Nearly Half of Associations to Step Up Non-Dues Revenue Efforts in 2012

By Association Adviser staff

Are associations more than dues gathering organizations? Last month’s Association Adviser enews reader poll indicated yes, as nearly half (45.8 percent) of respondents told us non-dues revenue will be an increasingly important component of their 2012 budgets. One-third of respondents (30 percent) said non-dues revenue will have about the importance as it did in 2011, and less than one in four (24.2 percent) said non-dues revenue will be less important.

As a percentage of your 2012 budget, what is your expectation for non-dues revenue?

Source: Association Adviser enews and Naylor, LLC 2011 | N=120

The latest reader survey results seem to build on the findings we detected in January’s 2011 Association Communication Benchmarking Report. In that report, more than 40 percent of the 700 responding associations told us their member communication vehicles were required to operate as a profit center (i.e. generate non-dues revenue), and only 19 percent said they could run their member communication vehicles as cost centers.