‍
A lapsed donor is a supporter who used to give to your nonprofit but hasn’t donated within a specific period of time. This timeframe is not fixed and can vary based on an organization’s size, mission, typical giving cycle, fundraising strategies, and other factors. One nonprofit might consider a donor lapsed if they haven’t given in 6 months, and another might set the threshold at 12 months or longer.
‍
‍
While nonprofits characterize lapsed donors differently, industry norms often point to 12 or 24 months of inactivity. When determining how to define lapsed donors at your organization, keep in mind your unique donor retention strategy. How you choose to engage and communicate with your supporters can influence whether you associate lapsed donors with shorter or longer timeframes.
‍
A donor’s prior giving habits and involvement with your nonprofit might also affect their classification as a lapsed donor, with factors such as giving frequency, donation amount, and length of relationship playing key roles. For example, you might want to provide long-term recurring donors a longer grace period before considering them as lapsed, recognizing that their strong history of support and engagement indicates a higher likelihood of renewed giving.
‍
‍
When a donor lapses, they take with them not just their financial support but also their trust, their network, and their advocacy for your cause. Donor attrition has a domino effect that impacts not just revenue but also future engagement and referrals. By taking the time to measure and understand your lapsed donors—their past engagement patterns, preferences, reasons for disengagement, and other factors—you gain valuable insight into trends that can inform win-back strategies or at least prevent more donors from becoming inactive.
‍
Moreover, consider the significant resources your nonprofit pours into donor acquisition each year—paid ads, platform fees, and countless hours spent on campaign planning, strategy, and event organization. Acquiring new donors is proven to be 5x more expensive than retaining existing ones. As a result, re-engaging lapsed donors who are already familiar with your cause is a highly cost-effective way to grow your donor base.
‍
‍
Before you can effectively reconnect with your lapsed donors, it's important to figure out why they stopped contributing to your nonprofit in the first place.
‍
Some supporters become inactive for reasons beyond your control. For example, 49% of Americans cite inflation as a primary reason for reducing their giving. Others may be tightening their wallets due to job loss or other financial hardships. If you’re a local or community-based nonprofit, donors who move may also choose to support causes in their new hometowns.
‍
On the other hand, donor lapse can be a result of factors within your sphere of influence, such as poor communication. This might look like:
‍
‍
By failing to meaningfully engage your donors, your repeated solicitations come off as purely transactional. This not only contributes to donor fatigue, but ultimately leads to a decline in support.
‍
‍
With 70% of donors making one donation and never giving again, donor attrition is a reality for every nonprofit. However, you can improve your retention rate by actively working to re-engage your lapsed donors. Tailored win-back campaigns, personalized messaging, and multi-channel engagement are effective strategies for reviving their support.
‍
‍
One way to re-engage your lapsed donors is to implement a targeted campaign to rekindle their interest.
‍
As a first step, define what constitutes a lapsed donor for your nonprofit and use the data in your nonprofit CRM to segment out your donors. Instead of categorizing all lapsed donors into one broad group, create more specific segments based on factors like donation history, the length of time since their last donation, communication preferences, and engagement level.
‍
Once you've identified key patterns and opportunities within your donor segments, it's time to implement win-back campaigns. Strategies to effectively rebuild donors' belief in your mission might involve:
‍
‍
Keep in mind that a successful campaign requires more than strong outreach—it hinges on timing. By leveraging marketing automation in your nonprofit CRM, you can ensure your lapsed donors receive relevant, strategic, and timely communications.
‍
‍
Donors feel 71% more engaged when they receive a personalized note from an organization, highlighting the crucial role personalization plays in mitigating donor lapse. Spend some deep in your database analyzing your lapsed donors—from the causes they care most about to their previous interactions with your nonprofit—to inform your outreach.
‍
Let’s say a donor previously supported your educational programs, for example. Send them a tailored “we miss you” email, highlighting how their past contribution made an impact by helping to transform a student’s life. Wrap up with an inspiring call to action that makes reengaging with your mission feel both rewarding and essential.
‍
By taking into consideration your supporters’ unique preferences and motivations, you can make them feel more valued, combat donor fatigue, and build lasting relationships that boost retention. Even small personal touches, like addressing them by name in subject lines, can boost email open rates by 35%.
