Will Schrepferman
Whether you're new to fundraising or a seasoned pro, mastering the right terminology is key to understanding all of the intricacies that go into raising money for causes that matter. This guide covers essential terms used for fundraising for whatever cause you’re raising for.
Capacity – Answers the question “how much can a donor give?” Capacity is based on a donor’s wealth indicators (e.g. real estate), past giving, and available assets. Along with Propensity and Affinity, one of the three important aspects of understanding a donor.
Propensity – Answers the question “will a donor give?” Propensity predicts a donor’s likelihood to contribute based on behavioral patterns such as donation frequency, recency, and consistency. A high-propensity donor is someone who has a strong habit of giving, even if their giving capacity is relatively low.
Affinity – Answers the question “does a donor care about you?” Affinity measures how closely a donor’s interests align with your mission. A donor may have a high capacity and propensity to give, but low affinity for your specific work (or conversely, a lower capacity but a high affinity for your work).
Prospecting – The process of identifying and researching donors to assess capacity, propensity, and affinity. Depending on your priorities, prospecting can be done when looking for completely new donors or when looking to learn more about your existing donors (or both). Learn more about tools (including DonorAtlas) that help with prospecting.
Wealth Screening – Part of the prospecting process, particularly to assess capacity, involving the use of public records, real estate holdings, and philanthropic history.
Moves management – A popular strategic process of guiding potential donors through stages of engagement to secure major gifts.
Relational fundraising – A donor-centered approach to fundraising that prioritizes building and sustaining donor relationships over time, rather than focusing solely on individual transaction or short-term goals Learn more about why we endorse relational fundraising.
“The Ask” – The act of initiating a solicitation. Rather than thinking about making a “hard” or “soft” ask, the focus should be on practicing good relational fundraising. Then, when the time comes, make an “ask” with a precise amount that is premised on a line item in your budget + a donor’s known interests.
Gift Agreement – A formal contract between a donor and organization outlining the terms and conditions of a significant contribution.
Pledge Fulfillment – Ensuring donors complete their pledged contributions, a key metric to track when thinking about long-term donor retention.
Call Time – Dedicated periods where fundraisers or ‘principals’ (political candidates, board members, advisors, etc) personally call potential donors to solicit contributions.
Anchor Donor – A lead contributor whose gift or name recognition encourages others to donate. Often used in the context of capital campaigns.
Lapsed Donor – A previous donor who has not donated recently.
LYBUNT – A type of lapsed donor who gave "Last Year But Unfortunately Not This" year.
SYBUNT – A type of lapsed donor who gave "Some Year But Unfortunately Not This" year.
Feasibility Study – An assessment conducted to determine the viability and potential success of a proposed fundraising campaign.
Form 990 – An annual information return that U.S. tax-exempt organizations are required to file with the IRS, detailing finances and operations.
Annual Report – A comprehensive document published optionally by an organization, highlighting financial performance, program achievements, and sometimes recognizing individual donors.
Thoughts on this piece or want to get in touch? Send me an email (will@donoratlas.com), I’m always happy to start a dialogue :)