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Ways to Boost your Membership
Members are the core of not-for-profit organisations. They provide the
financial and human resources needed to perform the work.
A healthy membership leads to a vital organisation, yet even strong
groups need to pay close attention to boosting their membership
numbers. Some of the ways your group can do this are:
- Be relevant to their concerns
- If members have joined your group because of its work, its
stance on an issue or the cause it supports, then stay true to them and
through that stay true to members.
- Have a structure that makes sense
- Make sure you have a constitution, an organisational chart, and
an office culture that allocates responsibility and emphasises teamwork.
- Consult with members
- Where you can, ask members what they want. Surveys and
mail-outs can be handy for this, as can a few random phone calls each
month.
- Appoint a membership co-ordinator
- Choose someone who can not only look after existing members,
but knows the networks well enough to recruit new ones.
- Put memberships on the agenda
- Include membership growth as an agenda item at your group's
board or committee meetings every quarter - about four times a year.
- Set, revise and review targets
- Targets for memberships should be set each year, reviewed
regularly and revised if needed.
- Set a membership "season"
- Set aside a period of time where your group and its volunteers
work extra hard to attract memberships.
- Use the public domain
- Think about the criteria for membership of your organisation,
and then where you would find these people so you can attract them as
new members.
- Provide the right member services
- Strike a balance between encouraging them to do the right thing
for "doing the right thing's sake" and having special offers if
possible.
- Lobby for your cause
- Lobbying for your cause shows you to be an active and vocal
group, means people will be more attracted to become members.
- Use public relations to build
your profile
- Building your group's profile through being in the public eye
will increase your chances of membership growth.
- No joining fees
- Don't discourage potential new members by charging them a
joining fee over and above normal membership fees. Think about giving
them a discount in fact.
- Keep existing members before
recruiting new ones
- Be sure that you know your retention rate from year to
year. If it's less than ninety percent, investigate.
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