Since 2020, 35% of people in the world have read more books, and the number of streaming service subscriptions from companies like Netflix and Hulu passed 1 billion worldwide for the first time.

What does this tell us? That, more than ever, people love reading and/or watching a great story. And, sure, it also reminds us that we were all trapped inside waiting out a pandemic. Still, I think it’s telling that in times of crisis, when comfort and certainty were in short supply, we turned to stories. 

Consumer brands long ago discovered that the desire to read a good story and connect with characters drew customers to certain initiatives and even contributed to selling more products. But does this success in the consumer world translate to nonprofit storytelling?

The challenge of nonprofit storytelling

This question has been asked by many in the nonprofit sector, and for a while, it seems like there was some skepticism. I think that it’s because, if done poorly, using storytelling to further a brand, a product or a mission can feel inauthentic. And association and nonprofit members seem to sniff out the fake and phony more than other types of audiences. 

But over the past five years or so, nonprofits have realized that they actually have some of the best stories to tell! We’ve seen a growing interest in nonprofit storytelling, and we’ve seen really helpful blogs like the one from our Wild Apricot colleagues that help associations and nonprofits know where to start telling great stories about their people and their mission. 

3 Tips for Creating Memorable Nonprofit Stories 

1. Let people tell their own stories

User-generated content provides huge benefits. It’s inspiring, it’s credible and it shows that the organization values supporters and members. User-generated content also eases the burden of creating original content from the organization itself, while at the same opening up ample opportunities for increased engagement and participation. Ensure the content you get is what you’re looking for by soliciting content around a key theme, in support of answering a specific question or to support a unique campaign.

2. Tell your story in different formats based on your audience

These days, people like to consume their stories in a variety of ways. Some audiences prefer to read a story, others like a visual guide like an infographic and increasingly more people like to watch stories via a video. Some even like a combination of mediums to enjoy the same story. I’m, personally, guilty of listening to a true crime story on a podcast, then spending the next week reading every article and watching every video that I can about it. 

The point is that the digital world has not made storytelling obsolete. Instead, it has made storytelling come to life and more accessible through visual tools. 

And even though the idea of visual storytelling can be intimidating due to a nonprofit’s lack of resources, consider these facts as you start to plan for which tools to invest in for the future:

• Cisco projects that global internet traffic from videos will make up 82% of all consumer internet traffic by 2022. (Cisco)
• 70% of YouTube viewers watch videos for “help with a problem” they’re having in their hobby, studies, or job. (Think With Google)
• Globally, YouTube is consumers’ leading source of video content, at 83% (Facebook is second, at 67%). (HubSpot)

Visual storytelling has proven to be a highly-effective storytelling tool. Visuals allow you to quickly get messages across in high-impact ways that viewers can digest quickly. When people see your story, when they hear videos you’ve put together it creates the opportunity for a more memorable experience. Thoughtful and strategic introduction of multimedia will capture your viewers’ attention and spark meaningful engagement.

3. End with a call to action

Many of us learned early on that stories have a beginning, middle and end. For nonprofits, there’s an opportunity to share an overview of the problem and how the organization’s mission works to solve the problem. That’s the end, right?

It shouldn’t be. The stories that nonprofits and their supporters tell invest heavily in building an emotional connection but sometimes miss the opportunity to capitalize on it with a powerful call to action. Ensure each story your organization tells ends with a call to action—an opportunity for someone interested to become more involved. Join us, share your story, learn how to get involved all provide great ways for people to harness the positive energy from your story and turn warm feelings into next steps.

What does nonprofit storytelling look like to you?

Every association and nonprofit has a story to tell. But what that story is and the best ways to tell are up to you. If you’re stuck wondering where to start, we recommend doing things like interviewing members and volunteers and understanding the characters of your story doing persona work. 

For nonprofits, storytelling is changing the way members and partners find, engage and build relationships — and for the better. Both member- and donor-focused organizations have a clear advantage as their missions naturally create outcomes that are worthy of a great narrative.

The post 3 Tips for Getting Started with Nonprofit Storytelling appeared first on Personify.

