Slaesforce FAQ

how to calculate donor retention rate in salesforce

by Vicente Reinger Published 3 years ago Updated 2 years ago

Calculate the donor retention rate by using the formula: (This Year / Last Year) * 100 = Retention Rate The formula looks like this and using our examples:

Donor retention is calculated by taking the total number of donors from last year and dividing it into the number of those same donors who donated this year.Sep 10, 2017

Full Answer

How do you calculate donor retention rate?

You can calculate your nonprofit's donor retention rate by dividing the number of repeat donors this year by those that donated last year. For example, if you have 159 donors who gave again this year, but had 300 who gave last year, your donor retention rate would be 53%.

What does donor retention mean?

Donor retention entails engaging existing donors so that they continue to give to the organization each year. By doing so, you have retained that donor. Retention efforts include encouraging a donor to give on a set schedule and interacting with them regularly so that they feel valued.

Can Salesforce track donations?

Donations are called Opportunities in Salesforce. An Opportunity is a specially-designed Salesforce record for recording revenue by the amount, date, and person or organization that revenue is from. Businesses use Opportunities to track sales deals–nonprofits use Opportunities to track donations.

How do you calculate retention rate in Raiser's Edge?

We'll call this number 'This Year'. (This is the number of donors that you retained.) Calculate the donor retention rate by using the formula: (This Year / Last Year) * 100 = Retention Rate.

What is a good donor retention rate?

around 40-45%The average donor retention rate is hovering around 40-45% across the nonprofit sector. This means that if 100 donors give to your organization in a given year, then only about 40 of those donors will give again the following year.

What is a good donor retention rate 2021?

2021: The year of donor retention?! Donor retention dropped by 4.1%, with the overall 2019 donor retention rate at 45.4% and in 2020 at 43.6%.

Is Salesforce a donor management system?

Names, emails, tasks, deadlines, gift asks. You name it, a donor management system (like Salesforce) tracks it. A DMS is one example of a CRM, or constituent relationship management system, but specifically around donors.

What is Salesforce elevate?

Salesforce Elevate is a platform tailored to the specific needs of organizations in the nonprofit and education industries and is set to be released in summer 2020. Four products make up the Elevate solution: Payment Services, Giving Pages, Engagement Hub, and Philanthropy Cloud for Causes.

How do I add donations to Salesforce?

Enter Donations from a Company or Other OrganizationFind and select the donor's account. ... Click the Related tab if it isn't already open on the page.Click New on the Opportunities related list.Select the Donation record type and click Next. ... Fill in at least the required fields. ... Click Save.More items...

What is a retained donor in Raiser's Edge?

Retained donors are your engaged constituents who give year-over-year. In the donor lifecycle, retained donors gave within the past 12 months and less than 15 months since their previous gift. To keep these constituents engaged, assign them to fundraisers who can provide regular interaction and chances for involvement.

Objective

Create a custom Report in the Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack with a chart that displays the donor retention rate for this year cumulatively by month vs. the acquisition of that donor cohort in the previous year by month compared to the donor retention goal for the current year

Desired Outcomes

Chart donor retention for the current year as a cumulative percentage month by month

The End Result

The above chart is from a custom Report on Opportunities and it's the holy grail of donor retention reporting we seek. The light blue line shows the month by month acquisition of our donor retention cohort from last year. The dark gray line shows the month by month cumulative donor retention percentage for the current year.

Step One: Create custom fields on the Contact object

In order to create the Report with the chart we've after, we need to be able to include a) only Opportunities for Contacts who gave in 2016; and b) only the first donation for a given Contact in 2016, and in 2017, if they've given this year. We'll be able to take care of the first part of that filter using a field in the Nonprofit Success Pack.

Step Two: Create custom fields on the Opportunity object

With our Contact source fields created, let's create the source fields on the Opportunity object from which our rollup data will come. As with the Contact fields, you can exclude any fields for years prior to last year if you don't wish to create versions of the Report for previous years.

Step Four: Create a custom Report

With our custom fields and User Defined Rollups created, we can create our Report. To create our Report, go to the Reports tab and click New Report fields in Salesforce Classic:

Step Five: Take a break

Stand up. Stretch. Get a drink of water. Listen to some tunes. You've done some good work so far. We want you fresh and focused for the homestretch.

How to Customize Salesforce to Support Donor Retention

Salesforce is a completely customizable CRM solution for for-profits and nonprofits alike. That’s one of the major selling points for the software: it’s completely malleable so you can make it fit any organizational need.

The Nonprofit Success Pack

Chances are you’ve heard of the Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack. This is the Salesforce-built solution that turns the blank canvas of Salesforce into a usable CRM for nonprofits.

Additional Fundraising Software

Not only does your nonprofit need a great strategy to stay organized. In order to effectively reach supporters and use the information you’ve so carefully organized, you also need to customize your Salesforce solution with outreach tools. After all, outreach and communication are absolutely essential for donor retention.

Ask for Help if You Need it

Salesforce is a powerful tool once it’s set up to suit your nonprofit’s needs. However, it can be incredibly difficult to customize it in just the right way. We have a couple of tips that will help you make it just a little bit easier:

What Is Customer Retention Rate and Why Does It Matter?

CRR is a figure that helps you understand how good your processes are in keeping customers happy and making them want to continue working with your company (retention).

How to Calculate Customer Retention Rate

Below are a few metrics and how they are used to calculate CRR. This formula should work for any business regardless of size. It helps to break the calculation into parts.

5 Ways to Improve Your Customer Retention Rate

There are countless ways to help improve your retention rate, but if you really want to be successful, you have to be willing to truly evaluate your company, identify why some customers are leaving, and then put an actual customer retention plan in place.

Who Needs to Implement Customer Retention?

Everyone! As discussed above, calculating your customer retention rate, then creating a CRR improvement program is crucial for any company. You want to make sure you have brand loyalty with your customers. Although it’s a lot of work and may take time to see quantifiable results, statistics show that it will pay off in the long run.

Donor Retention Rate

This refers to the number (or percentage) of donors that return to give another gift in a specific time period (usually a year). Divide the number of last year’s donors (you can use a calendar or fiscal year) by the number of previous year’s donors and multiply by 100.

Gift Retention Rate

This refers to the total amount of retained gifts you receive in one year compared with the total amount received from those same donors in the previous year. You divide the amount received this year by the amount received last year to arrive at your gift retention rate.

Gift Downgrade, Upgrade and Flat Calculation

The reason I like to calculate these numbers is because it gives me a good idea who I need to pay attention to.

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