The 2024 Bridge Conference was just a few weeks ago, but hopefully, you’ve been able to implement some of the many things you took away from those three days of education, inspiration, and excitement. There were well over one hundred sessions, and you couldn’t attend them all; so some of us at PMG wanted to share a number of the key items that we took away from Bridge 2024.

From Josh Linkner's "Find A Way" Opening Keynote:

• Create a "To-Test List" for your work: campaign and program tests come to mind first for fundraisers, but also processes, meeting formats, new product ideas, etc. Josh Linkner says the mere existence of the list will boost your creative output by keeping experimentation top-of-mind every day.
• Start before you're ready – no wheel spinning or planning to plan! Just jump in and get started by tackling your projects a little bit at a time, every day. Make that phone call, request that connection, do a piece of research, etc.
• Think Small. Josh says: "The daily practice of 'micro-innovations' is the fastest route to discover the massive breakthroughs we seek."

From “To Customize or Not to Customize (or, the pros and cons of fundraising platform customizations versus native usage)”, a BridgeTECH session from Erick Quijada, The Engage Group; Kaitlyn DeLuise, Kids in Need of Defense; Michelle Jiles, WETA; and April Dietrich, WETA:

• Don’t accept an easy solution simply because it’s easy. No matter what program you’re building for, your system is unique. Even if a set-up takes time and effort in the beginning, it may pay off in the long run to implement a custom solution that works for you.
• Always ask why. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should do something. Think about why you are selecting into a solution – from all angles – and determine if it makes sense.
• Review your decisions regularly. Platforms update their offerings regularly, technology changes frequently, and sunk costs are a fallacy. If you took one path in the past but the situation changes, a new option may work better - don’t stay with the past decision just because.

From the "Expect the Unexpected: How to Prepare for Emergency Response Fundraising" session presented by Bryan Evangelista, Lautman Maska Neill & Company; Gemma Smart, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières; and Alex Agard, Entertainment Community Fund:

Emergency Appeal Data Hacks:

• Reduce the quantity of your emergency appeal to your best performing segments if your budget is limited.
• Reuse or recycle your most recent mail file by recoding it for the new emergency mailing.
• Create an emergency response mail plan/data pull template based on giving history and performance to activate immediately.

From "30 Ideas that WOW Us" session presented by Allison Porter, Avalon Consulting; Mwosi Swenson, Mal Warwick Donordigital; and Tiffany Neill, Lautman Maska Neill & Company:

All these WOW's are easy to test and implement:

• Bookmarks and personalized notepads in mailings.
• Typeface style on letters: Sans serif Calibri performs better than serif Times Roman.
• "Will you cover the processing fees?" technique on online donation forms depresses response.
• "My Most Generous Gift” language depresses average gift vs. "Other Amount" language
• Ask String Optimization findings:
  • Ascending values generated a higher response rate.
  • 3 asks vs. 6 asks performed better.
• Text-based Meta (Facebook, Instagram) ads outperform image-based ads.
• Postcards perform well for many audiences and messages (legacy giving, DAF giving, cultivating donors, driving to web with QR codes, etc.) and are inexpensive, and quick and easy to produce.

This is still only a sliver of all you could have learned at Bridge 2024. The lessons you learned and the connections you made will carry you through the year, so be sure to reinforce them both.

Oh, and one last takeaway? Consider volunteering next year to share your Bridge know-how and enthusiasm – as a greeter or room monitor, in the Volunteer Booth or working at the First-Timers Breakfast. It’s one of the best ways to be a part of the program!