October 31, 2019– Austin, Texas – Personify, Inc. (“Personify”), the market-leading provider of technology solutions for associations, nonprofits and organizations, today announced that in addition to significant growth in bookings posted for the second half of the year, Personify has grown its leadership team, with newly created roles for the organization. New hires include Jeff Lyons as Chief Operating Officer, Joe Hermes as Chief Financial Officer and Cindy Johnson as Global Vice President, People Operations.

Previously Senior Vice President of Professional Services for Skillsoft, Jeff led the global services team for the Skillsoft and SumTotal business units. As Senior Vice President of Operations and Chief of Staff for SumTotal, Jeff Lyons led integration and transformation efforts as he helped grow the company to the largest independent provider of integrated HR solutions, and helped lead the sale of SumTotal to Skillsoft. Prior to SumTotal, Jeff was co-founder and Chief Client Officer of MindSolve Technologies, a pioneer in employee performance management software.

Joe Hermes joins Personify from Marketo, a marketing automation software company, where he served as head of Financial Planning and Analysis and guided the successful acquisition and integration of the company to Adobe, creating one of the world’s leading marketing software programs. At Personify, Joe leads all finance, accounting and corporate development.

Cindy Johnson was formerly Chief People Officer at Rubicon Project, an advertising technology firm, and Senior Vice President of Human Resources for Concur Technologies, now SAP. Cindy has also held human resources leadership roles at Philips Medical Systems and AGRA Earth & Environmental. Cindy leads all people operations including talent acquisition, talent management and serves as the cultural steward for Personify leading merger and acquisition integration efforts.

Personify has also seen significant growth across its business units, with net new clients and client expansions that include the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, Allen Press, Inc., Blackboard, Bonnier Corporation and others.

“As we continue to expand our product lines and broaden our client base, these leaders are uniquely qualified to drive strategic prioritization and accountability with a laser-focus on operational excellence to support our clients,” said Eric Thurston, President and CEO of Personify. “They are joining an already successful, energetic leadership team at the perfect time to drive Personify’s continued growth.”

About Personify

Personify is the market-leading Constituent Management and Engagement (CME) platform that empowers organizations to better engage their constituents, maximize revenue and optimize operations. For over 20 years, Personify has served as the technology foundation for associations, nonprofits, event professionals and show organizers as well as YMCAs and JCCs. For more information, visit https://personifycorp.com/.

The post Personify Creates New Executive Roles and Grows Client Base for its Constituent Management and Engagement Portfolio appeared first on Personify.

Whether you’re a fan of Ice Cube’s work as a solo artist, his contributions to N.W.A or are just here to learn about making technology purchases for your association, you know the importance of gaining a single source of truth…for your members, their interactions and your organization.

As a member-focused organization, your association management technology is the heart of your business. A good association management system (AMS) allows you to manage your organization’s data within a single platform, empowering your organization with the insights and tools to work smarter and focus resources on your mission, not your technology.  

With that being said, the process for evaluating and selecting the right technology can be daunting. Whether you’re replacing a homegrown legacy system or starting from scratch, building a list of requirements will be the most challenging and the most critical step of the process.

Each step in the evaluation process is important, but the step that is often rushed is the process of understanding your needs and identifying requirements.  

Understand Your Needs 

• Enlist the help of various departmental stakeholders beyond just the buying committee. Outlines the teams and departments that will be using the technology. This can and should include member services staff that are creating new member profiles and signing up people for programs, executive members who are leveraging the data to develop insights and drive forward the organization and events staff who are planning your annual conference.  Are all of these individuals represented in the committee that is compiling your needs and goals for an AMS? 
• Ensure that you have a comprehensive, thorough list of requirements before you ever begin your search. This will improve your odds of ending up with a solution that can meet the needs of your entire organization.  
• When gathering this information, evaluate the business processes that are needed as part of your association management system. This exercise creates an opportunity to reevaluate legacy business processes and areas of inefficiency.  
• Keep an open-mind and remind staff why you’re having these conversations- to acquire the right tools to save time, streamline operations and free up resources to work towards your mission. If the tools are not achieving these objectives, why are you expending your efforts to acquire them? 

