Stewardship, Donor Retention, and Recurring Giving
You get stewardship journeys, monthly giving conversion and a mid-level programme that keep the donors you already paid to acquire. Retention is the cheapest revenue in your file and the first thing that breaks when a team is stretched.
Who this is for
- You acquire well and lose most first-time donors within a year.
- Your monthly giving programme has stalled.
- Nobody owns the donors giving between 1,000 and 25,000.
The problem we usually find
Acquisition gets the budget and the attention. Retention gets a thank you letter. The result is a file that has to be refilled every year at rising cost, and a mid-level band nobody is cultivating toward a major gift.
How we deliver it
The five pillars, applied to retention.
- 1
Discovery
Cohort and recency analysis: who lapses, when, and what the second gift is actually worth.
- 2
Strategy
A retention plan by segment, with monthly conversion and mid-level cultivation targets.
- 3
Creative
Stewardship and impact communications written to be read, not filed.
- 4
Execution
Automated journeys built in your email platform, plus the calls and touches your team makes by hand.
- 5
Reporting
Retention, second gift and recurring revenue reviewed monthly, so lapse is caught before it compounds.
What you get
- Cohort retention and lapse analysis
- Welcome and second-gift journeys
- Monthly giving conversion programme
- Mid-level cultivation plan and touch calendar
- Reactivation campaign
- Stewardship and impact reporting templates
What we report
- First-year and multi-year retention
- Monthly donors added and churned
- Annual recurring revenue
- Mid-level upgrade rate
Retention programmes usually run as a retainer because the gains compound quarterly. See pricing. See pricing.
Results from this work
$1.3M
Annual Monthly Giving Revenue
4,766 New Monthly Donors Generating $1.3M in Annual Recurring Revenue
A faith-based translation nonprofit built an always-on monthly giving funnel that acquired thousands of recurring donors at a low cost per acquisition.
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Lead-to-Donor Conversion Lift
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Read the case studyCommon questions
How long before retention work shows up in revenue?
Monthly giving conversion shows inside a quarter. Retention rate itself is a twelve month measure, so we track second-gift rate and lapse rate as the early signals.
Do you work inside our CRM?
Yes. We build in the tools you already pay for rather than moving you onto something new mid-programme.
What counts as a mid-level donor?
It depends on your file. For most charities we work with it is the band between your annual appeal average and your major gift threshold, often 1,000 to 25,000.
Start with a free tool
Your Donor Journey Blueprint
Get the guideYour Mid-Level Donor Playbook
Get the toolkitYour Planned Giving Starter Kit
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