‍
‍
In today’s competitive giving landscape, relying on a single channel to engage your supporters is no longer effective—a multi-channel approach is a must. In fact, multi-channel donors are proven to have a first-year retention rate 2x higher than those interacting exclusively through offline or online channels.
‍
A responsive fundraising platform like Virtuous consolidates data across all of your channels, enabling you to easily build dynamic, multi-channel workflows based on previous engagement data. This means you can optimize your donor journeys and effortlessly meet donors where they’re most comfortable—whether that’s email, social media, events, or even text messaging.
‍
‍
To ensure your re-engagement efforts are effective, keep a close eye on what’s working and what’s not. By setting specific, measurable goals, you can systematically track your progress and leverage data-driven insights to adjust your strategy. Some key performance indicators (KPIs) to consider include email open rates, click-through rates, and your percentage of re-engaged donors.
‍
It’s crucial to recognize, however, that when donor information is scattered across systems and trapped in data silos, analyzing trends and making informed decisions becomes challenging. Fortunately, Virtuous provides seamless integrations across email marketing, event management, and online donation platforms, giving you a 360-degree view of your donors. And with powerful CRM analytics and reporting tools, you can generate customized, targeted reports to extract valuable insights that align with your goals.
‍
‍
Lapsed donors are an inevitability for any nonprofit, but you can still take proactive steps to minimize your losses and strengthen donor retention. The most effective way to prevent donor attrition is by nurturing authentic relationships with your supporters.
‍
The following tactics play a crucial role in fostering these connections and creating lasting support:
‍
‍
These strategies are effective for engaging donors overall, but they can be especially valuable for your "at risk" segment. In addition to defining criteria for lapsed donors, it's important to clarify what "at risk" means for your organization and use your donor data for segmentation. This might include behaviors like unsubscribing from your email newsletter or failing to donate in the last six months.
‍
‍
Reactivating lapsed donors can be a daunting task for any nonprofit. Thankfully, responsive fundraising platforms like Virtuous provide you with the tools necessary to revitalize these relationships.
‍
With thoughtful segmentation features, personalization capabilities, and built-in marketing automation, Virtuous makes it simple to engage your lapsed donors in impactful ways. Its powerful analytics and responsive dashboard also provide insights to monitor and refine your re-engagement strategies, ensuring you effectively bring more supporters back to your cause.
‍
Want to see how responsive fundraising can help you improve donor retention? Schedule a demo.
‍
A lapsed donor is a supporter who used to give to your nonprofit but hasn’t donated within a specific period of time. This timeframe is not fixed and can vary based on an organization’s size, mission, typical giving cycle, fundraising strategies, and other factors. One nonprofit might consider a donor lapsed if they haven’t given in 6 months, and another might set the threshold at 12 months or longer.
‍
‍
While nonprofits characterize lapsed donors differently, industry norms often point to 12 or 24 months of inactivity. When determining how to define lapsed donors at your organization, keep in mind your unique donor retention strategy. How you choose to engage and communicate with your supporters can influence whether you associate lapsed donors with shorter or longer timeframes.
‍
A donor’s prior giving habits and involvement with your nonprofit might also affect their classification as a lapsed donor, with factors such as giving frequency, donation amount, and length of relationship playing key roles. For example, you might want to provide long-term recurring donors a longer grace period before considering them as lapsed, recognizing that their strong history of support and engagement indicates a higher likelihood of renewed giving.
‍
‍
When a donor lapses, they take with them not just their financial support but also their trust, their network, and their advocacy for your cause. Donor attrition has a domino effect that impacts not just revenue but also future engagement and referrals. By taking the time to measure and understand your lapsed donors—their past engagement patterns, preferences, reasons for disengagement, and other factors—you gain valuable insight into trends that can inform win-back strategies or at least prevent more donors from becoming inactive.
‍
Moreover, consider the significant resources your nonprofit pours into donor acquisition each year—paid ads, platform fees, and countless hours spent on campaign planning, strategy, and event organization. Acquiring new donors is proven to be 5x more expensive than retaining existing ones. As a result, re-engaging lapsed donors who are already familiar with your cause is a highly cost-effective way to grow your donor base.
