Day Two for me today at NAMP.

I opted to not attend the second Branding workshop. Instead I attended the Donor Segmentation in Practice workshop. The presenters were Alan Brown and Heidi Onkst.

Now I could go into great detail about what the practice of segmentation process is….but let me just tell you what I took away from this session.

How does donating to your organization make a difference in your community? Ask yourself this question. Ask your staff this question. THEN come up with questions and ask your donors why they give to you.

Make the case for donating to your organization by telling your story AND telling the story of your donors. For a GREAT example of this go to the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center Website. They went through a whole process in the last year to restructure how they make and ask. You will notice that they have no giving levels on their website. We got rid of giving levels too. Watch the video of their donor Mike Twigg!

I definitely walked away from this session with practical things that I can use immediately.

I am starting to come up with a list of things that are resonating with me from my experience here at NAMP:

1. One Voice: developing a clear image and voice across the board for my organization.
2. The Power of Narrative: telling the story of my organization in everything we do.
3. The Unjuried Voice: using website tools to get to the heart of what my community thinks and feels.

I am taking the afternoon to work on our FY09 budget. Exciting I know…but it has to be done. I am going to a Dine Around (whoever came up with this name…awesome ) about e-mail marketing. I am very much looking forward to the discussion!

Later!