What Are LYBUNT and SYBUNT Donors in Fundraising?

It's October, and your nonprofit is preparing its year-end fundraising campaign. Someone from the team runs a donor report and discovers that 37 people who contributed last year haven't donated in 2026. The fundraising coordinator calls them lapsed donors, the executive director wants to know what happened, and the CRM has conveniently labeled them LYBUNTs.

Well, that's a rather unfortunate name to give someone who might simply be waiting until December to make their annual donation.

If you've spent time around nonprofit fundraising or donor management software, you've probably encountered LYBUNT and SYBUNT. They sound like something someone invented during a particularly exhausting spreadsheet session, but they're established fundraising terms used to identify people who previously supported an organization and haven't contributed during a specified period.

These reports help nonprofits understand donor giving patterns, identify supporters who haven't donated recently, and plan appropriate follow-ups. But before treating everyone on the list as a lost donor, it's worth understanding what the terms actually mean.

What Do LYBUNT and SYBUNT Mean?

LYBUNT stands for Last Year But Unfortunately Not This Year. It identifies donors who contributed during the previous year but haven't made a qualifying contribution in the current reporting year.

Suppose Theresa donated $100 to your nonprofit in November 2025. Your organization runs a report in October 2026, and she hasn't contributed again. Under a calendar-year reporting system, Theresa qualifies as a LYBUNT donor.

SYBUNT stands for Some Year But Unfortunately Not This Year. It refers to people who donated during an earlier year but haven't contributed in the current reporting period.

For example, Marcus supported your nonprofit's community food program in 2023 and 2024. He didn't donate in 2025, and your records show no contribution from him in 2026. He belongs to the group of longer-inactive supporters commonly called SYBUNTs.

These definitions are explained in Neon One's June 2026 guide to LYBUNT and SYBUNT reports, which also discusses how nonprofits can use these reports to identify opportunities for donor reengagement.

Can Someone Be Both LYBUNT and SYBUNT?

Yes, depending on how your fundraising software defines its reports.

Blackbaud's SYBUNT reporting documentation explains that a SYBUNT report may include LYBUNT donors. This makes sense under the broader definition because someone who gave last year also gave during a previous year.

Other systems separate the groups. Oracle NetSuite's nonprofit reporting documentation defines LYBUNT donors as those who gave during the previous fiscal year but not the current one. Its SYBUNT report identifies donors who gave before the previous fiscal year and contributed in neither of the two most recent fiscal years.

For small nonprofits, keeping the working groups separate can make reporting easier:

If your software uses the broader SYBUNT definition, exclude LYBUNT donors when preparing a separate list of longer-inactive supporters. Otherwise, you may count the same person in both outreach groups.

Why Should Nonprofits Track LYBUNT and SYBUNT Donors?

Imagine your nonprofit raises $60,000 this year, compared with $50,000 last year. Everyone's pleased, and reasonably so. But what if most of that increase came from a few larger contributions while dozens of previous supporters stopped giving?

The organization has raised more money, but the number of people contributing may be shrinking.

The Fundraising Effectiveness Project's full-year 2025 findings reported an estimated 5.0% increase in charitable dollars raised alongside an approximately 3.6% decline in donor numbers. Those sector-wide estimates don't explain why individual donors stopped giving, but they illustrate why fundraising revenue and donor participation deserve separate attention.

LYBUNT and SYBUNT reports help nonprofit teams identify which previous supporters haven't returned and examine their giving histories before preparing another campaign.

They can also highlight different situations. Someone who donated consistently for five years and suddenly stopped may deserve a different follow-up from someone who made one contribution to a friend's birthday fundraiser.

Neither situation automatically tells you that a donor is dissatisfied. Sometimes people change their giving priorities, encounter financial difficulties, or simply haven't reached their usual donation period yet.

A Practical Example of LYBUNT and SYBUNT Donors

Let's say the Community Literacy Initiative reviews its donor records on October 18, 2026. The organization uses calendar-year reporting, meaning its current year runs from January 1 through December 31.

These fictional records use mutually exclusive LYBUNT and older-SYBUNT groups.

Theresa and Olivia qualify as LYBUNT donors because they contributed in 2025 but haven't given in 2026. Marcus and Rebecca last contributed before 2025, while James made a contribution this year.

Now, here's something worth examining about Olivia. She's donated every December for the past four years, and your report was generated in October. Technically, she's a LYBUNT donor, but her usual giving month hasn't even arrived.

Imagine sending her an email asking why she stopped supporting the organization. She'd probably be just as confused as you are when someone reminds you about a deadline that hasn't passed.

A LYBUNT report tells you who hasn't contributed within the selected dates. It doesn't explain their intentions or whether they've departed from their usual giving pattern.

