SYBUNT vs. LYBUNT: Understanding Donor Lapse Reports

If you run only one donor report, it should be your LYBUNT report. If you run two, the second should be SYBUNT. Together, they account for nearly every recoverable dollar sitting in your lapsed donor pool — but they are not the same report, and they require different strategies.

Most fundraising shops treat lapsed donors as a single group: people who used to give and do not anymore. That framing collapses a critical distinction. A donor who gave nine months ago is a fundamentally different re-engagement target than a donor who gave three years ago. Treating them identically wastes resources and produces avoidable rejection.

This article explains what each report identifies, how to use them in sequence, and how to build a recapture strategy that targets the right donors with the right message at the right time.

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What Is LYBUNT?

LYBUNT stands for Last Year But Unfortunately Not This. A LYBUNT donor gave during the previous fiscal year but has not yet given during the current fiscal year.

This is your most actionable recapture pool. LYBUNT donors are warm. They made a choice to support your organization within the last 12 months. Their contact information is current. Their giving motivation is recent. They are not indifferent to your mission — they simply have not been asked again effectively, or their renewal slipped through the cracks.

The re-engagement window for LYBUNT donors is also limited. Once a donor passes the 18-month mark without giving, recovery rates drop sharply. LYBUNT reports are most valuable when run early in the fiscal year — before the optimal re-engagement window closes.

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What Is SYBUNT?

SYBUNT stands for Some Year But Unfortunately Not This. A SYBUNT report captures donors who gave at some point in your giving history but have not given during the current fiscal year.

LYBUNT is a subset of SYBUNT. Every LYBUNT donor is also a SYBUNT donor. But SYBUNT extends the lapse window back as far as your database goes, capturing donors who lapsed two, three, or more years ago.

SYBUNT donors are harder to recapture than LYBUNT donors because the emotional connection to your organization has had more time to fade. They require more cultivation before an ask is appropriate. But they are also not cold prospects — they made at least one gift, which means they cleared the most significant barrier in fundraising: the first donation decision.

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Side-by-Side Comparison

Dimension	LYBUNT	SYBUNT
Definition	Gave last fiscal year, not yet this year	Gave at some point in history, not yet this year
Typical lapse window	1 to 18 months since last gift	2 to 5+ years since last gift
Warmth level	High — recent giving relationship	Moderate — past relationship, cooled
Re-engagement urgency	High — window closes at 18 months	Moderate — no hard deadline, but longer gap = lower recovery
Expected recovery rate	20-35% with strong outreach	5-15% depending on lapse duration
Recommended first touch	Personalized renewal ask anchored to prior gift	Re-introduction sequence focused on impact before any ask
Can a donor appear on both?	Yes, as a subset	Yes, SYBUNT includes all LYBUNT donors
sherbertOS feature	LYBUNT/SYBUNT Report with configurable date ranges	LYBUNT/SYBUNT Report with configurable date ranges

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When to Run Each Report

LYBUNT: Run monthly, starting in Q2

The earlier you identify LYBUNT donors in the fiscal year, the more runway you have for re-engagement before year-end giving pressure kicks in. A donor who lapsed in January and is identified in February can receive a thoughtful re-engagement sequence over six months. A donor identified in November gets rushed into a year-end appeal that feels like everyone else's.

Run LYBUNT at the start of each month. Filter by total giving in the prior year (largest gifts first), sort by months since last gift (shortest first), and prioritize accordingly.

SYBUNT: Run quarterly, with a defined window

SYBUNT reports require a defined lapse window. Most organizations use two to five years. Your choice should be informed by your donor lifecycle data: if your average donor gives for three consecutive years before lapsing, a four-year SYBUNT window captures the bulk of your reactivation-eligible pool without including so-old-they-won't-remember-you donors.

Run SYBUNT quarterly and suppress donors currently in a LYBUNT re-engagement campaign. Avoid overlapping outreach between the two pools.

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Prioritization Framework: Who to Contact First

Not all lapsed donors are worth equal effort. The following framework helps you allocate resources across both pools.

Tier 1 — LYBUNT, major donor history

These donors lapsed within the last 12 months and had annual giving at or above your major gift threshold. Personal outreach from a gift officer or the executive director is appropriate. A templated email is not.

Tier 2 — LYBUNT, multi-year giving history

Donors who gave consecutively for two or more years before lapsing. Giving habit was established. The lapse is likely situational, not intentional. A personalized renewal appeal with their prior gift amount and specific impact language is the right approach.

Tier 3 — LYBUNT, single prior gift

First-time donors who did not convert to a second gift. The re-engagement strategy is closer to a second-gift acquisition campaign than a renewal. Focus on impact proof and make a modest ask.

Tier 4 — SYBUNT, lapse under three years

Donors who gave at least once within the last three years but are outside your LYBUNT window. Begin with one or two impact-focused touches before any ask. Establish that you remember them and that their past support mattered.

