Why it matters
The annual fund keeps the lights on: salaries, rent and the programs that do not have a grant behind them. Because it is usually unrestricted, it is the most flexible money you raise, and the hardest to replace if it falls.
Its health depends on renewal. A donor who gives to the annual fund every year is worth far more over time than one who gives once, so the annual fund is really a retention program. Watch who gave last year and has not given yet this year, and ask them first.
How Steward shows it
Each gift can be assigned to a fund, and each fund is marked restricted or unrestricted. Reports, under Who stopped giving, lists LYBUNT and SYBUNT donors and your retention, with every figure opening the donors behind it.
Related terms
- Unrestricted gift An unrestricted gift is a donation with no limits on how it is used. Your organization can spend it wherever the need is greatest, including salaries, rent and programs.
- Year-end appeal Year-end appeal is the name for the letter and email campaign a nonprofit sends in November and December, when many donors make their giving decisions before the tax year closes.
- LYBUNT LYBUNT stands for "last year but unfortunately not this year." It is a donor who gave to you last year and has not given yet this year.
The free Lost & Found audit reads a giving export in your browser and shows your lapsing donors and what they used to give. Nothing is uploaded. Then bring the same file to a 20-minute demo.