Throughout COVID-19, we’ve seen a lot of associations wrestling with the impact of lower revenue and declining membership. But what if your components could help turn that around for you? In times like these, where many associations are not able to have large in-person conferences, chapters and affiliates can be used to deliver member-value locally in ways that National cannot. By empowering your components, associations can increase member engagement and retention, growing both revenue and membership. In this webinar, we touch on ways you can significantly mobilize your components to better serve members and create a win/win for your members, your chapters, and your association.
We traditionally focus on resources, tools, and insights that help you and your chapters without being a commercial for Billhighway. This webinar is different, so we want to be upfront about it. In times like these, associations need Billhighway more than ever. So we’re breaking with tradition and focusing this webinar on demonstrating how the Billhighway solution can help component-based associations solve the unique challenges of our current times. We wanted to share this detail with you ahead of time and encourage you to invite your executive director, CEO, CFO, and other senior-level leaders to hear a message they won’t want to miss.
Chapter Performance Reimagined: Taking Your Association's Growth to the Next Level
1. Component Performance Reimagined
Taking Your Association’s Growth to the Next Level
Mark Prevost
Director of Growth, Billhighway
Peggy Hoffman
President & ED, Mariner Management
2. Meet Your Presenters
Mark Prevost
Director of Growth
Billhighway
Peggy Hoffman
President & Executive Director
Mariner Management
3. Got chapters? We’ve got solutions. Billhighway is a chapter
management solution that unifies data systems and
simplifies administrative processes to empower staff and
volunteers, so you can focus more time and energy on
members and growing your organization.
About the Hosts
Billhighway & Mariner
Mariner Management & Marketing is your partner in helping
association volunteers and staff create the greatest possible
value for your members and in ensuring the long term
health and growth of your association.
4. How Billhighway
Gives You Data
Our Agenda
Component
Member
Engagement
Data
Component
Performance
Data
Component
Financial
Data
5. Poll
On a scale of 1-5, how would you rate
your relationship with components on
sharing data?
7. WHAT IF
…you could help your
chapters perform better, and
in the process, also gather
this data?
8. We’re an Association Performance Solution (APS)
purpose-built for associations with components.
We increase the performance and ROI
of your components.
We increase member engagement and retention, new
member growth and total revenue for your
association.
What is Billhighway?
9. BILLHIGHWAY
AT BILLHIGHWAY
• Banking
• Finance
• Accounting
• Events
• Member
payments
• Budgeting
• Filing taxes
Integrated with an association’s AMS, and built on top of
a banking platform, we automate and simplify component
tasks around:
Unifying the component eco-system with HQ, and
allowing volunteers to spend more time on members
and less time on administration.
10. While your components use Billhighway to
operate better, we organically begin to
collect data that allows you to measure . . .
• Component Performance Data
• Member (or non-member) Engagement
Data
• Component Financial Data
12. Get your hands on component
member engagement data . . .
• Billhighway captures the
chapter member engagement
data your AMS doesn’t.
• All component payments,
registrations, sponsorships
flow through our solution.
• How do you know if a
component is offering fewer
programs & engagement is
declining?
• Retention is a lagging
indicator. You need a leading
indicator.
13. • Identify non-members attending component
events & add them to membership marketing
campaigns
• Identify members who aren’t attending chapter
meetings & develop a retention strategy
• Focus on components that need reengagement
campaigns
• Watch registration & membership trends
across your ecosystem & identify lackluster
components
With the data that Billhighway
collects, you can…
16. Use member engagement data to make a
case for investing in components
Proves resources
invested in components
is justified
Allows decisions to be
based on data, not
assumptions
Is the intel that keeps
membership growing:
• Shows components play vital
role in helping association fulfill
mission
• Shows the value members get
from components
Supports the argument
for additional component
resources
17. WHAT IF
…you knew every touchpoint
members and non-members
had at the component level?
19. How do you…
• get component
performance &
activity data?
• measure component
performance?
20. What kind of programs are they offering?
How many events are they conducting?
Identify high-performing chapter bright
spots. What are they doing differently?
Benchmark
Chapter Performance
Who and how many are attending, and
why do some get higher attendance than
others?
Who are the non-members participating
and how do you get them into your AMS?
