Nonprofits and institutions
Your next donor is already reading about your cause. Rented lists arrive late.
Your CRM shows who gave, how much and when. Rented and exchanged lists reach people already giving somewhere else. Neither shows who is following your cause right now, or what keeps a one-time giver from going monthly. Moonbrush reads giving habits and cause research across 270M+ U.S. adults and splits each pool by what moves people to give.
The decisionWhether someone gives, gives again, and stays.
01Pressures
What nonprofit fundraisers are up against
The file is thinning at the bottom, grants are less certain, and every channel wants credit for the same gift.
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Acquisition is slow to pay back
Roughly three in four new donors don’t give again the next year. Acquisition is usually budgeted at a loss, so every donor who stops at one gift is a cost never recovered.
24%
Of new online donors gave again the following year.Source: M+R Benchmarks 2026, Fundraising section (2025 online giving data). Study published April 22, 2026. -
Grants shrank, members carry more
Government grants that anchored many budgets were cut or ended in 2025. Boards now expect membership and individual giving to close the gap.
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Every channel claims the same gift
A donor sees the ad, gives by reply envelope, and mail and digital both book the gift. Finance wants the cost to raise a dollar, net of gifts that would have come anyway.
02Blind spot
You know the gift. Not the reason behind it.
What your data shows
Your donor CRM
Who gave, how much and when.
Rented and exchanged lists
People already giving to someone else.
Appeal response
Who opened, clicked and gave.
What it can’t show
Who is following your cause now
Before they ever hear from you.
Why a first gift stays a first gift
And what would make the second one monthly.
What changed for a lapsed donor
A move, a tighter year or a cause that drifted.
What Moonbrush adds
stage reads cause research and giving habits, splits every pool by what moves people to give, and measures each appeal against a holdout, so you know which asks raised money that wouldn’t have come in anyway.
03Decision
A donor’s path, start to finish
The first gift gets the attention. The second one decides the year.
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01
The cause
A story in the news, a local need, a disaster.
We read
Cause research and giving habits.
You can
Reach them before the rented list does.
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02
The first gift
Often an emergency appeal.
We read
Why they gave: urgency, community or conviction.
You can
Thank them in the terms they gave in.
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03
The second gift
The hardest one to get.
We read
Who is still engaged with the cause.
You can
Show what their first gift did.
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04
Going monthly
Set it and forget it, for the right donor.
We read
Planners, as opposed to responders.
You can
Make the monthly ask to the donors it fits.
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05
Lapse and return
Life changed, or the cause drifted.
We read
What changed since the last gift.
You can
Lead with the part of the mission that brings each one back.
04Calendar
When the fundraising year gets decided
Year-end carries the revenue, but the second gift, the budget and the year-end plan are decided months earlier.
January to March
Second-gift window
Year-end’s new donors get their welcome series and the second ask while the first gift is still fresh. This is where first-year retention starts.
With MoonbrushSplit the December class by why each person gave, so the second ask matches the first, and keep a holdout to read retention through the year.
April to June
Fiscal year close
For organizations on a July-to-June fiscal year, spring appeals and pledge drives close the gap, and next year’s budget gets set.
With MoonbrushSize acquisition and sustainer pools against the full population before the budget locks, so goals rest on how many people are actually following the cause.
June to November
Disaster season
Atlantic hurricane season runs June 1 to November 30. Disaster appeals bring in first-time donors fast, most of them giving because it was urgent.
With MoonbrushReach people researching the disaster who already have a giving habit, and flag emergency givers so their next ask shows what the first gift did.
July to September
Year-end planning
Segments, lists and creative for the fall and year-end mail and email calendar get locked, and acquisition drops are scheduled.
With MoonbrushBuild year-end audiences now and split them into cohorts with an angle each, so creative is written for why each group gives.
Late November or early December
GivingTuesday
The Tuesday after Thanksgiving, December 1 in 2026, opens the year-end push. Matching-gift appeals and peer-to-peer pages crowd into one day.
With MoonbrushPoint the deadline-and-match ask at the cohorts that answer urgency, and save the planners for a monthly ask in their welcome series.
December
Year-end giving
Donors choose where the year’s last gifts go, and December brings the largest share of online giving. From 2026, people who don’t itemize can deduct some cash gifts too.
37%of 2025 online nonprofit revenue came in December. Source: M+R Benchmarks 2026, Fundraising section (2025 online giving data)
$1,000in cash gifts that taxpayers who don’t itemize may deduct, starting with 2026 gifts ($2,000 for married couples filing jointly). Source: IRS Publication 6196 (10-2026), Charitable Contribution Deduction Tips for Non-Itemizers
With MoonbrushSend the last asks when each cohort tends to give, and keep a holdout from the final appeals to see what they added.
05Cohorts
Same appeal, same gift. Three different reasons.
Three first-time donors from the same appeal need three different second asks.
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Emergency givers
Gave because it was urgent.
- What holds them back
- The urgency passed.
- What they answer to
- What their gift did, then the next need.
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Set-and-forget planners
Like giving to be automatic.
- What holds them back
- Nobody asked them to go monthly.
- What they answer to
- The monthly ask, early.
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Local loyalists
Care about what happens nearby.
- What holds them back
- Moved away from the chapter they knew.
- What they answer to
- Their new local chapter.
Illustrative cohorts, shaped like the splits we return.
06Lessons
What we’ve learned in this market.
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Fewer people are giving more.
Dollars raised are growing while the number of donors shrinks. Growth is concentrating in fewer, larger gifts, and the base underneath is thinning.
−3.6%
Change in donor count in 2025, while dollars raised rose 5.0%.Source: Fundraising Effectiveness Project, Q4 2025 report. -
Why they gave guides the second ask.
