IMembership Recruitment and Retention[1]
Recommendations for Membership Committees
- Don’t focus entirely on recruitment or retention. Consider both for a steady rate of growth. Monitor these statistics monthly so you can stay aware of your component’s needs and goals.
- Maintainmonthly membership statistics and then analyze these figures to pinpoint trends. The trends will guide retention or recruitment efforts for the upcoming year. The annual calendar will establish direction for the membership program and will provide a baseline for evaluating strategies and for future planning.
Establishing Membership Goals
In order to establish membership goals for the next year; identify the growth/loss rate for the past 2 years and the current renewal rate. This rate will indicate membership trends and fluctuations and will provide a basis for setting realistic goals. Specific and measurable objectives should be established for each goal.
Recruiting New Members
The first step of successful member recruitment is publicity. You must make prospective members aware of your organization.
Direct Mail
Direct mail, one of the most effective forms of promotion, includes sending reader-friendly letters, emails, brochures, newsletters, and other printed materials to targeted audiences. It is imperative to check the accuracy of the mailing lists.
Newsletters
Current members should contribute regularly to the organization newsletter; encourage them to submit articles and information. Newsletters are an excellent medium for highlighting membership activities and the value of membership. A newsletter is one of the most visible benefits of membership, and can be used as an integral part of the organization’s retention program.
Personal Contact
Nothing can compare to a satisfied member relaying the benefits of belonging to a prospective member. Provide an easy way for current members to inform their friends about your organization. An email form with a brief description of the organization and its Internet URL will yield significantly higher click-through rates when a friend’s name is in the return address.
Motivating Prospective Members to Join
In order to convince prospective members to join your organization, you must demonstrate that your goals are consistent with their own. To do this, listen to their questions and concerns, identify needs, and tailor responses appropriately. Discuss the benefits of membership; explain what they can expect to gain (e.g.: community, education, skill) as a result of membership in your organization.
Use testimonials from members to illustrate how membership can benefit them. Highlight these same benefits in your membership materials.
Benefits[2]
Identify your target membership. What items and services are likely to interest them? Allow them to experience aspects of your organization free of charge while emphasizing the benefits that a membership will bring. Present new members with some of the following:
- Print newsletter and electronic news bulletins
- Special privileges–these can include access to certain “members-only” areas of your web site, or inclusion in offline meetings, events or classes.
- Discounts and services available from affiliated corporations.
Retaining Your Members
A successful membership development program must include strategies for retaining current members (those who renew their memberships year after year). People renew memberships for the same reasons that they join, with one difference–current members will consider their own personal experience within the organization. To retain current members, you must identify and meet member expectations. Recognizing that membership renewal depends on member satisfaction can help to establish priorities for your membership development strategies.
Meeting Needs and Fulfilling Expectations
While planning strategies for your membership retention program, keep member expectations in mind.A member survey can be an effective step in establishing a direction for activities that will retain members.
Interacting with the New Members
New members require a great deal of attention. To keep these members, focus on contact, participation, and communication. Welcome new members to your organization, familiarize them with the diverse benefits which accompany their new membership, and thank them for joining. Ideally, members should have at least monthly contact from the organization–electronic or print newsletters are a way to maintain communication and keep members informed and educated. Give members a sense of belonging; members who are actively involved will be less likely to allow their membership to lapse.
Recognizing Members
Show your members and volunteers that they’re appreciated. Members who achieve personal goals, contribute time and talent to your organization, or perform outstanding services deserve to be recognized for their accomplishments.Consider dedicating a section of your newsletter or web site to recognizing the efforts of your members.
Get 'Em & Keep 'Em: 15 Surefire Strategies to Build Membership[3]
Ginger Nichols, CAE
The following broad strategies are applicable to most any association; adapt them to your culture and resources.
Strategy #1: Understand Change
Look at the macro changes in the environmental, but also consider how the expectations of your members are increasing, where your future competition may be emerging and the impact of generational issues.
Strategy #2: Build Value
To build value you must increase the benefit to the member or decrease the cost (which includes time and travel).
Strategy #3: Learn Why They Join
Ask your new members about the most important reasons behind their decision to join and find out what motivated them to join when they did.
