Associations and Non-Dues Revenue

This is the first in a short video series looking at marketing and promotion topics –  particularly for programs that will support the growth of professional associations.

The presentation below looks at the importance of non-dues revenue programs such as job boards, awards programs and online supplier directories to give professional associations a steady alternate revenue stream.

Two Minutes Teaching – Professional Associations and Non-Dues Revenue

In the past few years many professional associations have begun to face a crisis. They come in to this with a 10-year track record, in most cases, of a slow decline and an erosion of the membership. That came to a head two years ago when the recession hit. It was not uncommon for professional associations to see declines of 20% to 25% in membership in one year.

One of the things that many associations need to focus on at this point is non-dues revenue. I know what you’re thinking. That sounds insane. We just had a 20% decline in membership. We need to focus on our core. We need to focus on getting the membership up. We need to focus on getting the events back up. That’s correct, you do need to focus on both of those things.

However focusing on both of those things is going to have to include experimenting and trying new ideas. I know you have ideas. You just can’t try them yet because you’re too dependent on getting enough people in the door for the event to be profitable.

This is not a situation where we want to go back to normal. If you remember, normal is that slow decline and erosion in membership that we’ve been seeing all that time.

New ideas are a tough sell. I understand that.

You talk about a new idea you have for how to market to the members and you say we’re going to try this: Set aside a control group and we’re going to talk to them in a different way and see if it affects the membership. Give me 5% of the members and I’ll market to them in a different way.

That may have been something that would fly a few years ago. Coming off a 20% to 25% drop in membership, taking another 5% for an experiment? That is terrifying.

Non-dues revenue gives you the breathing room to experiment with new ideas. Associations still have an amazing capacity to contribute to their professions. They’re not going to be replaced by blogs. They’re not going to be replaced by social media.

We need to come up with new ideas and new techniques to connect with those members.

Non-dues revenue streams – whether we’re talking about job boards, online directories or awards programs – provide that additional revenue so you can try those new ideas.

Some of those ideas won’t work. That’s okay. the revenue has been replaced in some other way.

Thank you.