Most donor databases make list-building a technical job, so every request waits on whoever can write the query. StratusLIVE Ignite ships 50+ ready-made donor segments, including LYBUNT, SYBUNT, and lapsed donors, refreshed daily. For anything custom, a fundraiser describes the list in plain English, Build with AI drafts the query, and the no-code builder refines it.
Every appeal, stewardship push, and board packet starts with the same step: someone needs a list. On most development teams, that request lands with the one person who knows the database.
Lapsed donors for the spring appeal. Gala guests who have not given. The top donors for the board packet. Each request waits its turn with the database manager, and the appeal waits with it.
When the wait runs long, the data goes out as an export. It is stale the day it is pulled, it misses this morning’s gifts, and it carries donor information outside every control you set.
A donor with three gifts lands on three rows. Excluding one fund lets donors back in through their other gifts. The total disagrees with the dashboard, and nobody can say why before the letter mails.
Ignite gives you three ways to build a list, in the order a development team works: start from a ready-made segment, ask for anything custom in plain English, and take full control in the no-code builder when every condition has to be exact.
01 · Start ready-made
LYBUNT and SYBUNT. Lapsed and at-risk donors. Donors renewed from lapse and loyal donors five years running. Mid-level and major donors, recurring gifts that failed, and event attendees who never gave. Ignite ships these as system segments, refreshed daily from the live record, with the rule behind each one in plain view. Nobody writes a query for the lists every nonprofit needs.
02 · Ask in plain English
Type “donors who gave last fiscal year but not this year, with their email.” Build with AI drafts the query, tells you in plain language who is in and why, and suggests quick refinements you apply in one click. Want only the donors assigned to you? Ask in your own words and it refines the draft. Run it right away or open it in the builder. Drafting a query never changes your data.
03 · Build for precision
Choose what one row means, pick columns, and set filters in plain field names, by fiscal year, and across related gifts, pledges, and households. “Has none” finds donors who never gave to a fund, even if they gave to others. Save the answer as a dynamic segment, add it to a list, chart it, or export it.
The evidence
19.4%
of donors who were new in 2023 gave again in 2024, compared with 69.2% retention among repeat donors. Those two groups need different asks, so they need different lists.
Source: Fundraising Effectiveness Project, Q4 2024 Quarterly Fundraising Report
Your donors are not one list. A first-time donor, a lapsed loyal donor, and a mid-level donor who skipped this year each need a different ask, and the ask only happens if the list is ready in time. Ready-made segments and one-sentence custom lists turn that difference into this week’s outreach instead of next quarter’s request.
Inside Ignite, this is the List to Audience workflow.
A list only matters once it reaches donors. In Ignite, the segment, the audience, and the results all live on the same constituent record, so the list reaches the send with no export in between.
System segments such as LYBUNT, SYBUNT, and Lapsed refresh daily from giving and engagement on the live record, and each one shows the rule that defines it.
Start from the LYBUNT segment in Query Builder and add a condition, such as donors with a Virginia address, or describe the list in plain English. One sentence becomes one explained draft, and one click runs it.
Save the result as a dynamic segment that keeps itself current, or add it to a list your team already uses. Each constituent is held once, however many gifts or addresses they have.
The segment becomes an Ignite Marketing audience for the appeal, with communication preferences, do-not-contact, and deceased suppression enforced at send.
Gifts post to the same record, so the daily refresh moves donors between segments on its own. A lapsed donor who gives this week moves out of Lapsed with no one editing a list.
Every module works on the same constituent record, so this outcome is a workflow across the platform rather than an add-on.
Home of the system segments and Query Builder: Build with AI, the no-code builder, and a saved-query library your team can share.
Explore Ignite CRMWhere a saved segment becomes an audience for an appeal, sent from live data with preferences and suppression enforced.
Explore Ignite MarketingThe gifts, pledges, and recurring plans that every segment and query reads, on the same record as the donor.
Explore Ignite FundraisingProven foundation
Ignite is a new platform, built by the team nonprofits have trusted with their constituent and financial data for over 15 years.
4.5/5
Average on G2.
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
List Management
Bring this exact question to a 30-minute working session.
See one live workflow in 30 minutes, with real data and no slide deck.
The questions buyers ask about this outcome, answered without a slide deck.
Related outcomes
LYBUNT donors gave Last Year But Unfortunately Not This year: a gift in your last fiscal year and none so far in this one. SYBUNT donors gave Some Year But Unfortunately Not This year: an earlier gift, but none this fiscal year or last. Ignite ships both as system segments, measured on your fiscal year, refreshed daily, and ready to use as an Ignite Marketing audience or as a filter in Query Builder.
Yes. Most lists are already built as system segments. For anything else, a fundraiser describes the list in plain English and Build with AI drafts the query and explains it, or they build it in the no-code builder with friendly field names, fiscal-year dates, and related gifts and households. No table names, join keys, or query syntax are involved, and the database manager keeps control of curation, ownership, and access.
No. Every query states what one row means, and the default is one row per constituent. A filter on gifts, addresses, or relationships checks whether a match exists instead of adding rows, and choosing one row per gift is an explicit, labeled switch. Segments and lists always hold each constituent once, so a donor with five gifts is counted once, and an export follows the row choice you made.
A dynamic segment is defined by its rules, so its membership updates itself as giving and engagement change. A list is a fixed set of constituents you add to on purpose. It does not change when the data does, and it never adds the same record twice. Query Builder saves to either one, and each option explains what it will do before you commit.
Build with AI turns your sentence into a query definition and shows it to you before anything runs: a plain-language summary of who is in and why, what one row means, and the filters it used. You can run it, open it in the builder to change any part, or ask for a redraft. It works within your permissions, and it never changes your data.
Sharing a query shares its definition, never its data. Query Builder checks each person’s security role before a query runs, so a colleague who opens a shared query sees only the records and fields they are permitted to see. Restricted records are left out of both the results and the counts.
Most donor databases split lists in two: a simple list tool that runs out of options, and a powerful query tool that only one person can use. Ignite starts from ready-made segments, takes custom requests in plain English, and keeps a no-code builder for precision. All three read the same record with the same gift rules as your dashboards, so the list and the report agree.
We show you how Ignite builds it in a 30-minute working session, no slide deck.