Generating Non-Dues Revenue
Creating new and innovative ways to generate non-dues revenue is a quandary facing all nonprofits. And although many association executives have heard that the Internet can be a virtual cash register, they haven´t figured out how to make that dream a reality. Now you can turn your DataZone into an income-generator that does more than pay for the implementation costs of the DataZone by enabling the creation of a continuous non-dues revenue stream into your association.

Here are just a few of the ways you can turn your DataZone into an income generator.

Utilize Data to Create Syndicated Reports on your Industry. Businesses look to associations to provide research and statistics. However, many associations don´t have the capability to capture or analyze data effectively. With DataZone, you can identify the information your industry´s companies most need and incorporate that into your research agenda. Not only will it become a core part of your association´s knowledge base, it can serve as the basis for reports and studies that sell through distribution services such as Marketresearch.com or Mindbranch.com for thousands of dollars.

Grant Vendors Access to Participating Members to Conduct Surveys. Many associations have been selling member mailing lists and phone numbers for years. But for privacy reasons they have not granted access to members´ email addresses. But now, as business-to-business research increasingly moves online, e-mail access to members in order to conduct research can be a huge money-generator with little staff support. You control access to your members, so that vendors never get the contact information. You can also select only those members who have agreed to participate in research studies.

Businesses typically pay per completed survey. These companies routinely pay between $5 and $50 or more per complete. For the typical survey with 400 completes, that can add $20,000 or more to your association. In addition to the vendor paying your association to conduct the research, the information will still be maintained within the DataZone and can be accessed in the creation of future reports or cross-tab reference needs.

Conduct and sell specialized studies such as salary surveys, demographic profile studies and economic benchmark indicators. By incorporating just a few regular questions in your ongoing research agenda about topics such as salary or key economic metrics in your members´ businesses, you create an ongoing tracking study that can be invaluable to both your members as well as companies serving your members. This data can be incorporated into its own area of the DataZone that can be sold to subscribers who need this type of information.

As you can see, the flexibility of the DataZone coupled with the collected knowledge and information of your members creates a powerful tool that can become an income-generator for your organization. Non-dues revenue is just one of the topic areas covered in the initial Strategy Design Workshop for your association thereby generating non-dues revenue an integral part of your DataZone right from the start.

To learn more about how Association DataZone can help your association,
contact Robin Wedewer at (410) 414-5718.