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Training for your staff is vital but costly and time consuming! Now, Association TRENDS is delivering the training your staff needs without the hassle and excess cost. Get expert training in ONE place … without ever leaving your office for one low price.

e-Newsletters are not off-the-cuff “extras.”  They’re serious business for associations. 

But publishing an e-newsletter that delivers ROI for brand visibility, ad revenue and member loyalty requires different tactics in 2014 than it did even a year ago.

Here’s how to use a brand new approach to metrics, design, and delivery to achieve higher open rates and click-throughs starting with your very next issue.

Are you thinking about letting volunteers and employees use their own mobile devices to share and access your organization’s information?

Careful: The money you save may be nothing compared to potential legal costs.  Even well-intentioned use of personal devices can trigger everything from data and privacy breaches to harassment and overtime pay disputes, expense reimbursement, and even intellectual property lawsuits.  

Before you join other nonprofits by implementing “Bring Your Own Device,” make sure you have the policy, procedures and safeguards in place to prevent disasters.  

There’s very little wiggle room in today’s meeting and events budgets. That’s why you can’t afford to sign a hotel contract that doesn’t represent your best interests. You don’t need to be a legal expert, but you DO need to be 100% proactive in negotiating better room rates, weeding out hidden fees and converting overly restrictive cancellation policies into more fair and flexible terms. Get the step-by-step guidance you need to master the “legalese” and turn better contracts into better events.

You’ve tried to boost event attendance, sponsorships, and dues revenue. But if you’re not seeing results (or you’re not seeing record results) there are seven strategies you haven’t tried.

With growing costs and memberships that continually expect new and enhanced benefits, associations must develop innovative strategies to raise the funds they need to achieve their mission goals. 

Today’s most successful associations have already begun implementing a new style of strategic fundraising to provide the backing they need. Now you can use their example to develop your own plan for 2013.

In the struggle to meet growing needs with diminishing funds, nonprofit leaders and association board members are increasingly exploring strategic alliances and mergers with other groups.

Could an alliance help your organization improve services, increase funding, acquire new program expertise or expand its reach?  Unfortunately, the answers rarely come without the costs of consulting attorneys, accountants and HR and Association experts.

Now there’s an webinar that cuts these costs for you.  Join us to explore the risks and rewards of forging your own alliances.

Register now for Benchmarking Social Media: How Does Your Association Measure Up? In this 90-minute inarweb, you’ll use the results of the 2013 Association Social Media Survey to evaluate where your own social media program stands. Then, you’ll explore association best practices tips you can use right away to build your social media plan — and turn vibrant interaction into bottom-line results.

Ready to send an email campaign? Stop! Unless you’ve built deliverability into your strategy, all your hard effort is likely to go straight to junk mail, along with your organization’s reputation.

What’s the secret to getting through spam filters?  How can you keep subject lines from sinking your open rate? And what needs to change about your content?

Start putting the answers to work on your very next email campaign.

Even if your organization is on solid ground, it’s smart management to cut back-office expenses. If you’re on shaky ground, it’s critical.

But all too many organizations – especially nonprofits – get it wrong.  They wind up targeting expense reductions that reduce the organization’s ability to serve its members and its mission, deliver value and grow. Now an expense reduction expert will take the guesswork out of how back-office cost management can benefit the entire organization.  

Are your current benchmarking practices really better than plain guesswork? For many associations, they’re not. The association environment has changed drastically over the last year. If your benchmarking tools and methods haven’t kept pace, you might not be getting the apples-to-apples comparisons and the accurate, meaningful data that you need. And without them, can you be confident about what to prioritize and where to invest to drive growth? Using today’s smartest benchmarking tools and tactics is a must.  Here’s how to find – and use – them.

Have you ever thought about creating a micro website and sub-brand to market your association’s products, services and secondary businesses?

You’re not alone. Nearly 50% of today’s associations support a micro site.  The challenge is that just creating a micro site and sub-brand isn’t enough.  In fact, if you don’t know the right way to launch -- and leverage -- one, the online exposure could actually weaken your main brand.

Don’t risk it!  Here’s what you need to know about branding and micro sites to help your entire organization grow.

How should (c)3s, (c)4s, (c)6s and other nonprofits be thinking about real estate?

For starters, you should start developing a strategy for 2014.  Now is a critical time to take a fresh look at tools like tax tax-exempt financing, debt-financed rents, and how you present your real estate decisions to your board. It is vital that you understand the benefits and pitfalls before making crucial real estate decisions in 2014.

Bottom line: it’s time to start thinking seriously about your real estate strategy.  Here are the experts who can help you get it right.

When it comes to recruiting members, are you promoting the wrong value proposition?

If your association is still talking about benefits and ROI the way you always have, you may never reach your membership benchmarks. A fresh approach is needed in an environment where fewer employers paying for membership dues, and individuals having to justify their own out-of-pocket investment. It is absolutely crucial to zero in on the right messages and the right ways to communicate them, effectively and on budget.  Here’s where to start.

On one hand, social media can generate good press, brand recognition, and new membership. On the other, it could get you into serious legal trouble. Requests for employees Facebook passwords became a human relations issue large enough to reach Congress.  Because the legal and regulatory landscape around employers' rights, employee free speech, and social media is still evolving, employers need to be up-to-date on the latest developments, and carefully craft social media policies that protect the company's reputation but will also stand up in court and before regulatory officials.

    
Dedicated people make great nonprofit Board members. But meeting fiduciary responsibility takes more than dedication–it takes serious financial know-how.

But what if your Board members aren’t CPAs? What if they don’t understand your financial structure? What if they don’t know how to use due diligence, cash flow strategies and other financial and accounting practices to keep your nonprofit in the black?

Having an unprepared board is frankly not an option. In light of today’s challenges, what your Board doesn’t know can hurt you. Here’s how to get everyone up to speed – fast

Membership … meetings … budgets … contact information … records on all 7,800+ associations, professional societies and labor unions and their 20,000+ association executives.