How To Re-Engage Lapsed Donors

Every year, nonprofits lose an average of 50% or more of their donors. These are called “lapsed donors”: people that gave last year might not give again.

One of the most cost-effective fundraising moves you can make at your nonprofit? Trying to re-engage these lapsed donors. Below you’ll find our ten tips for doing it the right way. 

Why You Need To Re-Engage With Lapsed Donors

Here are a few reasons this kind of re-engagement is so important: 

• It reinforces your mission 
• It keeps your organization top of mind
• It complements all of your marketing efforts 
• It nudges your most important people toward re-engagement

The good news? Lapsed donors are not lost donors.

These are people who have already proven they are about your mission. Your task? Re-engaging with them in a way that not only shows your appreciation – but gets them excited to give again.

How To Re-Engage With Lapsed Donors

1) Have the right mindset

Don’t view lapsed donors as “people who haven’t donated in a while.” Instead, look at them as “people that donated at some point.” 

This slight shift allows you to see lapsed donors for who they really are: your most valuable leads that might donate again, but only if you know how to approach them.

2) Identify lapsed donors

Before you start reaching out, you need to know who a “lapsed donor” actually is. For some organizations, that will be donors who haven’t given in 12 months. Other organizations consider 24 months the mark to pay attention to.

Identified these people? Now it’s time to segment them by behavior. This will make your outreach feel more personal. Here are a few ways you might segment them: 

• Past gift size
• Frequency of donation
• General area of interest
• Campaign type that they donated to

For example, consider a $25 donor who gave during a disaster appeal. This person needs a very different message than a $2,500 annual supporter who missed their usual renewal.

3) Develop messaging that actually resonates

Re-engagement with lapsed donors requires the right messaging. What you write to past donors should feel personal and emotionally compelling, without being pushy.

Here are a few angles you might try:

• Gratitude-forward: “You helped make this possible. Let’s do it again.”
• Impact reminder: “Your gift made a difference. Here’s what’s next.”
• Update-driven: “See what’s changed since your last gift.”
• Urgency-based: “There’s still time to help before (deadline).”

These are all proven to drive more donations, so they’re certainly worth a try with lapsed donors.

4) Send a thoughtful email (or letter)

Sometimes a simple reminder is all it takes to get a lapsed donor interested again: We noticed you haven’t given in a while, and we’d love to have you back.

Make it human. Include a name, a bit of gratitude, and a recent story showing the impact of donations. Then give them a simple, one-click path to donate again.

5) Remind them of their past impact 

The main reason people give? They want to feel useful. And one of the best ways to rekindle that feeling? By reminding a lapsed donor of how their previous support made a difference. 

Don’t just say “we need your help.” Instead, using the data you have on them, send this donor a more personalized reminder of what exactly their donation achieves. Or example: “Your past donation of $5,000 helped us serve 100 families. Now we’re tackling the next challenge.”

This approach doesn’t just reconnect a donor to giving. Instead, it puts results at the center, and makes repeat donations more likely as a result.

6) Actively celebrate milestones 

Small, automated touchpoints remind donors of how much you appreciate them. Do it right, and you have the chance to spark renewed giving through effective personalization.

Here’s an example: 

• Somebody gave for the first time in December, 2023
• This December, you send them a message saying: “Two years ago you donated to our organization for the first time. Here is what we have done since then.”

The great thing with this approach is that it’s automated. That means you constantly have a personalized message going out to someone on a relevant anniversary.

7) Create a simple “win back” campaign

Consider building a dedicated re-engagement campaign that you run once or twice a year. This keeps your outreach systematized.

Try to keep it short. A “win back” campaign should be somewhere between two and four emails, and they should all be designed to bring lapsed donors back into the fold. Focus on impact and gratitude. Here are a few examples: 

• Email 1: Thank-you and mission update
• Email 2: Impact story / recent win
• Email 3: Clear, low-barrier ask to renew support

Even a 5% conversion rate here can make a huge difference at your nonprofit.

8) Ask for feedback as well

It’s tempting to reach out to lapsed donors asking for another donation. But this approach isn’t just flawed; it’s also a missed opportunity to understand why they haven’t given in a while. 

Consider sending a quick, one-question survey: “What’s the biggest reason you haven’t given recently?” 

This will give you valuable data and help you understand why people stop giving. Crucially, it will also make lapsed donors feel heard. Sometimes that alone is enough to inspire renewed engagement.

9) Re-engage with mission-driven content

Not every touchpoint needs to be an ask. Instead, put solid content marketing to work for you. Here are a couple of things you should be regularly sending out to past donors: 

• Updates on the new projects your organization is working on
• Behind-the-scenes stories of you and your team working together
• Videos highlighting the impact your organization has made and the people you have helped

When you send out this kind of content, you give donors the chance to re-immerse themselves in your mission. The result? They start seeing themselves as part of your story again, and are more likely to give because of it. 

Here’s a good rule of thumb: for every “ask” email, send two “value” messages. This ensures you’re not just looking for money, but showing the impact that money has as well.

10) Measure and optimize

The more that you act on the things above, the more data you will start to gather. Do this long enough and you will see what works – and what doesn’t.

This is the key to better results re-engaging lapsed donors: doubling down on effective actions, and continual iteration of things that could be improved.

…

Are you an enterprise, nonprofit or small business looking for help on your website? Give us a shout! We provide a free consultation. Email us at [email protected] or call us at (718) 855-1919!