John Madigan's Blog

Chamber Member Savings/Discount Programs

This post is part of an ongoing series on Chamber of Commerce leadership, organization, and membership. The posts are intended for Chamber staff but anyone who works in a membership organization can apply the concepts.

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Chamber Discount/Savings Programs

What often surprises me is how few real (i.e. valuable) discounts Chambers offer their members. A typical Chamber might have a discount for Office Depot and airport parking, but that's it. Why so few discounts?

Or worse yet, Chambers will offer their members "Hot Deals" or "Member to Member Discounts" that would more aptly be labeled advertising/marketing offers disguised as savings/discounts. 

It's a shame. Especially since Chambers have the benefit of leverage. They can leverage the number of businesses and employees they represent to get discounts and savings on products/services used by their members every day. 

So what gives?

A few reasons.

First, most Chambers don't have the time/resources to individually negotiate deals on behalf of their members. This isn't a good excuse because if Chamber don't have time to create new additional member benefits, what are they spending their time doing?

A second, better excuse is that trying to negotiate deals for one Chamber doesn't create enough leverage to get significant discounts. Vender's need thousands of people using the deals, not hundreds.

A third excuse is that Chambers only want to offer deals to their members that offer a commission back to the Chamber. And since the majority of vendors do not offer a commission, Chambers don't offer their deals.

If you're a Chamber staff member and any of these excuses make you mad or frustrated, they should. Chamber can (and should) do better in this regard. How you ask?

One option is to partner with other Chambers/associations. What if Chambers were to aggregate multiple Chamber's members? Then, there would be enough leverage to negotiate serious deals from national brands.

Enter Cost Cooperative.

Cost Cooperative is our newest partner at the Santa Monica Chamber (where I act as the Membership Director). They are leveraging the buying power of multiple Chambers and associations and their members to get great deals for Chamber members.

Before you ask, no, our Chamber isn't making any money from this partnership. Our goal is to create real benefits for our members that will lead to more businesses wanting to join the Chamber (thus increasing membership sales).

The  more Chambers that get involved, the bigger the negotiating power will be and the greater the benefits/savings participating Chambers can offer their members.

There isn't any good reason Chambers shouldn't join forces and create a real savings/discounts platform that's filled with great offers from recognizable (and trusted) brands. 

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What do you think? Is this something your Chamber would be interested in? Have you seen platforms like this before and if so, what has been your experience with them?

Creating & Evaluating Member Benefits

This post is part of an ongoing series on Chamber of Commerce leadership, organization, and membership. The posts are intended for Chamber staff but anyone who works in a membership organization can apply the concepts.

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Member Benefits

A constant discussion among membership organizations is the right number of member benefits. Are more benefits better? Less benefits? Should weaker benefits be eliminated?

There aren't any easy answers to these important questions. And because each Chamber is different, the number and type of member benefits will vary.

Since there is such a diversity in the type/number of member benefits, Chambers should be more concerned with a process of member benefit creation and evaluation. If there is a solid process, then the appropriate number and type of member benefits will emerge.

Defining a Member Benefit

What is a member benefit?

It's a solution to a member need. For example, members come to the Chamber with the desire to expand their professional network. They want/need to make more professional connections. To satisfy that need, the Chamber organizes networking events.

Member benefits are the lifeblood of Chambers (and other membership organizations). And because they play such an important role, it's critical that Chambers use a process to ensure the quality of those benefits.

Here is a 4 step process to create and evaluate member benefits. 

4 Steps Process to Create & Evaluate Member Benefits

Step 1: Create

The first step is coming up with an idea for a benefit. Maybe it comes from Chamber staff or directly from the members. Maybe you'll be approached by companies with partnership ideas for new member benefits.

But tread carefully, always make sure that the benefit is really a solution to a member need. You'll recognize a need when multiple members start asking for help with a certain aspect of their business or asking if your Chamber sells a certain product/service. 

