[MUSIC] So let's start with some basics. What is a membership organization? It refers to any organization that allows people to subscribe, and often requires them to pay a membership fee or dues. Membership organizations typically have a particular purpose which involves connecting people together around a particular profession, industry, activity, interest, mission, or geographic location. This might simply be to encourage or facilitate interaction and collaboration, but it also often involves promoting and enhancing the purpose itself. They are often not-for-profit, but there are commercially-run membership organizations, too. They can be small with no formal establishment, like a youth sports club, or a very large national or international organization, like Kiwanis or Rotary. You'll see in this slide that there are a wide range of membership organizations. I have a particular affinity for trade associations because of 12 wonderful years of my career being spent working with chambers of commerce. These are typically not-for-profit organizations, but they're not charitable organizations. Both the chambers I worked with had a 501(c)(6) status rather than a 501 (c)(3) charitable status. Professional organisations that are specific to a field of work, voluntary associations, and clubs are other examples. Political parties fall into this category, too, as do alumni associations. To belong to these organizations, a person or business pays membership dues. These dues could be annual, quarterly, or monthly depending on the organization. The dues help to cover the operating expenses of the organization. As an example, at both of the Chambers of Commerce where I spent my early career, we were dues-based organizations and both relied heavily on the membership dues to cover the costs of keeping our doors open for the businesses and the community. Fundraising events covered the gaps, but the day-to-day operations wouldn't have existed without the paying members. The importance of dues will vary considerably from organization to organization. In general though, dues are used to pay for operational expenses, programs, and services provided by the organization. For some, dues cover the majority of operating expenses. For others, dues may cover only a small percentage of the overhead expenses with various fundraising, grants and other revenues covering the majority. What's good to note here is it's important for you to understand your own organization and where membership renewal and recruitment falls on your priority list. Unlike traditional fundraising, dues-based organizations are basically providing a service for a fee, and those fees cover operational support, programming, and services related to the goals and mission of the organization. Every person or business that pays dues is helping to support the mission. And in turn, they are receiving benefits for that support. Those benefits can be tangible or intangible but they need to be considered a benefit to the member. It's an exchange where the organization benefits and the members gain something by being involved. Fundamentally, the starting point for a membership-driven organization is clarity on your purpose and mission. You need a clear understanding of what you need members for, what's their role, what's their purpose, and why should they care? You also need a clear understanding of what you need to do as an organization to satisfy those members. Like all other areas of annual giving, retention is a priority and you won't be able to retain members if their experience with your organization isn't up to par. In a membership organization there are some basics for managing membership. You need marketing, you need recruiting to acquire new members, and you need good management of the membership benefits to maintain members and grow. Let's talk about the first one, marketing. You need to share your mission, your goals and the benefits of being a part of your organization like any other business or non-profit. Use printed materials and brochures. Create a website that's user friendly, easy to navigate and well-designed. Use email communications and social media. If you have the resource, use direct mail. Memberships are just like another form of annual giving. So use the same tools and channels, email, direct mail, phone and personal contacts. At one of the chambers of commerce I worked with we had a part time retired person on staff whose job was just to call and remind members to renew and to remind members of upcoming events. We would also make personal visits to welcome new businesses and invite them to join. It was a small organization and these examples won't work for everyone. But using all of the resources at your disposal to market your organization and the benefits is the main point. So you know you need to create marketing materials and you have a pretty good idea of what materials you need, the brochures, the website, the Facebook page, etc. But what do you put in there? You need to develop a list of benefits, tangible or intangible, that will make your audience want to be a part of the organization. As I mentioned, the memberships are based on an exchange. The organization benefits and the member gains something in return. You need to look at your organization and analyze what those benefits could be. Is it the directory listing, referrals, or networking opportunities? Is it a mug or T-shirt? Is it the opportunity to volunteer for something that's meaningful to the member? Is it invitations or special communications? Honestly, the scope of benefits is wide and varied, so you need to find what works for your organization. The slide here shows some examples, but the thing to remember is you have to follow through on those benefits. Think about both staff and financial resources when you develop your list. If you don’t have the money or the people to manage your benefits package, then you need to rethink your benefits package. Recruiting new members is what keeps your doors open. Retention is critical, but even if you retain 100% of your members, which is highly unlikely, without new members you can't grow your program. We've talked about marketing efforts, but I want to also talk briefly about the importance of making it easy to join. I've stressed this with the other forms of annual giving, and it's the same here. You can't make it hard for members to join. If it isn't easy, they are far less likely to join. Make your membership applications accessible online and in print. If your dues are higher, offer installments that make sense for you and the member. Look at having a yearly, twice a year, quarterly, or monthly payment option. And make it simple to figure out where to go and how to sign up.
