Picture this: a new member joins your association, signs up for your mailing list, and attends your major annual conference. However, you don’t hear from them again until it’s time for next year’s event. With few activities between events, members eventually drop off, leaving your association inactive and with declining membership.
Avoid this scenario by keeping your members engaged all year round. With the right strategies and software, you can connect with new members and cultivate an active, loyal membership base.
To help your association build and maintain its community, this guide will explore top member engagement strategies. But first, let’s explore exactly what member engagement is.
What is member engagement?
The trade and association experts at Tradewing define member engagement as: “all the ways members interact with your association. When members attend events, comment on your blog posts, or message one another, they’re engaging with your association.”
Essentially, any activity or content your association provides members is an opportunity for engagement. When members engage with your association, they can expand their professional skills, make connections, and enrich your community.
Why is member engagement important?
Associations with engaged membership bases have dedicated communities they can count on to generate revenue, attend events, and spread positive word-of-mouth marketing. Specifically, by engaging members, your association can improve its:
- Value offering. Ultimately, your association’s membership benefits are engagement activities and content. Finding new ways to engage your members improves your offerings and increases your membership’s value.
- Retention. When members enjoy interfacing with your content and participating in activities, they are more likely to continue doing so in the future. Building relationships with your members and providing them with value can boost renewal rates and fight member lapse.
- Recruitment. An engaged membership base is one of your strongest recruiting tools. Members who are connected to your association are more likely to recommend joining to their friends, family, and colleagues, boosting your member acquisition potential.
When your members are engaged, your association does what it set out to do: provide resources and opportunities to professionals in your field. By expanding your offerings and improving the membership experience, you can build a passionate community of talented individuals ready to help, educate, and uplift one another.
15 Member Engagement Strategies
1. Build and maintain an online community.
Many associations host just a handful of in-person gatherings a year. While these events are valuable, members may feel disengaged in between them.
Keep your community connected to your association and provide valuable benefits year-round by building an active online community. Invest in a community engagement platform where members can message one another and engage with your association online.
Community engagement platforms create social media-like microsites just for your members. Using this tool, you can engage members by:
- Posting a range of content. Share research reports, opinion pieces, analysis videos, and other interesting content on your community platform. This gives members exclusive access to your high-value content and the opportunity to discuss it with other members.
- Encouraging conversation. Your online community platform gives members the ability to freely network with one another in a casual, low-stress environment. Encourage members to make these connections by posting conversation starters, like open questions and debate topics. For example, you might ask members what is one thing they wish they knew when first entering your industry or their thoughts on a new trend in your sector.
- Hosting virtual events. For members who can’t attend in-person events or wish to attend more events, you can meet their needs by hosting virtual gatherings through your engagement platform. These might be lectures or workshops hosted by a guest speaker or casual coffee hours where attendees can set the tone of the conversations.
If you’re looking for a community engagement platform, we recommend Tradewing, our favorite provider for trade and professional associations.
2. Promote relevant sponsor content.
Sponsors provide the funding your association needs to host major events, plan innovative activities, and provide a quality membership experience. As such, it’s easy to think of sponsors as merely a funding source rather than a potential value add for members.
Rather than viewing sponsored content as something your members would need to flip past in a brochure or scroll through online, cultivate relationships with sponsors who bring products and services that genuinely benefit your members.
To cultivate mutually beneficial relationships with sponsors that help boost member engagement, be sure to:
- Consider your value alignment. Don’t simply partner with any organization that offers you money. Instead, consider each sponsor’s values and business goals and if they align with your association’s. For example, an association for high school teachers could benefit members by partnering with sponsors dedicated to education, like a textbook publisher.
- Provide adequate sponsorship tools. Enable sponsors to get their content in front of members meaningfully without interfering with your other offerings. For instance, you might create a dedicated space in your online community for sponsored content and encourage sponsors to create profiles but disallow them from directly messaging members.
- Set clear expectations. The key to a successful sponsorship deal is ensuring everyone understands what is expected of them and what they can gain from the partnership. Discuss how sponsors should engage with members to provide useful offerings without pushing their advertisements too heavily.
To brainstorm potential sponsors, survey your members about the types of products and surveys they would be interested in. This exercise can help you identify sponsors your members are interested in engaging with, benefiting both your members and business partners.
3. Keep your content up-to-date.
Members are more likely to engage with content that provides timely insight into relevant happenings in your industry. Ensure your content is valuable and up-to-date with current trends by:
- Subscribing to industry publications. Peruse news publications, research journals, and other trusted news sources for your field. Read up on what professionals in your field are experiencing in their day-to-day lives, and consider how you can create content that speaks to them. For instance, you might discover that AI implementation is a major concern in your industry and publish a blog post about the ethics of AI and how members can use it to their advantage.