Strategy #4: Start Them Off Right
Give them to tools and information they need to take full advantage of their membership, help them get involved in activities that interest them and don’t forget to make them feel special.
Strategy #5: Change Your View
Review your internal procedures from the member’s perspective.
Strategy #6: Listen to Members
Use both regular formal research and ongoing informal information gathering to understand your members’ needs and priorities.
Strategy #7: Anticipate Their Needs
Associations have a responsibility to lead their members, not just provide for today’s needs. This means you have to stay ahead of the curve, understand the industry or profession intimately and constantly scan the external environment
Strategy #8: Use Segmentation
Different members have different needs. Use your database to help you target your services and programs most productively.
Strategy #9: Plan for Success
Develop and use a written membership plan.
Strategy #10: Select Your Strategy
Look at the panoply of membership strategies and match the strategy to your target audience and your resources.
Strategy #11: Trade on Credibility
Seek out testimonials from your members and use them in your recruitment activities.
Strategy #12: Refine Your Message
Be sure that you are stressing benefits to the member, not just features of your program or product.
Strategy #13: Don’t Give Up
You have to keep repeating the message.
Strategy #14: Do What Counts
You have to track and evaluate the cost/benefit of every membership development activity. Build on those that are effective, discontinue the ones that are not.
Strategy #15: Set SMART Goals
Smart goals are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic reach and time-specific.
IIDeveloping a Campaign[4]
Identify the Purpose, and Establish Goals
The purpose of a campaign should be specific and clearly stated, because it provides direction for the program and identifies a specific target group. Goals should be based on the annual membership goals, and should be realistic and measurable.
Develop a Schedule
The schedule must adequately cover the amount of time required to plan, implement, and evaluate the campaign. Include specific dates and deadlines for each activity. This schedule also will provide an overview of the entire campaign and serve as a guideline to the campaign chairperson.
Prepare a Budget
In your budget, include all expenses that will be incurred as a result of the campaign. Consider the costs of printing, postage, telephone calls, exhibit fees, mailhouse fees, committee expenses, and prize expenses.
Prepare and Implement Your Campaign
Preparation is the longest phase of the campaign, because it is when you work out all the details. Implementation occurs when your planning and preparation culminate and the campaign is launched.
Monitor Your Progress
Monitoring the campaign is an important part of the program because it will allow you to evaluate the campaign. Be sure to document the campaign’s progress. Documentation will vary depending on the campaign; it may be as simple as recording the date and the number of responses.
Closing Your Campaign
Closing the campaign involves a variety of tasks, including retaining the prospect list to compare with new member lists; retaining nonrenewal lists to compare with the roster of renewals; collecting and recording the results; awarding prizes; following up on questions; publicizing results, highlights, or recognition; and filing sample copies for future reference.
Evaluating the Campaign
At the conclusion of the campaign, perform an evaluation. Were your goals met? Did the campaign run smoothly? The evaluation process will identify strengths and weaknesses of the campaign, and the results will serve as a basis for continued membership development activity. Overall, a membership campaign should be more than just hard work; it should also be a fun and rewarding experience for those who participated.
IIIDonor Cultivation[5]
An organization’s ability to achieve high voluntary support goals depends in large measure on its ability to design and to implement an ongoing major gift program. The best development programs focus on building close relationships with those few prospects whose generosity can empower an organization.
Donor Pool
Major gifts differ dramatically in size from one organization to another. But for each organization the definition of a major gift prospect should be the same: a person in the top 10 percent of the organization’s constituency in terms of potential to give. There are two key points to remember about the prospects who make up this top 10 percent.
- They are responsible for an increasingly larger percentage of the total raised. At many organizations, 95 percent of total voluntary support currently comes from only 5 percent of the donors.
- They are courted by an increasingly larger number of other causes. The number of U.S. nonprofit institutions seeking charitable support has doubled during the past decade and it is continuing to rise.
The top 10 percent of an independent organization’s donor pool is a precious resource to be researched with skill and handled with care. It is imperative that organization heads develop meaningful relationships with these potential donors, face to face and one by one.
