Focus on Membership Development: Three Organizations Share Effective Techniques

One of the top ongoing issues of most of the all-volunteer groups in the CompassPoint Nonprofit Services’ study featured in the Winter issue of e-Volunteerism was “reaching new members and keeping them involved.” In the world of volunteer management, that translates to “volunteer recruitment, integration and retention.” The goal is the same -- to identify potential individuals who can contribute to the work of the organization, invite them to participate by clearly identifying the benefits of joining, make them feel welcome and give them a way to contribute that is appropriate for them, and then offer ongoing opportunities for growth to keep them motivated and interested. Many volunteer organizations have experienced a decline in membership. In an effort to reverse this trend, several large national and international organizations have put a high priority on membership development. In this issue, we profile some of the membership development strategies of Kiwanis International, the General Federation of Women’s Clubs and Rotary International.