As an association professional at a mid-to-large size organization, you probably spend a lot of time focused on member acquisition, retention, and hitting your organizational goals. But how often to you think about improve your association’s efficiency?
If you simplify and streamline your association’s day-to-day operations, it frees valuable staff time so they can focus on delivering member value and providing a superior member experience.
Continue reading to discover best practices and tools to improve your association’s efficiency.
Is your organization losing time and money with an outdated system? Learn more about the NetForum AMS advantage! Request a demo here.
8 ways to improve your association’s efficiency
With the right association management software (AMS), you can simplify and streamline your day-to-day processes by automating common tasks and work across your organization. Let’s look at eight ways you can use an AMS to help your staff work more efficiently and effectively:
1. Manage your entire organization from your AMS
Using an AMS to manage member data and processes makes it easier to handle membership efficiently and keep your member data secure. But keep in mind that not all AMS platforms are created equal.
For example, NetForum has been supporting the needs of associations for more than 20 years, offering trusted out-of-the-box functionality for mid-to-large size associations. Built on Microsoft Azure, NetForum provides limitless flexibility on modern, future-proof architecture, offering best-in-class security and increased reliability.
This means your staff can manage everything from membership processes and chapters to fundraising and accounting – all in one place, without needing to juggle multiple systems. Because the member data for these functional areas of your organization is managed in one system, you have fewer systems to worry about when it comes to securing access to your data.
TIP: Need to get your AMS up and running quickly? Choose NetForum optimized adoption to get the out-of-the-box features your association needs to boost efficiency, maximize revenue, and enhance the member experience. Learn more about NetForum optimized implementation.
2. Empower your members
There’s no point in your staff wasting time answering commonly asked questions and providing the same information to your members. With the right AMS, you can give your members the power to quickly find the answers and resources they need. The result: A better member experience and less staff time spent on repetitive tasks.
For example, NetForum includes multiple capabilities that your members can use via a member portal to find the answers and services they need. These modules include:
- Chapter management
Allows your members to find chapters in their area. - Committee management
Allows your members to interact with the committees in which they have an active role. - Discussion groups
Gives members a way to start and participate in online discussions with each other and your organization. - e-Commerce
Allows your members to join or renew, register for events, and buy products online via an online store. - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Allows you to provide searchable knowledge bases of frequently asked questions, giving your members information they need while saving your staff time on the phone and responding to emails. - Member directory
Allows you to create an online member directory, organized by individual, organization, or whatever format is best for you, that members can search. - My transactions
Gives your members and other customers the ability to renew or rejoin and view products they’ve purchased, events they’ve attended, and memberships they hold. - Profile management
Allows your members and prospects to view and update their name, organization, mailing and billing addresses, title, phone, fax, email and more, empowering them with self-service while saving your staff hours of manual data entry.
TIP: NetForum allows organizations to setup admin users who can manage all the members from one company. The admin can renew memberships, register members for conferences and events, and even update members as staff come-and-go with their company. It is a proven way to improve your association’s efficiency and increase retention.
3. Automate manual processes to improve your association’s efficiency
One of the best ways to increase efficiency at your association is to automate manual business processes. With the right tools, you can automate common, manual tasks using a graphical workflow builder. You can define the automation as a response to an activity, such as sending an email when someone joins, or by building a combination of action items to create a complete set of actions, such as processing a product return.
For instance, using NetForum, you can use a workflow builder to automate email communications to engage with members more personally and improve your association’s efficiency. Here are two examples of member communications you can automate:
- Welcome/onboarding emails
Create a welcome campaign that’s automatically triggered when a new member joins. The campaign can familiarize the new member with your organization and encourage the new member to take advantage of benefits offered by your association. - Renewal email series
As members get closer to their renewal dates, send them an automated, personalized renewal email series to remind them of benefits they have taken advantage of, remind them of benefits that they haven’t taken advantage of (but still have time to do so), and let them know about upcoming events and opportunities they’ll miss if they do not renew.
