How to Diversify your Association’s Non-Dues Revenue Sources: 5 Tips

Your association’s non-dues revenue is the pinnacle of all upgrades and advancements you make. Without this valuable source of income, you wouldn’t be able to keep members happy and keep things afloat. If you’re looking to increase the revenue your association brings in for future plans and projects, you’ll need that non-dues revenue to work for you. After all, many associations try their best to avoid raising member dues to make more money as a way to keep members happy.

So, if you aren’t increasing your dues revenue, where else is that extra income going to come from? But keeping your non-dues revenue increasing at a steady pace can be tedious. With the traditional non-dues revenue routes like affinity programs, events, and products keeping your revenue stream steady, it might seem like there’s little room left over to work on brand new streams of revenue.

What if we told you that there are ways to diversify your association’s non-dues revenue sources that are easy and take little time to maintain once set up? That’s right, if you’re looking for brand new streams of revenue, we’ve got you covered. Let’s take a look at a few different sources and tips your association can use to increase its overall non-dues revenue income that lie outside of traditional routes.

1. Advertised newsletters

Chances are, your association sends out a weekly or monthly newsletter to your members. But what if we told you you can actually sell advertising space on those newsletters to companies that are looking to market to your members?

That’s right, your association’s newsletters are a prime space for companies with a target audience that includes your members to get their marketing message across. Your association has an amazing email list and a way to contact these individuals already, cutting the marketing legwork in half for those interested in advertising to your members. Many associations find creating a curated newsletter with specific, highly targeted content works best to get members attention and to make advertising on your newsletter highly sought after by companies. Your association can set up revenue-sharing contracts for companies and reach out to those that you feel members will enjoy seeing on your newsletters.

2. Ad retargeting

Want a way to hone in on those revenue opportunities you missed out on? By retargeting your web traffic, you can. Ad retargeting is a marketing strategy that allows you to take your web traffic, target individuals who have visited your website and not purchased any offers or products, and advertise to them on other websites like Facebook, YouTube, and other sites. It’s a great way to get ahold of those individuals who didn’t quite make the purchase you would have liked them to without doing much work at all. By using ad retargeting, you can market your events, downloadable offers, discounts, and any other source of non-dues revenue you have on your site.

You want to be sure the call to action on your ads matches the offer that they had viewed. For example, if you had someone view your online webinar content, but not make a purchase, you want the ad that targets them to be centered around webinar content. The same goes for your events, and any other non-dues revenue stream you want to attach an ad to. Use ad retargeting to your favor by tracking down those that got away and coaxing them back to your non-dues revenue streams.

3. Sponsors

While sponsors aren’t necessarily a new or unique source of non-dues revenue, there are new ways you can use sponsorships that your association probably hasn’t thought of. For example, did you know you can actually host sponsored content on your association’s website?

‍If your association is one that delivers content to members and web traffic (and it should), hosting sponsored content is a great way to use sponsorships in a much different way than expected. By working with companies and organizations that you have business partnerships with, you can create content that advertises and contains marketing messages for your website audience to read and consume. You can even allow these companies to write content for your association’s website. Not only does this give you non-dues revenue, it allows you to have content without doing any of the work to create it.

This can save your marketing and content creation team a ton of time while also bringing in extra revenue. Reach out to companies that are looking to advertise and sponsor you in other ways and see if they’d like to create and host content on your website for a fee. Who knows, you may be opening up doors to a fruitful, long running content partnership.

4. Content subscriptions

Does your association have a blog or publication? If you’re looking to increase non-dues revenue, consider making it a subscription service for a small fee. Just like major publications and magazines, your association can have content that requires a subscription to view.

By password protecting your website, you keep your content locked up only for those who have paid to view it. Not only is this a way to bring in more revenue, it’s also a great way to make your content more exclusive for those who pay, giving them an extra benefit on top of their membership.

‍Consider creating password protected, subscription based articles and news updates and make it a luxury offer for those who aren't members, and maybe even members as well. Or, if you’d like to add value to your membership, you can make your subscription content free as a member benefit.

BONUS: Career centers

We would be remiss if we didn’t include career centers in this roundup. After all, career centers are a great way to collect revenue while also providing an amazing career resource to your members! If you’re looking for a career center that works intuitively with your association’s website design, is easy to use for both job seekers and employers, and that members will love, check out what Web Scribble can do for you.‍

Don’t let your association stick to the basics when it comes to non-dues revenue. Consider trying out these new sources to diversify your non-dues revenue strategy and increase your overall income.