Before Members Can Say "Yes," They Have to Find You

When membership growth stalls, associations tend to interrogate the offer. The value proposition gets another round of focus groups. Dues get benchmarked against peers. Someone suggests the onboarding sequence needs a refresh. It is well-intentioned work, and much of it is worth doing. But it rests on an assumption that rarely gets tested: that the people who didn’t join looked at the offer and passed.

Many of them never looked.

Higher Logic's "2025 Association Member Experience Report" found that 46 percent of nonmembers aren't aware of an association relevant to them. Cost, the barrier associations about which most worry, came in at 33 percent. The most common reason people stay out has nothing to do with price or value. They don't know the association exists.

Please select this link to read the complete article from ASAE's Center for Association Leadership.