Associations, service-oriented charities, advocacy groups and sports clubs are types of nonprofits that raise money for their mission through membership fees and dues in exchange for benefits and other perks.

Offering your members outstanding service and excellent value is one way to attract subscribers. Use the following three tips to increase your member’s loyalty and engagement and transform them into advocates for our cause that help you to grow your membership rolls.

Build your community

To recruit and retain members, you must create a thriving organisation, where members are excited to participate, and, refer others to your association. A thriving organisation can be defined by the activity level of its members.

Time and again, it has been shown that the most active, resilient organisations are those where members share the same values and interests and feel united, and become passionate, about the same purpose.

If you want your nonprofit’s mission and activities at the top of your members’ minds, it’s up to you to build your community. Create opportunities where your members have a chance to build authentic relationships with one another and encourage them to collaborate and share with one another to grow your nonprofit.

Most of us are seeking a sense of inclusion and acceptance from the groups that we belong to. To grow your membership rolls, your NFP must answer this need. Start your relationship off right by giving your new members a warm welcome! In addition to your nonprofit’s welcome letter that explains their benefits, assemble a committee to reach out to new members at events, meetings and other gatherings. Make sure that they know how much their membership is appreciated!

Keep the conversations, and relationships, going, by hosting events throughout the year that will allow your members to participate more directly in your organisation’s work. If you haven’t already, give your members special volunteer activities, and encourage them to get involved by advocating for your cause. Create a member directory, and offer an online forum, where members can connect, chat together online and share their stories.

Increase the relevancy of your NFP’s communications

All of us are inundated with dozens, if not hundreds, or emails and other forms of messaging, every single day. General information can be a burden, so take the time to personalise all of your communications and make sure that the information that you send your members is actually relevant to them.

Take the time to get to know your members and understand who they are as people, what they are interested in, and what motivates them. What information are they likely to find useful?

Find out how often they prefer to be contacted, and what formats do they prefer. Use demographic information, such as age, and location to help you further refine the type of communications, and content that you send your members so that it is meaningful to their specific segment to increase you’re the open and conversion rates on your emails and other forms of communication.

Don’t forget to integrate social media into your overall communications strategy. Add a donate button to your Facebook profile page and make content shareable across multiple social media platforms to increase the reach of your message. Invest some of your ad spend into social media campaigns, but don’t forget to use segmentation and personalisation here as well to improve your results.

While it seems like a simple step, an amazing number of nonprofits fail to personalise their communications, and don’t take advantage of analytics to discover their member’s interests and needs. They then fail to use segmentation and targeting to give members what they want and need regarding relevant, engaging content that increases the member’s sense of community and belonging to the organisation. Address these needs, and your membership rolls will increase.

Education – make sure your members understand what’s in it for them

Do the majority of your members understand how membership in your organisation benefits them and others? It’s up to you to educate your members about the value they receive from their member benefits.

While you could simply list your member’s benefits, that doesn’t really inform them of the work that your organisation does to improve their lives. Use member stories, statistics and other data to illustrate the impact made by the benefits you provide. Your organisation makes a difference, help your members understand this difference in personal terms that matter to them.

Once your members know why you exist, and why it matters to them, you will not only retain them, but, will convert them into brand ambassadors that actively participate and promote your organisation to their friends and family members!