The Fall Check-In: How to Re-Engage Lapsed Donors and Rekindle Support
In fundraising, re-engagement is often more powerful and efficient than acquisition.
While it’s exciting to bring new philanthropic investors into the fold, many colleges and independent schools overlook a valuable opportunity: reconnecting with those who supported you in the past but have gone quiet. These individuals often already know your mission, have shown belief in your work, and may just need the right invitation to return.
The good news? You don’t need a new initiative or a major campaign to re-engage lapsed donors. Sometimes, all it takes is a timely check-in.
Define “Lapsed” For Your School
Before diving into strategy, you need to define what “lapsed” means for your institution.
If you work in fundraising, you’ve almost certainly heard the acronyms LYBUNT (Last Year But Unfortunately Not This) and/or SYBUNT (Some Year But Unfortunately Not This).
You may not consider LYBUNT contacts to be lapsed. Perhaps donors are considered lapsed after 12, 18, or 24 months without a gift (or when they reach SYBUNT status).
The key is to identify a timeframe that makes sense for your institution and use your donor database to pull a list of individuals who meet that definition.
Segment and Prioritize for Maximum Impact
Not all lapsed donors are created equal and your outreach shouldn’t be one-size-fits-all. Invest the time to segment your lapsed donors into different categories.
Consider factors like past gift amounts, event attendance, and affiliation (alumni, parents, grandparents, former board members). These categories will help you prioritize outreach and importantly, they will help you tailor your message and better understand constituents.
If you have a past parent whose child graduated, reengaging them requires a different message than an alumnus who fell off the map.
Once you have segmented your lapsed donors, consider how you will prioritize them. Perhaps you start with those who gave regularly before they stopped. Maybe it’s those who supported at your mid-to-high giving levels. You may want to prioritize key constituencies (young alumni, past board members, etc.) rather than working based on other factors.
Use the Right Channel, Message, and Tone
A lapsed donor strategy is about reconnection. Show curiosity and genuine interest in your outreach. Use a warm, appreciative tone. Thank them for their past support and when appropriate, invite them back into the community without strings attached.
Consider how you’ll approach these lapsed donors. Where possible, determine who on your team (or at your school) had the best connection with them. From there, have that person reach out in the most appropriate channel, whether that’s a phone call, text, email, handwritten note, social media, or another way. Make sure the message is personalized and genuine.
Perhaps you invite the donor to an upcoming event. An even lower pressure outreach is sharing an interesting and timely piece of content about something they’re likely to engage with. You can also just simply start by asking to update contact information. These low-barrier invitations create goodwill and start to rebuild connections.
Track What Works—And Build a System
As you engage your lapsed philanthropic investors, track who your team contacted and when, which channel was used, whether the donor re-engaged, and what generally seems to work well. Over time, these insights will help you build an ongoing re-engagement strategy that fits your institution’s cadence and capacity.
Reaching out to lapsed donors isn’t a one-time thing. It’s an ongoing habit and system that you need to build.
With thoughtful segmentation, warm communication, and easy paths to re-engage, you can rebuild relationships that yield long-term impact. If you need help developing your re-engagement strategy or just want to brainstorm, reach out to us using our Contact Us page. We’re ready to help.