Ministries love a new donor, and rightly so. A first gift is an answer to prayer and a sign that the message is reaching new people. But a first gift is often a response to a moment: a broadcast, an appeal, an event, a gift in someone's memory. The gift that tells you a relationship has begun is the second one.
As Bloomerang puts it, “Once a donor donates the second time we have moved beyond impulse giving.” The second gift is the moment a donor chooses your ministry on purpose. The secular nonprofit world has studied this milestone closely. In the ministry world, in my experience, it is barely on the radar.
What the sector data shows
The Fundraising Effectiveness Project (FEP) tracks giving data from U.S. nonprofits. In its 2025 Q4 report, as summarized by The Curtis Group, only 18.9% of donors who made their first gift in 2024 gave again in 2025. Among previously active repeat donors, 59.3% gave again. Roughly four out of five first-time donors did not return, and once a donor has given more than once, they are about three times as likely to keep giving.
Retention by donor life-cycle stage
Fundraising Effectiveness Project, 2025 Q4 (via The Curtis Group)
The money follows the same pattern. In 2025, 60.8% of charitable dollars came from repeat retained donors, against 19.2% from new donors. The FEP calls converting a first gift into a second “the most consequential unsolved problem in the donor pipeline.”
The ministry picture
There is good news for faith-based organizations. Virtuous's 2026 Faith Benchmark, drawn from 173 faith-based nonprofits, found that about one in three first-time faith donors return for a second gift, compared with one in four across all sectors. Faith donors are, on average, more loyal.
Faith-based vs. all-sector return rates
Virtuous 2026 Benchmark Reports
But read that the other way around: even in the best-performing sector, two out of three first-time donors never give again. And most ministries cannot tell you their own number.
In my experience, few ministries are even aware of this metric and its significance. None that I dealt with over the last 8 years at least, were even tracking it specifically, or had any plan to communicate with donors in the important first 90 days after receiving their first gift. Earlier this year I shared this key metric with an executive leader of a ministry I have been very close to, and he was surprised to hear about the metric. And a little bit like the seed that fell on shallow ground, instructed the team to prepare to track the second gift data. But sadly, as is often the case, other priorities came in, and now 7 months later the conversation is a distant memory.
That is the heart of the problem. A number nobody tracks is a loss nobody sees.
Why the second gift is significant
It marks commitment
The first gift says “I responded.” The second says “I'm with you.”
It predicts future giving
Donors who have given twice are about three times as likely to give again, and repeat donors provide most of the dollars.
Timing matters
Research by Analytical Ones, shared by Bloomerang, found donors who give their second gift within three months are by far the most valuable over five years, while value “plummets” for those whose second gift comes after two years. The first 90 days matter.
How to measure it
Start with the simplest number: days to second gift. For every donor who has given twice, subtract the date of the first gift from the date of the second. Then look at the average and the median, the middle value, which isn't pulled up by the few donors who come back years later. Virtuous reports an average of 108.5 days across all sectors, and 68 days among top-quartile organizations.
One caution: this number counts only the donors who did return. A fast average can hide the fact that very few came back, so read it alongside the conversion rate.
Then measure the conversion rate.
Three decisions make the number meaningful:
- Who counts as first-time. Only donors whose very first gift falls in the period you are studying. A lapsed donor who returns is not a first-time donor.
- The window. Measure at 90 days, as an early signal, and at 12 months, the common standard.
- Let the window close. A donor who gave on December 30 hasn't had a year yet. Measure each group only once its window has passed.
A worked example.
Say your ministry welcomed 400 first-time donors between January and March 2025. By the end of June 2025, 44 of them had given again; by the end of March 2026, 76 had. Your 90-day rate is 44 ÷ 400 = 11%, and your 12-month rate is 76 ÷ 400 = 19%. Track those two rates, and the median days to a second gift, every quarter, and you will know whether things are getting better or worse.
A free tool.
Because I know how laborious this can feel, I have built a simple Excel calculator. Paste in a gift export with three columns (donor ID, gift date and amount), choose your dates, and it calculates the average and median days to a second gift, how soon second gifts arrived, and your 90-day and 12-month second-gift rates, month by month, alongside the benchmarks below. You can download it here.
What good looks like
Benchmarks come from different datasets and definitions, so treat them as a rough guide:
| Benchmark | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| First-time donor retention, all U.S. nonprofits | 18.9% | FEP 2025 Q4, via The Curtis Group |
| First-to-second gift conversion, all sectors | 25.8% | Virtuous 2026 Benchmark Report |
| First-time faith donors who return | ~1 in 3 | Virtuous 2026 Faith Benchmark (173 orgs) |
| First-to-second gift conversion, top quartile | 37.9% | Virtuous 2026 Benchmark Report |
| Avg. days, first to second gift, all sectors | 108.5 days | Virtuous 2026 Benchmark Report |
| Avg. days, first to second gift, top quartile | 68 days | Virtuous 2026 Benchmark Report |
Your most useful benchmark is your own trend. If you have never measured it, today's number is your starting line.
How healthy is your donor file?
The second gift is one of several vital signs. Request the free Donor Health Report Card, a practical diagnostic tool with a companion guide and worksheet, from my Resources page.
Sources: Fundraising Effectiveness Project 2025 Q4 (retention figures as reported by The Curtis Group, Sept 2026; dollars-by-life-cycle and AFP release, April 2026); Virtuous, 2026 Faith Benchmark and 2026 Nonprofit Benchmark Report; Bloomerang, “Just How Important Is a Donor's Second Gift?” and “Why Your Nonprofit Needs a Second Gift Strategy” (citing Analytical Ones); DonorDock, “Second Gift Conversion Rate.” The worked example uses illustrative numbers.
