4.5/5
Average on G2.
Donor Retention
How do we stop losingthe donors we already have?
By seeing lapse risk before the anniversary passes and acting on it with the team you have. Ignite builds lapse-risk and lifecycle segments from rules you can read, the Retention agent ranks which donors and sustainers need attention now and shows the evidence, and your team runs the outreach from the same record. Recommendations, not automations.
Donor retention, in short
- Most donor loss is silent: a recurring payment fails, an anniversary passes, and nobody notices until the year-end report. Ignite puts those moments on the record while there is time to act.
- Lapse-risk and lifecycle segments are rule-based and transparent. High lapse risk means a specific recency window plus a low engagement score, and the rule is visible in the platform.
- The Retention agent assesses lapse risk, recommends recovery moves for interrupted recurring gifts, and ranks who needs attention now. It has no billing access, and it proposes moves that your team carries out.
- Recurring payment results, including failures, are recorded against the plan, and a Recurring Payment Failed segment surfaces every sustainer whose latest attempt failed, so a card that expired in March is visible in March.
- The Fundraising Effectiveness Project puts overall donor retention at 43.3% for 2025. Fewer than half of last year’s donors gave again.
Retention is lost in the weeks nobody was looking.
No development team decides to let donors lapse. It happens between the appeal calendar and the gala, one unnoticed anniversary at a time.
The anniversary nobody saw
A loyal donor’s last gift was eleven months ago and her engagement has gone quiet too. The renewal window is open right now, and the only place that fact exists is a report someone would have to think to run.
The sustainer who stopped in March
A card expired, the payment failed, and the processor logged it somewhere. The monthly gift ends without anyone deciding to end it, and the donor never hears from you.
Stewardship as overtime
The thank-you calls, the impact update, the personal note after a first gift. Everyone agrees they matter and they happen when the week has slack, which is never.
The evidence
43.3%
overall donor retention rate for 2025, up from 43.1% the year before, while donor counts fell an estimated 3.6%. Fewer than half of last year’s donors gave again.
Source: Fundraising Effectiveness Project (AFP and GivingTuesday), Q4 2025 report
What it means for your team
A lean team rarely loses donors on purpose. It loses them because nobody had time to look. Seeing risk while there is still time to act, with the evidence attached and a recommended move, is the difference between a stewardship plan and a year-end surprise.
From silent risk to a reviewed next step.
Inside Ignite, this is the Flag, Review, Reach workflow.
A donor at risk should become a specific person, a specific reason, and a specific action on one record, with no export and no side dashboard.
Risk becomes a segment
Lifecycle segments (current, at risk, lapsed) and rule-based lapse-risk segments refresh daily from giving and engagement data. The criteria are visible in the platform, and your team can tune the lifecycle windows to your donor base.
- Does the work
- Ignite Marketing
- Your team
- sets the lifecycle windows and reads every rule
The Retention agent ranks who needs attention
It reads donor statuses, recurring-plan detail, transactions, pledges, giving history, and engagement from the live record, flags lapse risk with the evidence behind each flag, and recommends recovery moves for interrupted recurring gifts.
- Does the work
- Retention agent
- Your team
- reviews each flag and the evidence behind it
A fundraiser owns the next step
The reviewed next step is recorded as an activity on the donor’s record by the person who will do it, so the call, the note, or the visit has an owner and a date instead of a good intention.
- Does the work
- Ignite CRM
- Your team
- records and owns the next step
Outreach goes from the record
The renewal appeal or the personal update is built on live donor data, with communication preferences and deceased suppression enforced on every send. No list export, no stale segment.
- Does the work
- Ignite Marketing
- Your team
- approves every send
The donor fixes it themselves
Sustainers update payment methods and recurring gifts themselves in Ignite Self-Service, so an expired card does not have to end a monthly gift.
- Does the work
- Ignite Self-Service
- Your team
- owns the donor-facing setup
The Ignite modules underneath.
Every module works on the same constituent record, so this outcome is a workflow across the platform rather than an add-on.
Ignite CRM
The donor record where risk, evidence, and the next step live together. Activities give stewardship an owner and a date.
Explore Ignite CRMIgnite Marketing
Lifecycle and rule-based lapse-risk segments, and the renewal outreach built on live data with preferences enforced.
Explore Ignite MarketingIgnite Fundraising
Recurring giving plans and pledges, with payment results recorded against the plan.
Explore Ignite FundraisingIgnite Self-Service
Where a sustainer updates a payment method or recurring gift without calling your office.
Explore Ignite Self-ServiceRetention agent
Assesses lapse risk, recommends recovery moves for interrupted recurring gifts, and ranks who needs attention now, then leaves the send to your team.
Meet the agentProven foundation
Built from the ground up on a modern, AI-first architecture.
Ignite is a new platform, built by the team nonprofits have trusted with their constituent and financial data for over 15 years.
20M+
Constituent profiles managed across the StratusLIVE platform family.
$1B+
In annual giving processed across the StratusLIVE platform family.
Months to 1 day
Donor acknowledgement turnaround
100+ — local arts and community organizations supported.
Read the ArtsWave storyOn the StratusLIVE platform family“Removes the need for manual import and export of data.”
Charmaine V.
Small-business nonprofit
Verified review · G2
“One source of the truth about our contacts, donors, and partners that is easily kept up to date.”
Robert W.
Director of Fundraising Operations & Digital Solutions
Verified review · G2
Donor Retention
Bring this exact question to a 30-minute working session.
See one live workflow in 30 minutes, with real data and no slide deck.
Questions about donor retention with Ignite
The questions buyers ask about this outcome, answered without a slide deck.
Related outcomes
Is the lapse-risk flag an AI prediction?
The segments are rule-based, not a model. High lapse risk means a donor whose last gift falls in a specific recency window and whose engagement score is low, and the rule is visible in the platform. Ignite ships predictive segments you can read, not black-box predictive scoring. The Retention agent adds judgment on top and shows the evidence behind every flag.
Can the Retention agent change a donor’s recurring gift?
No. The agent has no billing access and no write path to payment plans. It reads statuses, plans, transactions, and history, flags risk with the evidence shown, and recommends recovery moves that your donor-services team runs. Donors change their own payment methods and recurring gifts in Ignite Self-Service.
Does the agent email lapsed donors on its own?
No. The Retention agent proposes the move and the reason. Outreach is built and sent by your team in Ignite Marketing, with communication preferences and deceased suppression enforced on every send. Agents research and draft; writes follow the approval gates your team configures, and agent actions land in the audit trail.
How do we find out a sustainer’s payment failed?
Recurring payment results are recorded against the plan in Ignite, and a Recurring Payment Failed segment refreshes daily with every sustainer whose latest attempt failed. Ask the Retention agent and it reads the plan detail and transactions, confirms the gap is real, and recommends a recovery move your team can act on while the donor still remembers giving.
Does this work for a two-person development team?
Yes. A two-person team is who this was designed for. The agent ranks who needs attention now, so a small team works the top of the list instead of reading a report. Stewardship steps live as activities with owners and dates. The Retention agent is included in every subscription, and there are no per-seat fees, so bringing in donor services costs no license.
How is this different from the lapsed-donor report in our current CRM?
A report tells you who lapsed after it happened. Ignite reads the live record, flags risk while the renewal window is open, shows the evidence, recommends a move, and records the next step on the same record. Nothing is exported, refreshed monthly, or reconciled against a separate email tool.
Bring your lapsed-donor questions to a working session.
We put the Retention agent to work on live data in 30 minutes, no slide deck.