Director, Marketing
Judicial Watch
After a brief stopover shooting wedding videos, Dan Sonners has spent his entire professional career in the non-profit sector spanning nearly two decades.
In 2007, a desire to find an entry-level marketing job led him to respond to a curiously well written posting on Craigslist. Replying to that ad would lead to his first job in the sector, at Conrad Direct, where he’d go on to work for 18 years brokering lists and building acquisition plans for a wide range of political, charitable, and commercial mailers.
Dan says about his fortuitous start in the industry, “I didn’t start with any knowledge about non-profits or direct mail, but I knew I loved applying data, analytics, and creativity to help clients solve problems.” That love of problem solving led to an immediate passion for the work which helped fuel his growth in the industry and a career-long love of learning including his involvement with DMAW and the Bridge Conference.
He was elected to the DMAW Board of Directors in 2022 and during his two-terms has served as Vice-President, President, and Immediate Past-President while helping to oversee DMAW’s educational slate as Co-Chair of their Programming Committee.
Dan has chaired over a dozen in-person and virtual events for DMAW over the years and helped launch their Multi-Channel Mini-Con as a co-creator in 2023. He’s excited to bring all of his learned experience to the Bridge Conference as one of this year’s Education Co-Chairs.
In July 2025 Dan started his current role as Director of Direct Response at Judicial Watch, a non-partisan government watchdog and educational foundation.
Dan and his wife Jessica married in 2013 and welcomed their twin-daughters, Emma and Harper, in 2024. They live in New Jersey along with their two German Shepherds, Kona and Greta.
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Friday, July 31, 2026
9:10 AM - 10:10 AM EDT