January 13, 2010 | Read Time: 1 minute
A new partnership between a university and the American Society of Association Executives aims to help nonprofit associations more effectively recruit members, raise money, and strengthen their work in other ways.
North Carolina State University’s Institute for Nonprofits is working with the Washington organization, which represents both nonprofit and business associations, to apply academic research to the work of membership organizations.
“Academic researchers can really dig deep and get much more depth and breadth of data and answer questions about what’s happening and why,” said Mary Tschirhart, who directs the Institute for Nonprofits. “But we need to know what the field really needs to know.”
The researchers could help nonprofit membership organizations answer questions on a number of topics, including how best to recruit members, build a diverse set of members, attract volunteers, win donations, develop compensation practices, and shape professional-development opportunities, she said.
Ms. Tschirhart said the partnership would enable researchers to conduct a sophisticated analysis of the relationship between diversity among staff members of a membership organization, for example, and its nonprofit members.
“Some of these surveys talk a little about satisfaction of members but don’t break down to see if certain demographic groups are more satisfied than others and whether that’s resulted in lower renewal rates,” she said. “We can dig deeper.”
Much of the ASAE’s existing surveys and information on membership organizations, as well as information on future research projects, will soon be available on the Institute for Nonprofits’ Web site.
