Invigorate Revenue

Membership engagement scores are everywhere—in articles, at conferences and even built into our association management systems. As we are able to access more and more data, we seek out new and better ways to use them for understanding member behavior, and member engagement scores stand at the ready, offering us the key to this knowledge. […]

Humans are not very good at imagining the future. Indeed, TIME magazine mused in 1951 that “By the 21st Century our people doubtless will be squint-eyed, hunchbacked and fond of the dark” – a vision which has happily not (yet) been substantiated. When it comes to creating initiatives, making plans, and envisioning projects, we cannot assume that we […]

Stuart Meyer hasn’t worked in an office setting in eight years, including the last two years as CEO of the National Barbecue & Grilling Association. He serves as a virtual CEO of an entirely virtual organization. Since NBBQA changed its business model in 2015, the association has seen lower operating costs, more focus on strategic business […]

Back in 2011, The Lean Startup by Eric Ries took the business world by storm with its vision of a more efficient and productive way of running start-ups. Now, many other industries have taken on the principles of the book to make similar advances in their field. Far from encouraging us to be cheap, the end goal is […]

Your members are on a journey with your association. Some are taking their first steps with you while others have reached the end of the line. Others are prospects and they’re deciding whether to hop on board. Having conversations with your members at various points in their journey can yield valuable insights into member acquisition, engagement […]

Corporate partnership: The term tends to invoke images of budgeting, sponsorship agreements and maintaining effective and productive partner benefits. But as a concept, partnership is more than that. It is about cooperation, shared connection and mutual interests. We can use this original meaning to direct and develop our partnership programs, and make sure we are […]

All associations want to maximize revenue in order to better serve their members. Non-dues revenue channels can be a great opportunity for associations to broaden the range of services they offer and to build relationships with other bodies in their industry. But a deluge of products, conferences and publications aimed at increasing revenue can distract […]

When I started at the National Campus and Community Radio Association, the English not-for-profit network of radio stations with 105 members across Canada, I came from the member-station side. Not having any knowledge of association and membership management, I was learning on the go. But I knew what my station wanted and needed, and I […]

We live in a silo industry. Do you remember the last time you put heads together with someone from a different department to share ideas about an internal pain point? Do you wish you had opportunities to do it more? Often, working together across disciplines generates insight greater than the sum of its parts. This […]

We can learn a lot from listening. When you are looking for guidance, searching for inspiration or hoping to educate yourself, it is a valuable and worthwhile enterprise to listen to the voices in your professional community. The DC-Area Partnership Professionals Network (DC-PPN) is a group of association and not-for-profit organization professionals who focus primarily […]