‍
‍
Before you can effectively reconnect with your lapsed donors, it's important to figure out why they stopped contributing to your nonprofit in the first place.
‍
Some supporters become inactive for reasons beyond your control. For example, 49% of Americans cite inflation as a primary reason for reducing their giving. Others may be tightening their wallets due to job loss or other financial hardships. If you’re a local or community-based nonprofit, donors who move may also choose to support causes in their new hometowns.
‍
On the other hand, donor lapse can be a result of factors within your sphere of influence, such as poor communication. This might look like:
‍
‍
By failing to meaningfully engage your donors, your repeated solicitations come off as purely transactional. This not only contributes to donor fatigue, but ultimately leads to a decline in support.
‍
‍
With 70% of donors making one donation and never giving again, donor attrition is a reality for every nonprofit. However, you can improve your retention rate by actively working to re-engage your lapsed donors. Tailored win-back campaigns, personalized messaging, and multi-channel engagement are effective strategies for reviving their support.
‍
‍
One way to re-engage your lapsed donors is to implement a targeted campaign to rekindle their interest.
‍
As a first step, define what constitutes a lapsed donor for your nonprofit and use the data in your nonprofit CRM to segment out your donors. Instead of categorizing all lapsed donors into one broad group, create more specific segments based on factors like donation history, the length of time since their last donation, communication preferences, and engagement level.
‍
Once you've identified key patterns and opportunities within your donor segments, it's time to implement win-back campaigns. Strategies to effectively rebuild donors' belief in your mission might involve:
‍
‍
Keep in mind that a successful campaign requires more than strong outreach—it hinges on timing. By leveraging marketing automation in your nonprofit CRM, you can ensure your lapsed donors receive relevant, strategic, and timely communications.
‍
‍
Donors feel 71% more engaged when they receive a personalized note from an organization, highlighting the crucial role personalization plays in mitigating donor lapse. Spend some deep in your database analyzing your lapsed donors—from the causes they care most about to their previous interactions with your nonprofit—to inform your outreach.
‍
Let’s say a donor previously supported your educational programs, for example. Send them a tailored “we miss you” email, highlighting how their past contribution made an impact by helping to transform a student’s life. Wrap up with an inspiring call to action that makes reengaging with your mission feel both rewarding and essential.
‍
By taking into consideration your supporters’ unique preferences and motivations, you can make them feel more valued, combat donor fatigue, and build lasting relationships that boost retention. Even small personal touches, like addressing them by name in subject lines, can boost email open rates by 35%.
‍
‍
In today’s competitive giving landscape, relying on a single channel to engage your supporters is no longer effective—a multi-channel approach is a must. In fact, multi-channel donors are proven to have a first-year retention rate 2x higher than those interacting exclusively through offline or online channels.
‍
A responsive fundraising platform like Virtuous consolidates data across all of your channels, enabling you to easily build dynamic, multi-channel workflows based on previous engagement data. This means you can optimize your donor journeys and effortlessly meet donors where they’re most comfortable—whether that’s email, social media, events, or even text messaging.
‍
‍
To ensure your re-engagement efforts are effective, keep a close eye on what’s working and what’s not. By setting specific, measurable goals, you can systematically track your progress and leverage data-driven insights to adjust your strategy. Some key performance indicators (KPIs) to consider include email open rates, click-through rates, and your percentage of re-engaged donors.
‍
It’s crucial to recognize, however, that when donor information is scattered across systems and trapped in data silos, analyzing trends and making informed decisions becomes challenging. Fortunately, Virtuous provides seamless integrations across email marketing, event management, and online donation platforms, giving you a 360-degree view of your donors. And with powerful CRM analytics and reporting tools, you can generate customized, targeted reports to extract valuable insights that align with your goals.
‍
‍
Lapsed donors are an inevitability for any nonprofit, but you can still take proactive steps to minimize your losses and strengthen donor retention. The most effective way to prevent donor attrition is by nurturing authentic relationships with your supporters.