Build Your Wish List of Requirements 

To get started building a list of requirements, outline the goals and objectives of each area of the business, including a wish list of what each program hopes to achieve with the new system. Examples may include:  

Membership 

• Support complex membership and event types  
• Streamline new member acquisition  
• Provide greater visibility into member needs and trends  

Technology  

• Deliver efficiencies to maximize staff time  
• Stand up reliable, secure systems that will withstand changing technologies  
• Protect member data  

Marketing 

• Integrate with best-in-class marketing tools
•  Ability to access reporting and analytics to understand what’s working and what’s not 
• Manage personalized communications across various channels  

Operations 

• Provide ROI and data to support the organization’s initiatives  
• Accommodate data intelligence, create workflows and clear audit trails to manage the organization’s finances  

Events

• Drive participation in annual events and meetings, whether it be as an attendee, sponsor or exhibitor  
• Evaluate the operational and financial status of meetings and events throughout the event lifecycle 
• Streamline key operational processes to deliver a smooth experience for event organizers, attendees, sponsors and vendors   

Once you have a clear understanding of your organization’s needs and specific criteria, you’ll be ready to take the next step of drafting a request for proposals!  

The post De-Code Your Association Management System Purchase: Understand Your Needs and Requirements appeared first on Personify.

Believe me, I didn’t believe it at first either.

When a lot of us think of a Millennial or member of Gen Z, we think of them with a phone in their hand, connecting with friends via social media or texting. Wired magazine reports people are checking their smartphone an average of 150 times per day. But actually using the phone to….talk? Really?

But that’s what they told us. According to the young members who participated in our Young Members 2.0 study, 78% of Millennials and Gen Z reported that phone calls are either somewhat or very effective in engaging them. Not texting, an actual phone call.

Reflecting on it further, it makes sense. According to author Sherry Turkle, author of Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in the Digital Age, the endless streams of texts, tweets, Facebook posts, instant messages and snapchats – simultaneous, rapid-fire “sips” of online communication – are leaving us parched for real conversation and connection.  And when it comes to membership, those real, one-on-one connections really matter.  When Personify asked how important it was that an association facilitates connections with authentic people who understand their unique needs, 94% of young members identified it as important, with almost two thirds suggesting it’s very important.

Digital communication isn’t going anywhere there’s an opportunity for associations, and nonprofits of all stripes, to revisit the simple phone call. And while surprisingly effective with young members, a phone call delivers value across all segments. Phone calls allow for more organic conversation, follow-up questions and clarifications in real-time. They also feel more personal, giving you the chance to hear important cues that provide additional insight into how your organization (and messages) are being received.

For organizations, phone calls also offer a low-cost, high-impact, easy-to-implement way to engage members, both those who are making the calls and those picking up on the other end. You’ve already invested in your membership database. We know in-person conversations are meaningful, and you have access to both members and a board who probably have a telephone they can use for a few phone calls. What should you talk about?

While many organizations leverage call campaigns to drive dues renewals, take this opportunity to expand the conversation and engage members in a way that’s not so explicitly tied to an ask. Here are 5 ideas to get you started:

• Ask how a member is enjoying membership. Are there things they’ve particularly enjoyed, or programs they’ve been disappointed in?
• Invite them to an upcoming event that they may not know about. Sometimes being asked personally to attend can make all the difference.
• Tell your story. If you have members who are new to an organization, welcome them with a phone call and allow them to hear the value of membership firsthand.
• Share research. Many organizations work to provide their members with valuable information and perspective. Phone calls are a fantastic way to get the word out about and creates the opportunity for them to ask questions and share their own reaction.
• Solicit ideas! As your feet-on-the-street, members often have great perspective on new content, events or concepts you can bring to your membership.

It’s inexpensive, it’s easy, it’s meaningful. As we mentioned in our recent webinar on creating connection with young members, Philadelphia ad agency NW Ayer & Son’s was on to something with their 70’s ad campaign for AT&T which encouraged consumers to reach out and touch someone. The full line was actually, “To communicate is the beginning of understanding. Reach out and touch someone.”

40 years later the telephone – whatever its shape or form – continues to be an invaluable tool in building connection with young members. Not just texting either, be real conversations between actual people. Maybe it’s time to revisit the humble phone call.

