Retooling Your Business Model

electric car charger plugged into a silver car

Earlier this week, Associations Now profiled a recent report from McKinley Advisors, Business Model Innovation, in which they identify five innovation elements that can provide the revenue that fuels your association’s ability to achieve your mission:

  1. Value – rethink your value proposition
  2. Revenue – pursue new pricing strategies
  3. Community – provide opportunities for relationship-building, both online and in-person
  4. Reach – expand your thinking beyond just your members
  5. Operations – get your own house in order to support all this

These are all good points.

But how do you actually do those things?

One possibility: lean startup methodology.

Lean startup allows you to jump start your innovation practice and non-dues revenue via a structured process that can help you to learn whether you’ve identified the right audience, whether you’ve selected a problem that’s both real and significant for them, and whether your audience is willing to use – and pay for – your great idea to solve their problem.

Remember: It doesn’t matter how quickly you’re moving if you’re headed in the wrong direction.

Learn how Spark can help.

Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash

 

Reaching Detente With Your Chapters

pink and white boxing gloves on a grey concrete background

One of the truisms of association management is that national/chapter relationships are often…fraught. Even though we’re all ostensibly on the same side, it doesn’t always feel that way. Each side feels like the other is holding out on the them or trying to gain advantage, and the lack of trust that results makes it hard to communicate and to work together for the good of the organization as a whole and, ultimately, the profession or industry you serve.

How do you get past this?

I was recently chatting with some colleagues who were working through this exact problem. Details concealed, of course, but a little background. The organization has chapters in every state. As is common, some are quite strong and many are less so. The national provides staff support for chapters, but it’s in the form of two staff members who are both in DC (and in the eastern time zone).

The national wants to switch to an “account executive” model, dividing the country into regions and locating a regional chapter support manager in each of them. Those regional managers would still report to the national membership director, but they would work remotely and be charged solely with supporting the chapters in their region (so they would really work FOR the chapters).

Sounds great, right? Unless you’re a strong chapter that’s worried that this is a power grab by the national. And there is one chapter in particular with a strong, nationally-known executive and a full staff of their own. The national staff is concerned that she will lead the revolt that will doom their plan to help struggling chapters by providing better overall support and coordination.

What we realized is that this apparent negative could actually be a huge advantage. But it would all depend on the approach. Going to the strong chapter executive with, “This is the plan that we, the national, in our great and mighty wisdom, have devised for you, the poor little chapters, and you’ll accept it whether you want to or not!” would result in disaster. It turns her into an opponent immediately. “My chapter is just fine, and we don’t need your help/interference, thanks.”

But, if the national approached the strong chapter executive with this as a POSSIBLE idea to provide better support for the chapters that they’d very much like her to PILOT for them before they consider rolling it out to all the chapters, suddenly, we’re on the same side of the table working together to solve a problem.

Of course, the national has to be genuine. The program really IS a pilot and is open to modification – or even being dumped – based on the experiences of the beta group, which should probably consist of some chapters of all types, strong and weak. The staff person would remain at the national headquarters during the pilot, but she would switch her work schedule to better align with the region’s time zone. And if the beta testers came up with a better idea, the national would pilot that as well.

How can you start standing next to your chapters facing issues together rather than standing opposite them and *being* the issue?

Photo by Arisa Chattasa on Unsplash

Is a Consultant Right for Me?

Woman with short dark hair, glasses, and red lipstick wearing a black and red flower pattern blouse standing against a brown carved wooden door and making a quizzical face

You know you need help with something, but you’re not sure if you should hire a consultant, a contractor, a vendor, or add a staff position. How can you decide?

I recently had the opportunity to participate in a discussion about this with association colleagues representing all those background and options.

We did come up with some good questions to help you figure it out:

  • Do you want someone who can be “brutally honest” in telling truth to power?
  • Do you need this skill set every day forever or do you just need it for now?
  • Do you need this skill set full time or part time?
  • What will the IRS think about the way this person is classified?

