The Power of Volunteer Membership Drives: Build Camaraderie, Engage the Community and Boost the Budget
When it comes to growing your chamber’s membership, few strategies are as dynamic and engaging as a volunteer membership drive. Not only do these drives bring in new members, but they also create a vibrant, team-oriented atmosphere that strengthens relationships between your chamber and the community. However, like any initiative, they come with both their benefits and challenges. Let's dive into the pros and cons of volunteer membership drives.
The Benefits: More Than Just Numbers
Volunteer Training and Leadership Development Volunteer membership drives are excellent opportunities to train and develop your chamber’s volunteers. Participants learn the the importance of chambers in a community and the ins and outs of membership recruitment, enhancing their communication, negotiation, and leadership skills. This hands-on experience helps volunteers grow personally and professionally, making them more effective in their roles within the chamber and their broader careers.
Camaraderie and Team Spirit One of the most rewarding aspects of a volunteer membership drive is the camaraderie it fosters. Volunteers come together with a shared goal, building relationships and creating a strong sense of team spirit. This unity often extends beyond the drive itself, strengthening the chamber's overall culture and sense of community.
Friendly Competition Adding an element of friendly competition can make the membership drive even more engaging. Volunteers are organized into teams, with prizes awarded for the most new members recruited. This not only makes the process more fun but also motivates participants to give their best effort, ultimately benefiting the chamber and the community.
Fun and Engaging Experience Membership drives, especially when infused with creative themes or events, can be a lot of fun for everyone involved. Whether it’s a themed recruitment day, a celebratory lunch, or an after-drive social event, these experiences make volunteering enjoyable, ensuring participants are eager to return for future drives.
New Members and Revenue Boost The most obvious benefit of a membership drive is the influx of new members. This increase not only expands your chamber’s network but also boosts your revenue. Additionally, the concept of “stick money”—funds that become a reliable part of your annual budget—means that the revenue generated from new memberships during these drives can be a steady, predictable source of income year after year. “Stick money” is accredited to my friend, Beth Morrison, who worked at the Dalton Chamber in Georgia for years!
The Challenges: Addressing Retention Concerns
While volunteer membership drives are highly effective at bringing in new members and a budget boost with the income, they do present some challenges, particularly in the area of retention.
Retention Isn’t Great -The biggest downside to volunteer membership drives is that retention rates will be lower than with other staff recruitment methods. New members acquired through these drives may join on a whim or due to persuasive volunteers, their friends, but might not be local to the community or fully understand the value of chamber membership. As a result, they may not renew their membership after the first year, leading to a lower retention rate. Even though retention isn’t great, having a $50,000 membership drive and retaining half of those members in the renewal year; and, for most chambers, $25,000 in the budget the next year is equivalent to many event profits.
Maximizing the Benefits While Mitigating the Challenges
To overcome the retention issue, it's crucial to have a robust onboarding process in place. Immediately following the drive, new members should be welcomed and educated about the chamber’s offerings. Personalized engagement, such as welcome calls, introductory meetings, and invitations to key events, can help new members feel connected and understand the value of staying involved.
Development of an intentional onboarding e-mail series over a 90-day period for the new members could help them understand the benefits and help with renewals. The email series could include a welcome, an overview of a few benefits per email, log-in information to their online portal, a free ticket to attend a meeting or event, testimonials from other members of how the chamber has helped their businesses and more!
Let us know if we can help!
Again, volunteer membership drives are a powerful tool for chambers, offering a blend of fun, community engagement, and revenue generation. While challenges like retention can arise, these can be managed with the right strategies in place. By focusing on both recruitment and retention, your chamber can maximize the benefits of volunteer membership drives, ensuring that new members become long-term supporters and that the “stick money” continues to bolster your budget year after year.
We offer our S.T.A.R. (Success Through Active Recruiting) New Member Program and would love to chat with you if you are interested in learning more about it! You can contact us at teri@starfishpartnerships.