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“How to increase membership in nonprofit organizations?” is a question acquisition managers constantly seek answers to.
This blog gives you the answer to that. Before we get to that, let’s see the significance of members in a nonprofit.
Can nonprofits have members?
The simple answer is yes; nonprofits can have members and membership programs. In fact, these programs can prove quite beneficial for organizations.
Membership programs offer the chance to create a closely-knit community essential to a nonprofit. A strong community can help nonprofits in multiple ways:
- It can be a reliable revenue stream for your organization.
- Induce a sense of belonging among supporters, strengthening their support and advocacy.
- Provide you with an engaged supporter base that you can turn to for volunteer or expertise requests.
Collectively, these benefits help with the growth of your organization.
However, increasing membership in nonprofit organizations requires having the right best practices and resources in place. A membership strategy for nonprofit organizations can help. Let’s see how to improve an association.
How to increase membership in nonprofit organizations?
Nonprofits often say increasing membership is one of the most commonly faced challenges. The question, ‘How do I grow my nonprofit membership?’ is a constant.
We get it. It can be hard to position your nonprofit so that people want to become members.
This section will focus on a membership growth strategy that helps you acquire new members. So, how to increase membership in nonprofit organizations? Consider these tactics to increase membership in your nonprofit organization.
Leverage your current membership base
Seeking advice from your current member base is one way to retain current members and draw in new members. If approached in the right way, your existing member base and your membership retention strategies can help you in ways you may not even have thought of.
How do you grow your membership in an organization? Here are some ways:
- Encourage your current members to bring someone along when they attend your events.
- Encourage your existing members to share your marketing materials, such as social media posts, promotional videos, and newsletters.
- Use a referral program and prepare your members with an elevator pitch. Here’s an example.
- Run an ambassador program and assist them with marketing your organization.
- Use member testimonials.
Since getting them to become your members is quite a huge ask and commitment, social proof would effectively convey their worth.
Now, for your existing members to help you acquire new members, you need to keep them happy. This means member retention is as necessary as member acquisition. Here are a few of the many ways you can keep your current members happy:
- Thank your members for their contributions using personalized thank-you notes and phone calls.
- Host ‘member-only’ fun gatherings like brunches, galas, picnics, etc.
- Engage with them on social media.
- Nurture your members through phone calls, texts, or emails throughout the year.
Promote your organization
Creating a member persona helps you promote to the right audience and increase membership. For example, consider the members’ values and beliefs, interests, income, occupation, etc. This will give you a clearer idea of where and how to reach them best.
Now, define a value proposition. Convey why a prospect should join you over any other nonprofit supporting the exact cause as you do. Stress on the membership benefits and membership value one gets out of your program.
How do you conduct a membership drive?
Here are a few ways:
- Promote your membership program on your website, highlighting the benefits, including a membership form and clear call to action.
- Advertise on social media and search engines to your target members.
- Start a podcast, blog, webinar, etc., around the topics that interest your prospective members and lure them to your website. Do search engine optimization to enhance the reach of your content.
- Collect your website visitors’ emails in exchange for a takeaway, such as a checklist or tip sheet, and send them valuable updates. These are called lead magnets. Then, nurture them to sign up for a membership.
- Utilize seasonal promotions.
- Run contests on social media with rewards being discounts to your membership program.
- Put up posters and distribute brochures in high-traffic areas.
- Send newsletters about the benefits of being a member of your organization.
- Advertise in local newspapers and send press releases.
- Put up a standee at events related to your cause.
- Join LinkedIn groups and stay active by sharing membership details occasionally. (Most groups have strict guidelines on what can be shared, so ensure you remain within those limits to avoid getting removed.)
Pro tip: At every stage of your promotion, stress the value your prospective members would get if they signed up for a membership.
Promoting your membership program is the first step to increasing membership in your nonprofit organization. If done right, you will grab your audience’s attention and nudge them to decide.
However, in most cases, you would have to follow up with your audiences based on their level of interest. For instance, people who visited your landing page consumed all the information but left the page, which can mean many things, but importantly, they are not convinced of the value they get from the membership.
