09 Sep 2025 How to Demonstrate ROI to Your Association Members
There are two kinds of return on investment (ROI) for associations and nonprofits. While the first — a cost-benefit analysis, like those taught in business school — is certainly valuable, there is a second type of ROI.
In this blog, we examine the ROI that’s less easily quantified, although it may have an indirect number attached to it. It’s the return your organization shows by fulfilling its mission and providing value to members and the community. Is your association living up to its goals?
Step 1: Understand Why ROI Is Essential for Members
It sounds simple; your members need to be getting a return on their membership dues, donations, and event fees. This is crucial for both attracting new members and prompting existing ones to renew. They want to see something for their money. It’s no different than hiring a tutor to help your child with schoolwork or putting funds into an investment.
But it’s easy for an organization’s board of directors to get caught up in false narratives that look like an ROI but aren’t necessarily, such as:
● Spending a small percentage of the association’s income
● Having a large savings or endowment fund
● Maintaining a busy calendar of meetings and conferences
● Getting a lot of free press from industry or local publications
Step 2: Go Back to Your Mission, Vision, and Values Statement
Now, take a look at your organization’s mission statement. It’s a good idea to do this periodically anyway, like at annual retreats. You may find your mission needs updating to stay with the times and new demands in your industry. Or you might discover you’ve unintentionally drifted from what your group initially set out to do.
Mission statements tend to be a bit vague and all encompassing. So, at this stage, you want to translate the statement into a set of more specific actionable items relevant to today’s membership needs.
For instance if part of your mission is to help physicians in your subspecialty achieve board certification, your actions might include offering in-person or online education sessions. You could also match up candidates with board certified professionals in a mentoring program or subsidize certification exam fees.
Step 3: Compare Your Association Mission to Recent Achievements
Next, it’s time to compare those actionable items to what your association has accomplished recently. There are a number of ways to do this, depending on your operational model. Take the example above. Your achievements might be:
● Offered X sessions covering areas tested on the certification exam
● Helped X physicians pass their exam and become board certified
● Provided X members with subsidies to cover the cost of the exam
Ideally, you’ve kept detailed records to help with this task. You may also have to survey members to get their input.
This is the perfect place to inquire about more intangible benefits your association provides. For instance, you might have helped members navigate choosing the best practice insurance coverage or supported a number of them through a difficult corporate healthcare merger.
Step 4: Share Your Findings with Members and Donors
Once you’ve taken a deeper dive into your ROI as it relates to your mission, it’s time to share the information with the people who matter. It could be included in a newsletter or in a live address at a conference. Or it could be part of your annual report, alongside other key financial data like how much you made with your online courses versus what they cost to produce.
To really leverage the power of great ROI, you want to use your findings in other ways too. For instance, you can post the information on your website homepage or use it in membership drives. It’s imperative to remind members how much
your organization accomplishes when asking for yearly dues or a donation.
The above is an example of what’s called a gain-frame. But you could also use loss framing in touting your member ROI. This is a strategy where you explain everything members will be missing out on if they don’t renew or join.
Does your association or nonprofit need assistance framing ROI to members? Or do you need help with membership drives and list management? Jaffe Management welcomes the opportunity to hear more about your challenges. We provide a range of services for associations just like yours. Call us at 212-496- 3155 or email at info@jaffemanagement.com to let us know how we can help.