‍
The following tactics play a crucial role in fostering these connections and creating lasting support:
‍
‍
These strategies are effective for engaging donors overall, but they can be especially valuable for your "at risk" segment. In addition to defining criteria for lapsed donors, it's important to clarify what "at risk" means for your organization and use your donor data for segmentation. This might include behaviors like unsubscribing from your email newsletter or failing to donate in the last six months.
‍
‍
Reactivating lapsed donors can be a daunting task for any nonprofit. Thankfully, responsive fundraising platforms like Virtuous provide you with the tools necessary to revitalize these relationships.
‍
With thoughtful segmentation features, personalization capabilities, and built-in marketing automation, Virtuous makes it simple to engage your lapsed donors in impactful ways. Its powerful analytics and responsive dashboard also provide insights to monitor and refine your re-engagement strategies, ensuring you effectively bring more supporters back to your cause.
‍
Want to see how responsive fundraising can help you improve donor retention? Schedule a demo.
‍
A lapsed donor is a supporter who used to give to your nonprofit but hasn’t donated within a specific period of time. This timeframe is not fixed and can vary based on an organization’s size, mission, typical giving cycle, fundraising strategies, and other factors. One nonprofit might consider a donor lapsed if they haven’t given in 6 months, and another might set the threshold at 12 months or longer.
‍
‍
While nonprofits characterize lapsed donors differently, industry norms often point to 12 or 24 months of inactivity. When determining how to define lapsed donors at your organization, keep in mind your unique donor retention strategy. How you choose to engage and communicate with your supporters can influence whether you associate lapsed donors with shorter or longer timeframes.
‍
A donor’s prior giving habits and involvement with your nonprofit might also affect their classification as a lapsed donor, with factors such as giving frequency, donation amount, and length of relationship playing key roles. For example, you might want to provide long-term recurring donors a longer grace period before considering them as lapsed, recognizing that their strong history of support and engagement indicates a higher likelihood of renewed giving.
‍
‍
When a donor lapses, they take with them not just their financial support but also their trust, their network, and their advocacy for your cause. Donor attrition has a domino effect that impacts not just revenue but also future engagement and referrals. By taking the time to measure and understand your lapsed donors—their past engagement patterns, preferences, reasons for disengagement, and other factors—you gain valuable insight into trends that can inform win-back strategies or at least prevent more donors from becoming inactive.
‍
Moreover, consider the significant resources your nonprofit pours into donor acquisition each year—paid ads, platform fees, and countless hours spent on campaign planning, strategy, and event organization. Acquiring new donors is proven to be 5x more expensive than retaining existing ones. As a result, re-engaging lapsed donors who are already familiar with your cause is a highly cost-effective way to grow your donor base.
‍
‍
Before you can effectively reconnect with your lapsed donors, it's important to figure out why they stopped contributing to your nonprofit in the first place.
‍
Some supporters become inactive for reasons beyond your control. For example, 49% of Americans cite inflation as a primary reason for reducing their giving. Others may be tightening their wallets due to job loss or other financial hardships. If you’re a local or community-based nonprofit, donors who move may also choose to support causes in their new hometowns.
‍
On the other hand, donor lapse can be a result of factors within your sphere of influence, such as poor communication. This might look like:
‍
‍
By failing to meaningfully engage your donors, your repeated solicitations come off as purely transactional. This not only contributes to donor fatigue, but ultimately leads to a decline in support.
‍
‍
With 70% of donors making one donation and never giving again, donor attrition is a reality for every nonprofit. However, you can improve your retention rate by actively working to re-engage your lapsed donors. Tailored win-back campaigns, personalized messaging, and multi-channel engagement are effective strategies for reviving their support.
‍
‍
One way to re-engage your lapsed donors is to implement a targeted campaign to rekindle their interest.
‍
As a first step, define what constitutes a lapsed donor for your nonprofit and use the data in your nonprofit CRM to segment out your donors. Instead of categorizing all lapsed donors into one broad group, create more specific segments based on factors like donation history, the length of time since their last donation, communication preferences, and engagement level.