Here is a simple way to follow up with such an audience:
Step 1: Run retargeting social media or search engine ads highlighting social proof, the value a member brings to supporting the cause, a special discount, etc. You focus on getting them more involved, and we recommend you do all possible things. At this stage, at least get them to share their contact information so you can have personalized conversations with them and move them through the funnel.
Step 2: Once you have their contact details, send them a text message requesting a time to have a call. Put your best agents on the task and nudge your audience to take that final step.
Partner with other organizations
Collaborate with other organizations to introduce your nonprofit to a new world of prospective members. Your partner’s supporters could be your new members if you nurture them effectively!
Partnering with local organizations is a mutually beneficial deal.
There are 2 ways you can make this work:
Option 1
Step 1: Your partner introduces your membership program to their audience and nudges them your way.
Step 2: Interested audience members contact you, and you take it from there, depending on their level of interest.
Option 2
Step 1: Your partner runs promotions on your behalf as an extension of their services. Your collaboration would be a little more in-depth for this. For example, a winner of a contest your partner runs would get a discount for your membership program.
Step 2: The audience signs up for your membership program through your partner.
It would help if you considered organizations that shared the same values as you do. For instance, if your nonprofit supports environmental causes, your collaborator needs to be someone who practices sustainability.
You can even collaborate with schools and universities and get the students to sign up for your membership at a small price as volunteers.
Have a timely membership renewal process
Most of your members may not remember to renew their membership or may not hold it a priority. Reminding them of the value your membership brings and a renewal reminder would enable them to take action.
You may have to send these reminders more than once, but it’s best to move on if they aren’t interested in proceeding.
A membership management software can be of help here to set automated reminders.
How to grow membership in an organization? Embrace personalized communication
What’s the first step to personalized communication with your audience?
Getting to know them.
Find out the different groups your prospective members belong to regarding demographics, interests, behaviors, etc. Discovering your potential members’ preferred communication channels can increase the chances of reaching them. The most common channels are:
- Email marketing
- Phone calls
- Texts
You can segment your audience into different groups based on their engagement level and nudge them in the right direction.
Our calling and texting tools can help.
CallHub’s solutions are designed for nonprofits to increase and retain memberships. From communicating and acquiring members to nurturing them in the journey to convert them to donors, CallHub has you covered.
To see how CallHub can help increase membership in your nonprofit, sign up for a free trial today!
The first step is to get to know your audience deeper! Understand their demographics, interests, and behaviors to better tailor your communication towards them.
Relational Organizing is one tool that does this for you. With Relational Organizing, your volunteers spread your message to their networks. They identify potential members and persuade them to support you.
But it’s not just about the message but also the medium. You want to communicate with your audience through their preferred channels, whether email marketing, phone calls, texts, or social media. CallHub’s Relational Organizing tool lets your volunteers reach their contacts through any of these channels. By segmenting your audience based on their engagement level, you can target them with the right message and channel to nudge them in the right direction.
| Ready to take your nonprofit organization’s membership to the next level? Check out Relational Organizing! Learn how to identify potential members, build meaningful relationships, and increase membership. |
Optimize your website for new members
When a prospect visits your website, they should instantly be able to see the value your membership program would bring – both for the member and the cause you support. Focus on the smallest to the most significant details.
For instance, even after a prospect seems convinced of the value proposition, the process of signing up should be as smooth and quick as possible. Make it easy for your website visitors to join you as a member.
Here are a few things to take care of:
- Make sure the call-to-action and the required information are prominent.
- Highlight the value your membership brings to them.
- Show social proof.
- Get your beneficiaries to talk about your contributions.
- Show your team in action, working on making the world a better place.
- Test the signup process at multiple stages before you go live.
Now, what method should you use to collect sign-ups for your membership?
Forms are one way to approach this. However, lengthy forms are an immediate turn-off. But then there is the saying, “The more details you have, the better.”
How do you get them to sign up AND collect as many details as possible?
We have a solution – SMS opt-ins.
