Why nonprofits benefit from web-based membership functionality

If you look at the nonprofit world, you may have noticed some significant changes in the last 5 to 10 years in how organizations acquire, maintain, and strengthen their membership bases.

One thing the Red Cross, The Humane Society, and many other nonprofits have in common is their successful online membership programs. All of them have built global customer bases by creating a form of online communities among their members, and the potential is limitless.

Now, once they have these successful membership programs, they need a convenient and visually appealing way to present these programs on their website.

This creates a hub: a central space for the admin and staff to access member information and display their offers.

The time, energy, and resources nonprofits are saving by having their membership programs on their website is significant. They’re easy to access, paperwork isn’t spread across multiple laptops or offices, and updates are easy.

This is something that is often overlooked among the non-profit sector, when in fact it shouldn’t be. It is vital that online membership programs stay organized. By doing this, your members, donors, and social impact will remain strong.

Here are more benefits for nonprofits adding an online membership program to their website:

Exclusive Access for Members

An important benefit of a nonprofit membership website is that they can give their members access to areas of the organization that most people would never normally see. For example, The Council To Reduce Elder Abuse (CREA) allows members to access recordings of meetings, reports, and even grant proposals.

Everyone wants to be informed and understand what’s going on inside all these seemingly secret organizations that we interact with. This works very well for CREA, one of our clients that helps their donors understand where their money is going.

This saves communication staff back and forth from having to go through these issues, as the information is displayed prominently on your website.

An organized directory

I think we can all agree with the phrase “Give credit where credit is due” and that is exactly what the BC Farmers’ Institute is doing through its innovative way of creating a non-profit website.

All members are producers from the province of British Columbia, and there is a special section on their website that highlights where the producers are located, a review about them, and their unique logo.

This provides much-needed marketing for these growers in a hyper-competitive market, while also showing all visitors to the BCFI website how many farmers the Institute is supporting.

This provides a significant amount of credibility when you have more than 20 featured farms. Also, having all your members visualized in this way creates organization and cohesion like no other.

content creators

Websites for nonprofit organizations are difficult to maintain and we understand how resources can be depleted most days.

Finding content that is new, exciting and relevant to the industry to keep your website fresh can be a struggle. So wouldn’t it make sense for your members to give you a hand on your website?

That’s exactly what Abbotsford-based FarmWest has achieved. With news and updates on their website that members can contribute to, they create a very communal feel about their nonprofit online membership, as well as sharing an interesting website.

Members will feel like they are truly contributing to their industry and that goes a long way to a non-profit’s reputation. Not to mention, it’s a lot less maintenance for hard-working employees.

READ: Competitive positioning for non-profit organizations

Does your nonprofit have a position statement? It is an important question that every organization must ask itself: what differentiates you from the competition?

The competitive positioning of nonprofits is more about the “why”: what is their mission? Your product is the good you are doing.

Read this article for tips on creating a nonprofit position statement for your organization.

Visit our website to read more.

save everyone’s time

Do you ever feel like you spend a lot of time on the phone explaining the same benefits over and over again to curious callers? Wouldn’t it save a lot of time with a beautiful website section that showcases and describes all the benefits of joining your membership program?

The Music Therapy Association has an excellent introduction to its member benefits in its information section, with clear and concise paragraphs to represent your information.

External links provide a more detailed picture and contact information is provided for those questions that go beyond what is on the site. Therefore, you are saving your own time and that of your members!

A searchable directory of member information is also included to show how qualified your members are. They generally provide an attractive online advertisement for their credibility.

The nonprofit industry is becoming increasingly competitive. From 2006 to 2016, the number of nonprofit organizations registered with the IRS increased from 1.48 million to 1.54 million, an increase of 4.5 percent.

It’s time for each and every nonprofit organization to find ways to stay competitive in the online space, just as all for-profit businesses are changing. Building online communities, saving time and resources, while solidifying impact, are all goals nonprofits should work toward.

These unique sections within a nonprofit website are vital to organizations and to maintaining the brand image that each organization has worked hard to build. Do yourself, your employees, and the nonprofit a favor and see how it can benefit you today.

We have long-standing success integrating nonprofit online membership programs into our clients’ websites for lasting results. Feel free to reach out to take your website to the next level!

For the success of your business,

Suzanne