An interesting new story: “A Lesson in Revenue and Retention.” Associations Now: June 2012

The “New Money” column in June’s Associations Now is a follow-up to a May 2010 column on the Marble Institute of America. The program, which originally drew my focus to the Institute, was a series of CPE courses that MIA had created for their members to offer to prospective customers. The recession had hit members of the MIA very hard and they needed sales. By offering CPE to members of the American Institute of Architects and the National Kitchen and Bath Association, MIA members were put in the position of being seen as knowledgeable local experts, and a great marketing opportunity resulted.

The update in this month’s column tracked the increasing value of the program. First of all, it speaks to the expansion of the program; secondly, it addresses how MIA members involved in the program are also becoming more involved in sponsorships, etc.; and finally, it mentions the 97% retention rate of members involved in the program. This kind of well-rounded success resulted from figuring out what members needed most and delivering it to them. The fact that MIA has been making a profit while doing so is simply icing on the cake.

Read More >>> Go under Articles and Text, most recent articles and click on: A Lesson in Revenue and Retention

Elissa Myers writing for the American Associations Examiner says, “Andrew Lang may call himself a CPA, but he’s really a teacher.”

It is not typically my practice to blow my own horn, but based on my love of teaching, I am including an article on a recent half-day course I taught on Finance for Association Executives. The article was written by Elissa Meyers, who attended the session. Elissa is very well thought of in the association community, having previously been vice president and publisher of the American Society of Association Executives. She is currently the president of Advice and Consensus. Among the comments included in the article was the following:

“Andrew Lang is a fine Certified Public Accountant who specializes in the often complex and sometimes not intuitive finances of not-for-profit associations. Andrew operates a company called LangCPA Consulting, LLC, in Potomac, Maryland. His client list reads like a who’s who in association management.

But while he may have started out as a CPA, and while he may still technically deserve that title, along the way he has found his true calling – teacher.

Leading a course this past week on “Financial Management for Association Executives,” Andrew held a widely divergent group of association executives in rapt attention as he discussed the not necessarily compelling subject of “how to read a financial statement.””
​

To read the rest of the article paste this link in your browser >>>
www.examiner.com/article/andrew-lang-made-call-himself-a-cpa-but-he-s-really-a-teacher?CID=examiner_alerts_article

If you know of an organization that is interested in top-quality financially related education, I would be very interested in hearing from them.

An Important New Course; Focus on Finance: Optimizing the Financial Leadership Team.

I am very pleased to announce that I will be teaching and moderating a two-day course that will take place on November 1 and 2, 2012 and June 27 and 29, 2013 at the ASAE headquarters in Washington, DC. This course is intended to improve the financial knowledge of association treasurers or other financial leaders, and to enhance their working relationship with their CFOs and / or CEOs.

The course will cover everything from basic financial language and concepts to reading and analyzing not only typical association financial statements, but also the organization’s own financial statements. It will also include an overview of such things as the role and typical responsibilities of the treasurer and other leaders, how to understand the key elements of the form 990, and how to most effectively communicate financial information.

I will be providing further updates on the course in my newsletter, but wanted to give you the opportunity now to reserve space for your organization, because class size will be limited.

In order to make the course as valuable as possible, each association must have at least one leader and one staff person in attendance. Reservations may be made by e-mailing Mark Milroy at mmilroy@asaecenter.org.

A free course offered in the Washington, DC Metropolitan area.

As a board member of the Greater Washington Society of CPAs, I will be presenting a free half-day course titled Financial Management for Association Executives on Wednesday, May 2 from 9:00 am- 12:00 pm. The course will be held at GWSCPA’s offices, located at 1111 19th Street NW, Suite 1200, Washington, DC 200036; registration and networking will begin at 8:30 with breakfast provided.

The course is intended to provide an introduction to association finance for those who are new to that subject, or to provide an opportunity to refresh their skills for those who wish to do so. If you or someone else on your staff wishes to register, I suggest you do so promptly, because space is filling up. To register, please e-mail Ashley Worthington, Operations Manager, at awothington@gwscpa.org.

So what does this have to do with non-dues revenue, you might ask? The answer is quite simple. When GWSCPA thought of putting on the course it was going to be done at the society’s expense, with me simply volunteering my time. Being hard focused on the bottom line, I pushed them to secure sponsorships totaling at least a $1000, allowing this public service offering to create a profit as a byproduct. With a modicum of effort they were able to secure two $500 sponsors, and what would have been a loss, based on providing breakfast and teaching materials, will now be a gain of about $500.

In this case, it is not so much the amount as the concept. Why not try to make a profit on everything you do?

Let me give you another example with more significant dollars involved. A trade association here in DC had an advocacy fight on their hands; unfortunately they were not sufficiently funded to deal with it appropriately. The committee they had formed to deal with the advocacy challenge decided on their own that while they were dealing with this issue they would pay for ALL of their own travel and out-of-pocket expenditures. All I can say is that it is not business as usual and I was seriously impressed. The necessary work was done with no impact on the bottom line whatsoever.

They were serious and they were creative. That’s a good approach for all of us.

