Many associations are discovering new and novel ways to generate non-dues revenue while staying true to their mandate. Here are a few areas where your mandate may overlap with the services a branded job board for your association can provide:
Developing Careers
Many of your members joined your association for the purpose of making changes to their careers. Your members are likely seeking networking opportunities at events and conferences, the chance to learn new skills and gain accreditations through courses and workshops, or the opportunity to develop leadership skills and mentor others.
Providing an online job board as part of the benefits you offer is a natural fit if part of your mandate is to foster the careers of your membership and offer resources to help them succeed in their chosen role or industry. Unlike the big job boards out there, your association’s career portal can be exclusively focused on the kinds of opportunities that are interesting and relevant to your membership. This saves them time and makes your website an important and engaging resource for them around the clock, since people tend to job search all year round at home, at lunch, on the bus, etc.
Diversity & Inclusion
Many associations and employers are dedicating themselves to diversity and inclusion within their memberships and staffing. Associations focused on diversity and inclusion can become thought leaders for employers and recruiters in their industry.
With your association’s knowledge of your members’ careers and their concerns, there is an opportunity to provide resources and advice to employers and recruiters seeking to hire and retain them as employees. A job board can be a great place to engage with employers and discover what gaps they have when it comes to knowledge or resources, and develop and offer the courses, workshops, or other resources that they need to do better when it comes to diversity and inclusion in their workforce.
Engaging Members
While the unemployment rate in the US is low overall, a large number of people who are employed are actively seeking new jobs or are open to moving onto better ones. It’s extremely likely that this is true of your membership as well, making a job board an easy way to keep members engaged on a regular basis. There is an opportunity to engage millennials in particular, as many still struggle to get ahead in their careers and are fast adopters of mobile-responsive and up-to-date digital solutions.
A job board can also help associations engage members through volunteering. Your volunteer managers can post volunteer opportunities on your job board, and use its employer tools to help them review, screen, and hire volunteers.
Non-Dues Revenue
Associations rely heavily on membership dues to finance their operations, but most don’t only rely on them. Many have tiered levels of membership so that those with less money (like students or recent graduates) can still join and become active members. Indeed, many associations strive to be accessible to a broad range of people in their industry and prioritize that accessibility as part of their mandates.
That being said, making the big bucks isn’t always a top priority, especially for non-profit associations or those who are otherwise not driven by profit. Finding non-dues revenue streams that help sustain an association and enable it to fund broader access to the services that benefit all its members can be an important part fulfilling its mandate.
Those of you in an executive role at an association know all too well the balancing act of maintaining sustainable revenue and continuing to serve your membership in a positive way that aligns with your mandate. A dedicated job board or career portal under your association’s brand can be a useful and convenient way to generate non-dues revenue, engage members, support diversity and inclusion efforts, and help your members develop their careers.