How to Access and Manage Your Donor Retention Report

This support article will dive into your Donor Retention report and how you can utilize it to retain and grow your donor base!

What is Donor Retention?

Your donor retention is a measure of how many people who donate to your organization come back and donate again.

For many organizations, reviewing your donor retention and calculating your donor retention rate is a difficult and manual process.

The donor retention report on Mightycause provides organizations with all the stats and info you need to start re-engaging these donors.

Donor Retention Rate

Before we jump into the Retention report, Mightycause provides all organizations to track their donor retention rate via the Overview section on the dashboard.

Your donor retention rate is the percentage of donors who give to your organization year over year. 

You can solve for this number mathematically by calculating ( The number of donors that you retained This Year/ The number of donors that you retained Last Year) * 100 = Retention Rate

However, Mightycause does the math for you. Simply head over to your organization page dashboard and selecting "Overview."

Within your Overview, you will be able to review and track your donor retention rate:

Once you have your retention rate, you'll want to jump into your report to review this information.

Donor Retention Report

To access your Retention report, head over to your left-hand dashboard and select "Reports" > "Retention."

This section allows you to export your list of unretained donors, send individual emails, and much more.

At the top of your Retention report, you are able to filter and create the type of retention report you want.

Through Status, you can choose to review your Retained or Not Retained donors.

If you would like to search for a particular donor, simply utilize the "Filter by donor" tool.

To send an email to a donor select the mail icon on the right side of the corresponding donor. This will open your browser email window. These emails are not sent through the platform.

Donor Retention Report Metrics Calculation Guide

Important Notes

• A donor is identified by the email address used at checkout
• The time periods are customizable but typically compare year-over-year

"# Donors" 

• Counts the unique donors who made donations during the "donation period" (typically the previous year)
• Each donor is counted only once, regardless of how many donations were made
• Both online and offline donations are included
• Anonymous donations are excluded

"# Donors Retained" 

• Counts how many donors from the prior period made at least one donation in the "retention period" (typically the current year)
• This shows how many donors continued their support from one period to the next

"Donors Retained" Retention Percentage

• Calculated as: (Retained Donors ÷ Prior Donors) × 100
• Shows what percentage of your donors from the previous period continued giving
• Example: If you had 100 prior donors and 60 retained donors, retention is 60%

"Donations" Donation Total 

• The total amount donated during the donation period
• Includes both online and offline donations
• Excludes anonymous donations

"Donations Retained" Retention Total

• The total amount donated during the retention period
• Shows how much was given by retained donors
• Includes both online and offline donations

"Donations Retained" Retention Amount Percentage

• Calculated as: (Retention Total ÷ Donation Total) × 100
• Shows what percentage of previous donation amount was maintained
• Example: If prior year donations were $10,000 and current year donations are $8,000, retention amount is 80%

CSV Download Column Outline

To review more detailed information on your donations, click the icon toward the upper right corner to export this information into an Excel sheet.

The following breaks down the column information. 

Donor Information

First Name - Donor's first name

Last Name - Donor's last name

Full Name - Complete donor name

Email - Donor's email address

Donation Status

Retained - Shows "TRUE" if the donor gave in both periods, "FALSE" if they only gave in the first period

Most Recent Donation Details

Last Donation Date - Date of the donor's initial period gift (MM/DD/YYYY format)

Last Donation Amount - Initial period donation amount (in dollars)

Last Donation Type - Either "Recurring" or "One Time"

Donation Context

Last Supported Fundraiser - Title of the last fundraiser the donor donated to (shows "Organization Profile" if donated directly)

Fundraiser URL - Full URL to the fundraiser page

Fundraiser Deleted - "TRUE" if the fundraiser has been deleted, "FALSE" if still active

Team/Event (Level 1) - Name of the campaign/team associated with the donation

Event (Level 2) - Name of the parent event if the donation was part of a larger event

Giving Event - Name of the giving event (if applicable)

Contact Information

Address 1 - Primary address line

Address 2 - Secondary address line

City - City

State - State/Province

Postal Code - ZIP/postal code

Country - Country

MC User ID - Unique identifier for the donor in the platform system

Period Details

Donation Period - Date range of the initial period (format: MM/DD/YYYY - MM/DD/YYYY)

Amount Donated - Total amount donated in the first period (in dollars)

Retention Period - Date range of the comparison period (format: MM/DD/YYYY - MM/DD/YYYY)

Amount Retained - Total amount donated in the second period (in dollars)

Need Help?

If you have any questions about your retention report, please contact support@mightycause.com