21. Chapter Performance Heat Map
Seattle, Washington
Portland, Oregon
Boise, Idaho
Bismarck, North Dakota
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Chicago, Illinois
Detroit, Michigan
Indianapolis, Indiana
Pittsburgh, Philadelphia
Indianapolis, Indiana
Boston, Massachusetts
New York, New York
Washington, D.C.
Charlotte, South Carolina
Nashville, Tennessee
Atlanta, Georgia
Orlando, Florida
New Orleans, Louisiana
Kansas City, Kansas
Houston, Texas
Austin, Texas
Kansas City, Kansas
Denver, Colorado
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Phoenix, Arizona
Salt Lake City, Utah
Las Vegas, Nevada
San Diego, California
Los Angeles, California
San Francisco, California
Sacramento, California
Reno, Nevada
KPIs
TBX
SUMM
Events
Renew
Conv.
VTO
Egmt
T/O
Reten.
Memb.
22. WHAT IF
…you had real time access to
component performance data?
24. Challenge
Understanding a component’s
financial situation
HQ missing full picture of what’s going on with
component finances.
Can’t see real time how financially secure a component
is.
Can’t tell if they are over spending or underinvesting.
HQ is the last to know a component is going
downhill.
25. Challenge
Balancing your need-to-know
with component autonomy
You have to incentivize them to submit data.
Sometimes you have to threaten disaffiliation.
That’s no fun.
Provide data on their own timeline or never comply.
Nagging feeds the “us vs. them” mentality.
26. Automate & simplify routine admin tasks
Reduce risk of financial mismanagement
Healthy balance of visibility for HQ &
autonomy for chapters
Chapter leaders no longer spend hours
putting together financial reports for
National. HQ doesn’t have to nag for
them anymore.
Alleviate your volunteer
leaders’ burden
27. A user-friendly interface and intuitive card reader & check capture
lets your volunteers get started right away with minimal training.
Simple:
Every payment is secure and encrypted, ensuring payee credit card
information and data is never saved to the device used to access
the app.
Secure:
Customize officer access based on your organization’s existing
role permissions in the Billhighway system.
Configurable:
An integrated solution reduces the risk of tax liability from
unreported income and lets Chapters utilize meaningful data from
their Billhighway reports.
Engagement
Billhighway Anywhere
Anywhere is a fully-mobile, cashless solution that lets your members and
donors pay how they want. The sleek, Bluetooth-enabled card reader and
check capture gives chapters the ability to collect funds anytime, Anywhere.
28. Keeping the financial tasks simple
Easy officer succession
Making the Treasurer’s position less daunting
All this simplification allows chapters to attract and
retain quality leaders.
Attract & Retain High-Quality Leaders
Better communication
More transparency – real-time financial
statements
Improving the member experience and
growing member engagement
34. Upcoming Events
December 29, 2020
9:30 – 10:15 am ET
January 6, 2021
3 – 4:15 pm ET
HELLO 2021!
CRP COFFEE CHAT
COACHING
VOLUNTEER SUCCESS
https://bit.ly/32MmvzF https://bit.ly/3lvv2OM
35. Resources
Will Chapters Be Relevant in 2021?
Make a Case for a Bigger Chapter Budget with the
Help of Chapter Member Engagement Data
How Chapter Financial Data Reduces the
Volunteer Leadership Burden—and Financial Risk
Chapter Performance Data Has the Power to
Improve Your Association's Relationship with
Chapters
Editor's Notes
@Peggy – Intro topic
Chapter Performance Reimagined: Taking Your Association’s Growth to the Next Level
Throughout COVID-19, we’ve seen a lot of associations wrestling with the impact of lower revenue and declining membership. But what if your components could help turn that around for you? In times like these, where many associations are not able to have large in-person conferences, chapters and affiliates can be used to deliver member-value locally in ways that National cannot. By empowering your components, associations can increase member engagement and retention, growing both revenue and membership. In this webinar, we’ll touch on ways you can significantly mobilize your components to better serve members and create a win/win for your members, your chapters, and your association.
@Peggy – Introduce speakers
@Peggy -- In case you don’t know us…quick refresh on who we are, what we do & why we do it!
