Extraordinary Response Rate
in lapsed donor reacquisition
Many human service organizations and food banks saw a massive influx of donors during the Covid shutdown as food lines and food insecurity in general were heavily covered on the nightly news and social media feeds. New donors and reactivated donors came out of the woodwork to support an obvious human need that appeared in every community in America.
These donors get referred to as “Covid donors” often and really appeared and behaved as “emergency donors” in that many showed up when the need was high and then disappeared when the urgency waned. At BCA we affectionately refer to that type of donor persona as Covid Lapsed Larry.
Covid Lapsed Larry not only showed up to help but also showed up in a big way. Average gifts were higher during this time buoyed by Economic Impact Payments and in many cases passed on to the good work of nonprofits for those who felt like they did not need that extra income boost. In fact, many non-profits reported seeing an inordinate amount of donations that exactly matched those stimulus checks.
But sadly, moving into 2022 and 2023 donor numbers and retention dropped significantly as some of those generous donors receded away from ongoing participation. Non-profits chose different cultivation paths in communicating to these donors. Some were quickly ready to remove them from appeal schedules within a year or two and others waited until they were lapsed 3+ years before they would fall out of regular communication stream.
Those donors were likely still hearing from the organizations through email, digital ad targeting and lapsed reacquisition strategies.
Early in 2025 the discussion and reality were setting in regarding federal budget cuts that would impact the work of human service organizations both from the supply and demand side. These SNAP, Medicaid and other such cuts would jeopardize child and adult food programs. The challenge was that many of these reductions would take place over time and in the future so there was not a significant level of urgency to rise to the public consciousness.
Smart organizations began asking, “How do we prepare for the inevitable next inflection point?” At moments like this, innovation is a must. With real time reporting and donor behavior immediately at our fingertips through Avid, our donor intelligence platform, we can now pivot strategy, messaging, and segmentation on a dime to leverage each fundraising opportunity to its fullest. Good reporting will always shine a light in local communities as the need grows. And as the need, messages & coverage increases so will the opportunity to leverage the moments for fundraising growth. Knowing the inflection points are key.
Partnering with one forward thinking food bank we decided to prepare in a several ways.
The inflection point turned out to be the government shutdown in October as lines at the food bank swelled with federal employees and military personnel. This food bank was ready. Digital communication was deployed with relevant and segmented messaging designed to communicate the urgency of the moment to the 7500 Covid Lapsed Larry’s we had email addresses for. This reinforced what was already being communicated by the media and social feeds.
Here is what we discovered and observed during this time. Giving in general and online giving specifically skyrocketed to historic levels for the food bank (Food Bank 1 in the chart below). Specifically, almost 600 donors from that one time only Covid Lapsed Larry segment gave a second gift 5 years later in a time of great need. That is an extraordinary 4.1% response rate for lapsed reacquisition. Benchmarks for lapsed reacquisition usually is in the 1.5-2% range but has dropped in the last many years as the large number of Larrys lapsing out drove those rates lower.
In the comparative chart below, you can see that all of the reacquisition rates soared above benchmarks, but fortune definitely favored those organizations who were prepared with specific cultivation strategies in advance.
With Avid’s real-time reporting and behavioral analytics, we quickly identified the right audience, and which digital strategies would deliver the most value. These insights allowed us to reallocating budget and focus to this group resulting in renewed engagement and significant growth across digital fundraising efforts.
At BCA, we don’t just create campaigns; we build frameworks for donor trust and generosity. By unifying messaging across channels and focusing on the donor’s experience, we help our partners achieve measurable results while deepening donor relationships.
This case reflects how our team integrates creativity, data, and decades of experience to deliver tailored solutions for nonprofit success. From strategy development to execution, we partner with you to meet and exceed your fundraising goals.
Ready to transform your donor experience? Let’s start a conversation. Contact Brad Cecil & Associates today.
