Value, Verified: Inside the 2026 Association Adviser Magazine
The 2026 Association Adviser magazine is live, and this year’s content is built around a theme: the shift from adaptation to intention. For years, associations have been reacting to change as it comes. This year’s Association Benchmarking Report, the foundation for this issue, shows leaders moving past reaction and building deliberate systems to carry their association into the future. Here’s a glimpse into this year’s features:
What will define a valuable association over the next five years? Redefining Member Value puts that question to three association executives—Sheronda L. Carr, Chief Executive Officer of NAWIC, Michele Stanley, President & CEO of NSSGA, and Lisa Williams, Executive Director of NOMMA—who each bring a clear read on relevance, revenue strategy, and the metrics worth tracking.
Trust may be the real currency of membership. In Trust Is the Receipt, Naylor Vice President of Marketing Kiki L’Italien borrows from Dan Pink’s “seller beware” framework to argue that engagement data is often trust data wearing a disguise, and that members decide whether to renew long before the invoice ever arrives.
Most associations saw very little Gen Z membership growth last year, a fact workforce strategist and keynote speaker Phil Putnam doesn’t shy away from in Survive Past 2035: Solving the Gen Z Membership Crisis. His fix starts with an uncomfortable idea: sell products before you sell membership.
From Insight to Action lays out four habits that enable leading associations to turn data into decisions, and Naylor Chief Operations Officer Laura Taylor includes a 90-day framework for testing the model.
Health misinformation moves at the speed of an algorithm, a fact Kim Fitzsimmons. Chief Marketing Officer at the American Association of Endodontists (AAE), learned firsthand. Truth vs. Trends walks through the creator-led campaign AAE built to fight misinformation, along with the five-step framework other associations can borrow.
When Barry Schieferstein, Chief Operating Officer of the American Society for Nondestructive Testing, asked a deceptively simple question, who should be a member, the answer led to a freemium model and a 30% jump in membership. He shares the full story in Rethinking Membership From the Ground Up.
Sponsorship revenue often leaks through the cracks between departments. Building a Unified Sponsorship Program makes the case, courtesy of Naylor Association Success Manager Ben Hopper, for replacing one-off placements with an integrated, year-round sponsor experience.
Few rebrands are simple, especially one 40 years in the making. Rebranding With Purpose follows Executive Director Christine Feenstra through the total overhaul of Computer Using Educators into the California Association for Leading Innovation in Education, and the neuroscience-backed framework that helped her lead members through a change that felt personal.
That’s just a sample of what’s inside. The issue also covers video’s growing role in non-dues revenue in From Views to Value, what member perception research reveals in Data as Diligence, and what the benchmarking data shows about events and exhibitor value in Events at the Center and The Value Beyond Leads. Career Capital and Bazinga! What Your Career Center Data Is Actually Telling You make the case for career centers as strategic assets, and Building Momentum and Community closes things out with insight into the Women’s Executive Forum’s recent record attendance.
Whether you’re rethinking your own membership model, building a case for a new revenue stream, or simply looking for what your peers are prioritizing this year, the 2026 annual issue is designed to be a working reference you can return to. Explore the full 2026 Association Adviser for the complete picture of where associations are headed next.
About The Author
Robin Lamerson is a Strategic Content Manager at Naylor Association Solutions and Managing Editor of Association Adviser. Reach her at [email protected] or connect with her on LinkedIn.
Photo courtesy of VZ_Art/Shutterstock.com.