Just like in any other field, the nonprofit world has its own words and phrases that might sound a bit confusing at first. But don't worry, we're here to help! We've created this glossary to explain 47 common terms used in the nonprofit world. By the end of it, you'll be speaking nonprofit language like a pro! Let's get started!
Nonprofit Glossary Index
- 501(c)3
- Acknowledgment Letter
- Advisory Board
- Annual Fund
- Appeals
- Board of Directors
- Campaigns
- Capital Campaign
- Case for Support
- Constituent
- Corporate Philanthropy
- Cultivation
- Donation Matching
- Donation Pages and Forms
- Donor Acquisition
- Donor-Advised Fund (DAF)
- Donor Conversion Rate
- Donor Intent
- Donor Lifecycle
- Donor Lifetime Value (LTV)
- Donor Management
- Donor Persona
- Donor Retention
- Email Marketing for Nonprofits
- Endowment
- Fund
- Fund Accounting
- Giving Days
- GivingTuesday
- In-Kind Donation
- LYBUNT / SYBUNT
- Major Gift
- Matching Gift
- Moves Management
- Nonprofit CRM
- Nonprofit Organization
- Not-for-Profit Organization
- Planned Giving
- Pledge
- Principal Gift
- Prospect Research
- Recurring Gift
- Restricted vs. Unrestricted Gifts
- Soft Credit
- Stewardship
- Year-End Giving
- Year-End Giving Appeal
501(c)3
- 501(c) is an IRS tax code that exempts organizations from taxes. There are different sections under this code that an organization can qualify for depending on their purpose or work.
- 501(c)3 is the most familiar entity under the IRS tax code 501(c)
- Organizations that meet the requirements of this code are exempt from federal income tax, while the IRS recognizes more than 30 types of not-for-profit organizations, only those that qualify for 501(c)3 status have donations that are tax deductible for the donor. They must be corporations, funds, or foundations that operate for religious, charitable, scientific, literary, or educational purposes.
Acknowledgment Letter
- An acknowledgment letter is the thank-you and tax receipt your nonprofit sends after a donor gives. The IRS requires written acknowledgment for any gift of $250 or more, but smart stewardship means thanking every donor, every time. A timely, personal acknowledgment is the first real moment of donor retention — it confirms the gift, names the impact, and reminds the donor why they chose you.
Advisory Board
- An advisory board is a volunteer board that supports a nonprofit’s director and/or governing board. Members offer expertise and knowledge to help manage different aspects of the nonprofit; however, they do not have any legal responsibilities or decision-making authority.
Annual Fund
- The annual fund is the unrestricted giving your nonprofit raises every year to keep the lights on and the mission moving. It’s usually fueled by a mix of appeals, recurring gifts, events, and year-end giving. A healthy annual fund is the foundation everything else — capital campaigns, endowments, major gifts — gets built on top of.
Appeals
- Appeals are the specific way you ask for donations. Types of appeals include events, email or direct mailing campaigns, online giving pages, etc. When you track what appeals have the most success, you’ll be better able to prioritize the “asks” that connect with your donors.
Board of Directors
- A board of directors is an elected group of people who oversee a nonprofit organization. The board is responsible for making sure the nonprofit complies with legal and ethical standards. They also set the nonprofit's mission and vision statement, asses its strategies, and set goals for the organization.
Campaigns
- Campaigns are the overall reason your nonprofit is raising money. They are the big picture and can have many funds or appeals that tie into it.
- For example, a summer camp might have a “New Bunkhouse” campaign in order to raise enough money to build additional lodging for campers. The overall objective is raising money for the bunkhouse, but there might be both a Building Fund and a Furniture Fund. To raise money, they might use multiple appeals like an auction, an email asking for donations, and host an event.
Capital Campaign
- A capital campaign is a focused, time-bound fundraising effort to raise a large sum for a specific purpose — a new building, a major program expansion, equipment, or an endowment. Capital campaigns usually run 18 months to several years, lean heavily on major gifts and principal gifts from a small set of donors, and have a public dollar goal. They sit alongside the annual fund, not in place of it.
