Segment Gift Trends: Top / Middle / Bottom
This dashboard-format analytic compares the Top, Middle, and Bottom segments on counts, total giving, and typical gift size across 15 fiscal years, drawn from analyses QX89, QX90, and QX91.
How to use the Segment Gift Trends: Top / Middle / Bottom
This is a dashboard-format analytic that compares your Top, Middle, and Bottom donor segments side by side across the last fifteen fiscal years. It is built on the data from three analyses, QX89 for the Top segment, QX90 for the Middle, and QX91 for the Bottom, brought together so all three tiers can be read on the same charts.
The Donor Counts by Segment tab shows how many donors sit in each tier by fiscal year. The Giving by Segment tab shows total giving with each segment's share, displayed stacked because the Top tier dwarfs the others in dollar terms and the share view keeps that concentration visible. The Typical Gift by Segment tab shows the average and median gift per tier over time. The pairing of average and median matters, because a gap between them signals that a few very large gifts are lifting the average while the typical donor's gift sits lower.
The strategic value is balance. Seeing the three tiers together over a long horizon tells you whether your organization is becoming more dependent on a shrinking Top, whether the Middle is being hollowed out, and whether the Bottom is still feeding the pipeline. That informs how you divide investment across acquisition, upgrade, and retention.
You should refresh and review this annually, ideally as part of strategic planning, with your development director and leadership. Where one tier's trajectory is weakening, rebalance effort toward it, and use the long view to judge whether last year's segment strategy actually changed the trend.
Measure success by movement toward your intended balance across tiers, by growth in Middle and Bottom donor counts that reduces over-reliance on the Top, and by typical gift sizes that rise within each segment over time.
Analytic ID: QX260
Analytic Name: Segment Gift Trends- Top-Middle-Bottom
Focus: 3.3: Dashboards; 1.1: Year-over-Year Donation Trends; 1.3: Gift Size Distribution Analysis; 2.3: Within-Segment Growth
Type: Dashboard Style
Segments: Top, Middle, Bottom | Scope: Segment
Description: Dashboard of Top, Middle, and Bottom segment comparison of donor counts, total giving (with share), and average/median gift size over 15 fiscal years (QX89/90/91).
Key Question: How do donor counts, total giving, and typical gift size compare across the Top, Middle, and Bottom segments over time?
Action: Compare segment trajectories to balance acquisition, upgrade, and retention investment across tiers.