Looking for more ideas specific to improving your understanding, acquiring, engaging and retaining young members? Check out our all new Young Member Spotlight, with on-demand webinars, ebooks, links to other blog posts and much more!

The post 5 Ideas for a Great Phone Conversation appeared first on Personify.

Our Young Members 2.0 report, published in February, laid out what’s proven a surprising statistic for many readers. Millennials will represent half of the global workforce by 2020 and Gen Z will make up an additional 20 percent by 2021. That’s right, young members will make up 70 percent of the global workforce in less than two years.

Yet according to Marketing General’s recently released 2018 Membership Marketing Benchmarking report, despite being a growing majority of the workforce, Gen Z and Millennials together still only represent only a quarter of association membership.

We apparently still have a lot to learn.

Thus far we’ve been lucky enough to host a number of webinars and conversations on the topic of young members. We’ve done a walk-through of the report and last month spent some dedicated time doing a deep dive on topic of young members and affordability.

But we’ve continued to receive interesting questions from association professionals like you around different pieces of our research and were recently asked about connection. How can we position the relationship and in-person connections that have always served as the cornerstone of membership with this emerging demographic?

What is Connection?

Connection, per social science, generally refers to the feeling that you belong to a group and feel close to other people.

I like to think of it as both the driving need behind and the outcome of engagement. The interactions young members have with you – whether in person or online – are done out of a need for, and a want to, connection. At the same time, the culmination of these interactions – their level of engagement – creates connection.

This connection is what will position organizations for long-term success with young members, ensuring they have a fulfilling experience and that you keep your retention numbers high.

IRL and the Value of In-Person Interactions

Think connecting with young members is all about digital? Think again.

Our Young Members study found one-on-one conversations with real people matter and remain essential in demonstrating value and creating a meaningful experience.  When asked how important it was that an association facilitates connections with authentic people who understand their unique needs within the initial part of their journey, 94 percent of young members identified this as important, with almost two thirds suggesting it’s very important.

81 percent report attending an in-person event in the last 24 months. Top events from our respondents include:

• Workshop
• Networking
• Community Service
• A gala/party

Young members are significantly less likely to attend an annual conference. There are a number of reasons why – early career young members may not be in a position to request travel budget and Millennials with small children may have to balance demands of work and a young family. But this is concerning for those of you looking for young members to not only support growth in your dues revenue but also your non-dues revenue.

The Telephone…Friend or Foe?

In 1979 Philadelphia ad agency NW Ayer & Son came up with a new ad campaign for AT&T. The jingle encouraged consumers to reach out and touch someone. The full line was actually To communicate is the beginning of understanding. Reach out and touch someone.

40 years later the telephone – whatever its shape or form – continues to be an invaluable tool in building a connection with young members. Not just texting either, be real conversations between actual people.

According to our study:

• Only one third of young members report receiving phone calls from their association yet a larger percentage of young members report phone calls work, with 78 percent of all members saying phone calls are either somewhat or very effective in engaging them.
• Almost half of Generation Z found these phone calls very effective.

When was the last time your organization called a young member to check in and talk about something other than a dues renewal?

Driving Digital Results

According to Forbes, Gen Z uses an average of 5 different screens – smartphone, TV, laptop, desktop and tablet – to peruse information media, compared to millennials who typically switch back and forth between 3 screens.

With all the interconnectivity and information available you would think it would be easy to engage young members, right? Or does the seemingly endless collection of platforms and channels make engagement harder?

I’d argue it provides more opportunity to connect with young members, but in different ways. Email is a critical components of your communications strategy. It is the way members stay informed about your organization and about the various opportunities you provide to help them build those connections.

According to Adobe’s fourth annual Consumer Email Survey, workers between ages 25 and 34 spend 6.4 hours a day checking their email and our report found almost three-quarters of young members report receiving email from their association often, either in the form of a newsletter (72%) or a more personalized message (73%).

But when it comes to young members, email seems quaint, old-fashioned especially in an environment where social media seems to reign supreme. According to Marketing General’s benchmarking report, 70 percent of associations report an increase in member engagement and participation on their public social network within the last 12 months

Which channels are associations using in their social media outreach?