‍
Once you've identified key patterns and opportunities within your donor segments, it's time to implement win-back campaigns. Strategies to effectively rebuild donors' belief in your mission might involve:
‍
‍
Keep in mind that a successful campaign requires more than strong outreach—it hinges on timing. By leveraging marketing automation in your nonprofit CRM, you can ensure your lapsed donors receive relevant, strategic, and timely communications.
‍
‍
Donors feel 71% more engaged when they receive a personalized note from an organization, highlighting the crucial role personalization plays in mitigating donor lapse. Spend some deep in your database analyzing your lapsed donors—from the causes they care most about to their previous interactions with your nonprofit—to inform your outreach.
‍
Let’s say a donor previously supported your educational programs, for example. Send them a tailored “we miss you” email, highlighting how their past contribution made an impact by helping to transform a student’s life. Wrap up with an inspiring call to action that makes reengaging with your mission feel both rewarding and essential.
‍
By taking into consideration your supporters’ unique preferences and motivations, you can make them feel more valued, combat donor fatigue, and build lasting relationships that boost retention. Even small personal touches, like addressing them by name in subject lines, can boost email open rates by 35%.
‍
‍
In today’s competitive giving landscape, relying on a single channel to engage your supporters is no longer effective—a multi-channel approach is a must. In fact, multi-channel donors are proven to have a first-year retention rate 2x higher than those interacting exclusively through offline or online channels.
‍
A responsive fundraising platform like Virtuous consolidates data across all of your channels, enabling you to easily build dynamic, multi-channel workflows based on previous engagement data. This means you can optimize your donor journeys and effortlessly meet donors where they’re most comfortable—whether that’s email, social media, events, or even text messaging.
‍
‍
To ensure your re-engagement efforts are effective, keep a close eye on what’s working and what’s not. By setting specific, measurable goals, you can systematically track your progress and leverage data-driven insights to adjust your strategy. Some key performance indicators (KPIs) to consider include email open rates, click-through rates, and your percentage of re-engaged donors.
‍
It’s crucial to recognize, however, that when donor information is scattered across systems and trapped in data silos, analyzing trends and making informed decisions becomes challenging. Fortunately, Virtuous provides seamless integrations across email marketing, event management, and online donation platforms, giving you a 360-degree view of your donors. And with powerful CRM analytics and reporting tools, you can generate customized, targeted reports to extract valuable insights that align with your goals.
‍
‍
Lapsed donors are an inevitability for any nonprofit, but you can still take proactive steps to minimize your losses and strengthen donor retention. The most effective way to prevent donor attrition is by nurturing authentic relationships with your supporters.
‍
The following tactics play a crucial role in fostering these connections and creating lasting support:
‍
‍
These strategies are effective for engaging donors overall, but they can be especially valuable for your "at risk" segment. In addition to defining criteria for lapsed donors, it's important to clarify what "at risk" means for your organization and use your donor data for segmentation. This might include behaviors like unsubscribing from your email newsletter or failing to donate in the last six months.
‍
‍
Reactivating lapsed donors can be a daunting task for any nonprofit. Thankfully, responsive fundraising platforms like Virtuous provide you with the tools necessary to revitalize these relationships.
‍
With thoughtful segmentation features, personalization capabilities, and built-in marketing automation, Virtuous makes it simple to engage your lapsed donors in impactful ways. Its powerful analytics and responsive dashboard also provide insights to monitor and refine your re-engagement strategies, ensuring you effectively bring more supporters back to your cause.
‍
Want to see how responsive fundraising can help you improve donor retention? Schedule a demo.
‍
A lapsed donor is a supporter who used to give to your nonprofit but hasn’t donated within a specific period of time. This timeframe is not fixed and can vary based on an organization’s size, mission, typical giving cycle, fundraising strategies, and other factors. One nonprofit might consider a donor lapsed if they haven’t given in 6 months, and another might set the threshold at 12 months or longer.
‍
‍
While nonprofits characterize lapsed donors differently, industry norms often point to 12 or 24 months of inactivity. When determining how to define lapsed donors at your organization, keep in mind your unique donor retention strategy. How you choose to engage and communicate with your supporters can influence whether you associate lapsed donors with shorter or longer timeframes.
