Planning your Membership Campaign: MASAE 2014
Download as PPTX, PDF2 likes551 views
This document summarizes a presentation about planning a membership campaign using fundraising fundamentals. It discusses understanding donor motivations through the WIIFM principle, segmenting donors into a pyramid and pipeline model, developing a strong case for support tailored to each donor type, and engaging donors through a year-long communication timeline. The presentation emphasizes starting with member data analysis, setting renewal and acquisition goals in the budget, and clearly communicating member benefits to focus on donor value.
Planning your Membership Campaign: MASAE 2014
- 1. Planning Your Membership Campaign Using Fundraising Fundamentals Presentation by Jessica Keenan Smith
- 2. My Background ◦ 20+ Years in non-profit marketing ◦ Veteran of the Wharton External Affairs Department throughout the Penn Making History Campaign ◦ Founded online resource, LivingWellWithEpilepsy.com ◦ Currently acting as Director, Education and Member Svc. for American Neurological Association
- 4. What to Expect Learn about commonly used fundraising tools: ◦WIIFM Principle ◦The fundraising life-cycle ◦Donor pyramid ◦Donor pipeline And how they can make or break your membership marketing.
- 6. Fundraising vs Membership RESONATE: ◦ Who is your audience and what is most important to them (not you)? ◦ Is your content relevant and interesting? EDUCATE: ◦ What key metrics does your audience need/want information on? ◦ Can you show measurable results—show how their support/ affected results? ENGAGE & MOBILIZE: ◦ Determine how your audience wants to communicate ◦ Make it easy for them to act ◦ Bear in mind environmental/community factors
- 7. The WIIFM
- 8. The WIIFM The basic principle of What’s In It For Me is inherent to both membership and fundraising. ◦ Today’s consumer is focused on ‘Me, Myself and I’ How to differentiate your association. ◦ Elements of a great experience: 1. what customers see 2. what customers hear 3. what they smell 4. what they touch 5. how they are physically affected
- 9. The Cycle
- 10. Donor Life Cycle
- 11. Fundraising Basics Target the right prospects: ◦ Focused on renewals from the year before as our primary target market Develop a strong case: ◦ Worked with board members and committee leadership to clarify the needs of the membership Custom approach: ◦ Rather than mail hard copy invoices, we emailed the members directly and encouraged them to call if they preferred a hard invoice. Engage the right people: ◦ We interacted with the members directly and engaged messaging from the president wherever possible. Ask: ◦ When necessary we encouraged board members to remind peers to renew Keep donors engaged
- 12. Fundraising vs Membership Target Prospects Develop strong case Custom approach Engage the right people Ask Keep donors engaged Say thanks Fundraising Target Audience Tailor Messaging Custom approach Determine Recruitment Method Ask Keep members engaged Say Thanks Membership
- 13. The Pyramid
- 17. Member Types vs Donor Types MEMBER TYPES Board Members Senior Fellows Fellows Members Corresponding Members Corresponding Fellows Academic Neurology Faculty Honorary Members DONOR TYPES Board Members Major donors Alumni Family of alumni Prospective donors Faculty and staff Honorary degree holders
- 18. The Pyramid
- 19. The Pipeline Tier # of Members Needed Membership Type/Description Membership Fee Prospects Cumulative $ Amount Description 1 100Members - PhD $150 400 $15,000 Untapped resource data to be built 1 100 Fellow $390 400 $39,000 Continue to build through Liaisons 1 200Members - Assistant Professor $150 800 $30,000 1500 Residents in Database 2 100Members Renewal $150 400 $15,000 Database Renewals 2 400 Fellow Renewal $390 1600 $156,000 Database Renewals 2 50 Corresponding Fellow Renewal $315 200 $15,750 Database Renewals 2 50 Corresponding Member Renewal $150 200 $7,500 Database Renewals 3 100 LYBUNT Fellows $390 400 $39,000 Last year but not this year 3 100 SYBUNT Fellows $390 400 $39,000 Some year but not this year 4 10 Corresponding Fellow $315 40 $3,150 New Corresponding 4 10 Corresponding Member $150 40 $1,500 New Corresponding 1220 $360,900
- 20. The Case
- 21. The Timeline In previous years, the association had leaned heavily on paper invoicing and had begun the process in January. In 2013 we began the membership renewal process in November and leaned heavily on email correspondence. I reviewed the full universe of members and segmented it into a reasonable pipeline/pyramid We continued to message and pivot as needed throughout the year
- 22. The Results
- 23. The Results
- 24. Why it works ◦ Maintain the long term view ◦ Attend to short term goals ◦ You can actually measure ROI ◦ Retaining current donors saves money and builds reputation ◦ Acquiring new donors is more costly
- 25. How you can start
- 26. Start with Data Who are your members? ◦ Age ◦ Gender ◦ Location ◦ Interest ◦ Length of time in the association ◦ Level of seniority
- 27. More Data Who are your LYBUNTS? ◦ Last Year But Not This year Who are your SYBUNTS? ◦ Some Year But Not This year Are renewals easier or more difficult than recruiting new members?
