End the One-Size-Fits-All Membership

The annual membership fee and benefits model has gone relatively unchanged for many organizations, which presents strategic opportunities for forward-thinking chambers and associations.

It’s Time to Eliminate the Annual “Renewal Event.”

For many chambers and associations, memberships are structured as an annual investment with a defined renewal date. Many processes and staff hours are focused on this event – sending out renewal notices, following up to secure the renewal, annual discussions to prove value, and other tedious tasks. There is comfort in this model, as large annual dues payments flow to the income statement.

Meanwhile, the recurring subscription model has become commonplace with the software your members use, the content they stream, the health clubs they attend, the utilities they consume. Your members have become accustomed to subscriptions that are paid for monthly or annually and automatically renew, so why not implement it at your organization?

For many members, a lower monthly payment option may be preferred, particularly if their cashflow has large peaks and valleys, while other members may prefer an automatically renewing annual subscription. Either way, providing members with payment options and removing the annual “renewal event” will increase retention and save you time, time that can be spent directly serving your members.

Rethink the Value of Membership Benefits.

Recent world events have given us all a time to reflect.

How can you provide the services that matter most to each of your members?
How can you differentiate between what one member values versus another?
How can you financially and logistically plan to deliver on the benefits members want?

In Race for Relevance – 5 Radical Changes for Associations, authors Harrison Coerver and Mary Byers note that the often-cited woe that members don’t have time to participate in association initiatives is really “an indictment of the value of the proposed activity or project.”

Your organization could spend countless hours trying to define membership programs and set packages, yet, as Coerver and Byers state, “Unused services have no value. Unneeded programs have no value.”

Provide your members with benefits they find meaningful, help them perform better, are fun, or support a cause of importance.