Working in reverse order:

IRS

The IRS will be displeased if you try to classify someone as 1099 if they really work for you. There are a variety of tests the person has to pass – here’s a good summary – but an easy test is: Does this person have or actively seek other clients?

FT v PT

Plenty of small associations don’t need a full time dedicated staff person for things like IT support, HR, finance, even maybe running your conference or membership renewals. Those are all good candidates for outsourcing, to a contractor, vendor, or even an AMC (association management company).

Forever v For Now

You may not need active guidance on strategic direction every single day. You do need implementation of your strategic direction every single day. Setting your strategy may be a good place to engage a consultant, not least of which because we have the advantage of perspective – we’ve seen a LOT of associations representing a LOT of different professions and industries. Executing your strategy requires staff, and it requires those staff members to understand not only where you are and want to go, but why.

“Brutally honest”

Boards of directors are sometimes suspicious of consultants. “Why are we paying this person all this money for something we could’ve done ourselves?”

Well, one, you didn’t do it yourself, which is why you need me to do it for you.

Being a bit less flip, sure, association staff or volunteers could compile and review data and documents, talk to members and other audiences, benchmark against other associations, and do sector and trend research. But do any of them actually have the time to do that? Staff members have, you know, their day-to-day JOBS, and so do volunteer leaders.

But in a larger sense, while it is OFTEN the case that staff members tacitly know what needs to happen, consultants can explain WHY it needs to happen by doing all that data work and research, and because of our knowledge of and exposure to lots of different organizations. Ideally, the consultant is a compliment to the staff on knowledge, insight, and even execution.

As one of my fellow consultant participants in the conversation put it: “I’m not here to replace your job. I want coach and train staff into implementing my recommendations, which is the thing that will actually make the difference, not the report itself.”

Photo by Paola Aguilar on Unsplash

Can I Trust You?

Two women in a field holding hands and leaning back away from each other, trusting that the other woman will hold her up

I was recently thinking about something my very smart friend Jamie Notter is fond of saying: Trust and risk are correlated. As trust goes up, risk goes up. In order to lower risk, we also end up lowering trust.

Ever wondered why staff members have such strong reactions to new policies at your association? Voilà. That reads, on some level, like you don’t trust them.

Here’s the thing: we can’t just throw out all our policies and skip merrily along trusting everyone completely and all the time. First of all, my many lawyer friends would be out of business if we did.

But also, it’s not realistic. There are people out there who, through ignorance, accident or ill intent, can harm our associations. Our members and the other communities we serve have the right to expect us to do what we can to protect our associations, by preventing what risks we can and being prepared to ameliorate those we can’t.

On the other hand, our staff members deserve respect and professional courtesy. After all, if we can’t trust them even a little bit, why did we hire them in the first place?

I don’t have the perfect answer to this. In fact, there isn’t one. Different organizations have different levels of tolerance for and exposure to risk. If you deal with HIPAA protected data, you know exactly what I mean.

I think this raises and important consideration for us as part of our own risk calculations. We often focus on the downsides of being more open, more trusting, etc in assessing risk. Do we think about the other side: What is the risk of reducing trust?

Photo by Julia Caesar on Unsplash

Truck Stuck! Now What?

Book cover, Truck Stuck, by Sallie Wolf, illustrations by Andy Robert Davies - cartoon style drawing of big red truck stuck under an overpass

I think we’re all familiar with the story of Truck Stuck by Sallie Wolfe. It’s a charming children’s book in which the kids are the heroes, figuring out a creative solution to get the truck unstuck.

Where do ideas come from in your organization?

Or, to be more precise, who’s ALLOWED to have an idea?

In far too many associations, the answer is definitely not “anyone!”

Are ideas only the province of a certain department? The CEO? The VPs? The Board? Are people only allowed to express ideas that relate directly to their own areas of responsibility?

My point? Anyone can have a good idea, about anything, at any time, whether it’s the mail clerk realizing a way to make your direct mail marketing campaign more effective or an IT tech coming up with a great team building idea or kids figuring out that you need to let the air out of the truck’s tires for it to pass.

We need to make sure we give a fair audience to ideas, no matter where they come from.

