14 Key Elements to a Successful
There's no doubt that there's one question that every nonprofit is faced with. "How do we keep our members happy? "
There are, of course, a a bunch of related questions. Questions like:
- How do we get new members to join?
- What can we do to provide value to the members we're able to offer?
- How can we charge members enough to maintain the lights on?
If you're involved in leading an organization, you're aware of these questions all too well. If you think you've mastered them, or whether you're playing whack-a-mole over each and every membership issue which arises, it's important to keep your members content.
In reality, there are clear and well-known elements of a successful nonprofit membership program. All the successful organizations perform the same activities, but those struggling aren't doing these essentials.
In this post, we'll talk about fourteen things that create excellent membership programs for nonprofits. Most of these don't require much effort, and you can implement them today. However, you must be sure to do them correctly and watch as your membership increases and flourishes.
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In this post...
5. An immersive new member experience
12. Easy membership management
13. Members who are not present
14. Making progress and adapting
1. Big Purpose
One of the most common mistakes many nonprofit organizations make is to forget who they're to serve. This is especially the case if you are compassion driven. There are so many challenges in the world, and you may find yourself compelled to tackle them all, or do too much.
This is why successful member programs serve a big purpose. Their leaders know exactly what the program is about as well as the Ideal Members - which we'll talk about next.
When we design membership communities, we like to put together an overall statement of purpose. It helps you to remember your identity and what it is that you provide your members.
It appears as follows:
If you are able to establish an explicit Big Purpose that is the driving force behind your business It will allow you to remove certain noise.
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2. Ideal Members
The next mistake some organisations that are members make is to think that they are looking for everyone as members. It's tempting to let anybody that has the desire to join or join, particularly when you're hurting to gain the privilege of membership.
But this is actually dangerous. Diluting your members will split the focus of your group, giving an even greater number of people who are angry because they were never focused on one common aspect in the first place.
Your organization could grow by simply saying "no" to some types or members.
The best method to achieve this is to find the ideal member. This is the exact person who can benefit from the community you have created.
When you are trying to determine who this person is Do not just focus on the demographics. Consider the hopes and desires of this person or where they are from, and what obstacles they face.
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3. Build communities
We're convinced that there's a fantastic membership program. However, there's a good reason to carry out the work that we do here at . We believe that technology, used well, can enhance our ability to be happy people. The thing humans have always done is to create communities.
Community of members are places in which people can gain value just for being present. You can combine all the good stuff you provide your members, in the knowledge that they'll get an extra sense of belonging also.
One of the things we find in on-line communities is that they have people who come for a perk however they stay to meet friends.
An incredible membership community created by the most efficient membership software will mean that it is not necessary to manage all member engagement. In fact, when you establish the foundation and connect people they will assist to serve one another! You get to spend less moment worrying about whether you are offering your members something of value and instead focus on performing the other things you want to do.
4. Select the best technology
As a follow-up to HTML0, one of the most valuable partners you will have in building an online community will be the tech partner: robust membership software designed for non-profit organizations. .
A reliable non-profit membership management solution will give you options to invite members, offer memberships to people, track who's in and who's left and analyze analytics to see what's working.
And what we've created with is an extremely powerful and all-in-one community platform that brings together membership forums, messaging live events, classes, and subgroups, all under the brand of your choice. It is possible to create your own totally branded app If you'd like. We can do it too.
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5. An immersive new member experience
What's the most significant part of your membership experience? This could be the first few hours, days and weeks.
One of the hardest things in growing your community is shifting new members from being passive observers to engaged people in your community. The passive observer will leave. Community members who are engaged usually do not.
So, your goal is to keep your members interested. And one of the best ways to do this is with an exciting and well-organized user experience for new members. This is basically a way of customizing your new members' entrance into your community of members, by providing lots of prompts, questions and ways to interact. This has even been incorporated to create a checklist for the new members to go through and that you are able to customize.
We also have training for new members to experience, which is completely free, in the Mighty Community.
6. A transformation
We touched on this above by using the Big Purpose statement. But when you are trying to figure out the components of a membership program that will be successful, think change. Many organizations believe that serving their numbers means email dumps that contain information brochures, handouts or reports and everything else that they might create.
But actually, one of the best ways to give benefits to your customers is by helping them change. Think about a transformation you could help your members through. Imagine where they will be a year from now because they bought an account or the time in your company.
Do they have a better chance of performing their job? Lead happier lives? Do you have a new skill, or have learned something they value?
Don't provide the information required, instead, you must provide the transformation.
