Affiliate Membership: Realizing Your Dreams

Session 1528

Zack Brown & Jesse Salinas

How to realize your dreams: an agenda.Overview – Where we’re going – 10 min

Affiliate Membership Discussion – 70 min

How the process works – 5 min

Tabletop discussion – 45 min

Report out – 15 min

Final Notes on discussion – 5 min

Affiliate Membership Report out – 20 min

Affiliate Membership Strategies/SOPs

Affiliate defined strategies best

suited for building local

volunteer infrastructure

Affiliate Membership Structure

HandsOn developed national

strategies for building

volunteer infrastructure

Engagement Mobilization Transformation

Options for category based on alignment with POLI & HandsOn strategies

•2007 –POLF + HON Merger

We said we would revise with the field the Affiliate membership agreement with the Network

•2007 – 2008 New Two-Year Agreement Developed

•2008 – present New Membership Advisory Committee created a structure

for accepting new members

•NOW We’re revising the membership agreement!

Our path to today

TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION

•specific information for each is on your table

•you have until 9:30 for discussion

•We will notify you at 15 minute intervals, in case you wish to switch tables

Each table is ONE issue – choose a table and share your thoughts with colleagues

•Some guidelines:

• Each table will have some reference material and framing questions.

• Each table must identify a table lead to maintain productive and participatory discussion.

• Feel free to write your thoughts on the paper provided

• You may move to another table during our allotted time, unless you are the table lead

Table Topics

Protected Market

“In Good Standing”

Use of Brand

Annual Affiliate Report (AAR)

Benefits/Requirements Matrix

Standards of Performance

Open Table

REPORT OUT

We have time to hear from one person at each table

Please continue to write your thoughts down

Thanks for all the great feedback!

AND NOW!

Jesse Salinas, RVP Member Services & Support presents:

HOW WE CAN MAKE YOUR DREAMS A REALITY!

Affiliate Membership Services Survey Results 2009

Who Responded

117 (46%) of HandsOn Affiliates completed survey

Respondents by membership category

Engagement- 48% (56)Mobilization- 25% (29)Transformation- 27% (32)

Respondents by Legacy Affiliation

Points of Light Foundation, only- 46% (53)HandsOn Network, only- 11% (13)Both POLF and HandsOn- 41% (47)Not a member of POLF or HandsOn- 2% (2)*

*= not a member of POLF or HandsOn are affiliates who joined post-merger

Key Findings

SATISFACTION with Membership:

Overall, 68% of HandsOn Affiliates are satisfied with membership in HandsOn (32% are dissatisfied).

• Engagement affiliates reported the highest levels of satisfaction (77%), followed by Transformation (66%) and Mobilization (54%).

• Very little variance in membership satisfaction based on legacy status was noted

• 68% of POLF members reporting some degree of satisfaction

• 69% of HandsOn members

• 67% who were affiliates of both POLF and HandsOn

TECHNICAL NOTE – satisfaction constructs were assessed using a standard 5-point Likert scale with a mid-point choice of ‘satisfied.’

Key FindingsCOMMUNICATION with HandsOn:

Overall, 78% of affiliates are satisfied with frequency of communication from HandsOn, whereas 22% are not satisfied.

• Big Tent (31%), POLI/HandsOn websites (25%) and Monthly affiliate calls (24%) were reported as least useful methods of communication. There is work to be done to make these tools valuable for the field if they are to continue.

• Of all the methods for sharing information with the affiliate network, the weekly affiliate newsletters (93%) and emails (91%) were reported as useful or very useful methods of communication. These seem to be preferred communication methods and need to be enhanced in the future.

  Extremely Valuable or Valuable

National Volunteer Week 90%

Martin Luther King Day 81%

Disney 77%

Make a Difference Day 69%

United We Serve 54%

iParticipate 34%

Starbucks 33%

Cities of Service 24%

Get HandsOn 20%

Scholastic 9%

NIKE 8%

Value of National Campaigns/Initiatives

Highlighted rows are events HON intends to make a 3 year commitment to execute

Strategies For Improving Affiliate Membership Satisfaction

Strategy for Improving Membership Satisfaction

Overall Goal: Overall membership satisfaction will increase from 68% baseline to 85% satisfaction with HandsOn membership.

Strategy to Increase Communication with Affiliates

Goal: Increase personal outreach with Affiliates.

Strategy: Increase direct outreach with Transformation and Mobilization Affiliates; create opportunities to reach Engagement Affiliates.

• Every Mobilization and Transformation Affiliate will get two personalized HandsOn calls per year

• HandsOn will create 3-5 opportunities for Engagement Affiliate activation, communication and/or participation

• 3-6 smaller, intimate calls with Affiliates created by Affinity (ex. Membership category, size, internal to UW, etc) per year.

Strategy for Improving Membership Satisfaction:

Goal: Increase national staff responsiveness and knowledge of the work of Affiliates (by end of FY10, 10% increase in perceived responsiveness by Affiliates)

Strategy: Institute Standard Operating Procedures with POLI/HON staff

• Institute standards for POLI/HON related to working with and supporting Affiliates

• Improve national staff response time to Affiliates; improve processing time for grants/checks and set clear expectations on payments.