Treat them all equally, implement them when you can, encourage your staff and colleagues either way, and always, always, always give credit.

Of Non Dues Revenue and Opportunity Costs

A black vacuum cleaner sucking up US dollar bills on a hardwood floor background

I recently had the opportunity to participate in an ASAE Marketing Mavens call focused on association career centers.

My question for the group was: Many of my clients are finding that their career centers are not performing as well as they used to. Anyone else experiencing this? Thoughts as to why this is happening? Anyone come up with any solutions?

Participants came up with lots of good ideas and suggestions:

  • Lots of folks reported similar experiences – declining use, declining revenue. Sometimes that was a result of competing with yourself, with members posting jobs directly in private online communities for free. Sometimes that was a result of outside competition from platforms like LinkedIn and Glassdoor. There are lots of opportunities for free posting that also reach much larger audiences.
  • Another issue people raised was: Is it even appropriate to classify a career center as a “member benefit” if everyone has access? On the other hand, it’s totally counter-productive to restrict access to the job listings, as then the site is no longer useful to employers who pay to list jobs.
  • One participant mentioned that the industry their association serves experiences regular pauses in hiring due to change of presidential administrations and resulting uncertainty. (This is kind of a separate issue, as other participants agreed that for their associations, declining participation and revenue are a longer-term trend.)
  • We talked about the importance of promoting your association’s career center effectively, with several participants recommending using a third party platform with a revenue share if at all possible. Career center vendors tend to have dedicated marketing teams and proven tools you can use, which an association trying to do this internally may lack.
  • Participants that were still experiencing success reported that their associations were more focused on providing a “career community,” of which the job board is only one component. They were adding services like career coaching, career advice content, on-site job fairs at conferences, and resume review.
  • Other suggestions included: giving members one free job listing a year (via a promo code), opening up the career center to internships as well as full time paid positions, offering display ads on the site for things other than just jobs, and reserving new postings for member-only access for the first 72 hours.

But (here’s a dated reference for you), the $64,000 question is: Is there still any value in doing this?

And it got me thinking about the concept of opportunity cost. Career centers have historically been good sources of non dues revenue for associations. And if your career center is still bringing in at least some revenue, and the investment of time and attention from your staff to create that revenue stream is minimal, then it’s probably worth continuing, at least for the time being.

But that’s a calculation you need to keep an eye on in ALL your programs, products, and services: What’s the benefit? What’s the cost? Not just direct dollars, but also staff time and attention that, if devoted to this, are not available for something else that might either produce more revenue or be more valuable to members or both?

Photo by rc.xyz NFT gallery on Unsplash

 

Most People Don’t…But You Do!

Dual-screen of Bart Berkey and Elizabeth Engel recording the Most People Don't...But You Do! podcast

I was honored to join Bart Berkey on the Most People Don’t…But You Do! podcast recently.

Our conversation centered around the importance of asking tough questions and, even more so, how to deliver tough answers in a way that is direct yet empathetic, which makes it easier for people to embrace change.

Bart and I discussed challenges and strategies within the association industry, including membership management, revenue generation, and non-traditional fundraising methods, with an emphasis on practical solutions, critical thinking, and asking tough questions to drive meaningful change.

We concluded the session with a focus on the essential role of associations in society and the continuous need to adapt and innovate in response to evolving environments.

Download the episode at:

Associations Evolve: 2025 & Beyond

Associations Evolve 2025: Answers for Associations text over a grid of author headshots

The latest edition of Associations Evolve just dropped.

I’m honored to be included with 39 of my very smart association peers in this FREE annual publication, packed with advice designed to help associations worldwide get ready for what’s next in an environment of ever-accelerating change.

Inside, you’ll find:

  • Strategies for embracing AI without losing the human touch
  • Fresh takes on membership models that engage and inspire
  • Real stories of resilience and innovation from associations worldwide
  • Practical tools to help you adapt and thrive

Plus my piece, Innovate the Lean Way, introducing the key concepts in lean startup methodology and explaining why I think it’s an ideal approach for associations to take to evaluating new ideas for non-dues revenue programs, products, and services.