7. A solid marketing strategy
Most membership organizations need some sort of marketing strategy. You don't need to be overthinking this. We talked about some of the basic concepts previously. If you know the ideal members of your organization and the Big Purpose of your organization, you're halfway there. Now you know precisely what your members want.
The marketing portion of the equation is about showing your potential members that your organization is the right place for them to belong.
There are lots of different ways to acquire members. There are some organizations that love webinars and an opportunity to sell ads and build funnels, others hold live events, while others rely on word-of-mouth advertising from their current members. None of these things are wrong. What matters is, how do you feel most confident in reaching out to prospective members? Try that first!
Discover what's working best for you, and then stick with it. Often, it's better to test one or two membership acquisition channels and focus on doing them properly rather than trying to master all of them.
8. Regular touchpoints
Your members need to be able to hear from your company. Maybe not daily however enough so that they remember that you're here and feel like they are part of your organization. It's among reasons that we discussed community above. Nothing is better than an environment that helps individuals feel more connected and involved.
Plan different ways to have regular contact points with your members. It might mean you send an annual newsletter or an email blast every week or monthly. You might hold a monthly meeting, social gathering, or even happy hour. Whatever it is you decide to organize according to your preferences be sure to stay constant. A successful membership program isn't constructed in a few days or weeks. It's developed over months and years of consistently being present and learning to serve your members.
9. Live events
Live events, whether they are virtual or IRL are often the highlight of a lot of nonprofit membership programs. Getting together with like-minded people is always beneficial.
Therefore, whether you decide to hold a annual conference or live stream on a regular basis try to convey the excitement and energy from live-streamed events your attendees. It will result in a massive improvement in the way people know each other as well as the sense of connection that they have to your community.
10. Try quests
In the past year, we've seen some amazing participation in the so-called quests. The term "quest" refers to the time when your membership goes to a place of change in a group. The journey is spread out over a length of time, and with a lot of points of contact and assistance, and a clear final goal, they can be a fantastic way to help nonprofit membership programs provide their members with the best service possible.
We think about quests as four different things:
11. Offer a course
Whatever your non-profit is doing, there's a good chance part of your mandate is educating individuals. From poverty reduction, to the fight against racism to local chambers of commerce to religious associations, all nonprofits have something to teach. (Yeah we're aware that we have mentioned classes under questions. Stay with us for a while. ...)
If this is the case to your non-profit, you should consider offering a course. It is possible to host it nothing, but make it a member benefit. Or, you can offer it for sale and assist in sustaining your costs. It's up to you. Do not forget that if you wish to, you can record it prior to recording it. A group-based training course can be a fantastic method to get people involved, and allows your participants to have questions and gain knowledge in real-time.
12. Membership management is simple and easy.
One of the surprising ways to lose members when you run a non-profit organization is that they disappear. They don't plan to go away. It's not because they're unhappy and decide to decide to leave. Many times, life gets busy and people just forget.
A way to ensure that you keep your customers around for the long haul, on the technical side it is to ensure that the management of membership is simple for members to manage their membership. If they are required to make a manual registration every year, for example it is likely that they will not make that step. Facilitate member management with self-serve options and lots of help if they need assistance.
13. Members who are not present
It's normal to get caught up in life sometimes, and often making the effort to check in on members you haven't heard from in a while is a great way to stay connected. Inquiring about people's status reminds the person that they're important and part of the community.
You can also use your statistics on your membership software to see who's not logging on as well as who's. This can make it easier to track.
14. Making progress and learning
The last thing to do is be persistent in learning and adapting. Making a great nonprofit membership program isn't something that can be done in a single day. If it were, many non-profits would thrive. But if you've taken an inventory of nonprofits there, you'll see that a number of them are in trouble.
One of the things that hinders many non-profit organizations is the curse of feeling the pressure to conduct things the way they've been for years.
Avoid this fall. The best way to run a successful nonprofit with membership will be to keep on improving and learning. Find out what is working. Let the ones that don't perform in the dust. Don't be scared to try new things.
Are you ready to get started?
It is our hope that going through these aspects of a well-run membership program has encouraged you. Although it's not easy, thriving membership organizations are amazing things to be operating and managing. That's why it's worthwhile to work it out.
If you're looking for software to host your own non-profit membership program Try it ! It's an all-in-one, powerful community management software designed to aid you in building and launching your own community that is flourishing. With comprehensive membership features, built-in forum, a course platform and messaging system, live streaming, native events and much more, it's the perfect platform to create.
We also build totally custom white-label applications using Mighty Pro. If you'd like to create your own membership app in the Google Play or Apple store, schedule a call with us! Otherwise, you can try without cost for 14 days. no credit card required.
Ready to grow the membership of your non-profit