A lapsed donor is someone who gave to your organisation in the past but has stopped giving. infoodle does not have a dedicated Lapsed Donors report or a lapsed flag on a person. You build a lapsed-donor list yourself in the People report area by combining two finance criteria: one that finds people who gave before a cut-off date, and one that finds people with no giving since that date. The result is a list of everyone who used to give but has not given recently, ready to contact, add to a group, or export.
Before you start
Role Permissions
To build a lapsed-donor report you need:
- Run reports
- One of the finance reporting permissions: Manage, Read and report on transactions, Read and Report on Transactions, or View others on API, profile, and reports only. Without one of these, the finance criteria and finance fields do not appear in the People report area.
For what each permission means and how an administrator turns it on, see About Permission Roles and Finance Permissions.
How a lapsed-donor report works
A lapsed-donor report is a People report with two finance criteria working together:
- Transaction date earlier than your cut-off finds people who gave at some point before the date you choose. This is what makes them donors.
- No transactions later than your cut-off finds people who have no giving dated after that same date. This is what makes them lapsed.
Run the two together and infoodle returns the people who gave before your cut-off and have given nothing since. Pick a cut-off that matches how you define lapsed, for example a donor who has not given in the last 12 months.
Building the report
Step 1: Open the People report area
Click or hover on Reports on the main menu bar on the left. Under Report areas click People. The report opens on the Create Criteria tab.
Step 2: Add the first finance criterion for people who gave before your cut-off
On the Create Criteria tab, click Add finance criteria. A finance criterion row appears with a field selector.
- In the field list choose Transaction date.
- Set the match to earlier than.
- Leave the value type as Specific date and enter your cut-off date, or switch to Preset date ranges to use a rolling range such as This financial year.
This criterion selects everyone who has at least one transaction dated before your cut-off.
Step 3: Add the second finance criterion for people with no giving since your cut-off
Click Add finance criteria again to add a second row.
- In the field list choose No transactions.
- Set the match to later than.
- Enter the same cut-off date you used in Step 2, either as a specific date or the matching preset range.
The No transactions criterion excludes anyone who has a transaction dated after your cut-off, so the report keeps only the people who have given nothing since that date. With both criteria in place the report now describes lapsed donors: gave before the cut-off, nothing since.
Step 4: Choose the fields to display and generate the results
- Open the Select Fields tab and tick the fields you want in the results, such as name, email address, and phone. The finance display fields have their own labels on this tab, which differ from the criterion labels you chose in Steps 2 and 3. For how much a person gave, tick Total Amount all activity (their total across all giving) or Total Amount by criteria (only the giving that matches the report's finance criteria). For when they last gave, tick Last Transaction Date all activity or Last Transaction Date by criteria.
- Open the Generate results tab to run the report and see your lapsed donors.
- Click Show under Generate Results, Show on the screen, to see it at the bottom of the page
- Open the Save tab to keep the report so you can rerun it later.
Refining your lapsed-donor list
The two date criteria are the core of the report. These extra finance criteria let you narrow the list further. Add each one the same way, by clicking Add finance criteria and choosing the field. Which criteria you see depends on your site's finance setup. Campaign and Giving number appear only when the fuller finance module is enabled on your site, and Giving number additionally requires the Edit Giving Numbers for people permission. If you do not see these two, that is why.
| Finance criterion | What it does |
|---|---|
| Total amount | Keeps people whose giving in the reported period meets an amount you set, for example to focus on donors who gave more than a threshold before lapsing. |
| Total transactions | Filters by how many times a person gave, for example people who gave more than once rather than a single one-off gift. |
| Account code | Limits the report to giving posted to a particular account code, so a gift to one fund does not count as still-active giving elsewhere. |
| Campaign | Limits the report to a particular campaign or appeal. |
| Giving number | Scopes the report to people who have a giving number assigned. |
The date criteria accept preset ranges as well as specific dates. Ranges such as Last calendar year, Last financial year, and Number of Months in the past let you save the report once and rerun it later without editing the dates each time.
What counts as giving in the report
The finance criteria read the transactions recorded against each person in infoodle. A person is treated as having given on a date when they have a recorded transaction dated on that date. The Transaction date and No transactions criteria both work from these recorded transactions, so the accuracy of a lapsed-donor list depends on giving being entered and dated correctly. If you scope the report with Account code or Campaign, only transactions matching that scope count toward whether a person is still giving.
The report counts every recorded transaction, regardless of whether the payment has cleared or was later refunded. A card payment that is declined at the gateway never creates a transaction, so it does not count. Offline, manually entered, or not-yet-settled gifts do create a transaction as soon as they are recorded, and a refund is stored as a separate offsetting transaction rather than by removing the original. Because the report has no payment-status filter, a recent gift that was later refunded or has not yet cleared still counts as giving, and can keep an otherwise-lapsed donor off the list. To exclude a refunded or unsettled gift, review that person's transactions directly.
Common questions
Why is there no ready-made Lapsed Donors report?
infoodle builds lapsed-donor lists from the People report area rather than a fixed report, because every organisation defines lapsed differently. Choosing your own cut-off date lets you set the definition that suits your giving pattern, whether that is 12 months, two years, or a specific date.
What cut-off date should I use?
Use the date that separates active donors from lapsed ones for your organisation. For a rolling 12-month definition, set Transaction date earlier than and No transactions later than to a preset such as Number of Months in the past with a value of 12, so the report stays current each time you run it.
Can I contact or group the people the report returns?
Yes. Once you generate the results you can act on the list the same way as any People report, including adding the people to a group or contacting them by email, provided your role includes the matching contact permissions.
The finance criteria are missing. Why?
The finance criteria and finance fields only appear when your role includes one of the finance reporting permissions listed in Before you start. Ask an administrator to check your role under Settings if you cannot see them.
Next steps
Save the report so you can rerun it on a schedule, then use the results to plan a re-engagement contact to your lapsed donors.