With an SMS opt-in solution, all your prospects need to do is send a keyword to your number to become members. Now, you can continue to collect other required details with follow-up prompts, and all the information will sync with your CRM. The advantage here is that you can prioritize collecting the ‘must-have’ details and then move on to gather more information with their consent.
Keep multiple payment options and ensure your visitors can register and make the payment with minimal clicks and loads. Create the best user experience to increase your chances.
How to grow membership in an organization? Incentivize memberships
Let’s see some membership incentive ideas.
More often than not, an attractive incentive like a gift card, discount on the following exclusive event fee, or membership fee can give that extra push to signing up. Offer such incentives to new members and promote them on your marketing channels.
Furthermore, you can make these programs time-sensitive. Evoke urgency and get your prospects to sign up immediately. For example, you could offer “a special discount for people who join before a certain date.”
Offer multiple membership options
Some people may find it difficult to afford the membership fees, although they’d like to support and join you. Offering different levels of membership would appeal to this group of people.
If cost is the problem, another option is to set up a monthly membership plan.
Host open events
Open events would give potential members a better idea of what it would be like to join your nonprofit. They are also an excellent platform for your ambassadors to promote you.
Here are a few tips along that line:
- Host an open event and highlight the benefits your members get.
- Distribute membership promotional materials to your non-members during the open event.
- Follow up with the event attendees with a membership pitch through email campaigns, texts, or phone calls.
- Send post-event surveys to understand what they expect from a membership program.
- If you’re giving out goodies, include your logo on them. This way, when you nurture your event attendees to become your members, they will already be quite familiar with your nonprofit.
- Convey your mission clearly so your prospective members know what their membership means to execute your mission.
- Host your event in a public space where you can draw maximum attention.
- Bring in a popular figure as the guest speaker to make your event the talk of the town. This could increase your reach.
- Generalize the event theme as much as possible to bring in a broad audience to become your members.
- Host events in different cities.
However, keep the frequency of these events minimal so the value of your membership programs stays high.
Here’s a guide with essential tips and tools to manage your nonprofit event.
So that answers our question- ‘How to grow membership in an organization’.
How do you attract nonprofit board members?
Attracting nonprofit board members can be challenging, but with the right strategies, you can find dedicated and passionate individuals ready to make a difference. Let’s talk about some ideas to help you attract board members.
- Clearly define your organization’s mission and values. Potential board members want to know what your organization stands for and what you’re trying to achieve. Keep your mission statement clear and concise, and communicate it in all your outreach materials.
- Think about the skills and expertise you need on your board. Identify gaps in your current board’s skill set and consider what kind of expertise would benefit. Then, actively seek out individuals who have those skills and can bring something new to the table. Highlight the specific skills and experience you seek in your outreach efforts.
- Networking is key to attracting board members. Leverage your existing networks and ask current board members, donors, and volunteers to recommend potential candidates. Look for networking opportunities at events and conferences in your industry to meet new people and spread the word about your organization.
- Create an ambassador program where you enlist the help of your most passionate supporters to spread the word about your organization and recruit potential board members. Ambassadors can be a powerful force to attract new members, as they can speak firsthand about their positive experiences with your organization.
- Show appreciation for your board members. Celebrate their accomplishments and acknowledge their contributions. Board members want to feel like they’re making a real impact, so communicate your organization’s successes and impact regularly.
Get started!
Nonprofit organizations do what businesses do not – Helping people with no strings attached. Nonprofits are born to solve a problem in the world. Even your members join your organization for the same reason: They can relate to the cause or want the world to be better.
This is precisely your strength. Use this strength to increase memberships for your nonprofit organization. Let people know why the world needs them and what they get in return.
However, the nonprofit industry has grown competitive recently. Many organizations support one cause, and all of them are looking to increase their member base.
Successful nonprofit membership programs focus on communication and engagement. To stand out, you need to connect with your prospective members and consistently offer value before you ask for a commitment.
We hope this article gives you the direction to get started and increase membership in your nonprofit organization.
Do you have any other ideas on how to increase membership in nonprofit organizations? Comment below and let us know!
Featured image: Photo by Good Stock Photos
