Frequently Asked Questions

AssociationExecs.com is a directory of trade and professional associations. It has both national and state/regional associations.

A trade or professional association is a group of professionals or businesses from a specific industry that form an organization to not only enhance and develop their profession but also to represent those practicing in the field both publicly and politically

Associations that are primarily hobby, recreational, or community based are not considered trade associations. For example, the American Kitefliers Association is not a trade association because its members are kite enthusiasts, not professional kite fliers (because there is no such thing as professional kite flying). However, the Kite Trade Association is considered a trade association since its members are kite manufacturers which is considered a business/profession. Other associations that are not considered trade associations include homeowner associations, community or faith-based volunteer associations, and local sports clubs or leagues.

There are over 7500 national associations and over 8000 state/regional associations equaling around 16,800 associations together. There are over 37,000 individual people listed in the database. Many Executive Directors at associations assume all administrative responsibilities so we have an Executive Director named for all associations. As a result, about 45% of the people listed are Executive Directors. About 40% are finance executives, 10% are meeting planners and the remaining are government relations, education, membership, publications, or technology coordinators.

If we have determined that the majority of an associations’ members are located in the United States, we have included it in the database regardless if its headquarters are international. There are very few of them though. However, since we collect meeting and convention information, those associations whom have held their events outside the United States may be valuable to you even though they are administered from within the United States. For example, if you are looking for Canadian associations then perhaps a list of United States’ associations who continually have their meetings in Canada might be just as valuable to you. You can search AssociationExecs.com by meetings and convention data from 2007 all the way through 2011.

In the early 1960’s, our company realized the associations community had a great impact on federal government affairs. Most associations had their own in-house lobbyists who worked full time advocating their individual agenda and many associations who are closely related worked together in advocacy efforts. We decided a directory of associations that cited as many executives as possible would be beneficial for them in finding each other and forming new coalitions to further advocacy efforts. In 1965, we published the first edition of the National Trade and Professional Associations directory with basic information about associations including executive names, contact information and budget range. Naturally, that led us to begin tracking associations at the state and regional level so we created the State and Regional Associations of the United States directory soon after. As the years went on, we researched and compiled more information for each listing such as historical notes, publications, and conventions. Before we knew it, the directories became very resourceful lead tools for vendors that serve associations. Today, associations represent a $20 billion industry, employing more than one million people. In 2006, we took our National and State and Regional directories and put them online together in one searchable database with a download subscription option for our business-to-business customers to generate accurate and high-quality leads. Naturally, many of our customers use the information for research, networking, and referencing so of course we created another subscription option without the downloadable feature. Suffice to say, AssociationExecs.com has existed in one format or another for over 40 years!

We are professional researchers. We have a team of editors (the brightest and the best!) who manage research and publication efforts, coordinate and schedule updates, and maintain the high standards and quality of our information. Our managing editor has been committed to our association directories for over 20 years! Additionally, like any good researchers, we realize the best information comes from the source directly so we execute sophisticated efforts each year to gain updates from association executives themselves. We are very fortunate to be located in the Washington DC metro area which is where many national association headquarters are located. As a result, we are able to stay easily informed of industry trends and connected to many association executives.

We differ from most specialized information publishers in that we update and confirm our information all year long. Additionally, we launch a massive campaign at least once a year using our entire editorial team to focus on the updates for this product alone. In 2009, we touched over 99% of the entire database within 2 months. We also frequently add new information to AssociationExecs.com as well. For example, in 2009 we uploaded certification program listings for each association that has a certification program for its members. We also made this a search feature so you can search for certification programs based on acronym or title.

AssociationExecs.com has only trade and professional associations. Most other association directories will have many more listings but they probably will not be quality leads since most associations that are not affiliated with a trade do not have any substantial budget and won’t be interested in your services. AssociationExecs.com is the most comprehensive directory of trade associations in existence.

We have two subscription options, the Basic and the Premium. Both allow you access to the entire site including unlimited searches for the duration of the subscription which is 12 months. The Basic subscription is $799.00 and the Premium is $4,000.00. We activate subscriptions upon receipt of payment. We accept all major credit cards either over the phone (1-888-265-0600 ) or online at our secure website. We can also invoice you if you prefer to pay by check (and we’ll turn on your subscription and notify you once we receive the check from your accounting department).

Only one person can be on the database with each individual login at a time.

Yes. If you are interested in getting a subscription for 3 or more people from your organization, we offer a multiple-user subscription at a discounted rate. The subscriptions are transferrable should a member of your team leave your organization and you wish to reassign their login to another member. Please contact Sales for more information.

Both the Basic and the Premium are exactly the same in that both allow you complete access to the entire database at all times with unlimited searches and the ability to save those searches in your account. However, the only difference between the two subscriptions is with the Premium, you are granted a download feature that will allow you to export the information as many times as you’d like for the duration of your subscription.

Yes. If you are a Premium subscriber, you have limited download ability for the duration of your subscription. The data can be downloaded as a CSV file or a Microsoft Excel document.

The following information is included in the download: name, title, organization, mailing address, phone number, fax number, # of members, budget range, # of staff, year founded, and industry. Click here to see a sample export.

Email addresses may be obtained on a case by case basis. Limitations on distribution and content may be required. Please call us at 240-235-0272 to get pre-approved.

No. But you can rent a mailing list from us. If you are interested in targeting a specific market of associations based on region, budget, industry, title, etc., we can speak with you to determine your needs and then generate your list based on the criteria you’d like. You may rent a list from us for a one-time use or a multiple-time use which is limited to 3 times during the course of a calendar year starting on the date that you purchase the list. You would enter into an agreement with us and then we would send the list to you or the mailing house of your choice. Please contact Sales for more information.

Yes. We print the National Trade and Professional Associations directory and we also print the State and Regional Associations of the United States directory. Both of them together equal AssociationExecs.com in its entirety. The books are printed by early-Spring every year and are in their 43rd and 20th editions respectively. We do not offer any of this information in CD format at this time.

You can use AssociationExecs.com as a lead source for marketing to associations. You can also use it to network with and research with the executives at trade associations. You may print or export (only Premium subscribers have export capability) the information for more efficient prospecting. You can build advanced searches and save them so you can come back in the future and run them without having to spend time building a frequent search over and over again. You can use the database from any computer with a connection to the internet.

We are always happy to give you a brief tutorial over the phone to help you learn how to use AssociationExecs.com successfully. Please call us 1-888-265-0600 during normal business hours EST or email us at web@associationexecs.com to set up a time for your tutorial.

Mozilla Firefox is the best internet browser to use AssociationExecs.com with. For some reason, Internet Explorer may make you clean out your cookies to log in every once in a while. (It is not a frequent occurrence but we have heard from a few customers who have encountered this problem). You know this has happened to you if you type in all of your login information correctly and when you click “login” the page just clears and repopulates without giving you any sort of error message. You will most likely input your login information again thinking that you typed it wrong the first time…and the login page will again simply clear your information and repopulate itself after you click “login.” By the third or fourth time, you will no doubt think you are doing something wrong even though you can probably swear up and down that you are typing in your information correctly. We suspect the problem exists because the database contains so much information and as a result, the security settings on Internet Explorer get “scared” so they enable themselves to perform a no-access feature. This is a dysfunction of Internet Explorer and not AssociationExecs.com.