An interesting new story: “The Future of Planning for the Future.” Associations Now: April/May 2012

My article in the April/May “Associations Now” is only tangentially related to non-dues income. Its main focus is on the latest methods of successful strategic planning, and the significance of internal politics on planning.

Happily, there are a number of areas that will be of interest to executives who are responsible for, or focus on, developing additional revenue streams. Many of these topics relate to the marketplace that the association is serving. In these days of rapid change it is entirely possible that the market you were serving has changed due to an increase in competition, or a change in the fundamentals of the niche involved.

One of the topics discussed in the article is an approach to targeting your new products and services, not based on what your members think they want, but on the needs of your members’ customers. This approach, called “a customer’s customer analysis,” is one of the more interesting approaches that came up in the roundtable on which the article is based.

These are just a few of the topics that you may find of interest. I encourage you to read the article for these issues as well as for others.

Read More >>> Go under Articles and Text, most recent articles and click on: The Future of Planning for the Future

Tweeting for Dollars: Associations Now: March 2012

This month’s column results from my asking a specific question dozens and dozens of times: “Does your association, or any association you know, actually create net income directly from social media?” Finally, after approximately six months of asking the question and getting “no’s,” I got a “yes.”

The positive answer came from Holly Ross, who is the executive director of NTEN, the National Technology Network. The goal of her association is to “help their members use technology skillfully and confidently to meet community needs and fulfill their missions.”

Part of NTEN’s methodology is to try out different technologies and providers their members might want to use, but that are as yet unproven to the broader association community. In this way, the association can take a risk that would be too large for any single member to take. And that is what happened here.

NTEN was already successfully using social media to learn which presentations the association’s members wanted them to pursue at conferences. Holly figured out that they could be using very similar technology to develop a little funding, as well.

The article speaks in detail about the circumstances and the results, but what ASAE will not allow me to print are the names of the companies that NTEN tried out as “back offices” for the fundraising work. I am happy to provide them here:

Razoo
CrowdRise
Causes

As you can see, NTEN uses a variety of providers on a test basis, rather than simply selecting one and using it again and again. Holly indicated that each of these companies was successful in its own way. However, she made an effort to point out, as I did in the column, that it is not the up-front fee, but rather the per-transactions costs that any potential user must be well aware of. It is these ongoing costs that will determine the true out-of-pocket cost of the effort.

I believe what worked for NTEN will be widely applicable throughout our association community and I encourage you to examine how it might best work for you.

Read More >>> Go under Articles and Text, most recent articles and click on: Tweeting for Dollars

Reminder: Free video on “How Associations Are Finding Revenue Now.”

A very up-to-date video on how associations are currently increasing their net income is available on our website at www.langcpa.com/courses.
This presentation can be viewed in its entirety (45 minutes) or can be viewed in three shorter sections. The video begins with an overview of the techniques used by some of the nation’s savviest associations, both large and small, to increase their bottom line. It then goes into specific detail on what was done by various associations. The PowerPoint slides from the presentation are also available on my website so they can be printed and reviewed as the presentation is being watched.
We encourage you to review the course and share it with any and all executives you think might be interested. If you find the presentation of value your mention of it on list serves and chat rooms would be most appreciated!

To watch the video >>> go to the Courses Page and view under Available Electronic Courses

Free video on “How Associations Are Finding Revenue Now.”

I am delighted to be able to offer you a video of a presentation I recently offered at the Greater Washington Society of CPA’s Not For Profit Symposium on how associations are currently increasing their net income.

This presentation can be viewed in its entirety (45 minutes) or can be viewed in three shorter sections. The presentation begins with an overview of the techniques used by some of the nation’s savviest associations, both large and small, to increase their bottom line. It then goes into detail on specifically what was done by various associations. The PowerPoint slides from the presentation are also available on my website so that they can be printed out and reviewed as the presentation is being watched.

The course is based on the knowledge I have accumulated over my many years of consulting with associations on how they can increase their net income. It uses some of my best “New Money” columns as reference points, and many of the slides tie into one or more of the columns which can also be found on my website in the “articles” section.

I encourage you to review the course and share it with any and all executives that you think might be interested. If you find the presentation of value your mention of it on list serves and chat rooms would be most appreciated!

To watch the Video >>> Go to the Courses Page and view under Available Electronic Courses

An Opportunity in China, Associations Now: February 2012

This column focuses on an opportunity that was discovered by Robin K. Weiner, the executive director of the Institute for Scrap Recycling Industries, Inc. (ISRI). While the specific nature of the opportunity may work for some of you, the greatest value of the column is the underlying benefit to the association.

Here’s the story in brief. ISRI’s members ship scrap around the world. At the moment some of the biggest exporting has been from the US to China. An opportunity arose when China developed new, tighter regulations on the importing of scrap. These rules were, of course, written in Chinese, and not especially clear, making them extraordinarily difficult for ISRI’s members to understand, much less comply with.

ISRI went to work and developed dependable interpretations of the rules. Naturally ISRI’s members were very pleased to be put on more solid footing. This was a truly pressing member need and the association was able to promptly lay it to rest. The new rules created a doubling of new members in the first year and an increase in sales and membership. But what Robin found to be of greatest value was that member retention had never been higher.

