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Nonprofit Development: Use many approaches to assemble membership puzzle
By June Bradham
Q. I run a nonprofit trade organization here in the Lowcountry and we are just about to start our annual membership drive. Do you have any recommendations on how to attract new members and retain the ones we have?
A. The answers to this question range from the practical to the slightly more cerebral. Different pieces apply to different target audiences but when used effectively, you can draw in new members and solidify the ranks of returning members.
The key to both efforts is to get the word out. This can involve mailers (e-blasts or hard copy invitations to join or rejoin), updates on your Web site or notices in newsletters. You can also rely on your most productive, and cost-efficient, method of spreading the word: encourage your current members to spread the word. People are more likely to join organizations to which their friends and colleagues belong so let your current members be your spokespeople.
How you appeal to your audience is where the level of sophistication splits. As Mason Hardy, executive director of the South Carolina Association of Nonprofit Organizations put it, organizations can appeal to the “tangible” or to the “big idea” to recruit new members.
For those interested in a quick return on their investment, tangibles are a good option. Try offering a discount on registration fees or a premium enticement, such as 50% off training or annual conference registration, to attract new members. Everybody loves a bargain.
Likewise, giving current members a gift or bonus for referring new members is a great way to both keep in touch with your members and meet new ones. Both groups can find tangible value in other perks offered by organizations and associations; these include discounts on office supplies, insurance, publications and training.
The non-tangibles are far more important in the long run, however. First is networking.
Offering members the opportunity to contact like-minded professionals with the same interests and challenges is important in both the for-profit and the nonprofit world and joining a formal group is an excellent way of reaching peers.
The greatest service that trade organizations can provide, though, is a voice. As Mason nicely puts it, “When you join an organization like ours, you will have a representative capable of speaking for you. There is a responsible party at the table. There is a big voice speaking up for each piece and the sector as a whole is strengthened.”
Nonprofit organizations rarely have the benefit of flashy marketing programs to announce membership drives. But if you rely on the free methods you have at hand, including the invaluable current roster of members, to assure people that their investment will be returned many times over in tangible and intellectual payback, your membership drive will be a success.
Q. You’ve written about “supercharged” boards in the past. We are a relatively small nonprofit; does supercharging mean we must recruit bigger guns when we invite people to join our board?
A. Not at all. The nature of the board is defined by the vision of the organization’s future.
Not every board is trying to build a $200 million hospital. Some boards will be thrilled when they are able to replace all the pews in their historic church building.
The first thing you need to decide is where you want to be in two years. Or three, or four.
For some, the road ends with a transformational change. For others, the change envisioned involves much more modest growth.
How powerful your board needs to be is defined by that vision. The bigger the vision, the more powerful the board will have to be.
When we consult with foundations on board construction, we speak in terms of “transactional” vs. “transformational.” When a soup kitchen needs to update its appliances, gifts given to them are transactional; the gifts will enable the soup kitchen to enhance what it has always done, but with newer equipment. The gifts needed have an important but more immediate effect. When a soup kitchen undertakes a major campaign to build a dormitory and classrooms so that people who once only ate at the soup kitchen can now live and learn there, they will need major and therefore transformational gifts.
Nonprofits need both kinds of gifts, of course, but if you are seeking a transactional gift, you don’t really need million dollar gift board members. Remember that a leading indicator of how successful your fundraising effort will be is how much your board members give.
So, if you’re hoping to raise $100,000, there’s no need to recruit board members who are used to giving millions. Although they may believe in your cause, such major donors would feel less challenged or moved by your goal. Again, the fundraising power of your board will be defined by your vision of the future. Only organizations with major plans need board members at the highest level of giving capacity.
June Bradham is the president of Corporate DevelopMint, a full-service fundraising consulting firm with offices in Charleston, Greenville, Blowing Rock, N.C., and Memphis, Tenn. Send questions to cdm@corporatedevelopmint.com.
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