Donor retention is the share of people who gave to your organization last year and gave again this year. For most nonprofits that number is lower than the team expects. The Fundraising Effectiveness Project’s Q4 2025 figures, summarized by Bloomerang, put overall donor retention at 43.3% and new donor retention at 18.9%. In plain terms, about eight out of ten first-time donors never give a second gift.
Muslim nonprofits feel this harder than most, because so much first-time giving lands in one month. A donor finds you through a Ramadan appeal, gives on one of the last ten nights, gets a receipt and hears nothing until next Ramadan. By then they have often given somewhere else. That is the pattern we see most often when we audit donor lists for mosques and Muslim charities.
This guide shows how to calculate your own rate, what to compare it against, why new donors stop and six strategies that work in the other eleven months. If your gap is specifically the weeks after Eid, our post-Eid stewardship guide covers it in detail and we will not repeat it here.
What Is Donor Retention and How Do You Calculate It?
Donor retention rate is the percentage of last year’s donors who gave again this year. It tells you whether your relationships are holding, which is a different question from whether your campaigns are raising money.
The donor retention rate formula is:
(Donors who gave in both years ÷ Donors who gave last year) × 100
Here is the donor retention rate calculation with made-up numbers. Your center had 400 donors in 2025. In 2026, 148 of those same people gave again. 148 ÷ 400 = 0.37, so your retention rate is 37%.
A few rules keep the number honest:
- Count people, not gifts. A donor who gave five times in 2025 counts once.
- Use the same 12-month window for both years.
- Leave this year’s brand-new donors out of the formula. They were not in last year’s group.
- Merge duplicates first. If one person shows up as “Mohammed Ali” on your website and “Muhammad Ali” on LaunchGood, your rate will look worse than it is.
Then run the calculation three times: all donors, first-time donors only and donors who have given for two or more years. Most annual reports only show the first. The second is the one that tells you whether people come back after meeting you.
What Is a Good Donor Retention Rate for Nonprofits?
The average donor retention rate changes a lot depending on which donors you measure. These are the latest national figures from the Fundraising Effectiveness Project:
| Donor group | Retention rate (Q4 2025) |
|---|---|
| Overall | 43.3% |
| Repeat donors | 59.3% |
| New donors | 18.9% |
These are averages across all causes and sizes. We could not find a published benchmark for Muslim nonprofits specifically, so use them as a rough reference and not as a target. Your best comparison is your own number from last year.
Seasonality matters here. Nearly 70% of American Muslims report giving Zakat during Ramadan, according to research reported by Religion News Service. If most of your donors arrive in that one month, your overall nonprofit donor retention rate will swing with the success of one campaign. Calculate your Ramadan donors separately from your year-round donors. Then you can see whether the problem is the campaign or the follow-up.
A realistic first goal is to lift your new donor rate by a few points in one year. You do not need to match the national average in one cycle.
Why Do New Donors Stop Giving?
Most of the reasons are inside your control. These are the five we run into most.
1. Nothing arrives after the receipt. An automated tax receipt confirms a transaction. It does not tell the donor that anyone noticed. If the receipt is the only message, there is no relationship to return to.
2. The gift felt finished. Many donors pay Zakat once a year. Once it is paid, they have no reason to come back until next year unless you give them one. That reason is not another Zakat ask. It is an update on what their gift did and, later, an invitation to give sadaqah.
3. They never saw what happened to the money. Muslim donors tend to ask where their Zakat and sadaqah went, and they ask before giving again. A short impact note answers the question before it turns into doubt. Our transparency checklist lists what to publish.
4. Every message is an ask. Or the opposite happens: ten months of silence, then three appeals in one week. Both teach the donor to ignore you.
5. Your records cannot tell who is new. Gifts come in through your website, LaunchGood, Zelle, cash at the masjid and a Facebook fundraiser. One donor can appear as four different people. You cannot follow up with someone you cannot identify. Of the five, this one gets talked about least and is usually the cheapest to fix.
Donor Retention Strategies for Nonprofits That Work Outside Ramadan
A good donor retention strategy is mostly small, repeatable actions. Here are six, in the order we would put them in place.
1. Thank first-time donors within 48 hours and sign it with a name
Use a real person’s name and one sentence about what the gift will do. Skip “your generosity makes a difference.” Our donor thank you letter examples show wording that reads like a person wrote it.