Tier 5 — SYBUNT, lapse over three years

Long-lapsed donors require the most cultivation and produce the lowest recovery rates. Include them in re-engagement campaigns only when your Tier 1-4 pools are fully worked. For this group, consider a reactivation survey ("We miss you — tell us what you care about most") rather than a direct ask.

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The Outreach Sequence for Each Pool

LYBUNT outreach sequence (three touches over 30 days)

Touch 1 (Day 1): Personalized renewal email referencing their last gift amount, date, and a specific program impact tied to their giving level. Do not use generic language.

Touch 2 (Day 10): A brief follow-up if no response, with social proof. Reference a recent milestone your organization has reached and how their prior support contributed.

Touch 3 (Day 25): A final email with urgency framing. "We haven't heard back, and we don't want to lose touch." Include an easy path to a smaller gift if the full renewal amount is a barrier.

SYBUNT outreach sequence (three touches over 60 days)

Touch 1 (Day 1): Impact-only email. No ask. Acknowledge the lapse. Tell them what has happened since their last gift. Make them feel recognized, not sold to.

Touch 2 (Day 20): Soft introduction of giving options. Focus on recurring giving as a low-barrier re-entry point. Position it as a way to stay connected, not just a financial transaction.

Touch 3 (Day 50): Direct re-engagement ask. If they did not respond to the first two touches, this is your clearest signal to move them to a long-term nurture track rather than active re-engagement outreach.

For more on building the welcome sequence that prevents first-time donors from becoming LYBUNT donors in the first place, see Welcome Series for New Donors: Automate Retention from Day One.

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The Efficiency Gap: Two Reports, Two Exports, Two Spreadsheets

In most legacy CRM setups, LYBUNT and SYBUNT reports do not exist as native features. Building them requires:

1. Exporting your full donor list with gift dates
2. Building a date formula in Excel to flag last gift year
3. Filtering to identify the LYBUNT pool
4. Repeating the process with a different date range for SYBUNT
5. Deduplicating to ensure the two pools do not overlap
6. Importing the resulting list into your email platform

This workflow takes several hours each time it runs. Because it is painful, most organizations run it once or twice a year. That means the re-engagement window for many LYBUNT donors closes before they are ever contacted.

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How sherbertOS Handles Both Reports

The LYBUNT/SYBUNT Report in sherbertOSOS runs natively with configurable date ranges, so you can define your SYBUNT lapse window to match your organization's donor lifecycle data. Both pools are visible simultaneously, with deduplication handled automatically.

From either report, you can push a segment directly to the Communication Engine with one click. The LYBUNT re-engagement sequence starts automatically when a donor enters the segment. When a donor in the sequence gives, they exit automatically — no manual list management required.

Because the reports draw from the same live database as your fund accounting module, a donor who just made a gift never appears in the outreach list waiting for the next import cycle. The data is current the moment you view the report.

For the underlying retention metrics that give context to your lapse pools, see Donor Retention Rate: Benchmarks, Formulas, and How to Improve It. For the segmentation infrastructure that makes targeted outreach possible, see Donor Segmentation Strategies That Actually Drive Revenue.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Should I prioritize LYBUNT or SYBUNT donors for re-engagement?

Start with LYBUNT. They lapsed more recently, have a higher likelihood of responding, and represent the most recoverable revenue per outreach dollar. Work your SYBUNT pool after your LYBUNT campaigns are running, or in parallel with a separate, lower-touch sequence.

Can a donor appear on both the LYBUNT and SYBUNT reports?

Yes. LYBUNT is a subset of SYBUNT — every LYBUNT donor meets the SYBUNT definition too. When running campaigns, suppress LYBUNT donors from your SYBUNT outreach to avoid duplicate contacts.

How do I set the right lapse window for SYBUNT?

Use your actual donor data. Pull average giving tenure and calculate the typical point at which donors go quiet. For most organizations, a two-to-five year window captures the meaningful reactivation pool. Donors lapsed longer than five years should be treated as cold prospects rather than lapsed donors in most cases.

What is a realistic SYBUNT recovery rate?

Recovery rates vary widely based on lapse duration and outreach quality. A well-executed SYBUNT campaign targeting donors lapsed two to three years can recover eight to 15% of the pool. Donors lapsed longer than four years typically recover at rates below five percent, making them lower-priority outreach targets.

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The Bottom Line

LYBUNT and SYBUNT are not interchangeable reports. They identify different groups of donors at different stages of lapse, requiring different strategies, different messages, and different expectations for recovery.

Running both consistently, acting on the results immediately, and suppressing the two pools from each other's outreach sequences is how high-performing development shops prevent lapse from becoming permanent.

→ Start your free trial and run your first LYBUNT and SYBUNT reports in sherbertOSOS today.