‍
A donor’s prior giving habits and involvement with your nonprofit might also affect their classification as a lapsed donor, with factors such as giving frequency, donation amount, and length of relationship playing key roles. For example, you might want to provide long-term recurring donors a longer grace period before considering them as lapsed, recognizing that their strong history of support and engagement indicates a higher likelihood of renewed giving.
‍
‍
When a donor lapses, they take with them not just their financial support but also their trust, their network, and their advocacy for your cause. Donor attrition has a domino effect that impacts not just revenue but also future engagement and referrals. By taking the time to measure and understand your lapsed donors—their past engagement patterns, preferences, reasons for disengagement, and other factors—you gain valuable insight into trends that can inform win-back strategies or at least prevent more donors from becoming inactive.
‍
Moreover, consider the significant resources your nonprofit pours into donor acquisition each year—paid ads, platform fees, and countless hours spent on campaign planning, strategy, and event organization. Acquiring new donors is proven to be 5x more expensive than retaining existing ones. As a result, re-engaging lapsed donors who are already familiar with your cause is a highly cost-effective way to grow your donor base.
‍
‍
Before you can effectively reconnect with your lapsed donors, it's important to figure out why they stopped contributing to your nonprofit in the first place.
‍
Some supporters become inactive for reasons beyond your control. For example, 49% of Americans cite inflation as a primary reason for reducing their giving. Others may be tightening their wallets due to job loss or other financial hardships. If you’re a local or community-based nonprofit, donors who move may also choose to support causes in their new hometowns.
‍
On the other hand, donor lapse can be a result of factors within your sphere of influence, such as poor communication. This might look like:
‍
‍
By failing to meaningfully engage your donors, your repeated solicitations come off as purely transactional. This not only contributes to donor fatigue, but ultimately leads to a decline in support.
‍
‍
With 70% of donors making one donation and never giving again, donor attrition is a reality for every nonprofit. However, you can improve your retention rate by actively working to re-engage your lapsed donors. Tailored win-back campaigns, personalized messaging, and multi-channel engagement are effective strategies for reviving their support.
‍
‍
One way to re-engage your lapsed donors is to implement a targeted campaign to rekindle their interest.
‍
As a first step, define what constitutes a lapsed donor for your nonprofit and use the data in your nonprofit CRM to segment out your donors. Instead of categorizing all lapsed donors into one broad group, create more specific segments based on factors like donation history, the length of time since their last donation, communication preferences, and engagement level.
‍
Once you've identified key patterns and opportunities within your donor segments, it's time to implement win-back campaigns. Strategies to effectively rebuild donors' belief in your mission might involve:
‍
‍
Keep in mind that a successful campaign requires more than strong outreach—it hinges on timing. By leveraging marketing automation in your nonprofit CRM, you can ensure your lapsed donors receive relevant, strategic, and timely communications.
‍
‍
Donors feel 71% more engaged when they receive a personalized note from an organization, highlighting the crucial role personalization plays in mitigating donor lapse. Spend some deep in your database analyzing your lapsed donors—from the causes they care most about to their previous interactions with your nonprofit—to inform your outreach.
‍
Let’s say a donor previously supported your educational programs, for example. Send them a tailored “we miss you” email, highlighting how their past contribution made an impact by helping to transform a student’s life. Wrap up with an inspiring call to action that makes reengaging with your mission feel both rewarding and essential.
‍
By taking into consideration your supporters’ unique preferences and motivations, you can make them feel more valued, combat donor fatigue, and build lasting relationships that boost retention. Even small personal touches, like addressing them by name in subject lines, can boost email open rates by 35%.
‍
‍
In today’s competitive giving landscape, relying on a single channel to engage your supporters is no longer effective—a multi-channel approach is a must. In fact, multi-channel donors are proven to have a first-year retention rate 2x higher than those interacting exclusively through offline or online channels.
‍
A responsive fundraising platform like Virtuous consolidates data across all of your channels, enabling you to easily build dynamic, multi-channel workflows based on previous engagement data. This means you can optimize your donor journeys and effortlessly meet donors where they’re most comfortable—whether that’s email, social media, events, or even text messaging.