- Attending conferences. Check in with other association leaders and industry experts by attending major conferences in your field. These are opportunities to promote your offerings and learn insights from others. For example, you might compare your membership sales pitch to a similar association’s or attend a workshop about the future of your sector.
- Bringing in external experts. Provide members with additional value and expand your offerings by inviting outside experts to speak to your members. You might ask them to write blog content, attend an event as a speaker, or host a Q&A with your members.
When you create new, valuable content, you can use it to not only engage your current member base but also recruit new members. Ensure all content is optimized for search engines so pieces available to the general public can easily discover and engage with it.
4. Implement gamification.
Do you know anyone addicted to daily apps like Duolingo? These platforms keep users engaged by turning their content into a game. For instance, rather than simply taking language lessons, Duolingo users are challenged to earn points, compete against one another, and rank up in exclusive leagues.
This concept is known as gamification, and it can encourage your users to continually check in with your association. Use your association and community management software to gamify your member experience with features like:
- Leaderboards
- Point systems
- Badges
- Daily challenges
For many associations, the only reward for gamification-related activities is personal satisfaction, but some have tangible benefits. For instance, if members earn a certain number of points by participating in your community, you might award them a discount on your merchandise store or a ticket for an upcoming event.
5. Identify at-risk members.
The best way to prevent member lapse and keep engagement high is to spot members at risk of leaving. Follow these steps to pinpoint low-engagement members and bring them back into your community:
- Identify at-risk markers. Use your community engagement tools to monitor member behavior and spot trends in lapsed members. For instance, you might notice members leave after completing a certain number of education courses or that lapsed members’ posting rate significantly decreases before their departure.
- Send a re-engagement message. This message should include interesting content, a low-effort ask that encourages engagement, or a sense of urgency. For example, you might send an email with a subject line like, “Our community misses you!” with an attached message sharing highlights from your community and links to popular discussion posts.
- Monitor engagement. After reaching out to an at-risk member, continue to monitor their engagement. If they respond positively, keep up your efforts until they resume normal engagement. If they do lapse, ask them to complete an exit survey so you can better understand their reasons for leaving.
Be aware that some of your members may be content with attending a handful of in-person events and otherwise not participating in your online community. However, if a previously active member suddenly misses their first membership renewal deadline, that is a strong cause to reach out and begin re-engagement efforts.
6. Launch a mentorship program.
New members may feel overwhelmed when they first join your association. Ensure they feel welcome and give them an opportunity to connect with your community by launching a mentorship program.
In this initiative, established members can volunteer to serve as mentors. They will guide new members assigned to them by reaching out via email or your community platform to share insights on engaging with your community.
Primarily, mentors can help new members start their networking journeys. They might facilitate introductions at events or share tips on navigating your member directory to find individuals with similar interests.
7. Use event engagement tools.
Online events allow your community to come together from the comfort of their own homes. However, it’s easy to become disengaged with webinars and lectures where the audience is expected to sit quietly and observe.
You can make your virtual events more valuable and connect with your members by using your event software’s engagement tools, such as:
- Audience chat. Let members speak to one another during your event through a live text chat. Have active moderators there to answer audience questions, pose discussion topics, and ensure conversations are appropriate.
- Polls and surveys. Make your audience a part of your events by issuing interactive polls and surveys. For example, a speaker might ask your audience how familiar they are with a specific topic to gauge knowledge levels or prove a point about general awareness.
- Break-out rooms. Enable attendees to chat with one another by putting them in break-out rooms. This feature is particularly effective for associations hosting courses with live instructors, as it allows learners to work together and share their thoughts with others.
When researching event tools, consider looking for a community engagement platform with event hosting tools. While dedicated event software is likely to be more robust, associations on a budget can save money by buying a bundled platform.
8. Design an onboarding process.
Help new members start their experience with your association off on the right foot with an onboarding process. Onboarding can be as simple as an email cadence that introduces your association, highlights new content, and invites members to check out popular features.
For example, your first introductory email might provide background on your association’s mission and prompt members to join your online community by completing their member profiles. Then, a follow-up email would highlight popular offerings, such as your educational courses, and explain how to get involved. The next message after that might share links to popular new content, and so on.
9. Promote user-generated content.
Your association’s team works hard, but ultimately, between research, writing, and video production, they can only produce so much content. To ensure your members have a continual stream of content to engage with, empower them to create content themselves.
User-generated content is how popular social media sites thrive. For instance, LinkedIn’s team relies on its user base to create and share content with other users.
