B
Evidence Grade B
Graded
under review
Safe to Cite
Current
45%
45% -- donor retention rate for US nonprofit sector (2026)
Attribution:
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Lighthouse Research Team
Last verified:
·
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Source verified
Evidence graded
Value
45%
Unit
Percentage
Data Vintage
2026
Entity
Evidence Quality
B
Strong, reliable evidence
Sourced from a well-regarded research firm or industry leader with transparent methodology and a reasonably large sample.
Single source - not yet corroborated
Score breakdown
Extraction
75
Source Trust
60
Citation Chain
20
Independence
30
Methodology
45
Freshness
95
Source
Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP)
Primary
Tier B
https://nationalfundraisingauthority.com/donor-stewardship-and-retention/ ↗
Source Article
Donor Stewardship and Retention Strategies
Donor Stewardship and Retention Strategies
Donor stewardship encompasses the deliberate practices nonprofit and civic organizations use to acknowledge, engage, and retain financial supporters after an initial gift has been made. Retaining existing donors is measurably more cost-effective than acquir…
Original Research
Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP)
· Original study ↗
Methodology
Sector average reported by Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP)
Methodology documented
Trend Over Time
| Period | Value | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 43% | |
| 2022 | 40% | -7.0% |
| 2024 | 18.3% | -54.2% |
| 2025 | 43% | +135.0% |
| 2026 (current) | 45% | +4.7% |
| Q1 2025 | 18.1% | -59.8% |
Segmentation
Industrymarketing
Cite this stat
Plain Text
US nonprofit sector: 45% donor retention rate. Source: Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) (2026). Via Lighthouse Intelligence -- https://lighthousedata.io/data/average-donor-retention-rate-45
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<blockquote cite="https://lighthousedata.io/data/average-donor-retention-rate-45" style="border-left:3px solid #2563eb;padding:12px 16px;margin:16px 0;font-family:system-ui,sans-serif;background:#f0f4ff;"><strong>45%</strong> -- donor retention rate for US nonprofit sector<br><small>Source: Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) (2026) · <a href="https://lighthousedata.io/data/average-donor-retention-rate-45" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lighthouse Intelligence</a></small></blockquote>
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