DMA Friends was a thoughtful reimagining of what membership and philanthropic giving could look like in a museum setting. Based on the understanding of collecting data about user engagement and interests and part loyalty program, the program successfully enrolled over 100,000 visitors as participants. USD Design | MACH Consulting was responsible for the initial strategy and integration with the existing museum systems and further defining internal changes in staff resourcing and the eventual software-based implementation of the system. The team worked closely with multiple partners to devise the potential rewards and requirements as part of the loyalty experience while also developing analytics tools to make data potentially actionable.

The initial success of the program led to a follow-on IMLS grant which explored ways to deliver the core idea and promise of DMA Friends to multiple partner institutions — Minneapolis Institute of Art, Denver Art Museum, LACMA, and The Grace Museum — that had different business models and different membership needs.