Inspire your members to create user-generated content, like:
- Blog posts
- Reviews
- Photographs
- Videos
- Discussion questions
You can encourage user-generated content by maintaining an online community inviting members to post their creations, comment positively on original content, and even spotlight high-value content in your newsletter.
10. Practice member appreciation.
Businesses thank customers for purchasing their products and services, and your association should do the same for its members. When members renew their memberships, attend an event, or hit a membership milestone, thank them for participating in your community.
A few ways you can show your appreciation include:
- Free merchandise. Send members gifts of branded merchandise on special occasions. For instance, you might send gifts as part of new member welcome kits, when members hit membership anniversaries, during holidays, and to promote upcoming major events at your association.
- Member spotlights. Build social proof and appreciate your members simultaneously with member spotlights. Select highly engaged members and ask them to share a quote or two about their experience with your association. Then, feature their stories and photos in your newsletter, online community, social media, or website to celebrate them publicly.
- eCards. Make appreciation fast and memorable with eCards. Design custom eCards to show appreciation for big and small events, from buying your merchandise or completing a credential course to being a member for five years straight.
By showing appreciation, you communicate to members that you care about their experiences and encourage them to continue engaging with your offerings.
11. Host a range of activities.
Expanding your benefits can engage your current membership base and improve your value offering. The more activities you offer, the more opportunities members will have to engage with your association. Additionally, providing a range of content allows you to appeal to various audiences, growing your membership base.
For instance, you might offer:
- In-person events
- Virtual events
- Educational courses
- Webinars
- Lectures
- Workshops
- Written content
- Videos
When it comes to the topics your content covers, stay focused on your association’s main purpose. Avoid stretching yourself too thin or covering topics outside your expertise simply because they’re popular. Sticking to your association’s mission ensures that you will produce varied and valuable content.
12. Personalize the member experience.
Provide members with content they want to engage with by customizing their experiences based on their interests.
Leverage member management tools with algorithms and AI features that can analyze members’ past engagement to recommend content. For instance, after a member finishes an educational course, you might start promoting the next one in the series or suggest they attend an upcoming webinar on the same topic.
You can also personalize the membership experience through your messaging strategy. Segment members based on shared characteristics, such as career levels or professional interests. Then, create unique messaging cadences for each group to ensure they receive content relevant to them.
For example, you might create a member segment of individuals looking to break into your field. For these members, send them updates to your job board, invitations to networking events, and skill training workshops. In contrast, to senior members, you might still promote networking events but also articles about recent developments in your field and calls to join your mentorship program to welcome new members.
13. Offer volunteer opportunities.
Some already engaged members may be interested in getting even more involved with your association. For these motivated members, deepen their engagement by asking them to consider volunteering at your association.
Talk with interested association members to determine how they can best lend their skills. For example, members with strong communication skills might help create marketing materials, while those who speak other languages might be willing to do translation work.
14. Maintain a job board.
Ultimately, individuals join trade and professional associations to advance their career prospects. For many, this involves finding new employment opportunities. Engage these members by providing a curated job board.
While job hosting websites like Indeed and LinkedIn have their uses, they can be difficult to navigate or even host scam opportunities. By maintaining a job board of reliable positions at trusted businesses, you can help your members find secure employment.
Use your engagement platform to host your job board and promote new postings. For example, you might enable members to subscribe to your job board to receive alerts when new opportunities go live.
15. Collect member feedback.
If you’re unsure why members aren’t engaging with your association or what programming they would like to engage with, simply ask them. Send out surveys asking members about their experiences with your association. For example, you might ask:
- What programs and content have you participated in over the last six months?
- Were these programs and content easy to engage with? Why or why not?
- How did you become aware of these programs and content?
- What type of content would you like to see from our association?
- What prevents you from accessing your benefits?
The responses can provide insight into your members’ specific interests, goals, and challenges regarding engagement. For instance, you might discover that members simply aren’t aware of new engagement opportunities or that they would prefer activities they can complete in a short time period to accommodate their busy schedules.
Our Favorite Member Engagement Tool: Tradewing
Maintaining an active online community is our top member engagement strategy. To implement this strategy, you’ll need a member engagement and community hosting tool. Our recommended platform for professional and trade associations is Tradewing.
Built for small and growing associations, Tradewing is an out-of-the-box ready online community engagement platform. By investing in Tradewing, your association will have access to a host of community management tools, including:
- Online engagement platform. Tradewing provides associations with a social media-like microsite where members can connect. While some small associations may opt to host their communities on social media, Tradewing provides a secure and professional where the focus will be solely on your association.
