Affiliates widen the DMA’s boundaries Faced with a changing membership and ever more complex issues, the Direct Marketing Association has acquired or formed affiliations with several other trade groups.
“Bob Wientzen’s vision is growth of the DMA by affiliation,” says Michael Faulkner, the DMA’s senior vice president of councils and affiliates. “He believes the DMA will grow as a result of direct marketing growing in general.”
The DMA’s newest affiliate, the Nonprofit Federation, was formed in June when the National Association of Nonprofits merged into the DMA. As a result, the DMA nonprofit roster has grown to about 500 members.
The DMA also has two Internet affiliates. The Association for Interactive Media was one of the first Internet trade associations, formed eight years ago by Web visionaries so young they couldn’t even drink in public. Since the DMA acquired the group in 1998, it has grown from 100 members to 550 members, the majority of which are pure-play dot-coms, though there’s a solid representation of traditional DMers. This wholly owned subsidiary provides education and networking, transmitting a handful of monthly newsletters with Net-marketing advice, and hosting networking get-togethers twice monthly.
The other Internet affiliate, the Internet Alliance, has a lobbying role. Last year, not one of the 440 state Internet bills IA lobbied against passed, Faulkner relates proudly. For federal issues, IA works hand in glove with the DMA.
The Internet Alliance, which was acquired last year, also handles global education and information exchange, and has formed a partnership with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Justice Department and Interpol to fight online crime worldwide. The group’s 70 members include large Internet service providers, such as America Online.
Finally, the DMA now counts among its members five regional clubs. The Georgia, Dallas/Ft.Worth, Southern Ohio, Northern California and the California South Coast chapters have 800 individual members. Plus the DMA provides some administrative and database services to the 42 regional clubs that have no legal affiliation with the DMA, but which crave DM information.