- 28. Even More Data Who are your Non-member Prospects? ◦ Is your prospect pool big enough ◦ Do you need to think outside the box to recruit new members? How many members did you have last year? What % increase or decrease have you seen in membership?
- 29. Now the Budget
- 30. Then look at the budget How much did you earn in membership dues last year? What about the year before? Do you need to increase projections to pay for other programming? How much did you bring in from each member type? Are those numbers high enough? Could they be higher?
- 31. Build your pipeline Are there prospects you haven’t considered? Is your association open to new membership categories? How can you engage current members to bring in new members?
- 32. Layout a timeline Take a look at your communication timeline from start to finish Plan out your membership communications (including email). Make sure you are making the most of member benefits ◦ Open and close of abstract deadlines ◦ Award deadlines ◦ Annual meeting registration
- 33. Don’t Forget Don’t lose sight of the WIIFM principle Associations live and die by membership calendars. But our members don’t think about the membership cycle at all. Nor should they have to. It is our responsibility to remind them why they should renew or join.
- 34. Questions
- 35. Thank You Jessica Keenan Smith twitter.com/jessicaksmith Linkedin.com/in/jessicaksmith/ livingwellwithepilepsy.com myana.org
Editor's Notes
- #2: Good morning, My name is Jessica Keenan Smith. So let me just thank you for getting up early to talk about data. I promise to try to make it worth your while. We are going to talk about using fundraising fundamentals To map your membership campaign Before I get started, I want to point out that this image here It is of the brain from the human connectome project. A consortium using data to map neural connectivity. The geek in me thought it was the perfect image to speak to mapping connections. I also want to let you know There may be info in this presentation you want to use to plan your own membership campaign So you can download the slides They are available at bit.ly/membershipcampaign
- #3: So, let me give you a little backstory I am the Director of Education and Member Services for the American Neurological Association Which is managed by Association Headquarters My members are neuro researchers (hence the geeky image) I have more than 20 years in non-profit marketing I’m a veteran of the Wharton External Affairs Department I founded my own online resource for people living with epilepsy And I love data.
- #4: Using the tools we will talk about today, I took our retention rate from 83% to 100% THE NEED Huge Membership Goal: Our president set a goal of increasing membership by 20% No Clear Method to Track Progress: unsure of how we were going to accomplish the goal. Data Savvy Client So I turned to fundraising principles. But there are no examples of using fundraising fundamentals to plan a membership campaign But what are the tools?
- #5: The tools I used include: WIIFM or What’s In It for Me The Fundraising Life Cycle Donor Pyramid And The Donor Pipeline
- #7: There are three elements common in every successful fundraising and membership campaign The campaign must: Resonate Educate And Engage and Mobilize
- #9: Think about your communications, your meeting experience, your program offerings, etc. Are they all providing a great ‘What’s In It For Me’ experience to your members?
- #17: Gifts Needed – Dollars in
- #20: Tiers Number of members needed Membership Type Membership Fee Prospects Cumulative Amount Description