- Member analytics. Track how your members are engaging with your association. Dive into individual members’ engagement histories or get overviews of your entire community to identify trends in member behavior.
- Event hosting. Save money by hosting your events through Tradewing rather than investing in a separate event management tool. Promote and launch virtual events on the same platform to keep members focused and make attending easy.
- Sponsorship engagement tools. Sponsors are a core part of your association’s community. Provide them with the tools they need to connect with your members, promote their offerings, and have a valuable experience with your association.
- Association integrations. Tradewing has an association management component. However, thanks to its numerous integrations, organizations solely interested in the online community software aspect can still use Tradewing. Plug Tradewing into your association’s tech stack to get your online community up and running in minutes.
Tradewing is the ideal community engagement platform for associations looking for a fast, user-friendly solution. Avoid the hassle of extensive development and high subscription costs with a platform that fits your association’s needs.
More Member Engagement Resources
By engaging your members, your association can retain them long-term and build a thriving community that attracts more supporters and establishes your organization as an industry leader. To raise your engagement rates, assess your membership base and consider which of our top engagement strategies will likely resonate with your audience.
For more help engaging your members and keeping your association organized, check out these resources:
Matching Gifts in Practice: Tips, Strategies From Your Peers
/in Corporate Consulting, About Double the Donation, Learning Center /by Adam WeingerSending Impactful Matching Gift Emails: The Ultimate Guide
/in Donor communications, About Double the Donation, Learning Center /by Adam WeingerCadence Sports Announces Integration Partnership with Double the Donation
/in Press Releases, About Double the Donation /by Adam WeingerDouble the Donation has joined forces with Cadence Sports to provide more value to nonprofit organizations through matching gifts with an integration between Collie by Cadence Sports and Double the Donation.
The partnership gives organizations the opportunity to retrieve company information about donors and follow up with those donors to encourage a matching gift request submission.
“We’re proud to work with a company so focused on helping its client base do more good,” says Adam Weinger, President at Double the Donation. “By closing the matching gifts awareness gap for donors, Double the Donation makes sure that orgs can do more good by claiming some of the $4-7 billion left on the table each year.”
The Collie and Double the Donation integration is now available for mutual clients. Follow our integration guide for more information on how to connect the two platforms.
Ready to add matching gift automation to your Collie donation forms? Request a demo with Double the Donation today and be sure to share that you’re using Collie by Cadence Sports. Want additional resources to help you take your matching gifts strategy to the next level? Enroll today in our Matching Gift Academy for in-depth content about growing your matching gift revenue.
About Collie by Cadence Sports: Collie is an all-in-one event fundraising solution offering event registration, peer-to-peer fundraising, merchandising, CRM, analytics and more. All of this functionality is offered at no cost to you. Visit colliegives.com to learn more.
About Double the Donation: Automate your matching gift fundraising with the industry-leading solution from Double the Donation. The Double the Donation platform provides nonprofits with tools to identify match-eligible donors, drive matches to completion, and gain actionable insights. Double the Donation integrates directly into donation forms, CRMs, social fundraising software, and other nonprofit technology solutions to capture employment information and follow up appropriately with donors about matching gifts.
Double the Donation and DonorView Release Matching Gift Integration with New Partnership
/in Press Releases, Company Updates /by Adam WeingerDouble the Donation and DonorView are excited to announce their new partnership and integration, bringing innovative matching gift automation to mutual users. With this functionality, organizations are better equipped to identify match-eligible donors and drive those matches to completion.
This integration allows users to add Double the Donation’s streamlined matching gift tools directly into the DonorView donation process, so donors can effectively identify their matching gift eligibility as they give. Following their donation, donors are met with personalized and actionable next steps so no matching gift opportunity falls through the cracks.
“As workplace giving programs continue to evolve, we are always looking for ways to make it easier for organizations to raise more from corporations and their community”, says Adam Weinger, President at Double the Donation. “With our DonorView integration, more organizations are equipped to identify matching gift opportunities during the giving process and support their donors with actionable next steps and follow up emails.”
The DonorView and Double the Donation Matching integration is simple to activate and can be set up in just a few minutes. Follow our integration guide for more information on activating the integration, so you can start raising more from corporate matching gifts.
Ready to add matching gift automation to your DonorView donation forms? Request a demo with Double the Donation today and be sure to share that you’re using DonorView. You can also request a personal demonstration of DonorView here.
Want additional resources to help you take your matching gifts strategy to the next level? Enroll today in our Matching Gift Academy for in-depth content about growing your matching gift revenue.
