Quadrant

The quadrant is the primary output of a Hearth run. Every contact lands in one of four cells based on whether their Velocity and Heat scores are above or below a configurable threshold (default 50).

Assignment logic

highV = velocity >= threshold
highH = heat     >= threshold

if highV && highH  → Prime
if highV && !highH → Rising
if !highV && highH → Cooling
if !highV && !highH → Dormant

The threshold applies to both axes simultaneously and is set in the Config tab.

The four quadrants

Prime — High velocity, high heat.
Your most sendable and askable contacts. They’re giving now at a historically strong rate. Prioritize for major gift conversations, premium event invites, and personal outreach.

Rising — High velocity, lower heat.
Momentum is real but history is shorter or giving rate is lower. These contacts are engaged right now — warm them carefully. Avoid treating them like major gift prospects before the history is there.

Cooling — Lower velocity, high heat.
Strong lifetime giving, but current activity has slowed. Worth a deliberate re-engagement sequence. Something changed — check Recovery and Burn before sending.

Dormant — Low velocity, low heat.
Neither recent nor historically significant. Appropriate for suppression, sunset sequences, or low-cost broad outreach only.

Adjusting the threshold

The default threshold of 50 creates an even split across both axes. If your portfolio skews heavily toward lower-velocity donors, lowering the threshold to 35–40 will give you more meaningful Prime/Rising segments. Run scores once at the default, look at the quadrant distribution in the bell curve, then adjust.

Using quadrants operationally

Quadrant should drive cadence and message type, not just list membership. A Cooling contact with Recovery = 0 and Heat = 90 is a re-engagement priority. A Rising contact with Burn = 65 should be suppressed from non-critical sends even though they’re in a growth quadrant. Always read quadrant alongside Burn and Recovery before making send decisions.