Running a successful nonprofit doesn’t just require you to grow your supporter base. It requires you to get those supporters to stick with you, year after year.

Sometimes, you get lucky—you find a group of loyal, passionate supporters that give to your organization time and time again. Other times, it takes a bit more persuasion to convert an audience member into a first-time donor (or to keep them coming back 👊).

In the latter scenario, there are two acronyms nonprofit leaders are interested in tracking—LYBUNT and SYBUNT:

• LYBUNT: LYBUNT (pronounced lie-bunt) stands for “Last year but unfortunately not this year,” and tracks supporters who gave the previous year, but did not give this fiscal year.
• SYBUNT: SYBUNT (pronounced sigh-bunt) stands for “Some year but unfortunately not this year,” and refers to audience members who donated at some point in the past, but will not make a contribution this year.

Tracking both groups of donors can help accurately predict your yearly donations and get you one step closer to your fundraising goal. Below, we explain why LYBUNT and SYBUNT matter, how to track them, and the tools you need to gain further insights into your supporter base.

Why do LYBUNT and SYBUNT matter, anyway?

Put simply, LYBUNT and SYBUNT allow you to target donors who are most likely to give.

Typically, you can run LYBUNT and SYBUNT reports through your CRM (customer relationship management) system. By targeting these two groups, you can identify which donors are lapsed but likely to give again. Both LYBUNT and SYBUNT donors have supported your organization before—therefore, they probably still care wholeheartedly about your mission. You just need to figure out why they stopped giving to your organization and determine the best way to get them reconnected to your cause. Targeting these groups allows you to streamline your messaging and understand what they need to feel empowered to support your organization financially again.

When you picture your audience, you should visualize potential donors within a funnel. At the top of the funnel are those members who are just becoming familiar with your organization and your mission. However, as you develop a deeper relationship with potential donors, they move down the funnel until you reach the point of potential conversion.

Whether you realize it or not, individuals within your LYBUNT and SYBUNT reports are at the bottom of your funnel. Both groups have expressed interest in and have already completed their first-time donation. Therefore, it simply takes the right outreach strategy to encourage them to give again. While these contributions won’t help you reach your year-end goals, by targeting LYBUNT and SYBUNT lists you can get a jumpstart on your fundraising efforts for the upcoming year.

6 tools you need to run SYBUNT and LYBUNT reports

As previously stated, to understand your SYBUNT and LYBUNT segments, you’ll need a CRM system.

Fortunately, Givebutter offers robust donor management tools and the world’s first free nonprofit CRM to help you better understand, track, and communicate with your audience. To leverage Givebutter’s built-in CRM to push your LYBUNT and SYBUNT groups over the finish line, be sure to take advance of these features:

1. Advanced filtering 🔎

With Givebutter’s advanced filtering functionality, you can analyze donors’ giving history and understand your contacts like never before. For example, you can filter donor giving history by various date ranges, such as “last month,” “last year,” or another time period. Then, compare those who gave last year to those who didn’t give this year to create a LYBUNT segment. Your SYBUNT segment will include past donors who did not give this year or last year. The best part? This new Givebutter feature will actually include LYBUNT and SYBUNT as preset segments, making it easier than ever to identify (and re-engage!) these groups.
‍

Givebutter’s advanced filtering also allows you to filter contacts by transaction data, gift amount, tickets (i.e., event attendance), or team members (allowing you to target members of various multi-team campaigns). That way, you get a holistic, 360-degree view of who is most likely to give, allowing you to move donors down the funnel.

2. Saved segments 👯

While LYBUNT and SYBUNT segments will already be built in to your reporting functionality, saved segments let you filter even more within these groups. Saved segments allow you to organize donors into customized groups based on any combination of their total and recurring contribution history, tags you've added, and contact details. You can use these segments to generate reports of donor data. Segmenting your contacts will also help you send the right messages to the right people, allowing you to increase overall engagement and offer elevated donor stewardship (more on this below!).

3. Targeted messages 📪

Once you save your LYBUNT and SYBUNT segments, you can steward them through targeted messaging. When you create a free Givebutter account, your CRM is synced directly with Givebutter’s built-in marketing automation platform to create a better donor experience.

Using Givebutter’s marketing automation tools, you can re-engage past donors and inspire them to make another gift to your organization. You can send your audience free SMS messages, emails, or invitations to upcoming fundraising events to help move them further down the pipeline.

4. Automated thank yous 📩

One of the easiest ways to to transform one-time supporters into recurring donors is by thanking them for their contribution. Givebutter makes it easy to boost your donor retention rate by including automated receipts with every online and manual contribution, which can be customized with a quick “thank you” message.

Want an innovative way to express your gratitude? Leverage Givebutter’s integration with ThankView to create a thank-you video for new and recurring supporters.

5. DonorSearch 💪

Want to learn more about the giving capacity of prospective donors? Givebutter’s integration with DonorSearch allows you to uncover valuable wealth screening metrics about your audience. That way, you can uncover potential major donors in your audience and tailor your SYBUNT or LYBUNT messaging strategy based on a donor’s giving capacity.

6. End-of-year reports 📆

One of the most impactful benefits of a SYBUNT or LYBUNT report is its ability to influence next year’s fundraising strategy. Supporters want to know how their hard-earned donations are being used—if they see the impact their contributions made during this current year, they will be more likely to give again.

Fortunately, Givebutter makes it easy to generate end-of-year reports to share with your donors. You can run individual giving reports directly from your dashboard (including both online and offline donations), share reports via PDF or through a unique link, and even customize reports with your organization’s logo (view a template report here).

Run your LYBUNT and SYBUNT reports through Givebutter

To hit your fundraising goals and ultimately accomplish your mission, you need to know which supporters are most likely to give.

There are two segments—LYBUNT and SYBUNT—that target groups that have given before (but haven’t given this year) and are more likely to give again (even though it probably won’t take place this year).

To run your LYBUNT and SYBUNT reports, you need to have a trustworthy CRM system. Fortunately, Givebutter created the world’s first free nonprofit CRM that syncs seamlessly with Givebutter’s top-rated fundraising features and marketing automation solutions. With Givebutter’s donor management tools and built-in CRM, you can store donor data, filter contacts by giving history, run year-end reports, and track LYBUNT and SYBUNT contacts using built-in segments. Then, you can leverage Givebutter’s marketing tools to launch a donor stewardship strategy combining email automation, SMS messaging, social media, and more.

Ready to see how Givebutter’s all-in-one platform can help transform your fundraising? Take a tour to get started.