BillhighwayPowers associations to better serve members & grow by accelerating component performance
Mariner
@Peggy -- Today we’re going to talk about 3 important types of chapter data:
Member Engagement Data
Component Performance Data
Component Financial Data
@Peggy - Poll
On a scale of 1-5, how would you rate your relationship with components on sharing data?
1 – Poor
2
3
4
5 – We get everything we need!
@Peggy -- Let’s just get a feel for everyone’s chapter data challenges…chat in with yours!
Do we want this to be a chat or a poll? If poll, what do we want the answers to be?
@Peggy -- What if you could help your chapters perform better & at the same time effortlessly gather data from them as well?
That’s what Billhighway does … and that’s why we’re here today!
@Peggy, toss it over to Mark…
@Mark
What is Billhighway?
Billhighway is an Association Performance Solution (APS) purpose-built for associations with components that increases the performance and ROI of your components. It increases member engagement, member retention, new member growth and total revenue for your association.
@Mark
@Mark -- You can’t manage what you can’t measure. You need to understand what’s going on with member engagement in each chapter.
You need a way to peek behind the curtain and see what’s happening in your chapters right now.
You need to know how (or if) members are participating in chapter activities so you can ensure membership value is delivered and membership dues revenue is received.
@Mark - What is chapter member engagement data? How do you get it? And what can you do with it once you have it? Let’s dive in to find out…
@Mark – Here’s how to get your hands on chapter member engagement data
Your AMS tells you how a member is engaging with your association, but not with their chapter—and that’s where members are most active. So how do you peek behind the chapter curtain? Billhighway captures the chapter member engagement data you need. All chapter payments and registrations flow through our software.
Chapter member engagement remains a mystery for many associations. Your association management system (AMS) captures member engagement data at the national level, but not at the chapter level—that’s the missing piece.
How do you know if a chapter is offering fewer programs during the pandemic and if member engagement is declining as a result? If you wait for chapters to submit a report, it might be too late, the damage to membership value already done.
Monthly membership reports alert you to declining membership renewals—an obvious signal that membership value isn’t being delivered. But retention is a lagging indicator. It measures something that happened (or didn’t happen, in this case) in the past.
You need a leading indicator, like chapter member engagement data, to get ahead of retention issues and prevent non-renewals. You need access to chapter data—like registrations for virtual meetups, webinars, and virtual conferences—that reveal declining member engagement in real time.
If you can watch registration and engagement data in real time, you can spot worrisome engagement trends before it’s too late. You can see the leading indicators that influence member retention.
@Mark
With the data Billhighway collects, you can help chapters identify members who aren’t attending chapter events, training or programs (virtual or in-person), and develop a proactive retention strategy. This intel helps you direct your focus to chapters that need help with reengagement campaigns. For example, you can show chapters how to learn more about member needs and remind members about relevant opportunities and benefits. This type of intervention will increase retention and revenue.
You can identify non-members attending chapter events and add them to membership marketing campaigns. If you can help chapters convert these attendees into members, you’ll both see increased revenue in the years ahead.
With Billhighway, you can watch registration and membership trends across your chapter network, identify lackluster chapters, and intercede before it’s too late—before memberships drop or chapters fold.
@Peggy – Poll
What data about member engagement at the component level do you collect?
# of programs/activities offered
Types of events offered
Member attendance
Non-member attendance
Registration data/trends
@Peggy –
How do you prove the ROI of chapters?
Association budgets are tightening in response to pandemic-related revenue losses and in anticipation of more financial challenges ahead. This is bad news if your association’s C-suite and board see chapters as a cost center, not a revenue source.
In reality, chapters contribute to your association’s bottom line. They bring in new members and deliver value to members through educational events, volunteering, and networking—activities that increase member engagement and retention. But how do you prove the ROI of chapters?
With the help of chapter member engagement data, you can make the business case for more HQ attention and investment in chapters. Engagement data shows the positive impact of chapters on association revenue when they’re empowered to better serve members.
https://www.billhighway.co/how-to-demonstrate-the-value-of-chapters-to-your-association/
@Peggy – Use member engagement data to make a case for investing in chapters
The C-suite and board can easily see how much your association spends on chapters, but the chapter ROI isn’t so obvious. Chapter member engagement data proves that the resources your association invests in chapters is justified. This data also supports your argument for additional chapter resources from HQ.
