One-Time vs Recurring Donors – the Fundraising Metric that Motivates Action

When it comes to fundraising metrics, many nonprofits give a healthy amount of attention to recurring donors, as they should. But an even more revealing set of data emerges when you compare your recurring donors to one-time donors. 

In this edition of our Data Storytelling series, we’re going to look at a combined metric that can also be a ratio – your one-time vs recurring donors. 

The purpose of this series is to learn ways to take fundraising data and make it accessible, interesting, compelling, and exciting for your board and your team. Data doesn’t have to be boring. And when you use your data to tell your organization’s story in a compelling way, you can drive action that leads to growth and stability.

What Are One-Time and Recurring Donors?

Some metrics need a little explanation. This one is pretty simple. 

One-time donors are donors who have given… one time. And recurring donors are any donors who have given more than once. You can compare them side by side or as a ratio. For the ratio, you simply take your one-time donors and divide them by your recurring donors. 

So, if you have 1000 one-time donors and 2000 recurring donors, your ratio would be 0.5. If you have equal numbers of one-time and recurring donors, your ratio would be 1.0. Broadly speaking then, if the ratio is over one, it means you have more one-time donors, and if it’s less than one, you have more recurring donors.

How to Calculate Your One-Time and Recurring Donors

Assuming you’re doing this for a specific time frame, all you need to calculate this metric are the donation dates and donor ID numbers. For this metric, the amounts don’t matter. 

First, collect all the donors for that time frame. Then, tabulate all the donor ID numbers that only show up once. Those are your one-time donors. Any donor IDs that show up more than once will be your recurring donors. 

Then, for the ratio, divide your one-time donors by your recurring donors, and you’re done.

Is this tedious? Yes, if you do it yourself using spreadsheets and databases. But the Fundraising Report Card calculates one-time vs recurring donors in seconds, along with numerous other fundraising metrics. It’s easy to use – you only need three categories of data to instantly obtain a treasure trove of valuable information.

Potential Inaccuracies 

It’s important to not make your time frame too short. Even one year can be problematic, and it’s not hard to see why. 

What if a donor gives one time in two consecutive years? If you only incorporate the data for one year, you’ll mark them as a one-time donor, when in fact they are not. 

The only way to minimize this is to lengthen the range of time. But, if you lengthen it too much, you’ll just keep getting a snapshot of your lifetime of data. For example, if you calculate this over a 20-year period, and then add to it each year, it probably won’t change that much. 

So, your ideal length of time will be somewhere between one and five years. That should eliminate most of the inaccuracies. 

What Does the One-Time vs Recurring Donors Ratio Tell You?

There are three primary insights you gain from this metric.

Loyal donors and impulse donors

The more loyal and committed donors you have, the more this metric will slant toward the recurring donors. And if you have a lot of one-time donors, this suggests you’re attracting a lot of people who are giving on the impulse of the moment, but they aren’t sticking around or building any sort of relationship with your organization. 

Perhaps you have very effective fundraising ads, and a good number of people respond to them with gifts. That would tilt this metric toward the one-time donors.

Effectiveness of donor outreach and follow-up

If you have a consistent and growing number of recurring donors, this likely means your nonprofit is doing an excellent job of engaging, communicating, thanking, and following up with your existing donors. 

People can latch on to a nonprofit for all sorts of reasons. But even if they have a strong affinity for your mission, if you fail to build the relationship and continually fan the flames of their desire to make a difference, eventually they will drift away. This can happen quite suddenly. 

If you see the recurring donor half of this metric consistently slipping downward over time, that’s an indication that your follow-up needs attention.

Effectiveness of new donor acquisition

On the opposite side, every organization needs a healthy influx of new donors. The percentage of your overall donors that should be new will be different for each charity. 

So if you’re doing a good job attracting new donors year after year, you should expect to see this half of the metric doing well and perhaps even growing. 

How to Use This Fundraising KPI

As your read this, you may be realizing that how this metric changes year to year can indicate several different realities. 

For example, what happens if you gain new recurring donors AND more new one-time donors than the previous time period? That would mean both raw numbers would go up. But the ratio can only increase in one direction. So, you could gain more recurring donors, and yet the ratio could still tilt toward the one-time donor side. 

That’s why the effective use of this metric requires a caveat. We’ll look at that, and then several ways you can use your one-time vs recurring donor data.

Know your goals first

The best use of this metric happens after you first know your goals. For the upcoming relevant time frame, what are you trying to accomplish? 

