For more information, visit wildapricot.com/membership-insight-survey wildapricot.com/membership-insight-survey Survey Highlights

For more information, visit wildapricot.com/membership-insight-survey

Survey Highlights


Small Membership Insight Survey – What’s it all about?

Since Wild Apricot’s goal is to help small associations and non-profits build websites, connect with supporters, grow and manage their membership, we wanted to gain more insight into their world.

So we conducted an online own survey to find out: who manages these organizations day-to-day, volunteers or staff; what are their funding sources and much more. We wanted to know: does size matter and if so, how?

In addition to gaining insight about smaller, volunteer-led organizations, we hope our survey findings offer benchmarking information for the staff and volunteers of small organizations.


Who participated in our survey?Here is a snapshot of our 559 survey respondents:

•63.7% of the respondents are (unpaid) volunteers.

•More than 40% are in leadership roles at their organization (e.g., President/Board Chair - 22.7%); Executive Director -20.4%)

•Just over 50% of survey respondents represented associations

•82.2% of our survey respondents were based in the United States (82.2%), with the remainder mainly from Canada, the UK and Australia.


What does a typical “small” membership organization look like?

Based on our survey data, a typical small membership organization…

•Has fewer than 500 members

•Is volunteer-led

•Is staffed by 1 full or part-time staffer


Portrait of a Small Membership Organization

Our survey data suggest a typical small membership organization…

•Has non-profit status

•Is a stand-alone organization

•Has a local or regional membership reach

•Has an annual budget less than $50,000


Budgets and Funding sources

Here’s a snapshot of the financial status of small membership organizations:

•Budgets: 61.5% have an annual budget less than $50,000

•Membership growth patterns: More than 75% reported membership levels had stayed the same or increased 10-50% in the last year


Budgets and Funding sources

• Income sources: 63.5% reported membership fees as a “critical source” of income; followed by events (34%), fundraising (21.8%), and sponsorship / advertising (17.5%)

• Membership fees: 54.6% had basic membership fees of $21.00-$99.00


Top prioritiesThe three top priorities for small organizations were:

•increasing membership (27.7%)

•increasing member engagement (22.1%)

•demonstrating member value (15%)


Reasons Members Join and Programs & Services Offered

The top three reasons members join were:•Networking (77.1%)•Member education/professional development (71.3%)•Learning best practices in their profession/field (43.7%)

The top three program and service categories:•Networking events (66.8%)•Member education/professional development (64.9%)•Information/publications/books (44.1%)


Who manages small membership organizations day-to-day?

• Volunteer only - 53.4%• Staff only - 23.3%• Combination of volunteer & staff

- 23.3%

Staffing levels: • 30% had 1 part-time staff• 23.4% had 1 full-time staff• 11% had 2 part-time staff• 11% had 3-5 part-time staff


Small membership communications


Small membership communications• Top 3 tools for communicating with

existing members: – Email - 97.3%– websites - 63.2%– newsletters/magazines - 58.7%

• Top 3 channels for renewal efforts: – email - 85.4%– websites -70%– direct mail - 38.3%

• Recruitment channels: – websites - 92%– word-of-mouth - 89.4%– email - 65%

• Social media use: – 54.5% use social media for member

communications– Recruitment:

• 50% use Facebook for recruitment • 25% use Twitter • 19.2% use LinkedIn


Want additional insight into small

membership organizations?

You can download the full Small Membership Insights Survey Report here:http://www.wildapricot.com/membership-insight-survey/

Documents

For more information, visit wildapricot.com/membership-insight-survey wildapricot.com/membership-insight-survey Survey Highlights