So here is the question for you: What is it that your members absolutely need? Whether it will obviously make you money or not, if it is essential to the members it is essential that you find a way to get it done. Based on the research I have done it is clear to me that with proper positioning and good pricing almost everything can make your association a profit one way or another.

Read More >>> Go under Articles and Text and click on article: An opportunity in China under Most Recent Articles

In January ASAE published its Leadership edition. If you are interested in this area, the article I wrote was on how to cut the tension and build trust for new board members. The article can be found at the top of the Governance section of my articles on my website.

Read More >>> Go under Articles and Text and click on article: Cut the Tension, Build Trust under the Governance section

Bringing the same product to a new market:

Non-dues Revenue from Non-member Education, Associations Now: November 2011

The Maryland Association for Justice (MAJ) had been creating videos of their live seminars for their members. In doing so they were using the services of a for-profit company. The company suggested to MAJ that if they could provide videos that are of interest to lawyers around the country, the for-profit would be willing to enter into a profit-sharing arrangement with the organization and market the videos.

Frankly, it was a no-brainer for MAJ. Members were pleased to develop and present the materials because it provided them with good exposure, and   the association was happy to receive the check.

In my work searching for additional revenue, I am always looking for a product that will serve the broadest market. In some cases the market is an interested portion of the public, and in other cases it is a previously unnoticed but  related niche.

My question for you is this: have you taken the time and made the effort to look at what you produce and who might be interested in purchasing it? There is money to be found!

Read More >>> Go under Articles and Text and click on article: Non-dues Revenue from Non-member Education

Some hot products coming next month:

#1 A Summary of What’s Working Today to Develop Non-dues Revenue

On December 14 at 10:10 p.m. I will present a course on “How Associations Are Finding Revenue Now” for the Greater Washington Society of CPAs. The outline for that course, which I am developing as I write this, should be of interest to anyone whose business it is to find additional revenue. If you would like a copy of the course handout, please send me an e-mail; I will send you a copy after I make the presentation. If you are able to come to the presentation, please drop by and say hello. Please email me to request course materials.

#2 A Discount on Fuel for Members!

If you are a trade association whose members use a fleet of vehicles, my December column may be of real value to you. In hunting for new non-dues revenue sources, I came across an association that struck a deal with a specialized credit card company to provide significant discounts on fuel to their members.

Unfortunately, these deals are available only to an organization that runs a fleet of vehicles that are on the road constantly; they are not available to professional societies or individuals.

I expect that when the article comes out the trade association will get quite a few calls, as will the credit card company. If you would like to get the inside information before the publication date, please give me a call at 301-983-3206.

Bringing you a broader perspective:

What’s Next in Association Law, Associations Now: September/October 2011

In this month’s magazine my “New Money” column has been replaced by a feature story based on a roundtable I recently organized and facilitated on potential legal pitfalls facing associations.

While a number of topics covered in the article are related to additional revenue such as the unrelated business income tax and joint ventures, the bulk of the article is intended to bring to your attention the key issues top legal experts think you should be aware of as we complete 2011 and head into 2012.

I want to send my special thanks to the legal experts who were kind enough to contribute their thoughts and time to this effort. They include, among others, Jeff Tennenbaum of Venable LLP and Jerry Jacobs of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP—both recognized as leading lights in the field, as well as Cindy Lewin, who is Exec VP and General Counsel for AARP.

Read More >>> Go under Articles and Text and click on the article: What’s Next in Association Law

Is anybody making measureable additional revenue from social media?

There are some topics I would love to write a “New Money” column about, and this particular question is right at the top of that list. Unfortunately, without a “net income” success story I cannot write about it for ASAE. However, since it may be a question on your mind, I am happy to share my research and results with you.

First of all, this is a question that I am asked on a regular basis and one that I regularly research, and the answer at this point still appears to be “no.” So if your association is thinking of investing in social media with a hoped-for “nickel-in-the-slot” return on its investment, I think you should keep your change in your pocket.

Which is not to say that an investment in social media is not common among associations, or a bad idea. Most often what I hear is that associations, and especially CEOs, are using Twitter to stay in touch with members and other interested parties, which is a valuable benefit in and of itself.

Reliance on Facebook can come closer to a return on investment in that it is a good place to promote upcoming activities and the like, presumably increasing revenue by boosting sales. Facebook groups are also regularly used by associations to provide a special “meeting place” for their members, with a byproduct of keeping some level of control.

As for LinkedIn, it has largely evolved into a place where individuals can connect professionally, and for some it substitutes as a Web site. If you have not yet established your LinkedIn account, you can check mine out at >>> http://www.linkedin.com/pub/andrew-lang/7/34b/549. From a broader perspective, I have yet to find associations trying to make money here, either.

The bottom line is that there does not yet appear to be a measurable monetary “bottom line” coming directly from social media. On the other hand, if you have a success story PLEASE let me know…perhaps then I will finally be able to write the column!

Is your association making net income in new or different ways? 
I am always looking for new stories for my column.

Please e-mail me at alang@langcpa.com