If you’re trying to gain more recurring donors, then you would want to see that half of this metric increasing once you implement your strategy for turning more one-time donors into repeat donors.

But if you’re wanting to increase new donor acquisition, you would hope to see more one-time donors by the next time you evaluate this metric. 

Again, remember that both quantities can increase. And obviously, that’s a good thing. But what are you hoping to see? In the long run, more recurring donors tends to be more desirable. But if you launch several new acquisition campaigns, you should expect and hope to see more one-time donors that year.

Combine revenue with the number of donors

Another way to use this metric is to combine it with the revenue earned. How much money did your one-time donors give, and how much are you earning from your loyal donors? Amounts matter. 

That goes beyond this metric, but if you consider both figures, you’ll have a better idea of how much of an impact each type of donor is having. Recurring donors tend to give more, so you’d expect to see more revenue from them, but that also depends on how many recurring donors you have.

Track your progress of gaining more recurring donors

When you track this metric over several years, you’ll be able to monitor the results of your efforts to win more recurring donors. If you notice this number lagging or even declining, you can adjust your approach to your remaining recurring donors, as well as your one-time donors.

Why? Because recurring donors lapse too. So even though the metric may report a certain number of recurring donors, are all of them still active and planning to keep giving? You can play a part in helping them decide to keep giving. 

Segment your donor communications 

If you’re not doing it already, now would be a good time to start segmenting your donor database. Your recurring donors should experience some unique communication that only they receive. They are investing in your nonprofit, so you should invest in them and the relationship they have entered into. 

This is especially true with monthly donors. Monthly donors are different than recurring donors who give once or twice a year. These could be two different segments – within your recurring donors.

Then, donors who have given just once should also receive unique communications, and the general thrust should be to try to win a second gift or turn them into monthly donors. 

To be clear, that doesn’t mean asking for gifts in every single email or letter you send them. But it does mean making the effort to engage, interest, and captivate them with your mission and the impact they can have.  

Improve your communication with new donors

If you notice your one-time donors declining each year, or fluctuating wildly year to year, you’ll have to decide what to do about it. You could do nothing – if you feel like your new donor acquisition efforts are achieving what you want. 

For instance, maybe you’re okay with a lot of fluctuation, because you only create focused acquisition campaigns every few years, and then use the other years to focus on cultivation and follow-up. 

People can remain on your email list for years without ever giving, or only giving once. But until they unsubscribe, they should continue to hear from you at regular intervals. 

Remember – communicating with new donors isn’t just about one person. They may have a family, friends, co-workers, or networks of people, and they value the content you send them and may share it or talk about with others. 

For new donors, you should have a compelling welcome series and ideally something going out in the mail, even if it’s just a thank you note. After that, continue to engage them through email, at a minimum.

Stories You Can Tell with This Fundraising Metric

When sharing with your board or your team, you can tell general statistical stories about your one-time vs recurring donors. And you can also tell stories about specific donors represented in the data. Here are a few examples.

“We’re gaining more loyal donors!”

With the Fundraising Report Card, you can create captivating data visualization that makes it easy for everyone to see how your recurring donor data is changing year to year. If you see this number increasing, you have a story to tell that will encourage your board and team about the health and growth of your organization. 

“That last campaign worked great!”

Suppose you run an acquisition campaign every year. How well does it perform? With data visualization from the Fundraising Report Card, you can see any notable boost in one-time donors that you’d expect to see from such a campaign. 

And you might be able to extend this story later when you see that number of one-time donors decreasing and the recurring ones increasing, because a bunch of the new donors gave again. 

“Meet a new recurring donor”

Find a real donor who gave once, and then gave again. You might even wait for a third gift, or find a donor who became a monthly donor. But find a real person. Tell their story to your board. Here’s how this might look:

“Shelly saw our TV ad campaign and made a small gift. Then, she received a welcome email series and a thank you card over the next few weeks. After that, we shared an update about how her giving has made an impact with one of our projects. Then, she received a video email and a couple newsletters. After another email, she made a second gift. After that, we called her to personally thank her. She gave again on Giving Tuesday, and just last month, she became a monthly donor!”

The idea of a story like this is to show how your communication plays a direct role in turning a one-time donor into a recurring donor. Putting a name to it, and possibly a face, makes the story that much better. 

And now, you’re turning your data into a story that will get everyone excited about what you’re doing.

Upload your data to the Fundraising Report Card today and see how your one-time and recurring donor data compares. 

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One-Time vs Recurring Donors – the Fundraising Metric that Motivates Action

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