Amie, you can do that by running a relative date range search for "Date of most recent donation."

For example, say you wanted to pull a list of folks who donate in 2013, but not in 2014:

Go to People > Filter > Add Criteria > Donor History > Date of most recent donation, toggle "is" to "is between" and select "January 1, 2013" - "January 2, 2014."

We have more information on relative date range searches. 

Hope that helps!