• Facebook used by 93% of associations
• Twitter used by 89% of associations
• LinkedIn used by 69%
• YouTube used by 60%
• Instagram used by 40%

We know that young members are engaging via social medi

a and that associations have picked up on it – using a number of channels to engage members there. But which channels are young members using to create connections? And what’s working? Facebook tops the list at 80 percent, followed by Twitter (74%), Instagram (76%) and Snapchat (68%).

Personify has a number of tools designed to help you understand young members and optimize your efforts to help them form a connection to your organization, and with one another.

Get started with our on-demand webinar and eBook. When you’re ready, check out our other young member-related resources!

The post Young Members 2.0: Deepening Relationships appeared first on Personify.

As you may know, we launched the Persi Awards in 2018 (see last year’s winners) to recognize the incredible accomplishments that our clients have made over the past year and to highlight their success stories.

Innovation Awards

To kick off the Awards Program, we recognized organizations using innovative approaches to acquire and engage their members, donors, attendees, exhibitors and more.

The Texas Hospital Association received the Innovation award for the Association segment because of their efforts to move billing and collection process in house. They worked with Personify and our partner Intellidata to re-tool and modernize their invoicing approach for the program, which processed invoices amounting to over $3 million annually.

Through the use of technology, the Texas Hospital Association was able to reduce program expenses by more than 10 percent, had zero membership attrition, increase client satisfaction and has an impressive collection rate of 90%. Congratulations to the Texas Hospital Association for this impressive transformation and for modernizing your billing and collection practices.

Our next winner was Girl Up, a movement founded by the United Nations Foundation, that received the Innovation award for the Charity segment because of their use of CommUnity to enable the organization’s mission of creating and supporting a sustainable global movement of advocates for gender equality. This goal is not without its challenges. Some regional Girl Up members in areas such as Zambia, Malawi and India have limited access to computers and internet connectivity issues and constituents sometimes have difficulty due to language barriers.

Over the past year, Girl Up launched multi-country outreach in multiple languages, improved accessibility, simplified the registration process and optimized its mobile experience. Their efforts continue to pay off: The number of active club members has increased by 21%, and overall club activity has increased 33% from last year. Congratulations to Girl Up for the growth of your community and the work that you’re doing to further gender equality.

Our next winner received the Innovation Award for the Health & Wellness segment. While they have been a Personify client since 2004, the YMCA of Greater Charlotte received a 2019 Persi Award for the significant strides in their approach to e-commerce. The breadth of their organization is significant; the YMCA of Greater Charlotte engages nearly 300,000 men, women and children from varying ages, incomes and backgrounds – at 19 locations and two resident camps each year.

Through the use of workflows, they now drive 65% of product revenue from digital transactions and 92% of their resident camp sales now take place online. People come from all over the country to attend these camps, so an e-commerce solution is huge for them. Campers can now choose all of their activities online, which has freed up limited staff resources. The YMCA of Greater Charlotte also began selling memberships online recently and, of the membership types that are sold online, 40% are now sold through the website.

Our final winner in the Innovation category is VBN Paving Unlimited, a client who was in the process of applying for what is known as the Certificate of Recognition. This process is no small feat; it can often take up to three years plus to complete. There are many benefits to having the certificate in this organization’s industry including having a strong corporate image and appealing to safety-conscious workers.

VBN Paving was able to obtain this certificate because they tracked and documented all data in Wild Apricot for the application process. This is a ground-breaking achievement and the organization is now in talks to make this application available to others in the industry.

Impact Awards

The Impact awards are for organizations who have leveraged Personify’s solutions to drive their mission forward and meet their organization’s goals. They have fostered advocacy, vibrancy and collaboration through the use of technology.

The American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS) was chosen as the Impact winner for the Association segment. AAOMS represents more than 9,000 surgeons in the U.S. and is dedicated to supporting its members’ ability to practice through education, research and advocacy.

They use Personify360 to manage a constituent base that has over 100 different membership types and a member process that is driven by nominations and is invitation only. Through Personify Community, this organization provides a secure, collaboration space for their board of directors, committees, delegates and clinical interest groups. Congratulations to the AAOMS for the way you have connected and engaged with your members via Personify360 and Community.

