5 Ways to Use Donor Data in Nonprofit Strategic Planning

Strategic planning starts with data

Many nonprofits collect a lot of information but still feel stuck when it comes time to make decisions. You might have hundreds or thousands of records in your database and still wonder:

• Who should we focus on right now?
• Which campaign types are actually working for us?
• Why are donors giving only once?
• Are we on track to hit our goals this year?

Your donor data helps you move from “we think” to “we know.” And when laid out clearly in the right reports, it can help you:

• Understand which donors might give again
• Spot retention issues before they turn into revenue problems
• Make realistic fundraising goals and forecasts
• Improve communication strategy
• Align day-to-day fundraising tactics with long-term priorities

Here are five ways to use donor data and nonprofit reports to strengthen your fundraising strategy and improve nonprofit strategic planning all year long.

1. Identify donor potential

One of the biggest challenges in fundraising is knowing who to prioritize. And because most nonprofits have limited time and staff, it’s important to focus on the relationships most likely to grow rather than treating every donor the same.

Your donor data helps you identify supporters who are:

• Giving consistently and may be ready for an upgrade
• New and ready to be included in a welcome series
• Long-time givers who may be ready for planned gifts
• Mid-level donors who show signs of major gift potential
• At risk of lapsing if you don’t reach them soon

DonorPerfect’s Donor Score helps you quickly spot supporters who might be ready to renew or upgrade based on giving history. It’s an easy way to prioritize outreach and stay focused on the right next steps.

When you run the right nonprofit reports, you can start looking for trends like:

• Donors who give every year, but haven’t upgraded in a long time
• Supporters who made a great first gift, but haven’t given again
• Mid-level donors who are consistently active, but not personally engaged
• Donors who stopped giving after a specific campaign or appeal

Suggested nonprofit reports to review:

• Donor retention report (first-time vs. repeat donors)
• LYBUNT/SYBUNT report (recently lapsed donors)
• Top donor or major giving report (to identify upgrade opportunities)

Want to build a smart fundraising system (not just set goals)? In our recorded webinar Cracking the Code: The Secret to Raising More Money with Smarter Systems, fundraising strategist T. Clay Buck, CFRE explains why strong systems matter as much as strategy and how your donor data and nonprofit reports help you stay on track. Watch the webinar >>

2. Target donor outreach

A simple way to improve fundraising results is segmentation. When you use your donor data to send the right message to the right group of people, your outreach is more relevant.

Here are some ways to segment your outreach:

• Giving level (major donor, repeat, first-time)
• Gift frequency (one-time, recurring)
• Giving recency
• Engagement history (event attendance, volunteering, interactions)
• Campaign or appeal history
• Program interest

This is where nonprofit strategic planning gets easier to put into action. Rather than relying on broad assumptions, you can plan based on real evidence from your donor data and nonprofit reports.

Use nonprofit reports to help answer questions like:

• Who’s giving most consistently?
• Which donors are likely to lapse?
• What campaigns are driving the strongest response?
• Which segments are growing and which are shrinking?

Suggested nonprofit reports to review:

• Campaign or solicitation performance report (what messaging is driving gifts)
• Giving history by donor segment (new vs. repeat vs. recurring)
• Donor contact or interaction history report (to personalize outreach)

3. Determine ask amounts

Many nonprofits default to the same ask string every year—or worse, they guess.

Your donor data can help you build suggested giving levels that make sense for your organization. For example, you can use it to determine:

• Typical gift ranges by donor segment
• Average gift size for different campaign types
• Donors who tend to increase year over year
• The next reasonable step for an upgrade

Once you have suggested amounts, pair them with impact. Donors are more likely to give when your ask feels specific and purposeful. Show them what their gift can do, such as:

• $50 helps provide supplies for one student for the year
• $100 covers a counseling session
• $250 funds emergency assistance for an entire family

Suggested nonprofit reports to review:

• Average gift report (by donor segment or campaign)
• Gift frequency report (how often donors typically give)
• Year-over-year giving report (to identify likely upgrades)

When you use your donor data and nonprofit reports to shape your ask amounts, you create a fundraising strategy that’s easier to repeat and build on over time.

Once you’ve chosen your gift amounts and impact examples, use the DonorPerfect AI writing assistant to draft short, donor-friendly language for emails, letters, or donation forms. It’s free for all nonprofits to use.

4. Strengthen fundraising with multichannel insights

Donors might open an email, click a social post, ignore a follow-up, attend an event, and then give months later through your donation form. If your team only measures one channel at a time, it can be hard to tell what’s actually working.

Your nonprofit reports should help you understand:

• Which channels generate the most gifts
• Which channels drive engagement
• What timing tends to produce the best response
• Whether certain donor groups respond better to certain messages

From a nonprofit strategic planning perspective, this helps you build a fundraising calendar based on what works.

Over time, you may start to notice patterns like:

• Strong email engagement, but low donation form conversion
• Good event attendance, but weak post-event retention
• Appeals that perform well once, but drop off year over year

Some channels appear successful because they bring in revenue quickly, while others support longer-term engagement and retention. Map out donor journeys to make fundraising performance more predictable.

Suggested nonprofit reports to review:

• Revenue by channel report (email, events, direct mail, online giving, etc.)
• Donation form or online giving performance report
• Email engagement and response reporting (through your email marketing platform)

The best fundraising calendars are built on insight. When you use your donor data from the right reports, you can choose the right channel, better timing, and follow-up strategies.

Connect donor management and email marketing in one workflow. DonorPerfect with Constant Contact supports multi-channel marketing and reporting, so you can segment outreach and track engagement as part of your nonprofit strategic planning efforts.

5. Follow a consistent reporting rhythm

Some nonprofits only look at data and reports when leadership or the board asks for them.

Instead, think of reporting as a rhythm your team follows. It can be as simple as:

• Weekly: Quick glance at gift totals and recent donor activity
• Monthly: Retention and recurring giving trends
• Quarterly: Campaign performance and donor upgrades
• Annually: Bigger-picture planning and goal-setting

DonorPerfect offers scheduled reports, so you can automate the delivery of key nonprofit reports. This helps you stay consistent with reporting and keep nonprofit strategic planning moving forward.

When reporting is part of your regular operations, nonprofit strategic planning becomes easier to maintain:

• Less scrambling
• Clearer priorities
• Better team alignment
• More realistic fundraising goals
• Stronger donor retention over time

Suggested nonprofit reports to review on a set schedule:

• Weekly: Recent gifts and donor activity summary
• Monthly: Donor retention and recurring giving performance
• Quarterly: Campaign performance, donor upgrades, and lapsed donors

By consistently reviewing donor data and using nonprofit reports to guide decisions, your team can focus on what works, adjust faster, and build a stronger strategic fundraising plan over time.

Ready to use donor data more intentionally in nonprofit strategic planning? Download our free guide—Data-Informed Planning for Fundraising Success—written by nonprofit expert T. Clay Buck, CFRE.