Leadership decisions about chapter resources should be based on data, not assumptions. Preventing knee-jerk decisions is especially important when HQ staff and board members aren’t clued into local chapter culture, community and activities, and don’t “get” the role of chapters in members’ lives.
Chapter member engagement data is the intel that helps you keep membership growing and chapters playing a vital role in helping your association fulfill its mission. It shows the value your members get from their chapters.
@Peggy – What could you do?
@Peggy - Now let’s talk Chapter Performance Data
How has the pandemic affected your relationships with chapters? Are you talking regularly with chapter leaders or getting ghosted? Are you “all in it together” or regressing into “us vs. them” territory?
Would you believe me if I told you that chapter performance data could put you and your chapters on the path to a rewarding relationship?
@Peggy - Chat Question: How do you currently measure chapter performance? How do you get chapter performance data?
Ask to throw ideas into chat…
@Mark – Use ASQ example
When you identify high-performing chapters, you can study these chapter bright spots to see what they’re doing differently to engage and deliver value to members.
What kind of programs are they offering?
What are their marketing strategies and tactics?
How are they getting more member engagement?
How are they attracting non-members to their events?
Share these bright spot practices with other chapter leaders. Spot opportunities for peer mentoring and pair struggling chapter leaders with successful ones.
@Mark
You have access to chapter data that allows you to benchmark and understand the correlations between chapter activities and performance.
Once you’ve identified low-performing chapters, you know where to allocate more of your time and where to step in to provide coaching and resources.
@Peggy – What could you do better if you had chapter performance data? Chat in now.
Chapter Performance Data (we know how many events they’re having, how many members are attending, percent of members attending, programs receiving the highest interest, etc.). This data can also be correlated against the other chapters to see who’s under-performing so CRP’s can help elevate the performance of all chapters, and what high-performing chapters are doing differently so we can help model it.
@Peggy – Intro Chapter Financial Data
Managing chapter leadership duties is tough enough in the best of times, but during the pandemic, volunteer chapter leaders are really struggling. They’re working long hours, concerned about job security, worried about their business, dealing with school-age children at home, or wrestling with COVID anxiety like the rest of us.
Most chapter leaders are volunteers, not association management experts. Even fewer are financial wizzes. They might not even be in charge of a budget at their day job. But in the midst of all this uncertainty, they’re trying to keep their chapter on solid financial ground. How well are they doing? Do you even know?
If only you could alleviate some of the financial burden and administrative stress so chapter leaders can focus on delivering value to members, not balancing spreadsheets. Spoiler: you can.
@Mark - Challenge: understanding a chapter’s financial situation
Many associations don’t have the full picture of what’s going on with chapter finances. You might not have a process or system in place that shows you how financially secure a chapter is in real time.
Is a chapter’s budget allocated in the right way? Where is the chapter overspending or underinvesting? It’s hard to tell if a chapter is even using sound financial processes and practices.
Your association can’t be the last to know if a chapter is going downhill. By the time you learn a chapter is making bad financial decisions, having financial difficulties, or worse, becoming insolvent, it may be too late to turn them around. If a chapter goes under, members are the ones who suffer most as they watch their local professional community fade away.
We might want to add a caveat in the notes that not all organizations are the same and the level of visibility into finances might look different for some organizations. I just don't want us to shut anyone out because they're like "oh, they don't share their finances with us"
@Mark - Challenge: balancing your need-to-know with chapter autonomy
Understandably, you want to know what’s happening—and what’s not happening—in chapters so you can provide the support they need and build a stronger relationship with them. But, even in the best of times, you probably have to incentivize (or strong arm) your chapters into submitting the data you need.
But sometimes, the threat of disaffiliation is the only thing that works. That’s no fun for anyone.
Even if you explain the rationale behind your data request and spell out what’s in it for them, some chapters will get around to it on their own timeline or never bother to comply. During the pandemic, submitting data to HQ is way down on the list of priorities for a busy, stressed out volunteer leader.
Nagging for chapter data does absolutely nothing for relationships. It feeds the “us vs. them” mentality, and, if that’s already the norm, this dangerous mindset becomes even more entrenched. You get the reputation for always wanting something and always pushing something.
