Public & Professional Services · Full Build-Out

Non-Profit

Know Which Donors Are Lapsing Before It's Too Late

A great year-end fundraising campaign, but three months later nobody can tell you which of those 800 new donors have lapsed. Here's how to build the fix.

About & Business Case #

The everyday problem #

Director of Development

"We ran a great year-end fundraising campaign, but three months later nobody can tell you which of those 800 new donors have lapsed, or which ones are ready for a bigger ask."

Without a system tracking every gift and renewal date, lapsing donors go unnoticed until it's too late to re-engage them, and appeals get sent to whoever's on an old spreadsheet export instead of based on real, current giving history.

What good looks like

Lapsing donors are flagged automatically. Segmented appeals go out based on real giving history. The board gets a live fundraising number any time they ask.

What you're building #

Record type	Kind	What it holds
Lead	Standard (built-in)	A gift or inquiry from the donate page or an event sign-up
Contact / Account	Standard (built-in)	The Donor, and the Household or Corporate Account
Opportunity	Standard (built-in)	The pledge or gift amount, tagged with its source campaign
Volunteer Shift	Custom (you build it)	Links volunteer Contacts to events, for hour-tracking

Business outcome #

Lapsing donors are flagged automatically instead of discovered a year later
Segmented appeals go out based on real giving history, not a stale spreadsheet export
The board gets a live fundraising number any time they ask, not just at year-end

Implementation #

Step-by-step build #

Do these six pieces in order. Total time: roughly 35–45 minutes the first time through.

1 Capture the gift or inquiry #

Set up the donate-page formSetup → Object Manager → Lead → Sharing tab → Web-to-Lead section, embedded on your donation page.

Or enter event sign-ups manuallyFront-desk staff at an event can create a Lead directly for anyone who signs up in person.

2 Record the donor #

Convert the LeadCreates the Donor Contact and Household/Corporate Account — see the Lead-to-Cash Trail.

Create the OpportunitySet its Amount to the pledge or gift value, tagged with its source campaign.

3 Automate renewal outreach #

Create the workflow ruleSetup → Workflow Rules → New Rule. Object: Opportunity. Trigger: field-based, as a recurring-gift Opportunity approaches its renewal date.

Set the actionNotification to the assigned development officer.

4 Re-engage lapsing donors #

Build the email templateOpen the Email Templates tab → New Template. Write a year-end appeal.

Create the campaignCampaigns → New Campaign. Recipient object: Contact. Filter: last_gift_date__c < 10 months ago.

5 Track volunteers too #

Create the Volunteer Shift objectSetup → Object Manager → New Object. Label: "Volunteer Shift", Plural Label: "Volunteer Shifts".

Add its fieldsNew Field → "Volunteer" (LOOKUP → Contact). "Event" (TEXT or LOOKUP, if you track events as their own object). "Hours" (NUMBER).

6 Report to the board #

Create the reportReports → New Report. Object: Opportunity. Fields: Campaign Source, Amount, Close Date.

Group and saveGroup by: Campaign Source and Year. Name it "Funds Raised by Campaign, Year over Year".

How to Use #

Day-to-day: development officers #

New gift or inquiry arrivesA Lead appears automatically from the donate page or an event sign-up.

Get notified on renewalsA notification arrives automatically as a recurring gift approaches its renewal date.

Day-to-day: marketing / communications #

Send segmented appealsRun the lapsing-donor campaign whenever you need to re-engage donors who haven't given in 10+ months.

Day-to-day: director of development #

Report to the boardOpen "Funds Raised by Campaign, Year over Year" any time the board asks — no manual reconciliation.

What to try next

Look at the Marketing and Workflow Automation trails to go deeper on the pieces used here.