Who is a constituent?
A person who an organization has some record of, whether or not they have given a donation. Sometimes you will hear the word constituent used in place of donor, but constituent could also include donors, volunteers, subscribers, or more—but the thing they have in common is that they have some existing record in one or more of the nonprofit's systems.
What is a gift?
To Avid AI a gift is a transaction. When shown on a chart, it will represent the number of gifts, not the revenue associated with the gift.
Who is a donor?
A person/constituent who has given at least one gift/donation, at any point, to your organization. We generally only consider “realized" monetary gifts (meaning cash-equivalent donations that the organization has already received), but this can be adjusted per organization. One donor can give many gifts. Active donors are donors that have given at least one gift in the period viewed. Available donors are donors who have given at any time and are available to give in the current period. Recurring donors are donors that give in a period of at least monthly and non-recurring donors are donors that give a gift less often than monthly. You can go here for more information on recurring donations.
In the Avid AI structure we use different terms for donors, depending upon when or how often they gave a gift in their lifecycle (See lifecycle classifications here for a more in depth definition). New donors are donors that gave their first gift in the current period. Retained donors are donors that have given one or multiple gifts in more than one full and consecutive period. Reactivated donors are donors that who did not give a gift in the previous period, but did give a gift in the current period, moving from inactive (sometimes referred to as lapsed) to active.
There are more specific designations made for retained and reactivated donors. Donors that are retained from new in the previous period are called second year (abbreviated as 2nd year) donors. Donors that have given in two or more full and consecutive periods are called key multiyear donors. Reactivated second year donors are donors that had been inactive two periods ago, were reactivated last period and gave again in the current period.
Reactivated donors are divided into two categories based on the time period that they stopped giving. Donors that gave two periods ago, skipped giving in the previous period but gave in the current period are referred to as reactivated, recently lapsed. Donors that gave more than two periods ago, skipped the last two periods or more but gave in the current period are referred to as reactivated, long lapsed. These definitions can be confusing, so here is an example:
Jenny and Paul each gave a donation to their favorite charity in 2020 who reports in calendar years (January-December). Jenny missed the anniversary of her donation date in the next year, but did make a donation in the following year of 2022. She would be considered a reactivated, recently lapsed donor because she missed one giving period. Paul needed to put off making a donation for a bit, but then gave a donation in 2024. Since the time between these donations was longer than 2 periods, he is considered a reactivated, long lapsed donor.
There are other donor names that are used that are contextual based on how they give or through what channel they give in. To see those definitions, you can visit channel cohort or read more about lifecycle and how that impacts donor classifications.