The next Impact winner is the Climate Reality Project in the Charity category. Their mission is to transform climate change awareness into global action through a robust network of activist influencers. Each year, the Climate Reality Project’s constituents commit to completing Acts of Leadership, such as organizing or speaking at events, writing articles or participating in campaigns. Since the community launched, the annual Acts of Leadership goal has grown an astonishing 150 percent from about 12,000 to 30,000.

Additionally, the organization will roll out a tour feature this year to help acclimate new users, to ensure everyone can leverage the community’s power. Congratulations to the Climate Reality Project for the impact you have made using Personify Community to power your Reality Hub community.

Our Impact winner for the Health & Wellness segment is the YMCA of Sarasota. This organization was looking to provide a better online experience to constituents at its three locations with nearly 9,000 families and programs that range from gymnastics, swim lessons, youth shelters, resident camps, early childhood education and more.

Prior to working with Personify, the YMCA of Sarasota did not have an ability for users to sign up for programs online. Constituents would have to drive to the branch or call when they wanted to sign up for a class. They recently opened online registration for resident camps and saw a big jump in signups in the first two weeks. Because staff do not have to spend time signing up people for classes and managing paperwork, they can focus more on developing new programs. Congratulations to the Sarasota YMCA for developing a robust digital experience for their members and community.

Our final Impact winner is the Denver Ballet Guild, a non-profit organization that supports youth dance arts and whose mission is to stimulate interest in ballet and other forms of dance. In 2018, the organization wanted to modernize a legacy website and database, provide online registration for events, be able to support diverse membership types, receive online donations and conduct email marketing outreach to its constituent base.

The ability to take online donations helped the organization move closer to its fundraising goal. Additionally, they have been able to drive significant increases in event revenue, membership renewals and more since launching their new site. Congratulations to the Denver Ballet Guild for the impact you have made to support and promote dance in the Denver community.

Trailblazer Awards

Our next category is the Trailblazers category. These are organizations that use several of Personify’s solutions to take their constituent management and engagement approach to a new level. They leverage technology in innovative ways and are making significant strides to better acquire, engage and retain their constituents.

Our first winner, the American Society for Quality (ASQ), uses Personify360, Community and A2Z Events to provide value to 70,000 members across multiple industries. In 2018, they launched an online community for their 250 chapters to collaborate and share best practices. Since then, over 6,400 people joined the community and members drove 94% of the content. When users drive the content, you know your community is a success.

ASQ uses A2Z Events to enhance exhibitor and attendee management and show planning for their annual conference. Since they begin working with A2Z Events in 2017, ASQ increased the amount of exhibitor space sold for their annual show by 45%.

The final Trailblazer is the American Urological Association (AUA) who uses Personify360 and A2Z Events to manage and optimize their relationship with constituents. What makes them a Trailblazer is their recent effort to update a 10-year old manual membership application.

As a result of the new application, the time for users to complete has been cut in half, and they are now able save the application and come back later to finish. Additionally, members can pay upfront or have an invoice generated and they can elect to auto renew in the future. AUA staff are now able to process twice as many applications and no longer need to spend time manually verifying the data, processing group payments, assigning applications to staff and uploading documents.

Congratulations to all of our 2019 Persi Award winners! This is just a sample of the great things our clients are doing every day and truly what the PersoniFest user conference is all about. We’re thrilled to be able to recognize the work that they do to grow their organizations and increase their impact!

The post Meet the 2019 Persi Award Winners appeared first on Personify.

Each mile and each week- we sweat, we ached, we complained, we cheered, we celebrated and we embraced the journey and ambition that brought us closer to our goals. It was a powerful experience in watching these young women set and achieve their goals, and it’s one that stays with me today.

International Women’s Day

On March 8, we celebrate International Women’s Day, a day when women are recognized for their achievements without regard to divisions. Strengthened by the United Nations, the commemoration is a rallying point to build support for women’s rights and participation in our global, local, professional and personal arenas.

In many ways, women are increasingly recognized for the work that they do and we’re seeing more women represented in government, executive roles,

leading feature films and more—but we still have a long way to go. Worldwide, more than 60 million girls of primary and secondary school age are not in school. For girls in developing countries, getting an education is the key to a brighter future.