About DonorView: DonorView is an all-in-one nonprofit software that streamlines donor management, fundraising, events, memberships, and marketing. It offers online donations, email campaigns, event registration, volunteer tracking, and financial management. With integrated tools and analytics, DonorView helps nonprofits improve efficiency, engage supporters, and maximize their impact—all in a single platform. DonorView is proud to be on the Inc. 5000 list for the last three years in a row.
About Double the Donation: Automate your matching gift and workplace giving fundraising with the industry-leading solution from Double the Donation. The Double the Donation platform provides nonprofits and educational institutions with tools to identify supporters eligible for matching gifts, corporate volunteer incentive programs, and more. Fuel your growth by empowering supporter participation in workplace giving programs while gaining actionable insights along the way.
9 Top Strategies to Maximize Workplace Giving at Your Org
/in Donor communications, Learning Center /by Adam WeingerWhy Volunteers Are the Key to Your Fundraising Strategy
/in Fundraising Strategy, Learning Center /by Adam WeingerNew: Corporate Sponsorships Available Within Our Database
/in Company Updates, About Double the Donation /by Adam Weinger15 Member Engagement Strategies for Growing Associations
/in Learning Center, Fundraising Ideas /by Adam WeingerPicture this: a new member joins your association, signs up for your mailing list, and attends your major annual conference. However, you don’t hear from them again until it’s time for next year’s event. With few activities between events, members eventually drop off, leaving your association inactive and with declining membership.
Avoid this scenario by keeping your members engaged all year round. With the right strategies and software, you can connect with new members and cultivate an active, loyal membership base.
To help your association build and maintain its community, this guide will explore top member engagement strategies. But first, let’s explore exactly what member engagement is.
What is member engagement?
The trade and association experts at Tradewing define member engagement as: “all the ways members interact with your association. When members attend events, comment on your blog posts, or message one another, they’re engaging with your association.”
Essentially, any activity or content your association provides members is an opportunity for engagement. When members engage with your association, they can expand their professional skills, make connections, and enrich your community.
Why is member engagement important?
Associations with engaged membership bases have dedicated communities they can count on to generate revenue, attend events, and spread positive word-of-mouth marketing. Specifically, by engaging members, your association can improve its:
When your members are engaged, your association does what it set out to do: provide resources and opportunities to professionals in your field. By expanding your offerings and improving the membership experience, you can build a passionate community of talented individuals ready to help, educate, and uplift one another.
15 Member Engagement Strategies
1. Build and maintain an online community.
Many associations host just a handful of in-person gatherings a year. While these events are valuable, members may feel disengaged in between them.
Keep your community connected to your association and provide valuable benefits year-round by building an active online community. Invest in a community engagement platform where members can message one another and engage with your association online.
Community engagement platforms create social media-like microsites just for your members. Using this tool, you can engage members by:
If you’re looking for a community engagement platform, we recommend Tradewing, our favorite provider for trade and professional associations.
2. Promote relevant sponsor content.
Sponsors provide the funding your association needs to host major events, plan innovative activities, and provide a quality membership experience. As such, it’s easy to think of sponsors as merely a funding source rather than a potential value add for members.
Rather than viewing sponsored content as something your members would need to flip past in a brochure or scroll through online, cultivate relationships with sponsors who bring products and services that genuinely benefit your members.
To cultivate mutually beneficial relationships with sponsors that help boost member engagement, be sure to:
To brainstorm potential sponsors, survey your members about the types of products and surveys they would be interested in. This exercise can help you identify sponsors your members are interested in engaging with, benefiting both your members and business partners.
3. Keep your content up-to-date.
Members are more likely to engage with content that provides timely insight into relevant happenings in your industry. Ensure your content is valuable and up-to-date with current trends by:
When you create new, valuable content, you can use it to not only engage your current member base but also recruit new members. Ensure all content is optimized for search engines so pieces available to the general public can easily discover and engage with it.
4. Implement gamification.
Do you know anyone addicted to daily apps like Duolingo? These platforms keep users engaged by turning their content into a game. For instance, rather than simply taking language lessons, Duolingo users are challenged to earn points, compete against one another, and rank up in exclusive leagues.
This concept is known as gamification, and it can encourage your users to continually check in with your association. Use your association and community management software to gamify your member experience with features like:
For many associations, the only reward for gamification-related activities is personal satisfaction, but some have tangible benefits. For instance, if members earn a certain number of points by participating in your community, you might award them a discount on your merchandise store or a ticket for an upcoming event.