For example, suppose a number of members asked if they can promote their events on your online events calendar. Since your events calendar is probably just for Chamber events, you might say no. But, you might also realize that if enough members are asking for this, it could indicate a need that the Chamber could solve with a member benefit (i.e. creating a community calendar). Proceed to step 2.

Step 2: Implement

The second step is taking the idea and evaluating/gathering the resources to implement it. This step starts with questions and ends with action. Here are some questions you can ask yourself before implementing the benefit:

• Complexity of implementation?
• Costs associated with implementation? (staff time, money, energy)
• Projected members served?
• Ongoing maintenance (cost, time, energy) of benefit?
• Can the benefit be self-service (i.e. not require staff time/energy once implemented)?
• Can the Chamber provide this benefit better than anyone else in the Community?

Consider these questions a quick cost/benefit analysis for your suggested member benefit. By doing some basic due diligence, you can weed out the losers and focus your attention on the benefits that have real potential.

Building on the community calendar example in Step 1 above, it is probably simple to implement a new community calendar on your website. Ask your web manager to give you a quick estimate on cost. The projected members served could be quite large, since members have their own events all the time. Ongoing maintenance is a tricky one. Many online calendars are not self-service. This means that every time someone wanted to add a new event to the calendar, you would need to manually input the event information. This may raise a red flag. Finally, it's worth a quick web search to research other event calendars for your community. Is this a resource the Chamber can provide that will be better than the other event calendars in your community. Or will it just be buried on your Chamber website? 

These are the sort of questions your staff must evaluate before fully implementing the new benefit. In the final analysis, you'll know whether or not to implement the benefit. 

Step 3: Promote

Three words: communicate, communicate, communicate. No one cares about benefits they don't know about.

The Chamber must communicate two things: (1) the benefit and; (2) how to use it. Do they need to contact a specific staff member? Create an account? Call an account rep?  

Whether you do this through email, direct mail, phone or in person, communicating the benefits available and how to use them will make or break your offering of benefits.

Step 4: Evaluate

Constant evaluation is essential to member benefit relevancy. Still think your members gain tons of value from a "business listing" on your website? Think again.

It's almost sacrosanct to eliminate a benefit and thus, the list of member benefits just keeps growing. But guess what? It's OK to eliminate member benefits. It's better to eliminate weak benefits if it creates more resouces to focus on the stronger ones.

Some questions to consider when evaluating a benefit (similar to the questions you ask before implementing a new member benefit):

• What member need does this benefit serve?
• Approximate number of members served?
• Ongoing costs associated with the benefit? (staff time, money, energy)
• Can the Chamber provide this benefit better than anyone else in the community?
• Approximate value of this benefit to members?
• Would anyone notice if the benefit was eliminated?

For many Chambers, Step 4 should be the first step in the process. There already have a list of members benefits that hasn't been evaluated for months (or even years). Evaluating each benefit one by one will shed light on benefits that need to be enhanced, changed or eliminated.

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Thoughts? Does your Chamber use a process to routinely evaluate member benefits and their relevance?

How many members do you have? (Hint: the answer isn't that important)

This post is part of an ongoing series on Chamber of Commerce leadership, organization, and membership. The posts are intended for Chamber staff but anyone who works in a membership organization can apply the concepts.

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How many members do you have?

After attending the annual WACE Conference (a conference for Chamber Executives), I was reminded of the typical question Chamber Execs routinely ask each other every year to gage their own Chamber's performance. That questions is "how many members to you have?"

The problem with this question is that the answer is relatively unimportant (other than a general barometer of Chamber size). Sure, in a membership organization like a Chamber of Commerce one piece of data is the number of members.  

But does the number of members really give a Chamber a good sense of the strength of its organization? I think not. Wouldn't a Chamber rather have 500 committed members instead of 750 apathetic ones? Without a doubt. 

Instead of focusing on the number of members, Chambers should focus on the value (i.e. quality) of those members. Sure, more is typically better in membership organizations. But quality is much more important than quantity.