• Institute standards for response time (fax, email, phone) with POLI/HON staff so that Affiliates receive a higher level of service and fewer challenges with lost paperwork, faxes, etc.

Strategy for Increasing Shared Understanding & Participation

Goal: Incorporate Affiliates into more processes within HON/POLI, with 80% of Transformation affiliates and 50% of Mobilization affiliates on a committee, task force, or ad hoc work group.

Strategy: Create new paths for Affiliate participation

• Develop structure for new Affiliate committees, task forces, ad hoc groups, and focus groups (underway)

• Develop processes for affinity groups among Affiliates, supported on BigTent and through conference calls

• Host a meeting of all Affiliate committee chairs once or twice a year

• Encourage membership on a committee with all Affiliate staff

Strategy to Support professional development of Affiliate staff and board leadership

Goal: Create tools and resources to welcome/orient new Affiliate staff and board members to HandsOn Network.

Strategy: Develop a “Welcome to HandsOn Network” message and orientation for new Affiliate staff hires and new Affiliate board leadership; promote menu of available tools such as Big Tent, Peer Exchanges, conference calls, etc.

Strategy: Leverage affiliates to develop New Affiliate Hire trainings (nuts & bolts) for traditional staff positions such as volunteer coordinator / program manager; identify Affiliate committee to develop and utilize their support in peer to peer training of new hires.

Strategy for Supporting and Increasing Shared and Peer to Peer Learning

Goal: Enable and encourage learning opportunities among Affiliates

Strategy: Maximize the usefulness of BigTent for the field; increase # of Affiliates registered (currently 650 staff members) and increase # of posts/comments and tools/resources (currently over 400 resources).

– Increase training opportunities for Affiliates with BigTent.

– Create Affiliate Committee to address support and use of BigTent.

Strategy: Strategy: Offer 30-50 Peer to Peer trainings (Exchanges and Boot Camps) each year.

Strategy: Offer Affiliate 3 Affiliate led activities annually including Pre-Conference All Affiliate Gathering (June 2010), Regional Meetings (Fall 2010), and re-institute ED/CEO retreat/summit in 2011 (ED/CEO event pending funding).

Strategy for Improving Affiliate Communication

Goal: RE-BOOT ALL Affiliate communication vehicles including email communications, BigTent, Weekly Affiliate News, All Affiliate Call, ongoing/periodic conference calls, etc.

Strategy: Create a communication strategy working group of Affiliates and HON/POLI staff. Issues to address with strategy include:

• Review processes, training and support for BigTent (May 2010)

• Review goals and strategies for all affiliate conference calls including the Monthly All Affiliate Call

• Review Weekly Affiliate News direction including strategy/use, layout, production process, release date, etc.

• Consider the use of New Media systems such as RSS, Twitter, blogs, etc to increase timeliness of communications to and from affiliates.

Strategy to Support Annual Events Planning Processes

Goal: Ensure collaboration with affiliates regarding rolling out of National Initiative and Corporate Engagement (NICE) programming.

Strategy: Form an Affiliate committee to facilitate deeper collaboration and to provide strategic input between Affiliates and national staff members. Areas to address include:

• Opportunities to support and influence partnerships including corporate sales/development.

• Curriculum and training opportunities related to project planning and execution

• Support for Affiliate involvement in signature events (MLK, NVW, MADD, etc).

Strategy to Intentionally Tell the Affiliate Story

Goal: Create opportunities to highlight and feature Affiliate successes at the National level.• Improve systems for data collection (success stories and metrics)

with Affiliate and HON events, programs and activities.

• Create opportunities for ongoing Affiliate “spotlights” (HON website, Weekly Affiliate news, other PR channels, etc).

• Develop marketing tools and resources for affiliates to highlight their successes and further their use of the HON brand.

• Create opportunities and training for Affiliates to support their use of social media tools to increase their reach.

Process, Timeline and Next StepsPosted survey briefing on BigTent and solicited comments (January)

Feedback from Affiliate board members (January)

Feedback from the state associations leadership and at several state association meetings (December through April)

Feedback from Engagement Affiliates through BigTent (ongoing since February)

Feedback from St. Simons attendees (April)

Transformer feedback specific to transparency and communications (April)

Mobilization feedback on membership value (April)

Internal strategies for HON/POLI staff and affiliates (Summer)

Present strategies to the field (Conference 2010)

Align strategies with Membership (Summer/Fall 2010)

Re-survey the Affiliate network to track success on strategies in December 2010

We have heard from you on what the requirements of membership should be and we have shared our strategies on how to respond to the field’s suggestions for membership over the coming year.

What we need from you are any last minute things/changes you’d like to suggest:

• Write it down here

• Post it in BigTent

• Email to zbrown@handsonnetwork.org

Wrap Up/Wake up

You have been provided what we have come up with for the ROI of membership. If this causes you to think about membership benefits/requirements differently please write down those thoughts.

We will be providing a survey to the field for those who were not able to be here, so that we can get the most representative voice. If you have additional thoughts, you are also invited to fill out the survey.

We will also do Affinity group calls before September. At the very least, one call for each membership category. These will be advertised through the Weekly Affiliate Newsletter.

The Membership Advisory Committee will review this data together with your notes from today and ultimately decide how we revise this Membership Agreement for the next year.