Is it time to conduct a membership model review?

Many membership associations have membership models that were created in the distant past for reasons that are now obscure or irrelevant and that have been tweaked at the edges from time to time.

If your association’s membership model is out of date and holding you back or if your association is struggling to deliver value and stay relevant, then it’s time to cast an experienced, objective and critical eye over your membership model and plan an overhaul to provide a solid foundation to take your association forward.

Reviewing your membership model

Your membership model impacts nearly everything your association does.

It encompasses the types of memberships you offer and to whom, what your membership entitlements and service offerings are and how you package, price and deliver them to members and non-members. It is often embedded in your constitution and central to the operation of your membership management platform and other systems and to your organisations’ overall ways of working.

If things just aren’t working at your association, then reviewing your membership model will help you get right to the heart of the matter and create a new foundation for moving forward.

Reviewing your membership model is not a trivial task – but the rewards can be well worth the effort.

Our approach to conducting a membership model review

FineHaus has a holistic, robust and proven methodology for reviewing your membership model, working collaboratively with your leadership team.

To get started, we need to obtain a thorough understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the your current membership model and offering from a variety of perspectives.

Step 1: Internal Research

The first step is to conduct internal research. Typically, this step involves:

  • Review of your membership structure and other relevant documentation – including constitution, policy, pricing, types, benefits, service offerings and approach to service delivery, strategic plan, financials, constitution, entitlements etc.
  • Membership analysis to develop a detailed profile of your membership.
  • Review of your current events program and other membership offerings.
  • Interviews with key staff, Board Directors and other key internal stakeholders.
  • Review of your member satisfaction and engagement research results to gain data-driven insights on what members value about your association and the utilisation of and satisfaction with your services, programs, events and resources . If you haven’t conducted this type of research recently, we can conduct this for you as part of this process.

Step 2: External Research

We then conduct external research into membership models offered by complementary and competitive membership associations to understand how your model compares and to identify opportunities for improvement.

Step 3: Recommended membership model

Informed by this research process and working in close collaboration with your team, FineHaus will then develop a recommended membership model for your association moving forward.

Typically this includes:

  • Development of up to three membership models for consideration, including pricing and membership entitlements.
  • Financial modelling of best case/worst case scenarios for each model and forecasting of potential impact on membership numbers and revenue.
  • Documentation of potential models and associated recommendations for improving services and delivery.
  • Consultation on potential models to develop a recommended model.
  • Presentation of final recommendations to the Board.

Implementing your new membership model

Implementing a new membership model can have operational impact right across your association – from your membership management platform, to the way you deliver services to members and how you communicate your new model to members and potential members.  The key to successful implementation is robust planning.

Step 4: Developing an implementation plan

Once your new membership model is approved, we can then work with you to develop an implementation plan.

Typically, this includes:

  • Conducting an implementation planning workshop with your team to identify the key tasks, dependencies, risks, governance, resourcing and financial implications.
  • Development of a detailed implementation project plan to manage the roll-out of the new model.

Step 5: Rolling out your new membership model

If needed, we can also provide flexible, experienced advice and support to help ensure successful roll-out of your new membership model.

Our experienced team can project manage the whole roll-out or help you with key aspects, including updating or implementing a new membership management system to support the new model, marketing and communications support or recommending changes to your constitution.

Our robust, end-to-end and hands-on approach – backed by our proven experience in this area is the reason why our clients choose us for this important work.

And we’d love to work with you!

Free Consultation

Book an obligation-free consultation to discuss how we can help your association review its membership model.

“The FineHaus team have done an outstanding job since taking on association and conference management for our organisation. They have understood us and our vision and worked with us to move our association forward. Their expertise, innovation and professional support have been exemplary. We are confident that with FineHaus assisting our association, we will not only achieve our strategic aims – but far exceed them. 

Strategic planning is one of the most important processes for an organisation to undertake. We were fortunate to have FineHaus as facilitators to guide us skilfully through what can be a challenging and often time-fraught process. We highly recommend them to any organisation about to undertake this journey.”

Karen Lee, CEO, Institute of Professional Editors