Are your new donors vanishing? Only 23% of new online donors made a second gift in recent years.
You spend resources acquiring new supporters, they give once, then 77% disappear forever. Meanwhile, long-time donors who've given before are nearly three times more likely to stick around. The difference isn't about donor quality. It's about what happens in those critical weeks after the first gift.
Why it matters
The 23% retention rate means most nonprofits are running on a donor acquisition treadmill. You're constantly replacing last year's one-time givers instead of building a base of committed supporters. This isn't sustainable, especially when acquisition costs keep rising.
The pattern is clear across sectors: first-gift donors need dramatically different treatment than your marketing assumes.
That generic thank-you email isn't cutting it when nearly 8 in 10 people won't give again.
Do this
Segment new donors completely separately from your regular file and treat them like the high-risk, high-opportunity audience they are.
Test everything in your new donor journey, from thank-you timing to ask amounts, because improving that 23% retention rate by even a few percentage points eliminates years of acquisition spending.