Like the “everyman” characters depicted in Ernest Hemingway’s “To Have and Have Not,” some nonprofit associations are “haves” and others are “have nots.” The difference between feast and famine can be how well your organization manages its membership dues.
Sherri Oken, CAE, founder and principal of the Massachusetts-based Association Advantage, deserves a medal for perseverance. Oken manages several nonprofit groups, including an association of mid-level medical practitioners, and is convinced that while altruism used to be one of the prime reasons people joined associations, that’s no longer the case—at least for her group of practitioners, who are in it largely to secure continuing education credits, she said. But even continuing education benefits can’t sustain associations any more.
“Associations like this one were the principal providers of continuing medical education—it drove membership. But no longer. Now we are surrounded by commercial providers of CMEs,” Oken said.
While this group is forging its way through trying issues on many fronts, Oken soldiers on. She has succeeded in recruiting 121 new members since taking over the account four years ago, raising the organization’s membership to 410.
“But we haven’t been attracting the right kind of members,” she said. “More than half of our new members are students whose dues are waived; many will take jobs out of the state when they graduate, preventing them from becoming dues-paid members. We have also lost 51 members in four years due to retirements and relocations.” However, after “hammering away” at the board of directors, Oken has convinced its members to change the model. Often, that is just what it takes to turn around membership—a board that is on board with making changes for the better. But there’s no one path. Just as associations and their membership vary, there are several ways groups can go about constructing change.
Rethinking Membership Dues and Desires. One organization that has benefited from an overhaul to its membership model over the last decade is the Association Executives of North Carolina. Jim Thompson, until recently the group’s executive director and now vice-president for association management at Capitol Hill Management Services of North Carolina, directed and stabilized AENC’s growth during his tenure. Membership soared from 400 in 2005 to today’s figure of nearly 750, and whereas only 180 association executives were members in 2005, today it lists some 400. That increase has prompted a record number of supplier groups to join. In addition, for several years running, AENC’s membership-retention rate has hovered near 98 percent.
Thompson attributes AENC’s success to several factors. First, he and the board of directors revamped the organization’s membership-dues structure, changing it from one based on individual membership to one in which an entire association can become the member. Annual dues are based on a sliding scale of six levels. This has allowed many more association professionals to join AENC because price barriers have been substantially reduced.
AENC also refocused its programming. Before Thompson arrived, monthly luncheons featured professional speakers who relished the opportunity to showcase their skills before an audience of potential clients. AENC’s previous leadership liked this idea—it was a no-cost way to offer content. Members, however, didn’t like it. The speakers’ topics were far afield from what association executives deal with—members lost interest and attendance plummeted. Today, all programming is tightly focused on topics like budgets, fundraising, government affairs, technology and board relations.
Thompson said, “Don’t underestimate the value of asking members what concerns them and how you can help—and do it frequently.” And don’t stop there. “Show results. Make sure you react to what you learn. Create and maintain the association’s reputation for outstanding member service.”
Appealing to Wide Membership Audiences. The complex structure of the American Council of Engineering Companies reflects the diversity of more than 30 engineering disciplines. Their membership structure is bottom-up; members join at the local level within whichever discipline they operate and their ACEC dues are included.
Heather Talbert, CAE, coalitions director at the association’s headquarters in the Washington, D.C., area, said ACEC enjoys an 8 percent membership growth and a 90 percent retention rate. What’s more interesting is that the association maintains everyone’s common interest when the field itself is so varied.
Rather than focusing on the different technical disciplines of engineering, the association focuses its learning programming on the business of running an engineering company. Members can become involved in one or several ACEC communities devoted to various subject matters. And there are several councils that exist to address specific job responsibilities within the engineering field.
Talbert and her team, consisting of both staff and volunteers, created an innovative recruitment strategy. ACEC employs a series of direct marketing campaigns that use the letterhead and envelopes of its more prominent member firms instead of actual ACEC letterhead. “We guessed that an engineering firm would be more responsive to mail it might receive from another engineering firm, especially if the envelope is individually addressed and contains a real postage stamp,” Talbert said. “We included a membership application that had been filled in with all of the contact information in our database. To join, you just add credit card information. The letter is also signed by a real person.”
While the team’s initial recruitment efforts yielded only nine new members from 1,550 issued letters, those new memberships covered its costs and generated 25 inquiries from prospective members. Changing the colors of the membership application and inserting text reminding prospective members that by joining they would gain access to ACEC publications—worth $3,000—made it hard for recipients to say no, said Talbert. That letter yielded 40 new members and more than $5,000 of new revenue. ACEC plans to extend the campaign into its next fiscal year.
Constructing Appealing Benefits. Imagine what it might be like to boost your membership from 14,000 individuals to 18,000 in less than six months and anticipate another 20,000 new members signing up soon. That’s happening at the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers. Until recently, SCTE members were typically cable installers, but demographics are changing, thanks to the SCTE’s “boots to suits” membership philosophy, which provides learning resources to all segments of the telecommunications industry.
Bill Schankel, SCTE vice-president of marketing, said after conducting internal research, his team discovered many individuals were accessing SCTE training and learning resources. That gave rise to the 2013 launch of a Corporate Alliance Partner category of membership, which is company-based and discounts individual membership dues as much as 20 percent when employees of the same company join and/or renew as a group.
According to Schankel, the results have been incredible. “In one case, the number of members from the same company will rise from 4,000 to 20,000,” he said. “And what is most remarkable is that many of the companies we talked with had no idea how many of their employees were already members and participating in our programs.”
Companies that support the Corporate Alliance Partner program are assigned a staff “account executive” to support a designated, primary company contact much as a hotel concierge would assist guests. In addition, Corporate Alliance Partners is provided with discounts for association products and programs; this has resulted in an increase of non-dues revenues thanks to broader participation of its offerings, some of which, like the week-long leadership seminars, command prices of $6,000 to $10,000 per person.
The Corporate Alliance Partner program also slices SCTE operating costs by consolidating renewal dates and eliminating the need to pursue dues delinquents. Next year, the SCTE plans to create something similar to the Corporate Alliance Partner program for the association’s exhibitors and sponsors.
Fresh Ideas to Spur and Sustain Membership. There are lessons to be learned from innovative association professionals. Any board that spends a meeting addressing the following points and questions is bound to benefit.
1. Understand which members are most valuable and why. Then, pursue them relentlessly.
2. Does your association’s current membership-dues system promote growth or is it an obstacle to growth? Is it time for a program revision?
3. Think like members, not like staff. In this day and age, why should people working in your industry join?
4. Members are customers. Has your group adapted successful retail tactics to make them happy customers?
When associations can learn from each other, the industry becomes that much stronger and builds upon a culture in which membership is something valuable to have and to cherish.