At the Direct Marketing Fundraisers Association (DMFA), we work to ensure everyone has equal access to career growth and learning opportunities, regardless of age, race, gender, religion, disability, nationality, economic background, or personal identity. Through our programming, we drive meaningful discussions, advocate systemic change, and amplify diverse fundraising professionals’ voices. As an addition to our […]

By Jeff Muller, Crossroads Insights LLC Bridging between low-dollar annual and major giving—and being a key feeder for planned giving—mid-level programs play an essential role in the philanthropic ecosystem. Yet occupying this nexus of the various individual giving programs creates unique relational opportunities and challenges for mid-level teams, a theme recently explored in conversation with […]

–Michele C. Collins, Donor Development Officer,  Marine Corps Association Foundation I had the privilege of attending the Bridge to Integrated Marketing and Fundraising Conference 2023 thanks to a scholarship from the Direct Marketing Fundraisers Association. The conference was a dynamic event focused on fundraising and integrated marketing with topics such as mid-level giving, stewardship, digital marketing, […]

By Dennis Lonergan, Eidolon Communications Relationships. So many expectations, annoyances, and demands. So much backstabbing, scapegoating, and excuse-making. Or is it just me? I’ll admit relationships aren’t my forte. They are unavoidable. Decades of retreat have done little to stop them. So, I’ve been forced to come to terms. Herewith, a few hard-learned lessons. Act […]

by Rayna Clarke, Account Manager, Lautman Maska Neill & Company When family and friends ask Julia Warnock how she likes her job as an Account Executive at Lautman Maska Neill & Company, she always tells them: “It feels good to do good!” Julia counts herself lucky that she grew up around people who encouraged her […]

by Kerri Kerr, Avalon Consulting Avalon was founded in 1997 as a place for women to have a seat at the table in a male-dominated direct marketing industry. We remain committed to equity and inclusion, yet we assert that a substantive DEI commitment is not static. We are committed to taking a harder look at […]

by Rayna Clarke, Lautman, Maska Neill & Company Margaret Espineli, Marketing Manager for Direct Mail at Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), never intended to pursue a career in fundraising. In fact, she didn’t even plan to work for a nonprofit! She says, “It’s not something that was brought up during career discussions, either in […]

By Kristi Rinck, Partner/President, Nexus Direct Last month, Ryan Peña with Be the Match and Jeff Cosgrove with Epsilon shared an eye-opening case study on their experience with Connected TV (CTV), Over-the-Top (OTT), and Online Video (OLV). This was an interesting presentation for anyone wanting to dip their toe into these up-and-coming digital media channels. […]

By Robert Fisher,  Director of Client Services, The Harrington Agency As the term “Big Data” has faded into the past and has supposedly become the new normal in analytical tracking, it’s important to remember the key components that got us to that term and to understand the process in how to set up these tools. […]

By Jason Robbins, Vice President, Creative ROI Solutions While we believe that there are always learning opportunities in manually processing file outputs and uploads, once you do that task a few times, we think you may have better things to do, like focusing on strategy and fundraising. For the modern CRM manager and operations staff […]