Are Chapters Worth The Effort: 2016 Chapter Benchmarking Report

According the 2016 Chapter Benchmarking report, associations lean on chapters for member engagement, leadership development, membership recruitment, marketing/communications and local resources – rating these elements as ‘absolutely essential’ to ‘essential’ roles. The rub comes in their ratings on effectiveness in those areas – all of which generated a gap between importance and effectiveness.

For most associations this evaluation is largely based on limited metrics. In fact, while respondents mostly offer why they think chapters are worth the effort, they fall short of metrics that prove or disprove this thinking. So, why do associations still seek to keep or invest in chapters? What’s keeping associations in the game is likely that in the absence of knowing if there is a return on investment, they carry on.

For a complete picture of association chapter programs from structure to support to measurement, download the free 2016 Chapter Benchmarking Report.
In this report you’ll find data on a standard practices regarding membership, programming, requirements and metrics for chapters as well as insight on questions such as are chapters still relevant, are associations making changes to chapters and how do we evaluate our chapters.

Mariner Management launched the project February 2016 with Whorton Marketing & Research. We invited several hundred associations through direct invitation and other channels, including ASAE’s Collaborate, to participate. A total of 211 associations responded and 162 completed the full survey. Mariner is continuing to conduct a series of in-depth interviews with
responding associations to delve beyond the numbers to stories that we can all use to make effective decisions about chapter programs.

Do you have a story to share about your chapter program? Contact us!