Building Donor Loyalty: The Fundraiser’s Guide to Increasing Lifetime Value
A research-grounded guide to the single most overlooked challenge in fundraising: keeping the donors you have already won.
Donor retention sits at the heart of sustainable fundraising, yet most organisations invest far more in acquisition than in the far less expensive work of retaining supporters they have already recruited. In this hands-on guide, Adrian Sargeant and Elaine Jay draw on a major research programme spanning more than 20,000 nonprofit organisations, funded by the Aspen Foundation and the Indiana Fund through the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, to set out the factors that drive donor loyalty, why they matter, and how fundraisers can put them to work.
The book explains the economics of donor lifetime value in practical terms, showing how even small improvements in retention rates can have a dramatic impact on fundraising income over time. It examines the demographic, lifestyle, and behavioural variables that shape donor commitment; the critical role of recognition, feedback, and stewardship; and how to build a step-by-step loyalty programme tailored to an individual organisation’s needs. Case studies throughout illustrate how effective retention strategies play out in practice.
Sargeant, one of the world’s foremost fundraising scholars, and Jay, a practitioner with extensive experience at organisations including the RSPCA, bring together academic rigour and practical application in a book that remains essential reading for fundraisers focused on long-term income growth. Although the research draws primarily on North American data, the principles translate directly to the UK context.
Adrian Sargeant and Elaine Jay
Adrian Sargeant is co-director and professor of fundraising at the Institute for Sustainable Philanthropy. He was formerly the first Hartsook Chair in Fundraising at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University and holds visiting appointments at Avila University and Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane. He is one of the most cited scholars in fundraising research.
Elaine Jay is director of Sargeant Associates Ltd, a fundraising consultancy. She has over fourteen years of experience as a fundraiser, including six years as head of individual fundraising at the RSPCA.
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