Whether you’re planning for the future, navigating technological shifts, or rethinking member engagement, this journal has been designed to spark ideas and provide practical guidance.

Download your copy at: https://bit.ly/AEJ2025.

The Circular Economy

Ellen MacArthur Foundation circular economy illustration

What is the circular economy? Why does it matter to associations?

Per the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency:

“A circular economy reduces material use, redesigns materials, products, and services to be less resource intensive, and recaptures ‘waste’ as a resource to manufacture new materials and products.”

This is in contrast to our more customary linear economy, “in which resources are mined, made into products, and then become waste.”

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation has created a useful graphic to illustrate how this works, which is the image for this post (to see a larger version, visit: https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/circular-economy-diagram​).

This graphic breaks all human activities down into two cycles: a biological cycle and a technical cycle. In the circular economy, all activities derive from and return to renewable sources throughout their entire lifecycle.

Once a material enters the cycle, the main question becomes: How do we eliminate waste?

The biological side is easy to understand, as we’re already familiar with natural restoration processes. As long as we do not take too much at any one time, or pollute natural resources beyond their ability to recover, any natural resources humans use can be fed back into the system in order to regenerate nature’s own stock. If you compost food or yard waste at home, you’ve already seen this process in action.

On the technical side, users and manufacturers share responsibility for eliminating waste.

The first level tasks users with sharing resources. In practice, that looks like Zipcar, public transportation, borrowing tools from a neighbor rather than buying, or checking out books and other resources from your local library.

The second level involves both users and manufacturers in maintaining or prolonging use. Manufacturers are tasked with developing durable, affordable, easy-to-repair products, and users are tasked with taking the trouble to repair those products when they break rather than just throwing them out. Even now, many municipalities offer free hands-on repair clinics, where people can bring in broken items and learn from experts how to fix them, with the necessary tools provided.

On the third level, reusing and redistributing can happen in a one-to-one user way, for instance, via Buy Nothing groups and neighborhood-based “curb-cycling,” or at a larger scale via thrifting and second-hand shops or even at the level of the original manufacturer taking used products back and reselling them. If you’ve ever bought a used car, you’ve participated in this process.

The fourth and fifth levels depend on manufacturers to refurbish products, break them down into their component parts for use in remanufacturing, or recycle base materials into something new.

In all cases, the goal is to minimize anything that drops entirely out of the system, e.g., “systematic leakage and negative externalities,” and to learn to live with less.

Questions for associations:

  • What resources might your association be able to share with another organization? Office space or equipment? Exhibiting materials?
  • If you sell or give away any physical objects, can you ensure that they’re durable and well-made, able to be used, repaired, and re-used over the long term?
  • Can you make it a policy to select vendors for durable goods your association purchases that have processes for refurbishing, remanufacturing, or recycling those goods when they’re at the end of their useful lifespans?

(excerpted from ​The Time Is Now: Association Resilience and Adaptation and the Anthropocene Climate Disruption​ – full text freely available at https://bit.ly/3qK5EfZ​)

Big Footprints: How Associations Are Becoming More Sustainable

Engaging in the Next podcast logo

In the latest episode of the “Engaging in the Next” podcast, I had the opportunity to chat with Colby Horton and Frank Humada about why it’s crucial for associations to take action on climate change and sustainability.

Our conversation addressed  the importance of measuring and actively reducing carbon footprints, urging associations to move beyond relying on carbon offsets. We discussed examples of innovative practices within the association space and encouraged organizations to set small, attainable goals while leveraging their collective power to advocate for impactful environmental policy changes.

(We also got into being a foodie, heated sports rivalries – GO BIRDS! – and jazz.)

Check it out at:

The whitepaper we discussed is freely available at https://associationclimateactioncoalition.com/.

Also, the Association Climate Action Coalition has a free online community (thanks to the generous support of the team at Breezio) where association execs can gather to share resources and good practices, ask questions, and get advice for developing resilience and learning how to adapt to climate change at https://ac3.breezio.com/.