Fewer than half of all donors give again the next year, and first-time donors do far worse. Why someone gave the first time is the best guide to the second ask.
43.3%
Of 2024 donors gave again in 2025.Source: Fundraising Effectiveness Project, Q4 2025 report. -
Select on the cause, not the wallet.
Cause affinity and giving behavior show who is likely to give, and why. Income, net worth and faith are never selectable, and they aren’t needed.
07Plays
Three places to prove it first.
Each is scoped to one decision, measured against a holdout you choose and read out on day 60.
Usually through
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Find donors already in the cause
Reach people with a giving habit and open cause research, and show the doubters where the money goes before you ask.
What you getProspect audiences with a giving habit and open cause research, split by what moves them.
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Turn single gifts into monthly giving
Split last year’s one-time donors by why they gave once, so emergency givers and set-and-forget planners get the monthly ask that fits.
What you getLast year’s one-time donors, split by why they gave, each with its monthly ask.
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Renew lapsed donors and members
Read what changed since the last gift or renewal, so the still-engaged hear what they started and movers get their local chapter.
What you getLapsed donors and members split by what changed, with the return message for each.
In the workspace.
Find who is already following your causeDescribe the supporters you want in plain English. stage sizes the pool against the graph and shows what moves each group to give.
A stage screen with demo values.
08Metrics
The numbers development teams report upward
Retention, acquisition cost and sustainer growth go to the board, and each rests on knowing why people give.
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First-year retention
The share of new donors who give again within a year. Membership teams track the same thing as first-year renewal.
With MoonbrushSplits each new-donor class by why they gave, so the second ask speaks to the first gift, and reads retention against a holdout.
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Cost per donor acquired
What acquisition spends to bring in one new donor, weighed against the first gift and what follows it.
With MoonbrushBuilds prospect pools from people researching your cause who already give, rather than the same rented names everyone mails, and reads cost per donor against a holdout.
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Sustainer conversion
The share of one-time donors who start a monthly gift, and how many are still giving a year on. Public media calls monthly donors sustaining members.
With MoonbrushFinds the planners among one-time donors and the moment the monthly ask lands for each, so it goes early to those it fits instead of to the whole file.
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Upgrade rate
The share of donors who move up a giving level: the pipeline into mid-level and, later, major gifts.
With MoonbrushPoints the upgrade ask at donors whose engagement with the cause is deepening, with the reason for each. It never selects on income, net worth or estimated capacity.
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Reactivation rate
The share of lapsed donors who give again, worked as LYBUNTs (gave last year, not this year) and SYBUNTs (some year, not this one).
With MoonbrushSeparates lapsed donors still engaged with the cause from those who moved or drifted, so reactivation spend goes where a return is likely, measured against a holdout.
09Proof
How you’ll know it worked.
What we measureCost per donor acquired, sustainer conversions and lapsed donors reactivated, each read against a holdout.
The first 60 days
- Week 0
Agree on the decision, the data and the success criteria. Paperwork includes the data use agreement and the acceptance criteria.
- Weeks 1–2
Match keys and attach scores in the clean room or your warehouse. Your match rate is reported before anything is built.
- Weeks 3–8
Activate in your channels against a holdout you choose. Outcomes return as they happen.
- Day 60
Read-out on lift and impact, with the validation report. Then an annual program, if the numbers earn it.
10Questions
What fundraising leaders ask us first
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We already buy co-op models. Why would you find anyone they don’t?
Co-op models score pooled giving histories, so they mostly surface people already giving to organizations like yours. Moonbrush starts from cause research and giving habits across 270M+ U.S. adults, and your file is never pooled.
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Can you tell us who has capacity for a major gift?
No. Income, net worth and estimated capacity are never selectable; we show which donors are getting closer to your cause, and why, for your gift officers to weigh alongside their own research.
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How will we know it raised money that wouldn’t have come in anyway?
Every engagement starts as a 60-day proof on your own file, read against a holdout you choose. Sixty days reads first gifts and sustainer sign-ups; retention takes a year, so keep the holdout.
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Our donors trust us with their information. Where does our file go?
It stays in your CRM, and only hashed keys cross the match boundary. Matched data lives in your own instance, is never pooled with another client’s and never trains models shared with other clients.
11Rules
The rules that shape donor marketing
More state privacy laws now reach nonprofits, and the profession’s own code sets the bar for how donor lists are shared.
State privacy laws reach nonprofits
Colorado, Oregon, Delaware, New Jersey, Minnesota and Maryland cover nonprofits, with opt-outs from targeted ads; Oregon treats a donor-list exchange as a sale. Donor records stay in your CRM; only hashed keys cross.
Faith, ethnicity and health are sensitive
Colorado and Oregon require opt-in consent for religion, ethnicity or health data; Washington’s My Health My Data Act covers inferred health data. Faith and modeled ethnicity are never selectable; no protected health information is ingested.
AFP Code and Donor Bill of Rights
AFP Standard 19 gives donors a way off any list that’s sold, rented or exchanged; the Donor Bill of Rights promises confidentiality. Your file is never pooled or used to train models shared with other clients.
TCPA for calls and texts
Nonprofits still need prior express consent for autodialed calls and texts to cell phones. A Moonbrush score sets reach, timing and message; it is never a substitute for that consent.
The lines we don’t cross here
Audiences select on cause affinity and giving behavior, never on income, net worth, faith or an estimated capacity to give.
Donor records stay in your CRM. Only hashed keys cross the match boundary.
Every appeal is measured against a holdout, so you know what it raised that wouldn’t have come in anyway.