Joe Manes

One of the most challenging aspects of changing consulting firms can be finding a firm that gets your voice. Joe believes the words you use really do matter and is in charge of making sure that the messages ABD Direct creates for you—in renewal, acquisition, mail, digital, and telemarketing—are compelling and coherent, and build your donor’s loyalty. Joe oversees the development of strategy for creative and often times will develop the creative himself.

Joe joined A.B. Data in 1993 to open our Washington, D.C. office and has helped grow the company dramatically and is now a Partner in the company. Joe originally came to Washington in 1982 with a desire to fight the Moral Majority and, with the death of DOMA, he feels we can claim victory. As fate would have it, Joe started his career as the direct result of receiving a direct mail solicitation from People For the American Way. Instead of sending money, Joe moved from California and, as its Membership Director, he helped manage PFAW’s dramatic growth from 40,000 to 200,000 donors in just four years. This early experience helped shape Joe’s philosophy that direct marketing is both a powerful fundraising and constituency building tool.

Joe sometimes wonders if he missed his true calling as a vacation planner. While his husband, Tommy, might at times call him controlling, he cannot deny the incredible value of someone who researches, maps, and scours lots of reviews to put together flawlessly executed trips to British Columbia, the California Coast, New York, Miami, and elsewhere. He is also considered the best human ever by his dogs Baxter and Boomer.