Ms. Brenna Holmes

About

I'm active with the DMAW community, and have been on the board since 2020. Since 2009, I've attended, coordinated, presented and volunteered at many events, including annual Bridge conferences, Best of Direct, List Bazaar, Innovative Formats, Data Strategy Forum, DMAW-EF events, various lunch and learns, and happy hours. I chaired the DMAW’s inaugural Digital Day creating a day of digital-first content to expand DMAW’s reach to new audiences: at nonprofits, agencies and software partners. And then co-chaired two additional years of growth before recruiting CCAH team members to pass the torch on to continue to nurture and develop the workshop.

SMART digital acquisition is an area of expertise for me and I have an extensive background in cross-channel marketing and advocacy integration. I'm very passionate about decision science and UX; creating surround sound campaigns that maximize supporter engagement and organizational loyalty by integrating traditional direct marketing with innovative digital media to reach supporters where they “live”. And am an ardent evangelist for supporter-centric marketing built on user behavior and first-person data.

I led digital services at CCAH for 14.5 years along with the integration with MissionWired after the acquisition.

And while I'm not a formally educated fundraiser, I have found that many of my skills translate and are extremely applicable. My eclectic background includes public relations, cross-channel marketing, web design, media training, hospitality, GOTV and advocacy integration. And I just love combining them with the tenents of behavioral and decision science. My Renaissance-esq education allows me to craft effective user experiences that resonate and push staff and clients forward (often outside their comfort zones) to continue to grow.

I have two master’s degrees from Syracuse University (Go Orange!): public relations with a communications law and public good focus, and public administration with a nonprofits focus; as well as a double major BA from Sonoma State University, back home in northern California wine country. If you know me, you know I'm an avid oenophile, and equally at ease discussing varietals, wine regions or food pairings, as I am with tech-stacks and nonprofit strategy!

I'm a big believer in lifelong learning and loved teaching in CCAH’s own “MBA” program for midlevel staff. And I'm excited to see what the next phase in my career brings! I'm convinced that the future of the social good community is all about multimedia, data-focused, personalized content leveraging responsible AI for social impact, so please reach out if you share my passions--lets connect!