Key takeaways
- The Fundraising Effectiveness Project's Q2 2026 report found that only 11.3% of donors acquired in 2025 had given again by midyear.
- New retained donors fell 9.5%, the steepest drop of any lifecycle stage, even as total dollars rose 6.6%.
- Any 2025 first-time donor who doesn't give again by Dec. 31 becomes a lapsed donor in the data.
- A personal thank-you, a clear report on impact and one low-pressure invitation are the core of a year-end second-gift plan.
What the latest FEP numbers show
The Fundraising Effectiveness Project, a research program of the AFP Foundation for Philanthropy, tracks gifts across thousands of nonprofits. Its Q2 2026 report covers 5.7 million donors, $8.1 billion in gifts and 17,000 organizations.
The headline pattern is familiar. Compared with the same point in 2025:
- Dollars were up 6.6%.
- The number of donors was down 1.6%.
- Overall donor retention slipped 0.4 percentage points, to 26.4%.
- New retained donors, people who gave for the first time last year and gave again this year, fell 9.5%.
- Repeat retained donors rose 3.1%.
The number that should get a development team's attention is new donor retention. According to the FEP, only 11.3% of donors acquired in 2025 had given again by the end of the second quarter, down 0.3 points from a year earlier. Put another way, about nine in 10 of last year's first-time donors had not yet made a second gift.
"The continuing decline in the number of donors indicates that nonprofits are increasingly reliant on larger donors," Woodrow Rosenbaum, chief data officer of GivingTuesday, an FEP partner, said in comments reported by The NonProfit Times.
Why the second gift matters most
The FEP counts giving by calendar year. A donor who gave for the first time in 2025 and doesn't give again by Dec. 31, 2026, moves from "new" to "lapsed." Winning that donor back later is harder: the FEP's recapture rate, which tracks previously lapsed donors who give again, was 1.5% at midyear.
The data also shows how much habits matter. The FEP found retention climbs from 14.4% of one-time donors to 90% of those who gave seven or more times. The second gift is the first step from a one-time transaction to a relationship. For more on measuring this, see our donor retention guide, or run your own numbers with the LYBUNT and SYBUNT calculator.
A year-end checklist for first-time donors
There are about seven weeks left in the year. Here is a practical order of work.
- Pull the list now. Export everyone whose first gift was in 2025 and who hasn't given in 2026. Note the amount, date, channel and campaign of the first gift.
- Clean the records. Check addresses, phone numbers and email addresses, and remove anyone who asked not to be contacted.
- Thank before you ask. Reach out first with a thank-you and no request. Tell donors what their first gift helped do, in a sentence or two they can picture.
- Make one clear, specific invitation. Later in November or early December, invite them to give again for something concrete. Offer a monthly option for those who want it, but don't push.
- Use GivingTuesday wisely. GivingTuesday falls on Dec. 1. A first-time donor who hears from you only on that day is just another appeal in a crowded inbox; a donor who was thanked a week earlier has context.
- Follow up the last two weeks of December. A short reminder before Dec. 31 is reasonable. One reminder is enough.
Don't forget recently lapsed donors
The same approach works for donors who gave in 2024 but not in 2025. They knew your organization once. A call or letter that starts by thanking them for past support, shares what has changed and asks whether they'd like to be involved again is more respectful than a generic appeal. Keep expectations realistic: some will say no, and that is useful information too. Mark their preference and move on.
Making the calls
A phone call is one of the few channels that lets a first-time donor hear a real person say thank you. A few principles keep it respectful:
- Lead with thanks. Our donor thank-you call script is a starting point you can adapt.
- Listen more than you talk. Ask why they gave. Note the answer in your database; it will shape every future message.
- Give people room to say no. No invented deadlines, no matching gifts that don't exist and no pressure to decide on the call.
- Leave a short voicemail. If no one answers, say thank you, give your name and organization, and leave a callback number.
- Follow the rules. Calls that ask for gifts must follow federal and state rules, including the Telemarketing Sales Rule's disclosures and state charitable registration requirements. Our guide to fundraising call rules covers the basics.
How KFG helps
Kensington Fundraising Group runs respectful, no-pressure calling programs that thank first-time donors and invite them back, along with lapsed donor reactivation calls for supporters who've drifted away. If you're also building next year's file, our new donor acquisition calling pairs a first gift with a follow-up plan from day one, and we walk clients through the state registration steps before calling starts.