Communicate!

Helping you win loyal friends through your communications

Navigation Bar

  • About
  • Services
  • What Clients Say
  • Contact

Fundraising Tuesday: Should Your Nonprofit Have Members?

April 16, 2019 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

Amy Hufford

Amy Hufford

A guest post by Amy Hufford of MembershipWorks

In a time where people spend more time isolated in front of a screen than interacting with other humans, isn’t the idea of membership a more interesting and compelling proposition?

Just about every type of nonprofit can have members. Think about public radio and television stations. You might consider their contributors to be donors, but calling them members adds meaning.

Memberships add value for donors

Some public television and radio stations have made donors feel more like members by holding events.

  • KLRU, Austin’s public television station, has created premium member events such as Downton Abbey watch parties.
  • They also offer member only access to PBS’s Passport product, which is essentially Netflix for public television programming.
  • NPR affiliate KUT has created a leadership circle sustaining membership that offers members special event invitations, tours and the opportunity to meet famous personalities.

But even if a nonprofit does not host in-person gatherings of members, the suggestion of community is psychologically attractive. It’s a benefit to the member!

What’s in it for you: increased revenue, stable budget

There are real financial reasons for your nonprofit to have members. Membership is understood to be something that is renewed on a regular basis, implying more of an ongoing relationship than a donation suggests.

Consider a donor inspired by your mission who wants to donate $50. But what if you presented an ongoing option, such as a $10 per month sustaining membership that is promoted as “the cost of one lunch each month.” That offer will collect $120 over the course of a year (and even more, if the member doesn’t disable their monthly auto-recurring credit card payments the next year).

This is also a win for budgeting, as these types of memberships can help the organization better predict monthly fundraising income.

How to move toward memberships

  • Be sure your donation platform offers membership management software.
    Why do you need specific software to handle memberships? You’ll need the ability to:

      • Automatically bill members on an recurring basis
      • Classify members in different ways to keep track of their involvement
      • Set up multiple past due notices and failed payment reminders in your member CRM, to account for today’s distracted members. (The notices should mention the things that the members will miss out on if they don’t renew!)
  • Check to be sure your payment gateway is set up to accept auto-recurring payments.
    For example, PayPal Pro requires an add on to handle automated member billing. Stripe handles recurring payments by default.
  • Create membership levels or add-ons.
    You may be surprised by the number of people who pick a higher level, given the chance! Consider how you are going to create value for each level of membership. The benefits package should justify the increased cost of higher priced memberships.
  • Promote your new membership levels
    To help them feel special, your current donors and volunteers should be offered the opportunity to join as a member before you promote membership to others.

      • You can even offer a discount code to encourage them to join.
      • Spread the word about memberships on your website, enewsletter and social media.
      • Consider holding an event to either kickoff your membership drive or to reward those who join by a certain date.

The magic of membership

magicHere’s a success story that might encourage you to invite donors to become members.

One neighborhood association had a PayPal button for dues payments on their website, but no one was automatically reminded to renew. The association was running out of money. After they set up membership software with automatic recurring credit card payments, the association quickly doubled its renewal rate.

The board of directors were also shocked to see that many members opted to make significant additional recurring donations beyond their dues payment. These donations made it possible for the group to prevent commercial development from negatively impacting the neighborhood. Making the shift from single donations to membership payments with add-ons possibly saved the association from extinction.

More ways to create value for members

We’ve already talked about member events, but some donors may not enjoy the crowds. They may want another way to feel like they belong. Here are six ways you can give them that happy feeling.

