Membership 101: Exit Surveys

Sometimes, despite your best efforts to understand your members’ most pressing problems and most important goals, and provide solutions for them, members lapse. What happens next? You should try to find out why they left….

Read More →

Membership 101: Effective Renewal Cycles

At some point, after generating leads and nurturing relationships and persuading people to join and helping them find their own individual engagement paths, it’s time to ask your members to renew, to stick with you…

Read More →

Membership 101: The Role of Volunteerism

“Engaged members renew. Disengaged members don’t.” If you’ve been around the association industry for more than a few minutes, you’ve undoubtedly heard at least one membership professional say that. Volunteerism is a MAJOR opportunity for…

Read More →

Membership 101: Who Counts?

Who do you consider to be your members? That seems like an easy question: “Anyone whose dues are current,” right? But if you dig a little deeper, it quickly gets a lot more complicated. Do…

Read More →

The Passive Experienced Member

The MCI Group recently released the American Engagement Index 2017 (the link takes you to a page where you can enter your contact information to get your own copy, and you really should). There’s lots…

Read More →

Growth Strategies from Top Fundraisers Q&A

In my last post, I shared the link to the webinar my Steal This Idea! co-author Sohini Baliga and I presented for Wild Apricot on March 21. Sohini and I got to as many questions as we…

Read More →

Growth Strategies from Top Fundraisers

My Steal This Idea! Innovations in Cause-Oriented Fundraising for Associations co-author Sohini Baliga and I recently had the opportunity to talk with some smart people about the information in the whitepaper. Special for those of you…

Read More →

Membership 101: Should You Reward Novelty or Loyalty?

It’s a trick question! You should reward both. Associations generally do a good job rewarding novelty. The new member gets the special rate. The first time attendee gets the unique badge ribbon and the exclusive…

Read More →

Is It Time for a Digital Detox?

Over-work and too much stress are pretty much the norm for most association executives. Every day, we’re trying to do a lot for our members, and most associations are perpetually understaffed and tight on budget….

Read More →

Boosting Membership Retention from the Start: Your Members’ First 3 Months

Editorial note: the following is a guest blog from Callie Walker of MemberClicks Does membership retention really begin the second a member joins your association? It should! The better you onboard, the more likely your…

Read More →