‍
‍
To ensure your re-engagement efforts are effective, keep a close eye on what’s working and what’s not. By setting specific, measurable goals, you can systematically track your progress and leverage data-driven insights to adjust your strategy. Some key performance indicators (KPIs) to consider include email open rates, click-through rates, and your percentage of re-engaged donors.
‍
It’s crucial to recognize, however, that when donor information is scattered across systems and trapped in data silos, analyzing trends and making informed decisions becomes challenging. Fortunately, Virtuous provides seamless integrations across email marketing, event management, and online donation platforms, giving you a 360-degree view of your donors. And with powerful CRM analytics and reporting tools, you can generate customized, targeted reports to extract valuable insights that align with your goals.
‍
‍
Lapsed donors are an inevitability for any nonprofit, but you can still take proactive steps to minimize your losses and strengthen donor retention. The most effective way to prevent donor attrition is by nurturing authentic relationships with your supporters.
‍
The following tactics play a crucial role in fostering these connections and creating lasting support:
‍
‍
These strategies are effective for engaging donors overall, but they can be especially valuable for your "at risk" segment. In addition to defining criteria for lapsed donors, it's important to clarify what "at risk" means for your organization and use your donor data for segmentation. This might include behaviors like unsubscribing from your email newsletter or failing to donate in the last six months.
‍
‍
Reactivating lapsed donors can be a daunting task for any nonprofit. Thankfully, responsive fundraising platforms like Virtuous provide you with the tools necessary to revitalize these relationships.
‍
With thoughtful segmentation features, personalization capabilities, and built-in marketing automation, Virtuous makes it simple to engage your lapsed donors in impactful ways. Its powerful analytics and responsive dashboard also provide insights to monitor and refine your re-engagement strategies, ensuring you effectively bring more supporters back to your cause.
‍
Want to see how responsive fundraising can help you improve donor retention? Schedule a demo.
‍
A lapsed donor is a supporter who used to give to your nonprofit but hasn’t donated within a specific period of time. This timeframe is not fixed and can vary based on an organization’s size, mission, typical giving cycle, fundraising strategies, and other factors. One nonprofit might consider a donor lapsed if they haven’t given in 6 months, and another might set the threshold at 12 months or longer.
‍
‍
While nonprofits characterize lapsed donors differently, industry norms often point to 12 or 24 months of inactivity. When determining how to define lapsed donors at your organization, keep in mind your unique donor retention strategy. How you choose to engage and communicate with your supporters can influence whether you associate lapsed donors with shorter or longer timeframes.
‍
A donor’s prior giving habits and involvement with your nonprofit might also affect their classification as a lapsed donor, with factors such as giving frequency, donation amount, and length of relationship playing key roles. For example, you might want to provide long-term recurring donors a longer grace period before considering them as lapsed, recognizing that their strong history of support and engagement indicates a higher likelihood of renewed giving.
‍
‍
When a donor lapses, they take with them not just their financial support but also their trust, their network, and their advocacy for your cause. Donor attrition has a domino effect that impacts not just revenue but also future engagement and referrals. By taking the time to measure and understand your lapsed donors—their past engagement patterns, preferences, reasons for disengagement, and other factors—you gain valuable insight into trends that can inform win-back strategies or at least prevent more donors from becoming inactive.
‍
Moreover, consider the significant resources your nonprofit pours into donor acquisition each year—paid ads, platform fees, and countless hours spent on campaign planning, strategy, and event organization. Acquiring new donors is proven to be 5x more expensive than retaining existing ones. As a result, re-engaging lapsed donors who are already familiar with your cause is a highly cost-effective way to grow your donor base.
‍
‍
Before you can effectively reconnect with your lapsed donors, it's important to figure out why they stopped contributing to your nonprofit in the first place.
‍
Some supporters become inactive for reasons beyond your control. For example, 49% of Americans cite inflation as a primary reason for reducing their giving. Others may be tightening their wallets due to job loss or other financial hardships. If you’re a local or community-based nonprofit, donors who move may also choose to support causes in their new hometowns.
‍
On the other hand, donor lapse can be a result of factors within your sphere of influence, such as poor communication. This might look like:
‍
‍
By failing to meaningfully engage your donors, your repeated solicitations come off as purely transactional. This not only contributes to donor fatigue, but ultimately leads to a decline in support.
