by Katie Brown, New Donor Acquisition Manager, IFAW

 As a fundraiser, sometimes it’s hard to lift your head up from the ground and look around for a new perspective or a new connection. Each day is so focused on the tasks ahead, what needs to be accomplished, and breathing a sigh of relief each time you get to cross off an action item from a list of endless to-dos. But that’s exactly why experiences like Bridge are so important – it forces us away from our desks and workspaces and out of our comfort zones (and out of our own heads). Especially as someone with a few years of fundraising experience and a lot to learn, an opportunity to listen and hear from experts and bounce ideas around with peers is always the best way to grow professionally and bring back some fresh thinking to help my team.

The opening keynote was all about turning ideas on their heads, taking big risks to hopefully reap big rewards. One of the takeaways from that speech was to start a “to-test” list somewhere handy, like a notes app on your phone, and jot down any and all ideas as they come to you. Well, I started doing that even at Bridge that very same day! Who knows if any of the test ideas I thought of will work or even pass inspection with my supervisors, but I can rest knowing that I’m thinking outside the box and tossing out ideas until something sticks. And maybe it’ll really stick.

 I attended sessions covering a wide range of topics: multivariant testing strategies, premiums in Acquisition, diversity and inclusion, the state of the economy, and AI’s impact on fundraising, just to name a few. In the multivariate testing session, AARP presented a unique challenge: due to legislation they heavily fundraised on passing and becoming law (a win for AARP and its members but not necessarily the fundraisers), they lost their best control pack. Of course, a mad scramble left them no choice but to test into a new control, and fast. Rather than spend potentially months or years testing and trying out new things, they outlined how they created a strategy to test multiple variables and components at once in one mailing. I had seen this type of complex testing done before, but never to the scale they did it. And it was worth it! They narrowed down a new control (and even a co-control) much quicker through this method than with traditional strategies. This session gave me some tools to bring back to see if we could do something similar with our mailings.

One of the other sessions I attended that taught me something new and valuable was how to qualify fundraising wins rather than always quantifying them, especially when it comes to DEI initiatives. If there are ways to make a mail pack more accessible to more people, even if it doesn’t beat a control or even if it takes a slight loss, being more inclusive should be considered a win and be more of a priority than keeping with the status quo. So many people are not being reached with fundraising messages simply due to demographics and systemic racism and classism, and there are ways to be a more mindful and inclusive fundraiser. Bread For the City, a DC-based NGO, discussed how their fundraising materials were straightforward in that they directly name racism as the primary reason for poverty in DC. They also did a letter signature test, one letter signed by their CEO and another by a client of Bread. Even without a clear winner, Bread still rolled out with a version of their mail pack signed by their client simply because it more closely aligns with their values than an ask from their CEO does. The fundraisers advocated for more accessibility and inclusivity, and they encouraged all of us to consider and celebrate changes to our fundraising that better align and reflect our organization’s values, even if there’s not a real monetary gain.

 All in all, the Bridge Conference this year gave me many exciting insights and new ideas and connections. I caught up with an old coworker, shook hands with many smart and creative peers from other orgs, and jotted down any and all ideas that came to me as I listened and learned from experts. I could write many pages detailing everything I learned, but this is a good summary and highlighted my biggest takeaways.

The ability to attend this conference and have these opportunities because of the DMFA Professional Development Fund is an invaluable resource for a nimble but mighty organization such as IFAW – and for me, a hardworking, nose-to-the-ground fundraiser who needed something new and inspiring to spark a new way forward.