We are lucky at Personify to work with organizations like Girl Up, an organization founded by the United Nations Foundation to empower young women leaders and start a movement for social change. To date, Girl Up has 3,000 Girl Up Clubs in more than 100 countries and has trained 48,000 girls to create tangible change around the world. It has been amazing to see the impact that results from creating and fostering a community of inclusion for young women.

Opportunities for Women

Equal education is the foundation that drives opportunities. And by now, most non-profit and for-profit organizations understand the benefits that come from building a diverse team. Diversity of thought is the ultimate remedy to groupthink and it has been demonstrated time and time again that organizations with diverse leaders achieve higher results, greater client focus and greater innovation.

 So why is it that of the top 500 companies by revenues, only 24 are headed by women? When we look at the tech sector, the numbers are even worse. While women held 57 percent of all professional occupations in 2015, they held only 25 percent of all tech occupations. And, they were more than twice as likely (41 percent) to leave the industry than men were (17 percent).

It’s important that organizations across all sectors, but especially ones in the tech industry, have honest and open conversations about why women are underrepresented in their company and why women are leaving our industry at such high rates.

Creating a Culture of Inclusion

At Personify, we’ve built a very close-knit team of people who are like family. In fact, we call it the PersoniFam. It’s incredibly powerful, as we recognize that together, we can accomplish more ground towards our mission. I’m proud to be part of an organization that has women represented in leadership roles across the organization and it’s important to me that we continue to build a diverse workforce.

I was fortunate to have mentors early in my career that taught me to lead by example, to model inclusive behavior and live the commitment. Leaders should be thoughtful and deliberate in ensuring they have voices in the room that come from different backgrounds and provide unique perspectives. This starts with treating gender diversity like the business priority it is, from setting targets to holding leaders accountable for results. It requires closing gender gaps in hiring and having frank discussions about how we get to where we want to be.

Providing Opportunities for Young Professionals

An example of how we’re doing this at Personify is the launch of our EPiC rotational program, which stands for exceptional potential early in career. This program enables young professionals to gain valuable skills and experience in different parts of the business. Our EPiC Specialists are able to “try on” different career paths, whether they are in marketing, product, sales operations and more.

We’ve taken a holistic approach to this program and hold books clubs, cross-functional sharing and lunch and learns to provide additional exposure for these young professionals and help them grow in their careers. I recently led a book with our EPiC team for Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg. It was an opportunity for me to not only share insights from a strong woman that I admire and respect but also enable our EPiC team members, both men and women, to gain a better understanding of inequities that exist in the workplace and help shape and frame the discussion of inclusion.

I’m excited about the future of these young professionals and this program, and it is one of the things that differentiates Personify (and helped make us a Best Place to Work!) If you’re interested in joining us, check out our career opportunities and come help us change the world.

The road to gender equality is not paved and progress does not always move in a straight line. But we are not alone. There are many who came before us and helped pave this path, and there will be many that come after—we must leave our legacy and give them a reason to be proud. On International Women’s Day, we celebrate the progress that has been made and look towards the work that lies ahead.

The post International Women’s Day: the Better the Balance, the Better the World appeared first on Personify.

Oh engagement.

Coming off the Valentine’s Day holiday, mere mention of the word maintains its rosy glow as that most symbolic of next steps in a relationship, deepening a commitment in (what is often) a romance-fueled moment where two people agree to build a life and a future together.

In the nonprofit world, the word engagement takes on a slightly less sentimental definition but is no less important as we look to build, and strengthen, our bonds with constituents. Today’s member engagement is about expanding beyond transactional data. It is about those things plus value creation and using that value to deliver a compelling experience members can’t help but want to be a part of.

This is all happening while the world we live in is becoming increasingly interconnected. An explosion of publicly available content has given members accessibility to a variety of product, services and information services. No generation has benefited more from this environment than young members, commonly identified as those who are Millennials (1981-1996) and Generation Z (1997-2012). According to Forbes, Gen Z uses an average of 5 different screens – smartphone, TV, laptop, desktop and tablet – to peruse information media, compared to millennials who typically switch back and forth between 3 screens.