@Mark
Alleviate the volunteer leadership burden—and financial risk
Financial and administrative responsibilities require a great deal of a volunteer leader’s time and energy. If you can find a sustainable way to reduce this burden, chapter leaders would have more time to focus on member engagement. You don’t want these laborious tasks to dissuade qualified members from leadership service.
Billhighway gives chapter leaders the tools they need to automate and simplify routine administrative tasks, such as banking, finance, accounting, invoicing, and 990s. Best of all, Billhighway provides a healthy balance of visibility for HQ and autonomy for chapters.
Billhighway reduces the risk of financial mismanagement by volunteers. Your association can see what’s going on and pull the financial reports you need without having to nag chapter leaders for them.
@Mark
Getting the data while making chapter administration easy and safe.
@Mark
Alleviate the administrative burden of chapter leaders and you’ll see more qualified members willing to serve as volunteer leaders, which helps to fill HQ’s leadership pipeline too.
Chapters on solid financial footing can afford to invest in the technology and programs that deliver value to members. As a result, member recruitment and retention improves, and everyone’s revenue increases.
@Peggy – Let’s chat about it…
Imagine how you could use Financial Performance Data to determine…
Is money being spent on the right activities?
Are the right investments in members being made?
Are all our chapters viable?
Which chapters are struggling?
How is each chapter performing against their peers?
@Peggy - New data leads to new conversations — and new revenue. You can watch your relationship with chapters transform.
Integration ProcessBy integrating your chapter banking system with membership management systems, you get access to the type of data that can start a productive conversation between you and your chapters. You can dig into their data, get the story behind it, and start exploring best practices together. Removes Babysitting ChaptersYou no longer have to babysit chapters. You don’t have to make them complete long checklists of reports they must submit to maintain their affiliation status. Chapter banking takes a lot of those things off the checklist. You don’t have to watch over them and hope they do the right thing when managing their bank accounts — the right thing to do is built into the platform.
Attract & Retain SponsorsFor example, expenses at one chapter are about the same as last year, but their sponsorship revenue is way up again this year. What are they doing to attract and retain their sponsors? Find out and share those practices with other chapters.
Comprehensive PictureWhen you don’t have a comprehensive picture of a member, it’s easy to make assumptions about them. “Data leads to a better understanding of member behavior,” said Peter. “If you have a disconnected or fragmented data system, then Bob Smith looks like a checkbook member at the National level, but is really kicking butt at the chapter level. If you don’t have integrated data systems, you have no clue.”
UNDERSTANDING WHAT DRIVES ENGAGEMENT If you had a clearer picture of Bob Smith’s engagement at the local level and what drives his behavior and the behavior of members like him, you can create a more symbiotic relationship with your chapters in terms of how you both serve those members.
United With One System
“Ultimately, you want to have everybody working off the same communications platform, the same database, the same technology across the board.”
“If they see how well chapter banking can work, and they get really comfortable with it, they’re more likely to go with you to the next step. That’s what Billhighway does,” said Peter, “They connect distributed and disparate systems throughout the association eco-system and allow them to operate as one.” Transformational TechnologyBy providing this transformative technology to chapters, your team can dedicate more time to listening, learning about chapter challenges and successes, and sharing those success stories with other chapters. You can fulfill your mission of building stronger leaders, stronger chapters, and best of all, a stronger chapter network.
@Peggy – Chapters can do so much for your association. The data Billhighway provides allows associations to amplify the impact of their chapters.
Chapters are the golden geese for associations. Their strength contributes to your impact. But you need to know what’s going on in them so you can help them operate at maximum productivity.
@Peggy – If anything you’ve heard today resonates today, I’d love to recommend that you reach out to Mark to find out what Billhighway can do for you.
Sign up for a demo…
We hope you learned how your association can mobilize chapters to better serve members, and increase recruitment, retention and revenue. If you want to see how Billhighway can help your organization grow, sign up for a 30-minute demo specifically tailored to your association’s needs.
@Peggy – And this is how you can contact Mark
Ask if there are any questions
@Peggy - Looking ahead >> Virtual Idea Swap on curating ideas for 2021; Jan skill sharpener continues
Coffee - https://bit.ly/32MmvzF
Coaching Success - https://bit.ly/3lvv2OM