How to use the Bottom Segment Gift Size Distribution Analysis (Annual) analysis
This analysis provides you with a year-by-year view of gift size patterns among your lowest annual giving donors, defined as the bottom segment, based on a customizable threshold. Drawing on 15 years of gift data, it isolates donors whose total giving in any given fiscal year fell below your institution's defined bottom_max threshold, ensuring the group analyzed truly reflects your entry-level or least-engaged annual supporters. For each fiscal year, you see the number of bottom segment donors, the total contributed by this group, and key statistics about the actual gift amounts they made, such as the 25th, 50th (median), and 75th percentile gift sizes, as well as the largest single gift within the segment.
By surfacing these metrics, you gain clear visibility into the range and typical size of gifts among your most modest annual donors. This helps you benchmark the impact of outreach and stewardship strategies targeted to this group, and identify trends, such as shifts in median gift size or the emergence of higher-than-expected gifts at the top end of the segment. If your analysis includes individual donor listings and additional columns-such as donor contact preferences, recency, or engagement scores-you can tailor your communications and stewardship to reflect not only their giving level but also their broader relationship with your organization.
Use this analysis to inform decisions about segmentation, renewal strategies, and personalized appeals for bottom-segment donors. Development directors, annual giving managers, and frontline fundraisers should review it regularly-at least annually, but ideally as part of your quarterly Constituent Intelligence routines-to assess the health and potential of your donor base s entry tier. Consider adjusting ask amounts, stewardship touchpoints, or upgrade campaigns based on what you learn about typical gift sizes and year-over-year trends. If you notice the median gift rising, you may have opportunities to encourage more ambitious giving or to identify donors ready for mid-level cultivation.
To measure success, track changes in the number of bottom-segment donors retained year-over-year, improvements in median or total giving from this segment, and the percentage of donors moving up to higher giving levels. Ultimately, using this analysis strategically should help you grow both donor retention and gift size at the foundational level of your giving pyramid, strengthening your overall fundraising program.