donor retention where leadership can see it:

• Measure your retention rate.
• Track the cost of retaining donors.
• Evaluate which activities actually lead to stronger retention.
• Look at retention among first-time donors separately from repeat donors.
• Make donor retention part of the expectations for your development program.

Most importantly, give your staff the time and resources necessary to act on what those numbers reveal.

Even a one-percentage-point improvement can make a significant financial difference. As we saw in Part One, the average impact of a 1% increase for larger nonprofits can amount to nearly $187,000 in additional revenue the following year. Over time, the value of retaining that donor compounds.

Every retained donor represents a relationship that has continued. A second gift can become a third, and a small annual contribution can become a major gift.

Every retained donor represents a relationship that has continued. A second gift can become a third, and a small annual contribution can become a major gift.

Those possibilities depend on what happens between gifts.

The philanthropic landscape is changing. Donor bases are shrinking, giving is becoming more concentrated, and competition among charities continues to grow. These changes make strong donor relationships even more valuable.

While we can’t control every change in the way people give, we can control whether the donors who already believe in our mission have a reason to stay.

That’s where the real opportunity in donor retention lies.

©2026, Eddie Thompson, Ed.D., FCEP
Founder and CEO, Thompson & Associates

“If we merely aim for the industry standard, then our goal is mediocrity. Emulating the average nonprofit, we are destined to live with all the problems the average nonprofit faces. So, we suggest you aim to be exceptional in your approach to fund development.”