Case for Support
- Your case for support is the document (and the story) that answers one question: why should anyone give to you, right now? It spells out the problem, your approach, the impact, and what a donor’s gift will actually do. A strong case for support is the backbone of every appeal, grant, capital campaign, and major gift conversation — written once, then adapted everywhere.
Constituent
- A constituent is anyone connected to your nonprofit — donors, volunteers, board members, staff, alumni, program participants, vendors, and prospects. Not every constituent has given yet, and that’s the point. Tracking constituents (not just donors) in your nonprofit CRM helps you see the full picture of who’s in your community and who might be ready to give next.
Corporate Philanthropy
- Corporate philanthropy is when a company or business gives to others, usually through donations or giving time to charities or good causes. This can take the form of donation matching, shop-for-good programs, or volunteer support initiatives.
Cultivation
- Cultivation is the relationship-building stage between a donor’s first interest and their next gift. It’s the coffee, the program tour, the impact email, the personal note — everything you do to deepen connection before you ask. Cultivation is at the heart of moves management and Smart Stewardship: every interaction is intentional, and every donor moves a little closer to the mission.
Donation Matching
- Also known as corporate matching gifts, donation matching is an initiative where an employer matches an employee’s donation given to a nonprofit.
Donation Pages and Forms
- A donation page is an online giving web page where donors can give directly to your nonprofit. Donation forms are typically embeddable forms that can be put directly into one of your web pages to let you accept donations.
Donor Acquisition
- Donor acquisition is the work of turning a stranger into a first-time donor. That includes everything from awareness (social, search, events, word of mouth) through conversion on a donation page. Acquisition is important, but it’s only half the equation — new donors who never give again are expensive. Pair acquisition with strong donor retention and stewardship, and growth compounds.
Donor-Advised Fund (DAF)
- A donor-advised fund is a charitable giving account a donor opens at a sponsoring organization (like Fidelity Charitable, Schwab Charitable, or a community foundation). The donor contributes assets, takes the tax deduction up front, and then recommends grants to nonprofits like yours over time. DAF gifts are one of the fastest-growing sources of giving in the U.S., and they show up in your CRM from the sponsor — not the individual — so a soft credit back to the donor matters.
Donor Conversion Rate
The donor conversion rate is a measurement that tells how many people who visit a website or interact with a nonprofit's campaign actually end up making a donation. It's like figuring out how many out of all the people who visit a store end up buying something.
For example, if 100 people visit a donation page on a website and 10 of them actually make a donation, then the donor conversion rate is 10%. This percentage helps organizations understand how effective their fundraising efforts are in turning prospects into actual donors. A higher conversion rate means that a larger percentage are turning into donors, which is usually a good sign for a nonprofit.
Donor Intent
- Donor intent is what a donor expects and hopes to achieve with their giving. It’s like their personal roadmap of values, principles, and goals guiding a donor’s generosity. While donor intent is different than the specific intent your nonprofit has for its funds, the best donor match is a donor whose intent aligns with your nonprofit’s mission.
- Sometimes a donor’s intent is explicitly stated, and your nonprofit will have guidelines that it must follow to use the gift. Other times, a donor’s intent is implicit. If someone gives to a scholarship fund, then they expect the money to go to a scholarship and not to building expenses.
Donor Lifecycle
- Also known as a donor journey map, a donor lifecycle shows how a nonprofit engages with its donors. Do you know how most people first hear about your nonprofit? What’s the typical first touchpoint? What usually triggers the first donation? When you understand the donor lifecycle of your nonprofit, you’ll have a better understanding of how a donor interacts with your nonprofit: from when they first learn about your nonprofit to when they give and even beyond the donation.
Donor Lifetime Value (LTV)
- Donor lifetime value is the total amount a donor is expected to give to your nonprofit across the entire relationship — not just the first gift. LTV reframes fundraising from one-time transactions to long-term relationships. A $25 first-time donor who gives monthly for five years is worth far more than a one-and-done $250 donor. Tracking LTV in your CRM sharpens decisions about acquisition spend, retention, and where to invest staff time.
Donor Management
- Donor management is the collection, tracking, and organizing of donor info. Building meaningful relationships with donors and keeping them engaged with your nonprofit is important to building donor retention. Managing donor data allows you to keep track of your interactions with donors, and know important info so you can keep in contact with them and track their giving.
