Association membership is dipping, with travel restrictions and cutbacks adding pressure. Photo Credit: Adobe Stock/Maryna
Association membership is declining, especially in fields that rely on conferences for member generation, according to Marketing General’s mid-year update of its Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report.
“One of the challenges for people who rely on conferences for new member generation, which is typically one of the top ways people get new members, is government cutbacks and international travel limiting people coming into the United States,” Marketing General’s senior vice president Tony Rossel was reported to have told PCMA’s Associations Now.
In a recently released mid-year update, which surveyed associations in July and which asked how membership has changed over the past six months, specifically, whether membership numbers have increased or decreased and whether renewal rates have gone up or down, there has been a noticeable drop in growth in total membership.
When comparing responses from January to July, the percentage of associations reporting increases in membership dropped from 45% to 36%, while those reporting a decline rose from 26% to 36%.
There are similar patterns in renewal rates; associations reporting an increase in renewal rates dropped from 25% (in the main report) to 14% (in the mid-year update), while those reporting a decline went up from 27% (in the main report) to 37% (in the mid-year update).
Another concern is the decline in new member acquisition. Only 38% of survey respondents said their new member input had increased, down from 47% in January and 23% noted that new member acquisition has decreased.