What are LYBUNT and SYBUNT reports?
A LYBUNT report lists donors who gave last year but unfortunately not this year. A SYBUNT report lists donors who gave some year but unfortunately not this one, and not last year either.
- LYBUNT: gave in last fiscal year, no gift yet this fiscal year.
- SYBUNT: last gift came before last fiscal year.
- Retained: gave last year and again this year.
Example: your fiscal year starts July 1. A donor who gave in March 2026 (FY2026) and nothing since July 1, 2026 is on the FY2027 LYBUNT list. A donor whose last gift was in 2023 is on the SYBUNT list.
How do you calculate donor retention rate?
Donor retention rate is the share of last year’s donors who gave again this year.
Retention rate = donors who gave last year and this year ÷ donors who gave last year × 100
Example: 10 donors gave in 2025. 6 of them gave again in 2026, so retention is 6 ÷ 10 = 60%. The other 4 are the LYBUNT list.
Dollar retention uses money instead of donors: what last year’s donors gave this year ÷ what they gave last year. Until the year closes, both rates are year to date and rise as late gifts arrive.
How do I export donations from PayPal, QuickBooks, Donorbox or Givebutter?
Export at least two years of gifts, one row per gift.
- PayPal: download an Activity report as CSV from the Reports section of your account. Each report covers up to 12 months, so add one file per year.
- QuickBooks Online: Reports > Standard reports > Sales by Customer Detail, set the dates, then Export to Excel and save as CSV. Donor names on group rows are filled down.
- Donorbox or Givebutter: export all donations or transactions as CSV.
- Any spreadsheet: copy the rows with donor, date and amount and paste them in.
Refunded, failed and pending rows are left out. A refund row takes out the gift it refunds, and PayPal transfers and currency conversions are skipped.
What should I do with a LYBUNT list?
Contact the top of the list first: it is sorted by what each donor gave last year.
- Call or write personally to the largest donors before the year-end appeal.
- Send everyone else a short re-ask that names their last gift.
- Send the SYBUNT list a separate appeal, or hold it for a spring campaign.
- Run the report again each month to see who came back.
An AI worker can draft each re-ask from this list for your review. See AI workers.
Questions
Is my donation file uploaded anywhere?
No. Your browser reads the file and does the counting on your computer.
How does it know two rows are the same donor?
Rows that share a donor ID, an email or a name count as one donor. Check common names that have no email, since two people with one name are counted once.
Can I combine several exports?
Yes. Tick “Add the next file” and drop in each year’s export. Rows that repeat exactly are kept once.
Does it handle a fiscal year that starts in July?
Yes. Pick the month your fiscal year starts, and each year is named by the year it ends, so July 2025 to June 2026 is FY2026.
Why is my retention rate low partway through the year?
This year only counts gifts received so far. Donors who give once near year-end are counted when their gift arrives.
What is in the mail-merge file?
First name, last name, email, last gift date and amount, giving totals and the year they last gave. It also carries the address and other columns from the donor’s latest gift row.
Sources
- Quarterly Fundraising Report, Q3 2024 (donor type definitions), Fundraising Effectiveness Project, AFP,
- 2019 Fundraising Effectiveness Survey Report (donor and gift retention), Fundraising Effectiveness Project, AFP,
- Non-Profit LYBUNT and SYBUNT Reports, Oracle NetSuite,
- Activity download report, PayPal Developer,
- Export your reports to Excel from QuickBooks Online, Intuit QuickBooks,