So what question(s) should Chambers be asking about the value of their members?

Here are a couple suggestions:

• [Participation] How many members participate in events? Committees? Volunteering?
• [Financial] What is your lowest and highest membership fee? Lifetime value of a member?
• [Promotion/Referrals] How many referrals does your Chamber get from members?
• [Brand Recognition] Do well known and respected businesses join the Chamber?
• [Loyalty] What is your retention rate?
• [Feedback] How many members routinely give you feedback? Suggestions for improvement?
• [Communication] How many members receive, open, and engage with your communications?

These questions are just a starting point for a more meaningful discussion about Chamber membership and the value of members (instead of just the number).

Hopefully next time you run into other Chamber Execs, you'll think twice about how many members they have and instead inquire about the quality of their members.

Thoughts? What questions do you think Chambers should be asking each other to assess the value of their membership?

Non-Dues Revenue is for Non-Chambers

This post is part of an ongoing series on Chamber of Commerce leadership, organization, and membership. The posts are intended for Chamber staff but anyone who works in a membership organization can apply the concepts.

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Non-Dues Revenue

A topic that floats around Chamber of Commerce circles is non-dues revenue. Most Chambers are strapped for cash and the prospect of finding an alternate revenue stream (other than membership dues) is appealing.

Chamber staff members whisper stories about that one Chamber that made $30k from a trip to China in non-dues revenue. And if a Chamber has had success with non-dues revenue sources, more power to them.

But in my experience, these stories are the exception, not the rule. Far more likely is a Chamber uses significant staff time, energy, and resources to implement and promote a program that only yields tens or hundreds of dollars over the course of a year.

Here are a few examples of the most popular non-dues revenue opportunities for Chambers:

• Travel programs (earning a commission on each trip sold) - approximately $200 per trip.
  
• Affinity programs (earning a commission on the sale of Office Depot or other products) - approx. 10% - 35%
  
• Resale programs (earning a commission on the sale of labor law posters) - approx. 10%  - 35%
  

The Issue with Non-Dues Revenue

The problem with pursing non-dues revenue is that it's time/resources/money spent pursuing a non-critical competency of the Chamber. Is a Chamber of Commerce in the business of selling trips? Office products? Labor law posters?

Absolutely Not. A Chamber is in the business of selling memberships (and anything that supports that critcial competency). For most Chambers, membership revenue makes up 60% or more of the total Chamber revenue.   

Lack of focus

A common pitfall I've witnessed in a number of Chambers is a lack of focus. Chambers engage in event planning (networking, etc.), advocacy, educational workshops, marketing, and a number of other activities.

And part of this diversity of activities is the very nature of a Chamber - Chamber's serve their members in numerous different ways. But at what point are Chambers overextending themselves and operating in a segment that's too far away from the true focus (i.e. core competency) of the organization?

Speaking at an investors conference this week, Tim Cook, the current CEO of Apple said the current Apple TV business is a "hobby," but "Apple doesn't do hobbies as a general rule. We believe in focus. And only working on a few things." [Emphasis added]

Taking Tim Cook's advice to heart would do Chamber's well. Chambers need to focus on membership dues first and foremost.

A different approach

Instead of looking for more ways for the Chamber to "make more money" from non-dues revenue, what if Chambers looked for ways to strengthen current member benefits? Or if Chambers added new valuable benefits?

The stronger the membership benefits are, the more likely it is that businesses will join Chamber, refer the Chamber, and support the Chamber financially through it's strongest value proposition (membership dues).

If the Chamber is struggling financially, it isn't time to call in the non-dues generators, it's time to refocus on why dues (i.e. people paying for benefits) aren't covering Chamber expenses.

Bottom line

Non-dues revenue is best left to non-Chambers. Chambers should be focused on dues revenue (by providing valuable member benefits).

