Bridge Conference 2025: AI as My Conference Assistant

Every year, the Bridge to Integrate Marketing & Fundraising Conference presents me with a delightful challenge: dozens of compelling sessions competing for my limited time. As a direct mail enthusiast, I prioritize sessions relevant to my work while staying curious about the industry in general, along with other fundraising channels.

This year, Artificial Intelligence dominated conversations. Inspired, I wondered: could AI help me extract key insights from presentation decks I couldn’t personally attend? Would technology solve my “can’t be everywhere at once” problem?

My experiment with ChatGPT and Microsoft Co-Pilot revealed both promises and significant limitations. ChatGPT cited organizations that were not on the agenda and included insights from unrelated prior conversations, making it difficult at first to trust the accuracy of its summaries. Moving on to Co-Pilot, the information seemed more limited, and it couldn’t handle all the presentation slides I uploaded. Through this process of trial and error, I found that each attempt offered an opportunity to learn and refine my approach.

After multiple attempts, careful prompting, and manual verification, I eventually extracted valuable insights across three critical areas: direct mail and messaging trends, technology and channel integration, fundraising strategy and organization insights.

Key Highlights from my AI Conference Assistant

📬 Direct Mail & Messaging Trends

Mail Strategy is Shifting Towards Long-term Value

Organizations are focusing on acquisition and renewal campaigns to boost donor lifetime value, rather than quick returns. Direct mail is still essential for overall file health.

Creative Fundamentals Remain Crucial

Clear asks, donor-centric messaging, and consistent offers are the elements for a winning package with evolving contexts and audiences.

Matching and Incentive Tactics Still Work—But Use With Care

Matching and incentive tactics continue to drive response, especially in acquisition and reactivation efforts, though overuse risks donor trust.

💡 Technology & Channel Integration

Text Messaging is Maturing

SMS and new message formats like RCS are both a revenue and donor cultivation, while a dual strategy approach with broadcast and interactive messaging is emerging as best practice.

Behavioral Economics Drive Donation Forms

Pre-filled donation amounts, social proof and instant gratification are some of the psychological principles increasing conversion rates to the donation forms that are feeling more like an e-commerce checkout experience.

Omnichannel Integration is Becoming the Norm

The donor journey now spans email, direct mail, ads, and text, with unified KPIs, centralized data, and consistent messaging.

📈 Fundraising Strategy Insights

Data Quality and Source Tracking Are Under Scrutiny

Organizations are rethinking how they track, categorize, and evaluate leads as the focus shifts from volume to long-term engagement.

Storytelling is Being Reimagined

Fundraisers are rethinking how stories are created, focusing on co-creation and ethics, while moving from savior narratives to inclusive messaging.

Donor Trust is a Priority Across all Channels

Trust-building practices—like transparency, mission alignment, and thoughtful donor stewardship—are more important than ever with skepticism on the rise while internal policies and cross-department alignment help with navigating potential risks.

Retention and Mid-Level Strategy are Front and Center

As donor numbers drop, there’s increased focus on onboarding, reactivation, and targeted upgrades using segmentation and personalization to build lasting relationships.

Final Thoughts on AI Conference Insights

While the process took considerable effort and verification, AI helped me synthesize conference themes I would have otherwise missed. I still approach AI with healthy skepticism for original content creation, preferring it for editing and refining my own work. AI still needs to work hard to win me over in generating new material.

This experiment offered a glimpse of how AI might eventually help us bridge knowledge gaps when we can’t be everywhere at once.

And so you know I was there and listening, be sure to look for my next blog where I share my own takeaways.