How to Calculate Donor Retention Rate (With a Simple Sheet)

A board member asks what your donor retention rate is. You know you have a spreadsheet of every gift somewhere, and you know the number matters, but turning one into the other feels like a project for a weekend you don't have.

It's simpler than it looks. Donor retention rate is the number of donors who gave last year and gave again this year, divided by the number of donors who gave last year, times 100. With one row per donor and a total for each year, you can calculate it in about half an hour. Here's the formula, a worked example, and a spreadsheet setup that works.

What is the donor retention rate formula?

Retention rate = (donors who gave in both years ÷ donors who gave last year) × 100

Three things to notice:

• The denominator is last year's donors. You're asking "of the people we had, how many did we keep?"
• New donors this year don't count. Someone who gave for the first time this year isn't retained or lost yet. They join next year's calculation.
• It counts people, not money. A donor who gave $25 counts the same as one who gave $2,500.

A worked example

Say your organization had these donors:

• 2025: 240 donors gave at least once.
• 2026: 108 of those 240 gave again. Another 70 people gave for the first time.

Retention = 108 ÷ 240 × 100 = 45%.

The 70 new donors don't change this year's rate. Next year, they'll be part of the 2026 donor base you measure against.

You lost 132 donors (240 minus 108). That's the number worth sitting with. Each of them chose you once.

How do you calculate new vs. repeat donor retention?

The single overall number hides the most useful information. The Fundraising Effectiveness Project splits retention by donor type, and you should too:

• New donor retention: of the people who gave for the first time last year, what share gave again this year?
• Repeat donor retention: of the people who gave last year and had also given before, what share gave again this year?

Continuing the example: of your 240 donors in 2025, say 90 were first-time donors and 150 had given before. In 2026, 18 of the 90 new donors gave again and 90 of the 150 repeat donors did.

Group	Last year	Gave again	Retention
New donors	90	18	20%
Repeat donors	150	90	60%
All donors	240	108	45%

Now you can see where the leak is. Your repeat donors are steady. Your first-time donors mostly aren't coming back. That points straight at one fix: getting a second gift from first-time donors.

How to set up a simple donor retention sheet

You don't need a database. You need one row per donor.

Step 1: Export every gift

Pull every gift for the last three years from wherever they live: your donation platform, PayPal, bank records, an old spreadsheet. You want at least donor name, email, date, and amount.

Step 2: Clean up duplicates

This is the step people skip, and it matters most. "Bob Smith," "Robert Smith," and "bob@example.com" might be the same person. If they're counted as three donors, two of them will look like they lapsed. Sort by email and by last name, and merge anyone who's obviously the same.

Step 3: Make one row per donor

Build a summary tab with these columns:

Column	What goes in it
A: Donor	Name or email (one row per person)
B: First gift year	The year of their earliest gift ever
C: Gave 2024	Total given in 2024
D: Gave 2025	Total given in 2025
E: Gave 2026	Total given in 2026

A pivot table does this in a few clicks: donors as rows, year as columns, sum of amount as values. If you prefer formulas, use a SUMIFS for each year that adds up the gifts matching the donor and falling between January 1 and December 31.

Step 4: Count

Now three counts, all of which a COUNTIFS formula handles (it counts rows matching several conditions at once):

1. Last year's donors: rows where 2025 is greater than zero.
2. Retained donors: rows where 2025 is greater than zero and 2026 is greater than zero.
3. Retention rate: retained donors divided by last year's donors.

For new vs. repeat, add one more condition:

• New donor retention: count rows where first gift year is 2025 and 2026 is greater than zero, divided by rows where first gift year is 2025.
• Repeat donor retention: same, but where first gift year is before 2025.

That's the whole sheet. Save it, and next year you add one column.

Common mistakes that skew your retention rate

• Not merging duplicates. The most common error, and it always makes retention look worse than it is.
• Mixing calendar and fiscal years. Either is fine. Switching between them is not. If your fiscal year runs July to June, use it for both years.
• Counting dollars instead of donors. Dollar retention (how much of last year's revenue came back) is a useful second number, but it's a different one. One loyal major donor can make dollar retention look great while dozens of small donors quietly leave.
• Comparing a partial year to a full one. If it's October, many of last year's donors haven't given yet this year. Either wait until the year closes or compare the same months in both years.
• Counting new donors in the denominator. This year's first-time donors aren't part of this year's rate.

How does your number compare?

The Fundraising Effectiveness Project's 2025 full-year data gives the clearest benchmarks:

• Overall donor retention: 43.3%
• New donor retention: 18.9%
• Repeat donor retention: 59.3%

If you're near those numbers, you're typical. Above them is good, and below them is a signal about where to look. We go deeper on what counts as good, including monthly donors and gift size, in what a good donor retention rate looks like.

The more useful comparison is with yourself. Calculate last year's rate the same way, and watch the trend.

What to do with the number

A retention rate is only useful if it changes what you do. Once you've split new and repeat retention:

• If new donor retention is low, focus on the first 90 days: a fast thank-you and one progress update before the next ask.
• If repeat donor retention is slipping, look for donors who missed their usual pattern this year and reach out with a note that asks for nothing.
• Either way, make sure donors hear what their gift accomplished. That's the habit at the center of donor retention for small nonprofits.

Where Perennial fits

If you'd rather not rebuild this sheet every year, Perennial Giving does the math for you. You import your gift exports from anywhere, it merges duplicates, and it shows your retention rate live against the sector average, split into new and repeat donors. It also names the donors behind the number, with a plain reason for each one, and drafts the note to send. The spreadsheet method above gets you the same number. The difference is how often you'll look at it.

A number you can trust

Once you've done it once, calculating donor retention takes a few minutes a year. Clean your duplicates, make one row per donor, and count. Then split new from repeat, because that's where the real story is. The number itself is just a starting point. What matters is the handful of donors it tells you to call.