Associations face falling membership and generational change. What should yours do?

With roughly 10,000 baby boomers retiring every day, association member demographics are changing fast. This shift raises fresh questions about whether associations can adapt to serve a new generation of members — or risk irrelevance.

To broaden their appeal to a wider spectrum of members, associations should refocus on their core mission of connecting people. Association leaders should also consider trends in how different generations, like Gen X, millennials and Gen Z, think about belonging and what they value most.

Keep reading to learn more about how association membership is evolving and what you can do to keep up.

What are the key membership challenges that associations face today?

In recent years, associations have begun facing two major challenges: their members have become less engaged and overall membership numbers are dropping. These trends are putting financial stress on associations and even leaving some leaders worried about the long-term viability of their organizations.

One big reason for both declines? Younger generations (as well as many older members) no longer assume that being an association member is valuable.

In years past, association leaders could count on a core membership that reliably paid dues, showed up to events and stayed connected throughout their careers. But as with so much else in the world, this pattern is changing.

Association members are now inundated with information — at work, on social media and in their personal lives. No one can keep up with all of it, and more members or potential members are wondering whether it’s worth devoting their limited bandwidth to what an association has to offer.

Before engaging with an organization, people increasingly want to quickly understand the benefits of doing so.

As a result, more association leaders need to start asking: How can we stay relevant? That question can help guide your association through this period of change and into tomorrow.

How are the needs of association members evolving as younger generations become members?

While people are more alike than different, there are notable trends in what members from different generations want and expect from their association membership. Baby boomers, Gen Xers, millennials and Gen Z all grew up in different eras and occupy different stages of life, which affects how they engage with each other and the world.

None of these trends are hard and fast rules but can be helpful to understand when you think about how to connect with your membership base. Consider that:

• Baby boomers enjoy tradition and are focused on legacy. Many boomers have been association members for decades and appreciate the routine of going to your flagship event every year and seeing their friends and colleagues. At or nearing retirement, they also want to know they’re leaving something behind.
• Gen Xers want to make things simpler. Members of this generation hold many leadership positions and are currently guiding their businesses or organizations through a strange, uncertain moment. Many simply don’t have time to take detours on the slow road.
• Millennials want both attention and impact. The first generation to adopt social media, many millennials got a taste for attention that hasn’t gone away. But most also care deeply about connection, organizational culture and doing work that makes the world a better place.
• Gen Z are mission-focused and don’t like hierarchy. Gen Z cares about connection and impact as much as millennials do. They also have a clear distaste for hierarchy and traditional structures, a trend that’s been influenced by growing up in a largely online world during a time of radical change.

You can see how these distinct preferences and worldviews could set the stage for a disconnect between your association and members. But does it have to go that way?

What strategies should associations explore to boost member engagement?

Associations offer members opportunities to meet people, learn new skills and navigate their careers that are at least as valuable for newer or younger members as they are for those nearing retirement. But to overcome disengagement, you need to meet your members where they are.

Here are three steps to help re-engage your membership and stay relevant.

1. Refocus on connecting people

Connecting people is what associations do best. Trainings and other resources are valuable and important, but associations shine by facilitating conversations and relationships between members.

So make that mission to connect your members with each other your primary focus. This starts with reviewing your offerings and overall strategic direction. What can you do differently here?

A willingness to take a long look at your association’s events strategy can be huge. You don’t necessarily need to reinvent the wheel, but you should explore how you can create events that feel more engaging and serve as an engine to connect members at all stages of their careers.

2. Upgrade your systems

Many associations are still running on legacy association management software (AMS) rather than more modern cloud-based platforms. Unfortunately, this makes it harder for you to collect and analyze accurate membership data and also puts real limits on your ability to broaden your reach through automation.

Thoughtfully upgrading your tech to a platform that allows you to work more efficiently and effectively can help you better engage with members throughout their membership life cycle. By integrating your data from marketing, events, programs, sponsorships and other sources into a single unified database, you’ll be able to draw clearer, smarter insights into what your members want and how you can better serve their needs.

But don’t just rely on analyzing member behavioral data here. Talk to your members too, and then use your analytics tools to help you find trends from what you learn in those conversations.

3. Segment your offerings to meet the needs of different generations

Up-to-date systems can also help you better segment your marketing and program offerings to connect with members with different backgrounds, motivations or career stage needs. Consider where you could tailor your outreach or services to younger, mid-career or near-retirement members and how to approach those different groups.

For example, younger generations are often more comfortable with technology, so they could value targeted digital micro-learnings to help them learn skills that would be valuable to their future career prospects. A targeted program focused on how to develop your late-career legacy could be appealing to members nearing retirement age.

This doesn’t mean prioritizing one group of members over another, just exploring different options for how to reach them.

How Wipfli can help

We help associations grow, engage their members and deliver on their core mission. Let’s talk about your goals and how we help you strengthen your organization to achieve them. Start a conversation.

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