  1. Member only content – Your membership plugin can help you restrict content to pages that only members have access to. For instance: create a list of businesses that offer discounts to your members–and only members get to see the list.
  2. Member directory – Offer your business members the chance to be listed in a member directory that is promoted to non-business members or available to the public on your website.
  3. Member event discounts – Tying your events calendar to your membership database through your membership software will allow you to offer special ticket prices just for members.
  4. Early event registration – Many event registration systems will allow you to have a private event page that isn’t listed on your main calendar until you activate it. Use this private link within an email message to your members. Tell them that registration is only open to them until a certain date when it becomes available to the general public.
  5. Member only emails or data – MLS systems and Realtor associations often send out or make available valuable statistics about market trends to their members. Consider if you have data that would be attractive for your members to receive regularly. If you don’t have stats to share, consider conducting a survey of members or those you serve, so that you do have information to share. Or perhaps there is a thought leader in your space who would be willing to write a guest blog post or newsletter column that is only available for your members?
  6. Member only listserves or social media groups – Popular platforms for groups include LinkedIn and Facebook. Trade associations have used listserves to share information between members about job openings and best practices. But first consider:
    • What type of information will be meaningful to share among members in this group? Will it support your mission or feel like a stretch in terms of relating to your nonprofit’s goals?
    • Are you on a solid footing with your members and donors before starting a group? (It could unintentionally become a platform for members to complain about you.)
    • How much staff time will be spent moderating such a group?

Do you have other ideas about creating value for your members or reasons to offer memberships? Let us know in the comments.


Amy Hufford is a Technologist at MembershipWorks. She has worked in membership technology for more than 20 years and has experience building membership websites with a variety of membership software platforms.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email
  • Pocket
  • WhatsApp
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Print

Fundraising Tuesday: Listen First, Ask Later

August 2, 2016 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

bait and switchHave you ever joined a professional organization because of the opportunities it offered–and then find out your first opportunity was to be asked for more money?

This is exactly what happened to my wife, Rona. She didn’t like being treated that way…and neither do people who want to know more about your nonprofit.

Nice to Meet You. Please Give Now!

Rona joined the “Local First” organization in the city where her real estate office is based. Let’s be fair: the Shop Local First movement does many good things for the community and the environment.

For her membership dues, though, Rona was promised tangible benefits like business improvement seminars, inclusion in a local business directory, marketing opportunities, and advisories about local policy changes that might affect her business.

She was not promised that local charities would call her for money–before she got any of the benefits of membership!

Yet within a week, she got several calls asking for $100 or more. Here’s how one of those nonprofits followed up that fundraising phone call by email:

Dear Rona,

Following up on our brief conversation this morning, please see the attached e-packet about the “100 by 100” [city name] Business Community Scholarship Fund.  The “100 by 100” is a way for 4Buyers Real Estate to be engaged with the community, receive some recognition as a business that cares about the betterment of [the city], and support the students and faculty of the city’s only public high school….

It wasn’t the Local First group asking Rona for more money a week after she’d paid her membership dues. It was a nonprofit with access to their membership list. But how do you think Rona felt about her decision to join when, before she even received a membership card, she received a solicitation?

What to Do When a Person Gives You Contact Info

We are deluged these days with phone calls and emails. Go on vacation, come back, and check your voicemail and email. You’ll see what I mean.

When a person asks for more information about your nonprofit and gives you a phone number or an email address, she is taking a big step, like Rona did when she joined the Local First organization. That person is trusting you to use her contact information the way she agreed to have it used. You must show her she put her trust in the right place.

If she asked for more information, give her more information. If she signed up to attend an event, make sure she’s invited.

You can also start building a relationship by asking her more about her interests…and listening to and making a note of the answers.

What you can’t do is turn around and ask her for money right away.

Don’t Play the Numbers Game

playing the numbers Now wait, you say. I receive multiple “asks” from many well-known national organizations–even some I’ve never given to before.

They must know what they’re doing! Why shouldn’t my community-based organization do the same?

You can certainly do that…IF:

  • You have a huge mailing list. The national organizations are playing a numbers game. They’re calculating that if even 2% of the people they’re mailing to will donate, they’ll make a lot of money. If you have a list of 1,000 names, though, and only 20 of them donate, you may not even make back the cost of doing the mailing.
  • You’re willing to see those donors make a one-time gift and then walk away. Fewer than 30% of donors who gave to an organization for the first time in 2014 gave again in 2015. You may get a few donations by asking right away. You’ll get a lot more, over a lot more years, by creating loyal donors.

At Communicate! Consulting, we specialize in helping you make loyal friends. For a free 15-minute consultation, email [email protected]

 

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email
  • Pocket
  • WhatsApp
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Print

Yes, I’d like weekly email from Communicate!

Get more advice

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Copyright © 2023 · The 411 Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in