Achieve Sustainable Growth...
Board, leadership, and boots on the ground alignment that drives sustainable growth.
To create sustainable growth year after year,
you have to provide member experiences that are relevant and valuable.
But here are the challenges that consistently arise…
Growth is stagnant, but your resources are running at warp speed
You have conflicting priorities on what will drive the best results
Often, policy and people are preventing the organization from moving forward
The data isn't showing why members leave and how to improve retention
There’s misalignment between board expectations and the tools to get there.
The messaging isn’t driving enough value to attract new members at scale
The 4 Drivers for Sustainable
Membership Growth™
You’ll experience quick wins and build long-term sustainability
when you take a systematic approach for growing membership.
1. Know Your Numbers
- Clarify the right formulas that provide true data
- Isolate the greatest opportunities for quick wins
- Drive board buy-in and team morale with new membership growth based on the data
2. Know Your Membership
- Use the data for segmentation and personalization
- Increase your relevance to members through personalization
- Make your current members feel more valued
3. Know Your Value Proposition
- Leverage member feedback to guide your brand promise
- Use this messaging to drive relevance in the marketplace
- Create internal and external messaging for the key problems you solve for members
4. Know Your Path Forward
- Drive new growth with clear strategy
- Forecast with clarity for sustainable growth
- Energize your team empowering them to serve members better and create sustainable growth
Hi, I'm Velma
I learned the Four Drivers of Membership Growth in a unique way.
Just out of high school, I joined a small team who was tasked to grow a conservation membership non-dues revenue by $3 million dollars. This was a 3-year vision on a small island in the Bahamas. We were successful in the growth because we saw that all membership came down to belief in a cause and a sense of community.
Every member organization is made up of members who believe something about the organization. It takes research to know how the cause changes over time so you can remain relevant and consistently deliver value for your members.
Taking the same lesson, I created an education trust fund that raised over $100,000 to cover my education, which brought me from the islands to the United States.
Each stage of my career reinforced this lesson until using the same principles as a Vice-President and Officer in a multi-million-member association, I led one of the largest membership growth turnarounds in the history of the organization.
Today, I train member organization leaders to achieve the same kind of sustainable growth in their own markets.
Let’s Connect!
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Let’s drive sustainable membership growth together:
Keynotes
- Learn the 4 drivers for sustainable membership growth
- Gain internal alignment with your board, leaders, and teams
- Create a path forward using a systematic approach
Workshops
- Clarify your value proposition for market differentiation
- Increase team collaboration and effectiveness in growing membership
- Improved member satisfaction and service
Consulting
- Discover quick wins for immediate membership growth.
- Build a sustainable membership growth model
- Improved member engagement, value, and retention
What you can expect after a workshop or keynote?
What My Clients Say...
Velma has been an invaluable coach, consultant & facilitator for a group looking to collaborate on growing our membership clubs. She brought the right mix of her own expertise, drawing out best practices from the participants.
We had the privilege of having Velma Knowles facilitate our morning session related to communication styles and team building. We had done this a number of times over the years, and Velma really knocked it out of the park. She broke it down really well for us. We have a very diverse workforce in terms of generations, and she brought it together for everybody. I think it was one of our best ones ever! I certainly would recommend her as a good facilitator for any organization internally and externally with your boards of directors as well.
If you want to start your day with a bolt of energy that blows coffee away – CALL VELMA! Within minutes of hitting the stage, she had 6—donor relations professionals on their feet and thinking differently about communication styles.
We hired Velma to speak to our chapter leaders on membership and it was FANTASTIC!
Velma – thank you for the fabulous presentation you gave to our members! They are still talking about it.
Unbelievable energy! Velma came recommended to our commercial real estate group in South Florida and the level of energy she brought was amazing. She was very good at audience engagement and had our crowd of 100 laughing often. I would highly recommend her for speaking engagements as well as working with small teams to get motivated and all rowing in the same direction.
A Few of My Valued Clients
Here are 3 ways to get quick
wins in membership growth
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