A guide to running your donor relationships like a major-shop pro — even with a team of one.
Most small nonprofits track donors in a spreadsheet that ages out the moment a key staff member or board member leaves. The institutional memory walks out the door — who attended the gala, who pledged five years and is now in year three, who asked about planned giving, why a foundation gave restricted to one program — and it's expensive to rebuild.
A donor CRM is the boring infrastructure that protects all of that. It's not glamorous, but it is the single highest-ROI operational investment a small shop can make. Donor retention rates for the sector hover around 45% — meaning more than half of your donors will not give again next year. The organizations that beat that number do one thing consistently: they remember.
| Field | What it means |
|---|---|
| Donor Type | Individual, Couple/Family, Foundation, Corporate, Donor-Advised Fund, Estate/Bequest. Drives reporting cuts. |
| Pipeline Stage | Identification → Qualification → Cultivation → Solicitation → Stewardship → (Paused). Only set this for major donor prospects you're actively managing. |
| Tags | Multi-select segments. You can tag the same donor "Major Donor" and "Board Member" and "Volunteer". |
| Do Not Solicit (DNS) | Honor every DNS flag. Excluded from solicitation lists. |
| Spouse / Partner | Critical for joint households — affects salutations and recognition. |
| Interests | Free-text. What programs do they care about? What conversations have you had? |
| Field | What it means |
|---|---|
| Designation | Unrestricted is best. "Restricted - [purpose]" obligates you to spend that money on that purpose. Track carefully. |
| Method | Check, Credit Card, Stock, DAF, IRA QCD, etc. Stock and QCD gifts have unique tax handling. |
| Appeal | Which campaign this gift was credited to. Tag every gift; it's how you measure appeal performance. |
| Acknowledged | Mark true once a thank-you letter has gone out. Required for IRS substantiation on gifts $250+. |
| Pledge | Recurring Gift |
|---|---|
| A signed commitment to give a defined total over a fixed timeframe (e.g. $50K over 5 years). Multi-installment major gifts and capital campaign commitments live here. | An open-ended monthly/quarterly/annual auto-renewing gift (the "sustainer" or "monthly donor" model). Often $10–$100/month with no end date. |
The pipeline (kanban) is for prospects you're actively managing toward a major gift ask. It is not for every donor in your file. A donor only belongs here if you (or someone on your team) is making moves to deepen the relationship toward a specific solicitation.
| Stage | Goal | Typical duration |
|---|---|---|
| Identification | Confirm this prospect has both capacity and connection to your mission. | 1–3 months |
| Qualification | Capacity and interest confirmed. They've responded to outreach. | 1–3 months |
| Cultivation | Building the relationship via meaningful, substantive touchpoints. | 6–18 months |
| Solicitation | The ask is being prepared or has been made. Awaiting decision. | 1–3 months |
| Stewardship | Gift received. Now building toward the next gift. | Ongoing |
| Paused | Stepped back temporarily (e.g. donor going through a life event). Re-engage later. | Variable |
Best practice for any donor giving $1,000+ annually: a formal stewardship plan with at least seven non-solicitation touchpoints per year. The goal is to make the donor feel like a partner, not an ATM.
The IRS requires a "contemporaneous written acknowledgment" for any single contribution of $250 or more. Best practice is to thank every gift, regardless of size.
The Tax Acknowledgments page generates compliant letters from your boilerplate. You can preview as HTML or download a Word .docx for mail merge. The bulk action generates all pending acknowledgments in one document.
Donors who gave in the prior year but haven't yet given in the current year. These are your single highest-value reactivation targets. They already know you, gave at least once, and just need a reason to come back. Most can be saved with a personal call from the ED or board chair.
Donors who gave in earlier years but neither last year nor this year. Lower hit rate than LYBUNT but still worth a targeted Q1 reactivation campaign each year.
The percentage of last year's donors who gave again this year. Industry benchmark for small organizations is around 45%. Above 60% is excellent. Below 30% means something is broken in your stewardship.
Donors over $5,000 in a given year typically must be disclosed (with redacted names for public copies) on Schedule B of Form 990. The Reports page surfaces this list automatically based on YTD giving.
The Donor CRM is one part of a connected suite. Use these other apps in tandem:
| Feature | Free | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Donor directory | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Gift logging & pledges | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Tax acknowledgment letters | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Reports & annual report builder | ✓ | ✓ |
| Team members | 3 | Unlimited |
| Team analytics & activity log | — | ✓ |
All donor data lives in your browser's local storage on this device. It is not synced to any server. If you sign in to the same demo on another device, you will see a fresh empty state.
Honor donor preferences strictly: DNS flags must be respected, anonymous donors must be marked anonymous in any external listing, and gift records should be retained for at least 7 years per IRS guidance.
Build Your Club Academy · Donor CRM Guide
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