5. Identify at-risk members.
The best way to prevent member lapse and keep engagement high is to spot members at risk of leaving. Follow these steps to pinpoint low-engagement members and bring them back into your community:
Be aware that some of your members may be content with attending a handful of in-person events and otherwise not participating in your online community. However, if a previously active member suddenly misses their first membership renewal deadline, that is a strong cause to reach out and begin re-engagement efforts.
6. Launch a mentorship program.
New members may feel overwhelmed when they first join your association. Ensure they feel welcome and give them an opportunity to connect with your community by launching a mentorship program.
In this initiative, established members can volunteer to serve as mentors. They will guide new members assigned to them by reaching out via email or your community platform to share insights on engaging with your community.
Primarily, mentors can help new members start their networking journeys. They might facilitate introductions at events or share tips on navigating your member directory to find individuals with similar interests.
7. Use event engagement tools.
Online events allow your community to come together from the comfort of their own homes. However, it’s easy to become disengaged with webinars and lectures where the audience is expected to sit quietly and observe.
You can make your virtual events more valuable and connect with your members by using your event software’s engagement tools, such as:
When researching event tools, consider looking for a community engagement platform with event hosting tools. While dedicated event software is likely to be more robust, associations on a budget can save money by buying a bundled platform.
8. Design an onboarding process.
Help new members start their experience with your association off on the right foot with an onboarding process. Onboarding can be as simple as an email cadence that introduces your association, highlights new content, and invites members to check out popular features.
For example, your first introductory email might provide background on your association’s mission and prompt members to join your online community by completing their member profiles. Then, a follow-up email would highlight popular offerings, such as your educational courses, and explain how to get involved. The next message after that might share links to popular new content, and so on.
9. Promote user-generated content.
Your association’s team works hard, but ultimately, between research, writing, and video production, they can only produce so much content. To ensure your members have a continual stream of content to engage with, empower them to create content themselves.
User-generated content is how popular social media sites thrive. For instance, LinkedIn’s team relies on its user base to create and share content with other users.
Inspire your members to create user-generated content, like:
You can encourage user-generated content by maintaining an online community inviting members to post their creations, comment positively on original content, and even spotlight high-value content in your newsletter.
10. Practice member appreciation.
Businesses thank customers for purchasing their products and services, and your association should do the same for its members. When members renew their memberships, attend an event, or hit a membership milestone, thank them for participating in your community.
A few ways you can show your appreciation include:
By showing appreciation, you communicate to members that you care about their experiences and encourage them to continue engaging with your offerings.
11. Host a range of activities.
Expanding your benefits can engage your current membership base and improve your value offering. The more activities you offer, the more opportunities members will have to engage with your association. Additionally, providing a range of content allows you to appeal to various audiences, growing your membership base.
For instance, you might offer:
When it comes to the topics your content covers, stay focused on your association’s main purpose. Avoid stretching yourself too thin or covering topics outside your expertise simply because they’re popular. Sticking to your association’s mission ensures that you will produce varied and valuable content.
12. Personalize the member experience.
Provide members with content they want to engage with by customizing their experiences based on their interests.
Leverage member management tools with algorithms and AI features that can analyze members’ past engagement to recommend content. For instance, after a member finishes an educational course, you might start promoting the next one in the series or suggest they attend an upcoming webinar on the same topic.
You can also personalize the membership experience through your messaging strategy. Segment members based on shared characteristics, such as career levels or professional interests. Then, create unique messaging cadences for each group to ensure they receive content relevant to them.
For example, you might create a member segment of individuals looking to break into your field. For these members, send them updates to your job board, invitations to networking events, and skill training workshops. In contrast, to senior members, you might still promote networking events but also articles about recent developments in your field and calls to join your mentorship program to welcome new members.
13. Offer volunteer opportunities.
Some already engaged members may be interested in getting even more involved with your association. For these motivated members, deepen their engagement by asking them to consider volunteering at your association.
Talk with interested association members to determine how they can best lend their skills. For example, members with strong communication skills might help create marketing materials, while those who speak other languages might be willing to do translation work.
14. Maintain a job board.
Ultimately, individuals join trade and professional associations to advance their career prospects. For many, this involves finding new employment opportunities. Engage these members by providing a curated job board.
While job hosting websites like Indeed and LinkedIn have their uses, they can be difficult to navigate or even host scam opportunities. By maintaining a job board of reliable positions at trusted businesses, you can help your members find secure employment.
Use your engagement platform to host your job board and promote new postings. For example, you might enable members to subscribe to your job board to receive alerts when new opportunities go live.
