Why DAM is Critical to Sharing Your Mission-Driven Story

Effective storytelling is essential for any organization, but it’s particularly vital for mission-driven organizations. Stories communicate your mission-driven organization’s purpose and impact while building deeper connections with your audiences. Your organization’s assets — photographs, charts, graphs, audio, and video — are the most identifiable, and lasting elements of those stories.

Consider that according to a study on Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCEs), “90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and visuals are processed 60,000 times faster in the brain than text.” With this insight in mind, it’s imperative to unify your mission-driven organization’s visual assets so you can share them across teams and distribute them in your digital marketing channels.

Enter the digital asset management (DAM) system — a digital archive that supports your mission-driven organization’s needs across two areas — assets and operations.

As stated in The Forrester Wave™: Digital Asset Management Systems, Q1 2024 report, “DAM systems are the foundational technology to unlock…design-led creative strategy.”

Mission-Driven DAM System Benefits

For mission-driven organizations, centralized asset management is critical for connecting assets from broad grantee portfolios, dispersed regions, and competing programs. Intuitive access, streamlined distribution, and performance tracking are three key benefits a DAM system can offer your mission-driven organization.

• Intuitive Access: A robust search feature powered by comprehensive metadata tagging quickly retrieves your assets based on factors such as topic, format, and date range.

• Streamlined Distribution: Permissions and access control enable you to quickly share assets, whether with internal stakeholders tracking grantee progress, external partners coordinating fundraising events, or the public who’s curious about your collections.

• Performance Tracking: Asset performance analytics track how well your assets are connecting with your audience, helping you to pinpoint those that might drive deeper engagement, increase fundraising, or encourage more visits to your physical location.

Mission-Driven DAM Use Cases

A digital assessment management system can meet the day-to-day challenges of your communications teams if you work for a private foundation, public foundation, or cultural intuition.

Private Foundations

As a grantmaking institution, funded initiatives are at the heart of your mission. Keeping track of the assets associated with these initiatives, whether creative assets from a variety of media for your arts-based grantmaking or in-the-field photography that demonstrates your community collaboration can be a challenge. A DAM system keeps your assets ready to track grantee progress and highlights how your investments further your foundation’s mission.

Public Foundations

As a public charity, donor engagement and need response are never-ending. Your assets, whether branded campaign materials or rapid-response imagery are your greatest resource. A DAM system that allows you to quickly collect and consistently distribute these assets is essential to raising sustained awareness for your cause. Performance tracking can map how discrete assets deliver against your defined campaign goals.

Cultural Institutions

As a museum, the preservation and display of culturally or scientifically significant objects is part of your mission and you’re likely to have a back catalog of rich artifacts. A DAM system with publicly accessible digital collections allows you to reach audiences who are less likely or unable to visit your physical exhibitions so you can deliver assets in alternate formats that better meet their needs.

How to Get Started on Your Mission-Driven DAM Journey

The Center for Advanced Studies in Digital Asset Management (CASDAM) has developed a DAM capability model that serves as a great starting point for your mission-driven organization’s DAM strategy. The model is organized by four key vectors: organization, information, systems, and processes.

• Organization – Who is your DAM team? Think about roles, responsibilities, and capabilities.

• Information – What are the attributes associated with your assets? Think about infrastructure, security, and usability.

• Systems – What components support the asset lifecycle? Think about metadata, findability, use cases, rights, reporting, and analytics.

• Processes – What repeatable procedures are needed? Think about workflow and collaboration, governance, integration, and reuse.

Whether you’re at a private foundation focused on showcasing impact, a public foundation demonstrating need, or an institution nurturing greater cultural appreciation, a digital asset management system is critical in centralizing the assets you need to tell compelling brand stories.

Want to know more about the benefits a DAM system can offer your mission-driven organization? Contact us to discuss how Velir can support your DAM journey.