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 wildapricot.com/membership-insight-survey 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.
For more information, visit wildapricot.com/membership-insight-survey wildapricot.com/membership-insight-survey 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 %); 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.
For more information, visit wildapricot.com/membership-insight-survey wildapricot.com/membership-insight-survey 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
For more information, visit wildapricot.com/membership-insight-survey wildapricot.com/membership-insight-survey 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
For more information, visit wildapricot.com/membership-insight-survey wildapricot.com/membership-insight-survey 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
For more information, visit wildapricot.com/membership-insight-survey wildapricot.com/membership-insight-survey 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
For more information, visit wildapricot.com/membership-insight-survey wildapricot.com/membership-insight-survey Top priorities The three top priorities for small organizations were: increasing membership (27.7%) increasing member engagement (22.1%) demonstrating member value (15%)
For more information, visit wildapricot.com/membership-insight-survey wildapricot.com/membership-insight-survey 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%)
For more information, visit wildapricot.com/membership-insight-survey wildapricot.com/membership-insight-survey Who manages small membership organizations day-to-day? Volunteer only % Staff only % Combination of volunteer & staff % 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
For more information, visit wildapricot.com/membership-insight-survey wildapricot.com/membership-insight-survey Small membership communications
For more information, visit wildapricot.com/membership-insight-survey wildapricot.com/membership-insight-survey Small membership communications Top 3 tools for communicating with existing members: – % – websites % – newsletters/magazines % Top 3 channels for renewal efforts: – % – websites -70% – direct mail % Recruitment channels: – websites - 92% – word-of-mouth % – - 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
For more information, visit wildapricot.com/membership-insight-survey wildapricot.com/membership-insight-survey Want additional insight into small membership organizations? You can download the full Small Membership Insights Survey Report here: