Understanding the make-up of your membership can be an important tool to help with your planning and program development.

Research shows that while most associations are still dominated by members from Generation X or older (born before 1980), the next wave of members, consisting of Millennials and the even younger Generation Z, are coming up fast. Those born from 1980 onward represent over a fifth of a typical association's membership, and studies have show that associations demonstrating membership growth and high renewal rates are usually those that have a higher percentage of Millennials.

Is your membership mostly in the early stages of their careers, middle, or nearing retirement? Knowing this allows you to see what types of programs may be of most interest -- should you be focused on career building and networking events aimed at your younger members or leadership/management oriented programs?

Understanding your member age brackets also allows you to assess if you're attracting and keeping younger members that will continue with your association as older members retire. If you find that you need to attract and retain younger members, consider programs that will attract them -- mentorship programs, networking events, career building courses/events, member-only job boards, etc.

The best way to plan for the future is to know where you stand now.

What's this mean for Exware clients?

Exware now offers a Member Demographics module that shows membership stats by age. Associations can also set-up stats on three additional membership demographic fields. Ask us about it today.