Dues keep an association running. Non-dues revenue is what lets it do more: hire the policy analyst, lower the student rate, fund the scholarship. For most Canadian associations it is also what decides whether a hard year means cuts.
There is no shortage of ideas. The harder part is choosing the few that fit your members and your staff. This is a practical list, grouped by type, with what each one asks of you.
Four questions to ask of any idea
Before the list, a way to judge it. A good source of non-dues revenue passes most of these:
- Does it serve members? Revenue that members resent costs you at renewal. The best sources are ones members would want even if you earned nothing.
- How much staff time does it take each year? Some ideas earn once and then run. Others have to be sold, planned and delivered again every year.
- Does it compete with anyone you rely on? A new offer can step on a sponsor, a chapter or a member's own business.
- How predictable is it? A board can plan around revenue that arrives steadily. One-off windfalls are welcome but hard to budget.
Events and education
Conferences and exhibitor fees. The annual conference is the largest non-dues line for many associations. It earns from registration, exhibitor booths and sponsorship, and it costs the most staff time of anything on this list.
Webinars and online courses. Recorded sessions keep earning after the live date. A library of short courses can be sold to members at one price and to non-members at another.
Certification and continuing professional development. Where members need credits to keep a licence or designation, an association that offers or accredits that learning provides a service members need and will pay for. It takes real investment to set up and maintain standards.
Sponsorship and advertising
Annual sponsorship packages. Selling a year of visibility (the newsletter, the website, an event, a webinar series) to a few partners is less work than selling each item separately, and easier for the board to forecast.
Newsletter and website advertising. A well-read member newsletter is valuable to the companies that sell to your members. Keep it clearly labelled and relevant, or it erodes the trust that makes it worth buying.
Awards programs. Nomination fees, a sponsored gala and the visibility of the winners can make an awards program pay for itself and more.
Career services
A job board. Employers in your field want to reach your members. Job postings are a simple product to sell, and members value them.
Salary surveys and benchmark reports. Members contribute the data and get the results free or at a member price; employers, consultants and non-members pay for the full report.
Publications, research and standards
Journals and guides. Specialist content for your field can be sold by subscription, by issue or as a member benefit with a non-member price.
Templates, standards and licensing. If your association writes standard contracts, practice guidelines or forms, organizations outside your membership may pay to use or license them.
Member benefits programs
Group insurance and financial products. Arranged with an insurer or bank, these can be among the most valued benefits an association offers. They usually involve a negotiated agreement with one partner at a time.
A commission-based benefits portal. Members get member pricing on things they already buy for work and at home (phone plans, practice software, banking, travel), and a share of each vendor's commission comes back to the association. Once it is running it earns whenever members buy, without a new campaign each year.
Of everything on this list, a benefits program is the one that earns without being re-sold every year, which is why boards keep asking about it. Our non-dues revenue guide covers how the model works, a worked business case and what to ask a partner, and the calculator puts your own membership numbers into it.
Where to start
Pick one or two ideas that pass the four questions, not ten. Look at what members already ask you for, and at the companies that already want to reach them. Then measure what each one earns against the staff time it takes, and report it to the board in the same terms every year. That record is what lets you grow the sources that work and drop the ones that don't.
If a benefits program is on your list, book a call and we will walk through how MemberLoop would work for your association. It is free for your association: vendors pay the commission, a share comes back to you as non-dues revenue, and member data stays with your association.