Associations tend to be all over the board on how they use data and what they measure. In fact, you can get in just as much trouble trying to cope with too much data as you can without having enough data. Over the years we’ve come to learn that most associations have some key datapoints that are (almost) universal, and now Association Acumen executive directors are introducing interactive data portals to the boards of directors that we are lucky enough to serve.
Dashboard Tools
While these dashboards are customizable for each association, the common themes are measures for:
- Membership: New Members,Renewed Members, Membership Revenue
- Annual Meetings: Delegates Registered, Abstracts Submitted, Hotel Room Block Performance
- Sponsorship & Exhibits: Revenue, Total Sponsors, Total Exhibitors
Early signs from the rollout of these tools show that we are setting up our associations for success. Giving leaders the opportunity to see current information and the ability to benchmark from the previous year’s numbers has generated a lot of great feedback.
In fact, Katie Keeton, Vice President of the Automotive Fleet & Leasing Association (AFLA), had this to say: “The AFLA Dashboard puts our reporting on par with the way we use metrics in our day-to-day jobs at large multinational corporations. It’s really cool to see our nonprofit organization being managed like a professional business.”
We encourage all the boards we serve to work with their executive directors to find ways to tweak these dashboards to help measure the organizational performance in the best way possible. Association Acumen’s unofficial motto has always been ‘evolve or die’ and this is one more step toward further evolving our governance structures.