15. Collect member feedback.
If you’re unsure why members aren’t engaging with your association or what programming they would like to engage with, simply ask them. Send out surveys asking members about their experiences with your association. For example, you might ask:
The responses can provide insight into your members’ specific interests, goals, and challenges regarding engagement. For instance, you might discover that members simply aren’t aware of new engagement opportunities or that they would prefer activities they can complete in a short time period to accommodate their busy schedules.
Our Favorite Member Engagement Tool: Tradewing
Maintaining an active online community is our top member engagement strategy. To implement this strategy, you’ll need a member engagement and community hosting tool. Our recommended platform for professional and trade associations is Tradewing.
Built for small and growing associations, Tradewing is an out-of-the-box ready online community engagement platform. By investing in Tradewing, your association will have access to a host of community management tools, including:
Tradewing is the ideal community engagement platform for associations looking for a fast, user-friendly solution. Avoid the hassle of extensive development and high subscription costs with a platform that fits your association’s needs.
More Member Engagement Resources
By engaging your members, your association can retain them long-term and build a thriving community that attracts more supporters and establishes your organization as an industry leader. To raise your engagement rates, assess your membership base and consider which of our top engagement strategies will likely resonate with your audience.
For more help engaging your members and keeping your association organized, check out these resources:
Tips for Tracking & Pursuing Corporate Giving Opportunities
/in Fundraising Strategy, Learning Center /by Adam WeingerEnhancing a Donor Profile With Employment Data [A Guide]
/in Donor communications, Learning Center /by Adam WeingerA well-rounded donor profile is essential for maximizing fundraising success, and employment information plays a crucial role in enhancing donor engagement and giving potential.
By integrating the right data into your donor profiles, organizations like yours can personalize outreach, increase contributions, and strengthen relationships with supporters alike.
Lucky for you, this guide explores the importance of employment data in your donor profiles, outlines effective collection methods, and highlights strategies for leveraging this information to boost fundraising results.
More specifically, we’ll cover the following:
Ready to begin supercharging your donor information with powerful employment insights? Continue reading to find out how.
What is a donor profile?
A donor profile is a comprehensive record of information about an individual supporter. This information helps nonprofits understand their giving behavior, engagement history, and potential for future contributions.
These profiles typically include key details such as:
Beyond basic information, an enriched donor profile can also contain insights regarding a donor’s interests, past event participation, volunteer involvement, and—perhaps most importantly—employment details.
By building robust donor profiles, nonprofits can personalize outreach efforts, strengthen relationships, and ultimately increase fundraising success.
Why employment data matters in donor profiles
Employment data is crucial information for nonprofits looking to enhance their fundraising efforts and build stronger relationships with donors. When it comes to establishing well-rounded donor profiles, employer information is an essential piece of the puzzle.
Here’s why:
As you can see, the benefits of including employer data in donor profiles is multifold. If you haven’t already, now is the perfect time to begin incorporating the information in your donors’ records.
Collecting employment information from supporters
Gathering employment data from donors is a crucial step in unlocking fundraising and workplace giving opportunities. However, nonprofits must be strategic in how they collect this information to ensure accuracy and encourage donor participation.
Here are some handy ways to gather employment details from supporters:
For the best results, you’ll likely want to incorporate a combination of the above-recommended methods. This will allow you to access employment information for the largest number of donors possible, ensuring that you can maximize workplace giving opportunities, encourage matching gifts, and personalize engagement strategies to boost both donor participation and fundraising success.
Leveraging employment data for fundraising success
Employment data is a key component in building a well-rounded and actionable donor profile, offering nonprofits valuable insights into their supporters’ potential for fundraising success. Here’s how your team can benefit from employment data in your supporter records:
Unlock Workplace Giving Programs
One of the most significant advantages of knowing a donor’s employer is the ability to identify workplace giving opportunities. For example, many corporations offer matching gift programs, where they match donations made by their employees to eligible nonprofits. By tracking employment information, nonprofits can proactively encourage donors to request matches, effectively doubling or even tripling the impact of their gifts.
Beyond matching donations, many corporations also provide volunteer grants or volunteer time off when employees contribute their time to charitable causes. By knowing where a donor works, nonprofits can track volunteer activities and inform supporters about the potential to earn grant money through their workplace. This is another avenue for maximizing fundraising and tapping into a donor’s full giving potential without asking them to give more!
Encourage Cross-Functional Support
Nonprofits can leverage employment information about their supporters to unlock even more opportunities for engagement and corporate giving. Many companies offer multiple forms of philanthropic support, such as matching gifts, volunteer grants, and sponsorships—and understanding where donors work can help nonprofits tap into these resources more effectively.
For example, if a donor works for a company with a known volunteer grant program, that’s a perfect opportunity to encourage them to get involved beyond financial contributions. Highlight how their employer will donate funds for the time they spend volunteering, making their impact even greater.