2. Send one specific update at about 30 days
Tie it to what they gave to. “Your gift to the winter food drive helped us pack 112 boxes” beats “thank you for your continued support.” A photo helps. For a mosque community, a 30-second voice note from the director often lands better than a newsletter.
3. Ask for the second gift at a moment that is not Ramadan
Good options are Dhul Hijjah and Qurbani, back to school, Giving Tuesday, year-end and a local need such as a flood or a fire. Mention their first gift in the message. Our Giving Tuesday email templates show how, and our email marketing guide covers how often to send.
4. Invite donors to give monthly, framed as sadaqah jariyah
Keep the amount small and the invitation optional. Do not ask Zakat donors to set up monthly Zakat for your general fund. Zakat has eligibility rules, and your zakat policy should say how it is handled.
5. Call your best first-time donors
Pick the 20 largest first gifts of the year, or every gift above a threshold you choose. A board member or the executive director calls to say thank you. No ask. Many first-time donors have never received a call from a nonprofit, and it takes two minutes each.
6. Write once to donors who have lapsed
These are people who gave 12 to 24 months ago and not since. Send a plain, personal message: it has been a while, here is one thing that changed because of your earlier gift, here is one easy way to give again. Do not send them the same appeal as active donors. Of all the donor retention ideas here, this one is the easiest to skip and the easiest to test.
How to Segment Donors for Retention
You do not need ten segments. Five is enough, and each one needs only one clear job.
| Segment | What you want | What to send | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| First-time donors | A second gift | Thank you, 30-day update, second gift ask | 48 hours, day 30, day 90 |
| Repeat donors (2+ years) | Keep them and deepen giving | Impact report, early notice of campaigns | Quarterly |
| Monthly donors | Do not lose them | Annual thank you, card expiry reminder | Yearly and as needed |
| Zakat donors | Trust | Where Zakat went and who received it | After distribution |
| Lapsed donors | Win them back | One personal message | About a year after last gift |
How to Track and Analyze Donor Retention Without Expensive Software
You can start with a spreadsheet. One row per donor, with columns for name, email, first gift date, gift amounts by year, designation (Zakat, sadaqah, general) and the channel the gift came through. Once a year, in January, run the retention calculation and compare it with last year. That is a basic donor retention analysis, and it is enough to show you where you stand.
The spreadsheet breaks down when gifts come in through four or five platforms. At that point you need a system that merges duplicates, flags first-time donors, reports retention by group and sends the thank you emails automatically. Our guide to donor management software for nonprofits compares options that fit a masjid budget. If your data is already scattered and nobody on the team has time to clean it, that is work our nonprofit CRM and donor management service handles.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. What is donor retention?
Donor retention is the percentage of donors who gave in one period and gave again in the next. It measures whether your relationships with supporters are holding, separate from how much a single campaign raised.
Q2. How do you calculate donor retention rate?
Divide the number of donors who gave in both years by the number who gave last year, then multiply by 100. Count people, not gifts, and leave this year’s new donors out of the formula.
Q3. What is a good donor retention rate for nonprofits?
National figures from the Fundraising Effectiveness Project for Q4 2025 show 43.3% overall, 59.3% for repeat donors and 18.9% for new donors. Your best benchmark is your own rate from last year.
Q4. Why do donors stop giving?
Most stop because nothing happens after the first gift. Common causes are no follow-up beyond a receipt, no proof of impact, messages that are all asks and records that cannot identify who is a returning donor.
Q5. How can a nonprofit increase donor retention?
Thank new donors within 48 hours, send a specific update at 30 days, ask for a second gift outside Ramadan, invite small monthly gifts and write once to lapsed donors. Track the new donor rate separately.
Q6. How long before a donor is considered lapsed?
Most organizations call a donor lapsed after 12 months without a gift. Pick one definition, write it down and use it every year so your numbers are comparable.
Q7. Can Zakat donors become repeat donors?
Yes, but not by asking them for more Zakat. Show them where their Zakat went, then invite them to give sadaqah or a small monthly gift at a different point in the year.
The Bottom Line
Donor retention is not a software problem or a Ramadan problem. It is the gap between a first gift and a second one, and most nonprofits never look at it. Calculate your new donor rate this week. Pick one of the six strategies above and run it for 90 days. Then check the number again.
If you want help setting up the tracking or the follow-up system, book a call with our team.