‍
‍
With 70% of donors making one donation and never giving again, donor attrition is a reality for every nonprofit. However, you can improve your retention rate by actively working to re-engage your lapsed donors. Tailored win-back campaigns, personalized messaging, and multi-channel engagement are effective strategies for reviving their support.
‍
‍
One way to re-engage your lapsed donors is to implement a targeted campaign to rekindle their interest.
‍
As a first step, define what constitutes a lapsed donor for your nonprofit and use the data in your nonprofit CRM to segment out your donors. Instead of categorizing all lapsed donors into one broad group, create more specific segments based on factors like donation history, the length of time since their last donation, communication preferences, and engagement level.
‍
Once you've identified key patterns and opportunities within your donor segments, it's time to implement win-back campaigns. Strategies to effectively rebuild donors' belief in your mission might involve:
‍
‍
Keep in mind that a successful campaign requires more than strong outreach—it hinges on timing. By leveraging marketing automation in your nonprofit CRM, you can ensure your lapsed donors receive relevant, strategic, and timely communications.
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Donors feel 71% more engaged when they receive a personalized note from an organization, highlighting the crucial role personalization plays in mitigating donor lapse. Spend some deep in your database analyzing your lapsed donors—from the causes they care most about to their previous interactions with your nonprofit—to inform your outreach.
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Let’s say a donor previously supported your educational programs, for example. Send them a tailored “we miss you” email, highlighting how their past contribution made an impact by helping to transform a student’s life. Wrap up with an inspiring call to action that makes reengaging with your mission feel both rewarding and essential.
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By taking into consideration your supporters’ unique preferences and motivations, you can make them feel more valued, combat donor fatigue, and build lasting relationships that boost retention. Even small personal touches, like addressing them by name in subject lines, can boost email open rates by 35%.
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In today’s competitive giving landscape, relying on a single channel to engage your supporters is no longer effective—a multi-channel approach is a must. In fact, multi-channel donors are proven to have a first-year retention rate 2x higher than those interacting exclusively through offline or online channels.
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A responsive fundraising platform like Virtuous consolidates data across all of your channels, enabling you to easily build dynamic, multi-channel workflows based on previous engagement data. This means you can optimize your donor journeys and effortlessly meet donors where they’re most comfortable—whether that’s email, social media, events, or even text messaging.
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To ensure your re-engagement efforts are effective, keep a close eye on what’s working and what’s not. By setting specific, measurable goals, you can systematically track your progress and leverage data-driven insights to adjust your strategy. Some key performance indicators (KPIs) to consider include email open rates, click-through rates, and your percentage of re-engaged donors.
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It’s crucial to recognize, however, that when donor information is scattered across systems and trapped in data silos, analyzing trends and making informed decisions becomes challenging. Fortunately, Virtuous provides seamless integrations across email marketing, event management, and online donation platforms, giving you a 360-degree view of your donors. And with powerful CRM analytics and reporting tools, you can generate customized, targeted reports to extract valuable insights that align with your goals.
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Lapsed donors are an inevitability for any nonprofit, but you can still take proactive steps to minimize your losses and strengthen donor retention. The most effective way to prevent donor attrition is by nurturing authentic relationships with your supporters.
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The following tactics play a crucial role in fostering these connections and creating lasting support:
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These strategies are effective for engaging donors overall, but they can be especially valuable for your "at risk" segment. In addition to defining criteria for lapsed donors, it's important to clarify what "at risk" means for your organization and use your donor data for segmentation. This might include behaviors like unsubscribing from your email newsletter or failing to donate in the last six months.
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Reactivating lapsed donors can be a daunting task for any nonprofit. Thankfully, responsive fundraising platforms like Virtuous provide you with the tools necessary to revitalize these relationships.
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With thoughtful segmentation features, personalization capabilities, and built-in marketing automation, Virtuous makes it simple to engage your lapsed donors in impactful ways. Its powerful analytics and responsive dashboard also provide insights to monitor and refine your re-engagement strategies, ensuring you effectively bring more supporters back to your cause.
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Want to see how responsive fundraising can help you improve donor retention? Schedule a demo.
