***Brand-new report on evangelical lapsed donors!
Why do donors stop giving? Important New Insight on Your Lapsed Donor File
By Jared Matthews
Strategy and Research Manager, BBS & Associates
Every donor-supported organization knows what a lapsed donor is … or, at least, so they think.
“Lapsed donors” are generally defined as those who haven’t made a contribution for a certain amount of time — usually the last 12 months (although this can vary from one organization to the next).
In many ministries, these people are considered to have “stopped giving.” But is this necessarily true?
BBS & Associates partnered with Grey Matter Research to answer this question and many others.
We surveyed donors from 28 ministries who had not given within the past 12 months, but who had given within the past 13 to 36 months (and nearly 95% of them had given in the last 13 to 24 months).
Some of our key findings might surprise you:
- How you see lapsed donors and how lapsed donors see themselves are very different.
- Many believe they have given in the past 12 months, which means in their mind they’re not lapsed.
- Still more say they’ve just “paused” their giving, or intended to give only one gift, or don’t recall having given in the first place.
- Only 32% recognize they have not given in the past 12 months.
- Among lapsed donors who remember having supported the ministry:
- 19% still categorize themselves as active donors to the ministry.
- 21% acknowledge they stopped giving to the ministry.
- 60% describe themselves as having paused their giving, with the intention of giving again in the future.
You’ll also be interested to learn that:
- 72% of lapsed donors describe the organization from which they lapsed as “one of their favorites to support.”
- 70% of lapsed donors who recognize they have paused — or stopped their giving to the ministry — are still supporting other organizations outside their local church.
- Lapsed donors, in general, have no issues with what the ministry is doing; they often just don’t feel that involved or engaged with it. They haven’t truly connected to your ministry or your mission.
Another important consideration … it typically costs less money to reengage a lapsed donor than it does to bring in a new donor.
And according to our research (and experience!), lapsed donors generally reengage at a higher giving level than new donors come in at.
This makes successfully reengaging your lapsed donors a strategic and effective way to further your ministry’s calling in these challenging times.
You’ll discover more in our full report … including a list of helpful recommendations for you and your organization to consider based on what we learned from this study.
As always, our team is here to serve you. If you have questions about the study or would like to receive a free copy of the full report, please don’t hesitate to contact me at jmatthews@servantheart.com.
We look forward to hearing from you.