- When you implement a donor management system, you know the expectations and intent of donors giving to your nonprofit, which helps you build trust and rapport with your donors.
Donor Persona
- A donor persona is a fictional representation of your ideal donor. This is the person or people to whom your nonprofit aligns its messaging. While it’s possible to make a donor persona from anecdotal evidence, the best donor personas are based on your donor data.
Donor Retention
- Donor retention refers to the number of donors who continue to give again after their first donation.
- Because it takes so much time and effort to get new donors, improving donor retention is crucial for sustainable fundraising success. By fostering ongoing relationships with donors, your nonprofit can help donors stay connected to your mission and grow a base of loyal contributors who are passionate about your work.
Email Marketing for Nonprofits
When it comes to nonprofits, email marketing is a form of Donor Outreach. It’s a way of reaching out to new donors, keeping your existing audience engaged, and sharing your nonprofit's mission and message with current donors.
Endowment
- An endowment is a pool of donated funds invested for the long haul, where typically only the investment earnings are spent each year and the principal stays intact. Endowments give nonprofits a permanent funding source that supports the mission decade after decade. They’re common targets for planned gifts and capital campaigns, and they’re tracked separately in fund accounting.
Fund
- A fund is any area in your nonprofit that needs to be tracked separately from the general fund. This includes things like grants, restricted or temporarily restricted funds, scholarships, campaigns, or dollars raised for specific projects.
Fund Accounting
- When it comes to accounting for an organization, you need to know how much money you’ve made, spent and have left over for your organization. However, the goals of a nonprofit organization require more accountability for where money is allocated.
- Instead of treating all income and expenses as a single pool, fund accounting lets you manage each fund like it is its own organization. Once you assign donations and expenses to their specific fund you can track the income, expenses, assets, and debts of each fund.
Giving Days
- Giving Days are a day-long (or longer) fundraising event that invites communities to come together to raise awareness, support, and donations for their favorite causes. These events often have a lot of hype and excitement leading to more gifts, of all sizes, being given. Giving Days are typically put on by individual nonprofits, foundations, or educational institutions, and they have been growing in popularity over the past decade. A common national giving day is GivingTuesday, the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving every year.
GivingTuesday
- GivingTuesday, created in 2012, is one of the most well-known nonprofit giving days. On the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving, people are encouraged to do good by giving, collaborating, and celebrating generosity.
In-Kind Donation
- An in-kind donation is a non-cash gift — goods, services, or expertise — given to a nonprofit. Think auction items, donated office space, pro bono legal work, or a printer covering brochure costs. In-kind gifts still need to be tracked, valued, and acknowledged in your CRM, because they reduce expenses just like cash and they belong in the donor’s full giving record.
LYBUNT / SYBUNT
- LYBUNT (“Last Year But Unfortunately Not This”) and SYBUNT (“Some Year But Unfortunately Not This”) are two of the most useful reports in nonprofit fundraising. A LYBUNT report lists donors who gave last year but haven’t given this year — your highest-priority reactivation list. SYBUNT lists donors who gave in any prior year. Running these reports regularly is one of the fastest ways to improve donor retention.
Major Gift
- Ever wonder what makes a donation a major gift? There’s no hard and fast rule on what amount qualifies a donation as a major gift. If it feels major for your nonprofit, then it’s a major gift! The title of major gifts applies to the largest donations a nonprofit receives from a single donor in a fiscal year.
Matching Gift
- A matching gift is when an employer (or sometimes a foundation or major donor) agrees to match a gift made by an employee or another donor — often dollar for dollar, sometimes 2:1 or more. Many donors don’t realize their company offers a match, so a quick reminder on your donation page and acknowledgment can effectively double a gift at no extra cost to the donor.
Moves Management
- Moves management is the disciplined process of guiding a donor through stages — identification, qualification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship — with planned next steps (the “moves”) at each stage. It’s how major gift fundraisers stay focused on the right donor, with the right ask, at the right time. Smart Stewardship inside DonorDock’s ActionBoard applies the same idea to every donor in your portfolio.