With all the interconnectivity and information available you would think it would be easy to engage young members, right? Or does the seemingly endless collection of platforms and channels make engagement harder?

Personify took the step of fielding our own original research and in December of last year asked 1,000 Millennials and Generation Z members for their perspective on a variety of topics. Our recent published Young Members 2.0 report examined not only the preferences of Millennials and Generation Z with regards to awareness and making the decision to join, but also sought to understand how they engage with the organizations they join.

The (Continued) Power of Email

With an early exposure to technology and smart devices, it’s no surprise that email is often the go-to communication tool for Millennials and Gen Z. According to Adobe’s fourth annual Consumer Email Survey, workers between ages 25 and 34 spend 6.4 hours a day checking their email. Generation Z in particular views email as essential, per The Future of Digital Communications, a study by SendGrid and Egg Strategy, and expects their use of email to grow.

These preferences extend into young members’ relationships with their association. Our report found:

• Almost three-quarters of young members report receiving email from their association often, either in the form of a newsletter (72%) or a more personalized message (73%) and both are effective in keeping young members informed and up-to-date.
• A majority report a preference for content weekly or more, with Gen Z members having a slightly higher appetite for greater frequency.

Staying Social

While email was a top engagement channel for young members in our report, social media also plays a critical role in keeping young members informed. Pew Research reports the typical 18- to 29-year-old surveyed in their research uses four social media platforms, whereas the average 30- to 49-year-old uses three. According to our data:

With opportunities for high-impact videos and visual stories that capture members who look and sound like them, Instagram ranked second among our survey respondents, with almost half of young members reporting they use it to keep up with their association and over three-quarters saying it’s an effective way to stay in touch. Surprisingly, few young members – just over one in ten – report engaging with their organization via Linked In.

Standing Out…Via Phone?

Reach out and touch someone with a phone call? Really?

Only one third of young members report receiving phone calls from their association yet a larger percentage of young members report phone calls work, with 78 percent of all members saying phone calls are either somewhat or very effective in engaging them. Almost half of Generation Z found these phone calls very effective.

When was the last time your organization called a young member to check in and talk about something other than a dues renewal? When it comes to engagement – creating and articulating the value membership provides – these opportunities for 1:1 interaction can prove invaluable in driving short-, and long-term, satisfaction.

Up Close and Personal at Events

We know in-person conversations play a large role in influencing a young member’s decision to join and engagement. Content is king, serving as a primary value driver for membership. The intersection of these preferences can be found at events.

When asked whether they had attended an in-person event for their association in the last 24 months, 81 percent of all respondents responded yes, with the number of Generation Z members attending events slightly lower than the overall average (77%). Which events are they attending? Workshops and trainings were at the top of the list with 49 percent, followed by parties (31%), networking events (30%) and a community service event (26%).

While satisfaction with these events was high, with 91 percent of young members reporting the events attended were at least somewhat valuable, a surprising 29 percent failed to receive any sort of post-event follow-up from their association – leaving a huge opportunity for engagement on the table.

Engaging Young Members

Today’s young members face a relentless bombardment of information and knowledge from a myriad of sources and bring to membership rising expectations of the value from their association. How can you stand out from the crowd and improve engagement with this growing demographic?

• The first step is to identify and acknowledge young members as a unique target market, and to understand their needs and desired experiences. Take the time to understand their goals, attitudes and perceptions regarding engagement and give them a seat at the table to ensure their voices are heard.
• Align outreach efforts with the preferences of young members and use each opportunity to consistently reinforce the value of association engagement. Newsletters, long a cornerstone of association communication programs and popular with the young members surveyed in Personify’s research, offer a great place to start.
• Don’t neglect the power of your people. Young members’ need for connection extends beyond recruitment. Create ample opportunities for 1:1 engagement, not only within your programming but also in regular communication.
• Stretch the value of events. Leverage a strong follow-up process, with testimonials from members who look and sound like them, to make a lasting impression. Create working groups in private communities to keep learning fresh and use the unexpected personal touch of a phone call to create a personal connection

Interest in learning more about what this means for your organization?

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