TIP: With NetForum, you can also automatically assign incoming requests to internal staff members. For example, if a member requests information for an upcoming event through NetForum, the system can automatically trigger an acknowledgement email to the member who made the request and send notification to the event manager about the request in case additional follow-up is needed.
4. Engage members more efficiently and effectively
Boost efficiency by understanding how engaged your members and prospective members are with your organization. Then use that knowledge to get your members and prospective members more involved. Of course, measuring member engagement can be complex and time-consuming if you try to do it manually. However, with the right technology, you can automatically measure the health of your association’s relationships with members.
For example, NetForum includes a member engagement scoring tool, called A-Score™, that measures the engagement level of your members – individuals and organizations – based on your organization’s unique requirements. Using A-Score™, you can determine the interactions most meaningful to your organization – such as renewals, donations, products purchased, events attended, committee and advocacy activity, and social behaviors, giving weights to their value. A-Score™ then automatically scores member behavior on an ongoing basis to show you which individuals are most (and least) engaged, offering insights to act and get members more involved.
Here are some practical ways you can use NetForum A-Score™:
Identify groups of members who are in danger of lapsing and then reach out to find out how you can make their member experience more valuable.
Identify low-engagement members and target them with a special re-engagement campaign.
Find members who are moderately engaged so that you can target them with campaigns to get them more involved and encourage them to purchase more of your association’s products that are most likely to interest them.
Identify members with high engagement scores who have never donated; target these members as part of your association’s fundraising efforts.
Pinpoint members who are highly engaged and invite them to become leaders in your organization.
Use A-Score™ in combination with moves management functionality in NetForum to automate and personalize communications to targeted groups of people based on their scoring patterns.
Uncover engagement levels of non-members and target those who are most engaged (and therefore most likely to join) with communications to encourage them to join.
TIP: Member engagement scoring can help you develop an engaging member experience that delights your members and keeps them around for years to come. Find out more about member engagement scoring capabilities by reading our free guide.
5. Simplify complex accounting procedures
Just think about how often your membership activities and processes require accounting support. Invoicing, cash receipts, and other financial transactions, including deferrals, credits, and inventory management – all play a role in your membership management activities.
Improve your association’s efficiency with NetForum, by leveraging an accounting module designed to support the integration of your financial data directly with the correct accounts in your accounting system. It helps your staff easily compile financial data to know where your company stands at any given moment.
Here are more ways NetForum helps your association enhance efficiency:
- Create and adjust pro-forma invoices for companies and individuals, apply discounts or late charges, and process payments.
- Post transactions to a third-party general ledger system by batch.
- Process returns, and reverse posted transactions back to credit cards or third-party payment systems.
- Charge credit cards electronically at your meetings or point-of-sale, and store tokenized credit card numbers (for security purposes) and partial credit card numbers for displaying and searching.
- Integrate your financial data directly with the correct accounts in a third-party accounting package, and communicate seamlessly with other software, such as MIP Fund Accounting, Solomon, Great Plains, or Epicor.
- Maintain tax tables, including Canadian GST taxes, and handle multi-currency transactions.
- Set up various shipping options and freight charges.
- Track multiple business units and create the associated multi-company journal entries.
- Track fiscal years and closing periods.
- Search transactions by type, GL account, date created, billed, approved, printed, posted, and more.
- Make reconciliation easier using visual aids, line-item drill-down capabilities, and reconciliation research functionality.
- Track deferred revenue accounts to make revenue recognition easier.
6. Streamline gift processing
Processing gifts might not be the most exciting part of your association’s fundraising campaigns. But making sure you have the right methods and tools in place for gift processing can help you save time and increase staff efficiency.