LA Marathon & Meals on Wheels

As some of you know, I'm running the LA Marathon this year.

Also, I am raising money for a local nonprofit, Meals on Wheels. Meals on Wheels is a great nonprofit that provides nutritious meals to the homebound or the disabled in Santa Monica and surrounding areas.

Here is the ask: I was hoping you could help me reach my fundraising goal of $260. It's an achievable goal and I hope you will help me get there.

I'm asking that 26 people to donate exactly $10 (no more, no less) to sponsor each one of the miles I run in the maraton (technically the marathon is 26.2 miles, but we'll call it 26 miles). If you want to donate more, that's great, but I'm just asking for $10.

As an additional incentive (not that you need one), I will be giving away five $20 Starbucks giftcards to five people (chosen at random) who donate at least $10 to the cause. That means you have a 5 in 26 chance (almost 20%) of winning a $20 giftcard. If more than 26 people donate, only the first 26 will be entered in the raffle for the five giftcards. The winners will be chosen at random the day after the marathon.

Here is the link to my fundraising page:

www.active.com/donate/mealsonwheelswest/JMadiga3

I have tested the fundraising page and made the first $10 donation. But don't worry, I'm not eligible to win one of the five $20 giftcards :)

If you have any questions, let me know. Thank you for your help!

 

LA Marathon & Room to Read

A few days ago I signed up for the 2010 LA Marathon. This is my second marathon and first attempt at raising money for a nonprofit in the process. 

The first marathon I ran was the 2008 San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon. I highly recommend the San Diego Marathon to any first-time marathoners because the course is relatively flat and the climate in San Diego is conducive to running. 

The nonprofit I picked to raise money for this year is Room to Read (a nonprofit dedicated to improving illiteracy in third world countries). It was founded by John Wood, a former Microsoft executive, who has also written a book about his experience leaving the private sector to found this nonprofit (Leaving Microsoft to Change the World).  

The 2010 LA Marathon has a great course, one that is different from previous years. You can see the course map from Dodger Stadium to the Beach here ("Stadium to the Sea"). There is also a great promotional video for the marathon here.

My goal is to raise $10 for each mile I run (26 miles) =  $260 

It's an achievable goal and I hope you will help me get there.

I will be asking friends/family to help me reach my fundraising goal. But with one simple caveat. I am only asking for a maximum of $10 per person. No more, no less. Basically, I am looking for one sponsor for each mile I run (at $10 per sponsor). For you math geniuses out there, that means I need 26 sponsors :) 

To kick things off, I am going to sponsor the first mile myself. This means I only need 25 more people to donate $10 to reach my goal of $260.

You can donate by visiting my donation page here: 

http://roomtoread.kintera.org/general/johnmadigan

Thanks for your help!!!

Join the Service Movement

Arianna Huffington, founder of Huffington Post, addressed the 2009 Craigslist Foundation Bootcamp today as the keynote speaker. In her talk, she urged the crowd to join the service movement and take time out to help those in need.

Arianna spoke of a dream where the typical American family would include volunteering as an activity right alongisde going to the park, mall, or movies on its weekend to-do list. She also included a self-depreciating joke about her flip-flopping politics and Michael Jackson. 

Her plea was well received. She was preaching to the choir. The attendees at this conference were mostly over-worked/under-paid nonprofit employees. Thus, my only resistence to her talk came as a result of the apparent paradox of a woman of tremendous means urging struggling nonprofit workers to serve more. But that is neither here nor there.

Some other highlights from the day:

• Jonathan Greenblatt, co-founder of Ethos Water and former CEO of Good Magazine, unveiled his new project - All for Good, an online service that helps people find and share volunteer opportunities.   
• Randi Zuckerberg, affectionately known as the "first sister of facebook" (she's Mark Zuckerberg's sister), gave an excitable lunchtime talk about the growing potential of Facebook Causes for nonprofits.    
• Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist, showed up for the final panel of the day to discuss the role of technology in creating community.