Membership schemes - do you have any good examples?

[KatherineH]

NORSACA has a membership scheme as part of our governance structure. We would like to attract more members and I am looking into the way other charities operate membership schemes and specifically what benefits they offer to members.

Do you know of any examples of membership schemes, preferably not those of national charities, that offer good benefits to members and/or are good at engaging members?

As NORSACA is an autism charity I've started by looking at other autism charities. So far I've found that those which have membership schemes provide a regular newsletter and maybe discounts on events and conferences.

I'd welcome some more examples from charities working in other areas of need.

Katherine

[MJR]

Originally Posted by KatherineH

Do you know of any examples of membership schemes, preferably not those of national charities, that offer good benefits to members and/or are good at engaging members?

I don't know about non-national charities, but HEART-UK offers the good benefit of a digest of relevant news and research.

As you note in another thread, most charity members are really donors or supporters instead of members.

[KatherineH]

Thank you - I'll have a look ath Heart-UK.

[adrian.ashton]

there's also some useful and interesting stuff here about key strategic mistakes to avoid if you're a membership based/focussed organisation - http://bit.ly/cp80tM

[adrian.ashton]

...and there's also this http://bit.ly/9qRIE8 (opens as a pdf) which suggests some of the opportunities and challenges in membership over the next 5 years.