How to use the Middle First Time Donors by Month in the Last FY-Replace Duplicate analysis
This analysis helps you identify and understand middle-tier first-time donors who made their initial gift during the most recently completed fiscal year, grouping them by the month of their first donation. It draws on your Gifts and Thresholds tables to dynamically define what counts as a "middle" donor, based on your organization's segmentation criteria. By isolating only those whose first gift falls within your middle giving range, you can focus on a particularly valuable cohort—those who have the potential to become reliable annual supporters but are not yet at the top level of annual giving.
For each month in the last fiscal year, you see how many middle-tier first-time donors you acquired, along with the total, average, median, and modal (most frequent) first gift amounts. This allows you to quickly spot trends, such as which months are strongest for acquiring mid-level donors, or whether your appeal messaging is yielding higher initial gifts. You can also compare the distribution of gift sizes to inform your next-round stewardship strategies.
You should use this analysis to inform both annual planning and in-year tactical adjustments. For instance, if you notice that certain months consistently yield more or higher-value middle-tier first-time donors, you can time appeals or special campaigns to amplify those trends. Conversely, months with lower acquisition can be targeted for new outreach experiments. Reviewing these patterns enables you to refine your messaging and stewardship plans, ensuring that new middle-tier donors feel recognized and motivated to renew or upgrade.
Development directors, annual fund managers, and constituent intelligence leads should regularly review this analysis, especially as part of their Constituent Intelligence routines, to track acquisition performance and adjust tactics before patterns become entrenched. You may also want to share monthly findings with major gift officers or stewardship teams to support more personalized follow-ups, leveraging the summary statistics to tailor your thank-you messages or upgrade requests.
To measure the success of using this analysis, monitor growth in the number and value of middle-tier first-time donors year over year, the conversion rate of these donors to second-year gifts, and any improvements in average or median first gift size. By systematically applying these insights, you can strengthen your donor pipeline and maximize long-term fundraising effectiveness.