Nonprofit CRM
- A nonprofit CRM is a donor management software that helps nonprofits manage their donors, gifts, and constituents. Using a nonprofit CRM helps an organization understand its data and grow donor relationships. A good CRM will help guide you in developing donor relationships by serving up timely and relevant actions to take, so you never miss an important donor moment.
Nonprofit Organization
- A nonprofit organization is an org that the IRS has qualified for tax-exempt status because it serves the public and advocates for a social cause. Profits earned are used to grow a nonprofit’s mission and keep the organization running. A nonprofit can be a hospital, religious organization, educational institute, foundation, or charitable organization, but it cannot be political.
- Nonprofits have different legal and ethical requirements. For example, their financial and operating info must be made public.
Not-for-Profit Organization
- Not-for-Profit organizations are similar to nonprofits. All money raised or earned must go back into running the org. Unlike nonprofits, not-for-profits do not have to operate with a mission of societal good. Not-for-profits can simply be for the goals of their members. They are recreational organizations or clubs, that must be run by volunteers. Money donated to a not-for-profit organization is not tax deductible.
Planned Giving
- Planned giving is a gift a donor arranges now to be received by your nonprofit later — usually through a will, trust, retirement account beneficiary designation, or life insurance policy. The most common form is a bequest. Planned gifts are often the largest gifts a donor will ever make, and they’re overwhelmingly given by long-time, deeply stewarded supporters — another reason donor retention pays off for decades.
Pledge
- A pledge is a written commitment from a donor to give a specific amount over a defined period — for example, $5,000 a year for three years to a capital campaign. Pledges aren’t legally enforceable in most cases, but they’re a powerful planning tool. Tracking pledges (and pledge payments) in your CRM lets you forecast revenue and follow up at the right moment.
Principal Gift
- A principal gift is a large donation, typically valued at $1 million or more. These types of gifts are rare but are life-changing to the nonprofits who receive them.
Prospect Research
- Prospect research is the work of learning who in your community has the capacity and interest to make a meaningful gift. It blends public information — giving history, real estate, professional bio, board service — with what you already know in your CRM. Done right, prospect research isn’t about chasing money; it’s about spending your limited fundraising time on the donors most likely to engage deeply with your mission.
Recurring Gift
- A recurring gift (sometimes called a sustaining gift or monthly giving) is a donation that repeats automatically — usually monthly, sometimes quarterly or annually. Recurring donors retain at much higher rates than one-time donors and give significantly more over time. A strong recurring giving program is one of the highest-leverage things a growing nonprofit can build, and it’s a core part of a healthy annual fund.
Restricted vs. Unrestricted Gifts
- Unrestricted gifts can be used wherever the nonprofit needs them most — payroll, rent, programs, growth. Restricted gifts must be used for the specific purpose the donor designated (a scholarship, a building, a program). Restricted gifts honor donor intent but require careful fund accounting so the dollars actually go where they were promised.
Soft Credit
- A soft credit is a way to recognize a donor for a gift that didn’t legally come from them — for example, a gift from their donor-advised fund, family foundation, or spouse’s account. The hard credit goes to the legal giver (the DAF sponsor, the foundation), while the soft credit goes to the person who actually directed the gift. Soft credits keep your donor records honest and your stewardship personal.
Stewardship
- Stewardship is everything you do after a donor gives — thanking, reporting impact, staying in touch, deepening the relationship before the next ask. Good stewardship is the difference between a donor who gives once and a donor who gives for life. Smart Stewardship is DonorDock’s name for making this consistent and personal at scale, even with a small team.
Year-End Giving
- One of the most important times for a nonprofit to focus on fundraising is during the year-end. Year-End Giving falls between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve. It's a time of generosity and giving, with many donors having a clear picture of their end-of-year budget, so many more people increase their giving during this short stretch of time.
Year-End Giving Appeal
- Also called End of Year appeals, year-end giving appeals have a pretty self-explanatory name. These are email or direct mail appeals sent out to your contacts at the end of the year. They usually focus on sharing a brief summary of the past year and the impact past donations have had. But they also share about the nonprofit’s current needs and include a gift solicitation.
If you found this glossary helpful, here is a valuable tool for your nonprofit!
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