Obviously, the more highly a person thinks of your group, the more she will be willing to do for your group. A person thinks highly of a group for one or both of two reasons:
- The person understands the work of your group and sees it as successful, important and well planned, and perceives that you spend money (her money) wisely
- The person feels appreciated by your group, believes that her gift makes a difference, that she is noticed individually and cared about individually.
Both of these perceptions of your group build loyalty, but the two combined build the most loyalty. Here’s a fundamental fund-raising truth: Major gifts reflect the depth of the donor’s commitment rather than the magnitude of the institution’s needs. No matter how excellent a organization, how worthy its plans, or how pressing its needs, it will not receive major gifts unless the major gift prospects are informed and involved, and until they feel needed and committed.
When to Cultivate
Cultivation usually begins after a gift has been made. It is rare for organizations to “cultivate” an unresponsive prospective donor for years and finally receive millions of dollars. Grassroots organizations in particular cannot expend this amount of effort on potential donors. Just as in sales, you want to attract new customers, but most of your energy should go into keeping customers you already have. Your greatest energy should go toward those customers who buy the most frequently, and who buy the most.
Sort your donor list into three categories: most frequent giving, most recent giving, and size of gift. Your highest priority for cultivation will be people who are in all three categories: those who give large gifts often and who have given recently. The next-highest priority will be people who give large gifts frequently, even if their last gift is not very recent. Third priority will be people who give large gifts anytime, and last will be people who give frequently.
Cultivation Techniques
Every donor should receive a thank-you note for every gift, which is the minimum cultivation effort required. All donors may also receive a newsletter. Those donors who do more–either by size of gift or by frequency of giving–should be given a little more attention. How much more will depend on how much you know about them and how many of them you have.
Here are some possible cultivation techniques:
Receptions for donors
A group in New Mexico has successfully completed a campaign to have childcare offered at the workplace of a local corporation. They have been working on this campaign for three years. They plan a celebratory reception where one of the main organizers will give a short talk, to which they will invite the following categories of donors: anyone who was a donor at the time the campaign started, all the donors who gave specifically to this campaign, and all current donors who give annual unrestricted gifts of $250 or more.
The reception venue holds about 50 people. The organization decorates the room with a timeline showing the progress of the campaign, highlighted by newspaper articles and pictures about the campaign, so people can relive the success. More than 60 people actually come to the celebration, and it gives the staff and board members a chance to meet other donors. There is no additional request for money–this is simply a time to say thank you and celebrate.
Sending articles and information
When donors send money in response to a specific appeal, or give you other reason to believe them interested in one particular issue, make a note of that in their donor information file. As newspaper articles come out or reports are published, send copies of these to the donors who will be interested with a brief note saying, “Thought you might enjoy this.” Or “As per our conversation, here is the report I told you about,” or whatever happens to be appropriate.
Offer to visit
The most effective cultivation technique is meeting a donor in person. Mostly, these will be times when you want to ask for a larger gift, but occasionally, you should meet with a donor for other reasons. Get advice from the donor, tell him about what is happening in your organization, or simply drop off an Annual Report or a premium such as a mug or a T-shirt. These visits can last five minutes or an hour–just taking the time to show that you are interested in knowing more about the person will be effective.
Cultivating Today’s Donors
Cultivation of modern donors often calls for a fresh approach geared to the prospect’s youth, technical and financial savvy, and style. The high tech donor wants less entertaining and recognition, and more education. These new philanthropists view their gifts as investments and they want to know about the nature and quality of the return.
It is wise to send these donors regular and frequent updates. Information sent by e-mail should be concise, clear, and comprehensive. It should offer access to the organization’s long-range plan, the audit report, the campaign budget, and the endowment spending plan. Every organization courting the dot-com donor should have an appealing web site that markets the organization’s mission and includes a current institutional case for support.
The goal of major donor cultivation is to turn a prospect from an outsider to an insider. An outsider may be informed about a campaign; an insider feels responsible for its success. Candid sensitive cultivation is an important prerequisite to solicitation success. Without effective cultivation, the prospect will know less, care less, and give less.
Cultivation: What It Is, and What It Is Not
By Kim Klein
In a number of my recent fundraising workshops, I have asked participants to give me a definition of cultivation. Here are the five worst and five best descriptions people have offered.
Worst
1.Cultivation is where you act like you like the donor, whether you do or not, so they will give you more money.