Sites, Sights & Insights: idfive at Bridge

By Sean Sutherland \ September 15, 2026

Last month, Matt and I embarked on idfive’s first sojourn into the world of Bridge Conference, an annual event hosted in our backyard of the National Harbor for nonprofits of all shapes and sizes. While manning the booth and handing out copious amounts of Old Bay, we also talked to attendees about the most pressing issues and focuses for their nonprofit as we firmly transition into FY27. I was also excited to see so many partners on the show floor, including friends at American Kidney Fund, Baltimore Collegetown, George Mason University, and the Maryland Food Bank.

Here are the top three insights we gained from the show floor!

AI Tools Are Here to Stay

While use varied, it was clear that nonprofits are using new tech to get more out of their budgets and expand their team bandwidth. AI tools showed up in many workflows: from messaging, brainstorming with Claude, or attempting to verify the validity of donor lists through ChatGPT.

These tools, when paired with a healthy dose of human oversight, are becoming huge force multipliers for smaller organizations.

Great Creative Still Matters

We might be showing a little bias here, but what stopped Bridge attendees in their tracks was eye-catching creative every single time. But, backing up that creative with hard-hitting data? The icing on an already unforgettable piece of inspiration cake.

idfive debuted some new work at Bridge, including our recent rebrand of disabilities services nonprofit Fello, helping them launch a new identity and a successful 65th anniversary campaign. One conference attendee familiar with this launch mused that this work, tied with the visibility of the campaign across their service area, successfully framed Fello as the category leader.

You can have a great media plan, the right distribution list, the perfectly-aligned audience messaging, but without killer creative, nonprofits know that you run the risk of your effort falling flat on its face.

Growing Your Audiences is Always in Style

This event also saw the debut of a new addition of idfive’s typical booth layout: an interactive feature! While conference-goers were walking by our booth, coming back from a talk or just looking to add some swag to their carry-on luggage for the way home, we asked them a few questions:

• Do you want some Old Bay? (obviously)
• Are you delivering on your mission?
• What tech, tools, and tactics do you use most?
• What’s hardest right now?

For the last question, we had them add a purple dot to the circle with the pain point they felt was most challenging in furthering their mission. It was clear that nonprofits saw expanding their core audiences and finding new potential donors and partners as the biggest barriers to overcome.

And we get it.

It can be really difficult to cut through the noise and be embraced by a new audience crop. But we were very encouraged by those who answered that question, and then continued the conversation around what they’re doing to address it, along with our advice providing tips to quickly consider.

We’re rooting for mission-based organizations all the time, and we’re here to help if we can help ease their burdens.