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Understanding the Donors dashboard

Use the Donors dashboard to track fundraising, analyze donor cohorts, and identify opportunities for donor retention and reactivation.

Updated over 2 months ago

Overview

The Donors dashboard provides a view of your fundraising performance by showing key donor cohorts. This powerful visualization tool helps you track your fundraising success, identify opportunities for donor re-engagement, and understand your donation patterns at a glance.

Filter options

At the top of the dashboard, you'll find several filtering options to help you analyze specific segments of your donor data:

  • Fiscal Year: Select which year's data you want to view

  • Nation: Choose which nation's data to display (for organizations with multiple nations)

  • Frequency: Filter by donation frequency (one-time, recurring monthly, recurring annually)

  • States: Filter donors by geographic location

  • Postal Code: Filter donors by postal code

These filters work together to help you drill down into specific donor segments for more targeted analysis.

Active Donors section

The Active Donors section displays three key metrics visualized with interactive charts:

Total Donors

This circular chart shows your total number of donors, broken down by:

  • New: First-time donors in the current period

  • Retained: Donors who have given in previous periods and the current period

    • Technical definition: Donors who gave in the selected year as well as the previous year.

  • Reactivated: Previous donors who had stopped giving but have donated again in the current period

    • Technical definition: Donors who gave in the selected year, but not the previous year, and had given in years past.

The chart includes year-over-year growth percentages and raw numbers for context (e.g., "103% (2.5K) PY" indicates a 103% increase from the previous year, with 2.5K being the previous year's total).

Total Revenue

This visualization shows the total donation amount received, with the same breakdown as the Total Donors chart:

  • New: Revenue from first-time donors

  • Retained: Revenue from continuing donors

  • Reactivated: Revenue from reactivated donors

The chart includes year-over-year growth percentages and previous year amounts for comparison.

Average Donation Size

This bar chart compares the average donation amounts across the three donor categories:

  • New: Average donation from first-time donors

  • Retained: Average donation from continuing donors

  • Reactivated: Average donation from reactivated donors

This helps you understand which donor segments are providing the highest value per donation.

Opportunities section

The Opportunities section helps you identify potential for donor reactivation and retention, with two key metrics:

Donors Retained

This chart shows:

  • The number and percentage of donors from the previous year who have been retained in the current year.

  • The "Potential Revenue" figure, which represents potential donations from donors who haven't yet renewed.

    • If you’re looking at data from a year that has already passed, this figure shows as “Lapsed Revenue.”

Donors Reactivated

This chart shows:

  • The number and percentage of lapsed donors from two years ago who have been reactivated in the current year.

    • 📌 Note: Lapsed donors from three or more years ago are not shown on this graph.

  • The "Potential Revenue" figure, representing potential donations from lapsed donors who haven't been retained yet

    • If you’re looking at data from a year that has already passed, this figure shows as “Lapsed Revenue.”

Using the Donor Dashboard

Here are some ways to leverage the Donors Dashboard:

  • Track retention rates to measure the effectiveness of your donor stewardship programs.

  • Identify trends in donor acquisition, retention, and reactivation.

  • Plan targeted campaigns for specific donor segments based on their giving patterns.

  • Set fundraising goals using year-over-year comparisons.

  • Estimate potential revenue from lapsed donor reactivation efforts.

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