Are you taking advantage of non-dues revenue opportunities? A recent benchmarking report by the Avenue M Group indicates associations of all types are implementing programs that make them less reliant on membership dues. This blog post discusses highlights of this report particularly as they relate to the use of surveys and other forms of custom research.

Having conversations with your members at various points in their journey can yield valuable insights into member acquisition, engagement and retention. In this post I suggest specific questions to ask your members on several occasions during their voyage.

This blog post gives you three simple ideas that you can use to improve the response to your next member survey. We’ve been conducting an annual member survey for the Ontario Hospital Association for the past three years. And for the past three years we’ve had response rates above 60%!

When you conduct a member survey do you only look at the results in total or do you break out them down into meaningful segments? In this blog post I look at different ways of segmenting your membership and suggest one powerful technique that you probably haven’t thought of. This approach will lead to crucial member insights.

If you're looking for ways to better understand your members, this blog post discusses a two-step process that you can use to gain valuable member insights.

This post looks at ways that you can use knowledge products to create member value and generate revenue. Knowledge products position an association as a “knowledge broker,” they provide member value and potentially generate non-dues revenue via sponsorship opportunities and/or report sales.

Associations spend considerable resources on communicating with their stakeholders. And yet, it’s often not clear whether these efforts are effective. Undertaking a communication audit is one way to guide your efforts.

Online surveys have become the default method used to gather information from association members. But reliance on this single tool can limit both the questions we ask and answers we receive. As Abraham Maslow noted, “If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.” In this article we look at an association that used a relatively new tool to provide fresh insights into an important workplace issue affecting their member

It has recently been announced that FluidSurveys will cease to exist in 2017. I need to find a new survey platform.

Much of my work involves conducting member surveys for associations. Often we’re looking for feedback on services and programs offered by the association. Surveys of this type have value. But there are two things they don’t do well. One, they don’t tell you much about the world from the perspective of your member and two, they don’t tell you what opportunities exist for the association in the future.