On the other hand, if a volunteer works for a company that matches financial donations, it can be a great way to get them on board with monetary giving.
Uncover In-Kind Giving or Grant Opportunities
A nonprofit’s supporters are often the key to unlocking corporate grants and in-kind donations—but only if the organization knows where they work. Many companies offer direct corporate grants or donate goods and services to charitable organizations, and leveraging employment data can help nonprofits identify and secure these opportunities.
How? Supporters can provide an inside connection, serving as a bridge to decision-makers in charge of distributing funds and resources. Employees may even be able to nominate your nonprofit for funding or introduce you to the right contacts.
Not to mention, Double the Donation’s database can now provide information on corporate sponsorship programs like grants and in-kind donations, making it easier for nonprofits to identify businesses offering these opportunities.
Strengthen Corporate Partnerships
Employment data can help nonprofits identify clusters of donors employed by the same company or industry. By recognizing these connections, organizations can approach businesses with workplace giving programs and establish partnerships that benefit both the nonprofit and its supporters.
Strengthening these corporate ties can lead to long-term collaborations, fundraising opportunities, and increased visibility for the organization.
Identify High-Potential Donors
Employment data can also help nonprofits segment their donor base by employer size, industry, and giving capacity. For example, donors working for large corporations may have access to more generous matching gift programs or higher volunteer grant amounts. By understanding these dynamics, nonprofits can prioritize engagement with high-potential donors, ensuring they are leveraging every opportunity for financial support.
Tips for building well-rounded donor profiles
Building a well-rounded donor profile is essential for maximizing engagement and increasing fundraising success. By incorporating the following strategies, fundraisers can build detailed and actionable donor profiles that enhance engagement, increase contributions, and strengthen long-term relationships.
1. Track engagement history.
Understanding a donor’s journey with your nonprofit is essential for building strong relationships and optimizing your fundraising efforts. Tracking engagement history allows organizations to see how supporters interact over time, from donations and event attendance to volunteer work and advocacy efforts.
By maintaining records of these interactions in your CRM, nonprofits can personalize their outreach, recognize loyal supporters, and tailor future fundraising appeals based on past engagement. This data helps identify high-potential donors, re-engage lapsed supporters, and create meaningful connections that encourage long-term involvement.
2. Collect key data insights as donors engage.
The best time to gather valuable donor data is when supporters are actively engaging with your organization. Whether they’re making a donation, signing up for a newsletter, or attending an event, nonprofits should seize these moments to collect insights like employer information, communication preferences, and giving motivations.
Simple form fields or follow-up surveys can capture these details without overwhelming donors. By continuously collecting relevant data, organizations build richer donor profiles that improve engagement and fundraising outcomes.
3. Encourage self-reported updates.
Donors change jobs, move to new locations, and shift their philanthropic interests over time. To keep donor profiles accurate, nonprofits should provide easy ways for supporters to update their information on their own. For example, this can be done through self-serve donor portals, email campaigns with update requests, or periodic surveys.
All in all, encouraging donors to keep their profiles current ensures that nonprofits can reach them effectively and leverage opportunities like matching gifts and corporate giving programs.
4. Consider an append service to fill in gaps.
Even with proactive data collection, donor profiles may have missing or outdated information. Luckily, data append services can help nonprofits fill these gaps by cross-referencing donor records with external databases to update contact details, employment information, and more.
These services enhance donor insights without requiring additional effort from supporters, allowing nonprofits to maximize corporate giving potential and personalize outreach based on accurate, up-to-date data.
5. Ensure clean data practices.
Maintaining clean and organized donor data is crucial for effective fundraising and engagement. For the best results, nonprofits should regularly audit their databases to remove duplicates, correct outdated information, and standardize data formats.
Plus, implementing data hygiene best practices—such as consistent naming conventions, accurate email categorization, and privacy compliance—helps organizations avoid errors and ensures that fundraising efforts are based on reliable information.
All in all, a well-maintained donor database leads to more efficient outreach, better donor relationships, and increased fundraising success.
Wrapping up & additional resources
Incorporating employment data into donor profiles provides nonprofits with valuable insights that can significantly enhance their fundraising efforts. From identifying matching gift opportunities to engaging corporate partners in new ways, employment information enables organizations to maximize donations and build stronger donor connections.
By implementing effective data collection methods and leveraging workplace giving programs with the right tools and resources, nonprofits can optimize their fundraising strategies and drive greater impact in the long run.
Interested in learning more about nonprofit fundraising and corporate giving? Check out these additional resources: