Donor Retention Rate

Excel Formulas › Nonprofit & Fundraising

All versionsCOUNTIFS

Donor retention is the share of last year’s donors who gave again this year — the single most important health metric in fundraising. Retained donors divided by prior-year donors.

Quick formula: retention from retained and prior donors:

=donors_retained / prior_year_donors

Donors who gave both years over last year's donor count, as a percentage.

Functions used (tap for the full reference guide):

COUNTIFS

The example

180 of 300 prior donors gave again.

	A	B
1	Item	Value
2	Retained	180
3	Prior donors	300 → 60%

The formula

The formula:

=B2 / B3 // retained ÷ prior donors

How it works

How it works:

Retained donors are those who gave last year and this year — count with COUNTIFS across both years.
Divide by the prior-year donor count for the retention rate.
The flip side is the attrition (lapse) rate: 1 - retention.
Acquiring new donors costs far more than keeping current ones — retention is where the leverage is.

First-year vs repeat retention. New donors lapse at much higher rates than long-time supporters, so segment retention: COUNTIFS by acquisition year reveals that first-year retention might be 25% while multi-year donor retention is 80%+. Averaging them hides the leak — and the leak is almost always in year one.

Try it: interactive demo

Live demo

Retained and prior-year donors.

Retained

Prior

Retention · Lapse

Variations

Count retained

Gave both years:

=COUNTIFS(gave_last, ">0", gave_this, ">0")

Lapse rate

The flip side:

=1 - retention_rate

By acquisition year

Segment it:

=COUNTIFS(acq_year, 2025, gave_this, ">0") / COUNTIF(acq_year, 2025)

Pitfalls & errors

Same donor base. The denominator is last year’s donors, not all donors ever.

Segment year one. First-year donors lapse fastest — don’t average them with loyal donors.

Zero prior donors. A new org has no retention to compute (#DIV/0!).

Practice workbook

📊

Download the free Donor Retention Rate practice workbook

A retention sheet with the count-retained, lapse, and by-cohort variants, plus 4 challenges with answers. No sign-up required.

Frequently asked questions

How do I calculate donor retention rate in Excel?

Divide retained donors by prior-year donors: =donors_retained / prior_year_donors. 180 of 300 is 60%.

How do I count retained donors?

Use =COUNTIFS(gave_last, ">0", gave_this, ">0") for donors who gave in both years.

Why segment retention by acquisition year?

First-year donors lapse far faster than long-time donors; averaging hides where you're losing people.

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Function references: COUNTIFS