Here are some ways NetForum can make gift processing faster and easier:
- Save staff time during periods of high gift volume gifts
During high volume giving times, processing gifts more efficiently can save your team value time that’s better spent on other activities that support your members and donors. NetForum can help you handle gift processing more efficiently during busy times.For example: Donor portal functionality allows donors and prospects to manage their own profiles, contact information, and donations online. That means no re-keying of data for your team: The information goes right into the NetForum database.Batch gift entry makes fast work of processing checks or credit cards received in person. It’s a quick way to input many gifts at one time in a spreadsheet-type format, versus inputting gifts record-by-record.Visual workflows make it simple to automate common and manual tasks associated with gift processing. - Manage acknowledgements and tax receipts more efficiently
A high volume of gifts means a high volume of acknowledgements and tax receipts. Configurable templates in NetForum allow you to send this information to donors automatically via email.Alternatively, you can easily generate a list of specific donors (such as those with a certain donation level) to send a more personalized communication. The email can be sent (or you can print a letter) from NetForum. - Process gifts like a modern fundraiser
Providing members and donors with a convenient, modern experience means they’re more likely to keep giving.
That’s why Netforum helps you: - Allow donors to manage their own profiles, recurring gifts, and saved payment methods.
- Allow members to set up monthly donations.
- Split recurring gifts across funds. For example, a member could donate a $100 monthly gift and direct $60 to Fund A and $40 to Fund B.
- Soft credit a member of a household, allowing you to have combined family/couple giving totals on the household.
- Link a matching gift to the gift that generated the match, making it easier for you to track and report on all donations associated with a donor.
- Personalize gift acknowledgement emails, so that you can make donors feel more connected to your organization by recognizing their specific donation amount and what your organization can do with their contribution.
- Track annual campaign results more accurately
For those year-end campaign gifts that come in after December 31, you must attribute them to the correct year. The donor record in NetForum includes giving summary statistics, such as year-to-date. That statistic is automatically updated by NetForum any time a gift is received. You can then use that information to send a year-end report or year-end tax receipt to each donor.More importantly, you can choose when to re-set that statistic. So, for example, if you still expect to receive 2024 campaign gifts at the beginning of 2025, you can re-set the end of year date for, say, mid-January, so your 2024 end-of-year campaign reports are still accurate. - Track campaign results more easily
NetForum lets you easily configure fundraising appeals to track year-over-year effectiveness. Gifts made in response to an appeal are automatically coded to that appeal, making it easier to report on your year-end results.
TIP: Discover more pointers on how to take your fundraising to the next level in our free guide today! Download now.
7. Make project management smoother
Managing projects within your organization can be a hassle. That’s why NetForum includes functionality to help you organize tasks, expenses, work types, billing, and invoicing procedures.
You can use project management functionality in NetForum to improve your association’s efficiency. Here’s how:
- Manage the progress of each project with definitive tasks, work types, and completion dates, and track movement with easy-to-use project profile pages.
- Create universal expense types and categories, billing, and invoice procedures.
- Allow for easy submission of time and expenses against multiple projects.
- Allow managers to quickly review, accept, or approve time and expense submissions.
- Create and track internal and external invoices.
- Automatically calculate billing periods.
8. Leverage data to make informed decisions – faster
Using insights from your association’s data can help your entire organization make more informed decisions, faster. That’s why it’s important to have tools in place to help you dive into your data to understand it and put it to use. So, instead of spending time tracking down and compiling information from multiple systems to understand what’s happening with your organization, you can easily view and act on key organizational metrics each day.
For example, NetForum provides 300 standard reports for visibility into the health and performance of your organization. It also allows you to quickly modify standard reports without the need for IT help. And NetForum includes configurable dashboards for a quick view of key data. In just a few clicks, you can drill into a graph or chart to view the data behind it, and then drill down further to obtain a list.
In addition, NetForum leverages Nucleus Data Analytics, the first data analytics platform developed specifically for associations. Nucleus works with NetForum to provide association staff, leadership, chapters, members, and boards with the advanced data and insights needed for more informed decisions. You can leverage Nucleus to better understand your member data with helpful data visualizations and dashboards tailored for each functional area of your organization.
Learn more strategies to improve your association’s efficiency
With the right technology, your association’s staff will be working smarter (not harder), leaving more time to work on higher value projects. Follow the helpful best practices and tips in this blog to boost efficiency at your association today!
Are you ready to learn more about how NetForum AMS can help your organization become more efficient and deliver a better member experience? Read our free whitepaper for even more strategies to improve association efficiency.