Calendar Year vs. Fiscal Year

Reporting dates also affect the results.

Suppose your nonprofit's fiscal year begins July 1. A donor contributed in March 2026 but hasn't given again by October.

Under calendar-year reporting, that person is a current-year donor. Under fiscal-year reporting, their March contribution belongs to the fiscal year that ended June 30, making them a LYBUNT donor in the fiscal year that began July 1.

Same donor, same contribution history, different reporting periods.

Before presenting LYBUNT or SYBUNT figures to your board, confirm whether the report uses calendar or fiscal years, the date through which contributions are included, and which transaction types qualify.

How to Create LYBUNT and SYBUNT Reports

You don't necessarily need specialized software to identify these donors. If your organization maintains accurate donation records, a spreadsheet can do the job.

Some donor management platforms already include these reports. Little Green Light's reporting documentation, for example, describes LYBUNT and SYBUNT report templates and configurable reporting dates.

If you're using Excel or Google Sheets, the process can be broken down into three steps.

1. Organize Your Donation Records

Start with a transaction list containing unique donor IDs, donation dates, amounts, and transaction statuses. Use donor IDs rather than names whenever possible, since two people may share a name and one person may appear under several email addresses.

Decide which gifts qualify for your report. Unpaid pledges, voided transactions, and fully refunded contributions shouldn't automatically be treated as completed donations.

2. Compare Donors Across Reporting Years

For a calendar-year report covering 2026, identify everyone who made a qualifying contribution in 2025, then compare those donor IDs with everyone who contributed in 2026.

The basic formulas are:

LYBUNT = Donors who gave last year − Donors who gave this year

Older SYBUNT = Donors who gave before last year − Donors who gave last year or this year

Count each person once, even if they made multiple contributions. Spreadsheet filters, lookup formulas, or pivot tables can help you compare the records.

3. Review the Results Before Using Them

Check whether the list contains donors with paused recurring payments, outstanding pledges, contributions made through donor-advised funds, or gifts recorded under another constituent. These situations can affect how donor activity appears in the database.

Also review communication preferences and other involvement. Someone may have stopped donating but continued volunteering or participating in your programs.

Once you've reviewed the records, you can decide which supporters may benefit from a relevant update or personal follow-up.

What Should You Do With LYBUNT and SYBUNT Donors?

Let's return to Theresa, who gave $100 to your literacy program in November 2025.

Your records show no contribution from her this year, and your organization is preparing its year-end campaign. You could send another generic appeal, but perhaps she hasn't heard much about the program since making her original gift.

Wouldn't sharing an update be a reasonable place to begin?

For example:

"Hi Theresa, I wanted to share a little update on the literacy program you supported last year. Since then, we've completed another round of reading sessions and expanded our volunteer tutoring schedule. We're preparing the next program cycle now, and I thought you'd appreciate hearing how things have been going."

The organization can include an appropriate invitation to contribute again, depending on the campaign and Theresa's communication preferences. But the message already has value because it tells her what happened to the program she supported.

For older SYBUNT donors, you may need to review more of their history.

Marcus, for instance, last donated in 2024. Perhaps his contribution was connected to a particular community event that the nonprofit no longer organizes. Instead of assuming he lost interest, the team could review that original campaign and consider whether an update about related work would be relevant.

The Association of Fundraising Professionals' guidance on donor journeys discusses using donor histories and relevant communications when reconnecting with lapsed supporters.

And if you want to measure whether the outreach was useful, track how many people were contacted, how many subsequently contributed, and any relevant feedback received.

Suppose six of 40 contacted inactive donors give again. That's a 15% reactivation proportion for the contacted group during your chosen evaluation period. It doesn't prove the outreach caused those donations, and it shouldn't be confused with your organization's overall annual donor retention rate.

Keep the records accurate, assess the results in context, and avoid assuming every returning donor was persuaded by a particular email.

Don't Let the Acronyms Do All the Thinking

LYBUNT and SYBUNT reports are useful for understanding donor participation and identifying previous supporters who may appreciate hearing from your organization again. They also help fundraising teams prepare reports without manually reviewing years of contribution histories.

But they're only as useful as the information behind them.

Before describing someone as a lost donor, check when they usually give, whether their contributions were recorded correctly, and whether they're still involved in other ways. A donor who hasn't contributed in October may simply be waiting for the organization's December campaign. Another may have stopped giving because their circumstances changed, and they may prefer not to be contacted.

So the next time someone announces that your nonprofit has 37 LYBUNTs, you'll know what the number means and which questions deserve an answer before the fundraising team starts making phone calls.

Especially if it's still October.