Sustainer Donor Retention Calculator
Find out how many of your monthly donors are still giving 12 months later, compare your rate to the 71% industry benchmark and Funraise's 78%, and see exactly what keeping more sustainers is worth. No sign-up, instant results.
Enter your sustainer data
Monthly donors with an active recurring gift 12 months ago, from your CRM or giving platform.
How many of those same donors still give monthly. Count only donors from that original group.
Your average recurring gift per month. The Funraise average is $47.32.
12-month sustainer retention rate
Drag the blue marker to model any target retention rate.
Add the sustainers you had a year ago and how many still give today. The industry average is about 71%; on Funraise, 78% are still giving.
After 12 months, 78% of monthly donors on Funraise are still giving, 10% better than the 71% industry benchmark. Churn-mitigation tools and a self-serve donor portal catch failed payments before they become lapsed donors, which is where most sustainer revenue quietly leaks. The average monthly gift on Funraise is $47.32, 69% better than the $28 benchmark, and monthly donors drive 27% of online revenue on average, so every point of retention compounds.
Your sustainer retention rate and revenue upside in three steps
Sustainer retention is the most leveraged number in recurring giving: every monthly donor you keep pays you again every month, and every point of retention compounds year after year. This calculator turns three numbers into a benchmarked 12-month rate and a clear recurring revenue opportunity.
Enter three numbers
Add the monthly donors you had 12 months ago, how many of them still give today, and your average monthly gift. The calculator instantly returns your 12-month sustainer retention rate and the recurring revenue behind it.
Compare to the benchmarks
See your rate against the 71% industry average and Funraise's 78% sustainer retention (10% better than the benchmark), so you know instantly whether your program is leaking monthly donors or already ahead.
Model the revenue you'd keep
Drag the target marker to any retention rate and watch the sustainers kept and recurring dollars update in real time. It is the fastest case you can make for investing in churn mitigation and a donor portal.
How to calculate sustainer donor retention rate
Twelve-month sustainer retention is the share of monthly donors active a year ago who still have an active recurring gift today, expressed as a percent. If 500 donors were giving monthly 12 months ago and 320 of them still give, your sustainer retention rate is 64%. That one percentage tells you how well your program holds onto its most valuable donors, which is why it belongs on every fundraising dashboard.
The benchmark to clear is roughly 71%: that is the industry-average 12-month retention for recurring donors. On Funraise, 78% of monthly donors are still active after 12 months, 10% better than the benchmark, because churn-mitigation tools and a self-serve donor portal catch failed payments before they become lapsed donors. The gap matters because retention compounds: a program keeping 78% of sustainers holds onto far more of its base after five years than one keeping 64%, from the exact same starting point.
Why sustainers lapse: expired or replaced cards, failed payments that nobody retries, no easy way for donors to update their own billing, and a year of silence after the first gift. Fixing those is usually cheaper than acquiring new donors. Gift size matters too: the average monthly online gift on Funraise is $47.32, 69% better than the $28 benchmark, and monthly donors drive 27% of online revenue for Funraise customers on average. Pair this tool with the rest of the Funraise free tools to turn a higher rate into a revenue plan.
Questions?
What is a good sustainer retention rate?
Roughly 71% is the industry average: about seven in ten monthly donors are still giving 12 months later. Anything above that is solid, and anything below it has clear room to grow. Best-in-class programs do better: on Funraise, 78% of monthly donors are still active after 12 months, 10% better than the benchmark. Use this calculator to see exactly where your program lands and what closing the gap is worth.
How do I calculate my sustainer donor retention rate?
Divide the number of monthly donors from 12 months ago who still give today by the total number of monthly donors you had 12 months ago, then multiply by 100. For example, 320 still-active donors from a group of 500 is a 64% retention rate. Enter those two numbers above (plus your average monthly gift) and the calculator does the math, benchmarks the result, and shows the revenue impact of a higher rate.
Where do I find my sustainer numbers?
Pull a list of donors with an active recurring gift as of 12 months ago from your CRM or giving platform, then check how many of those same donors still have an active recurring gift today. Count donors, not gifts, and only count people from the original group: new sustainers who joined during the year belong in next year's cohort.
Why do monthly donors lapse?
The biggest driver is involuntary churn: cards expire, get reissued, or fail, and without automatic card updating and smart retries those donors quietly disappear even though they never chose to stop giving. The rest is voluntary churn from weak stewardship, like a year of silence after sign-up or no self-serve way to downgrade instead of cancel. Most programs can recover a large share of failed payments before they become lapsed donors.
How can I improve sustainer retention?
Start with the plumbing: automatic card updating, intelligent payment retries, and a donor portal where sustainers can update billing themselves. Funraise's churn-mitigation tools and donor portal are a big part of why its sustainer retention runs 10% better than the industry benchmark. Then layer on stewardship: a strong welcome series, regular impact updates, giving anniversaries, and a downgrade option in place of cancellation.
Does this calculator save or share my numbers?
Your inputs save in your browser's local storage so they are there when you come back, and nothing is sent to a server unless you copy a share link. Use the share link to send your benchmarked result to a colleague or your board; they will open the same scenario, ready to adjust.
Keep more of your monthly donors
On Funraise, 78% of monthly donors are still giving after 12 months, 10% better than the industry benchmark, and the average monthly gift is $47.32, 69% above the benchmark. Get a demo and see how churn-mitigation tools and a self-serve donor portal turn your sustainer program into compounding revenue.
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