Non-dues Revenue Chamber Trips

Chamber of Commerce trips can be a fantastic source of non-dues revenue.

Offering members unique travel experiences while boosting the chamber's budget is a win win for your chamber.

I would caution to not over saturate the market with multiple trips in a given year. It's important to keep demand up!

Here's a breakdown of how to make these trips successful and profitable:

Why Chamber Trips Can Be a Great Idea:

 

Non-Dues Revenue: Trips provide an alternative income stream, reducing reliance on membership dues.

 

Member Engagement: They offer a valuable benefit, fostering stronger connections and increasing member loyalty.

 

Networking Opportunities: Trips create a relaxed environment for members to connect with each other and build relationships.

 

Community Building: Shared travel experiences strengthen bonds within the business community.

 

Exposure to New Markets: International trips can expose members to new business opportunities and global connections.

 

 

Key Elements for Successful Chamber Trips:

 

Careful Planning & Itinerary Development:

 

Destination Selection: Choose destinations that are appealing to your members and offer unique experiences (cultural, business-related, or a combination).

 

Itinerary Design: Craft a well-structured itinerary that balances organized activities with free time. Include:

• Sightseeing and cultural experiences
• Business visits or networking events (if applicable)
• Optional activities or excursions
• Opportunities for relaxation and leisure

Logistics: Handle all travel arrangements, including flights, accommodation, transportation, and visa requirements.

 

 Targeted Marketing & Promotion:

 

Highlight the Value: Emphasize the unique benefits of the trip, such as networking opportunities, cultural immersion, and exclusive access to events or businesses.

 

Use Multiple Channels: Promote the trip through your website, social media, email newsletters, and in-person events.

 

Early Bird Discounts: Offer incentives for early registration to encourage sign-ups.

 

Pricing & Profitability:

 

Cost Calculation: Accurately calculate all trip costs, including transportation, accommodation, activities, meals, and any fees.

 

Markup: Determine a reasonable markup to generate profit for the chamber.

 

Transparent Pricing: Clearly communicate the trip cost and what it includes to potential participants.

 

Partnerships & Collaborations:

 

Travel Agencies: Partner with reputable travel agencies to handle logistics and ensure smooth travel arrangements.

 

Local Businesses: Collaborate with local businesses at the destination to offer unique experiences or discounts to trip participants.

 

On-Trip Management & Support:

 

Chamber Representative: Assign a dedicated chamber representative to accompany the trip and provide assistance to participants.

 

Communication: Maintain clear communication with participants before, during, and after the trip.

 

Problem Solving: Be prepared to handle any unexpected issues or emergencies that may arise.

 

Post-Trip Follow-Up:

 

Gather Feedback: Collect feedback from participants to improve future trips.

 

Share Photos and Stories: Showcase the trip's highlights on your website and social 

media.

 

Promote Future Trips: Use the success of past trips to promote upcoming travel opportunities.

 

Tips for Maximizing Success:

 

Offer Variety: Provide a range of trips to cater to different interests and budgets.

 

Focus on Quality: Ensure a high-quality travel experience to encourage repeat participation.

 

Build Relationships: Use trips as an opportunity to strengthen relationships with members and foster a sense of community.

 

Seek Feedback: Regularly solicit feedback from participants to improve future trips.

 

By carefully planning, promoting, and executing chamber trips, you can create a valuable non-dues revenue stream while providing your members with memorable and enriching travel experiences.

Managing Your Sponsorship Opportunities

I recently participated in a webinar on sponsorships hosted by ACCE and conducted by Sydney Doctor and Alana Turner of Greater Louisville, Inc.

Here are my notes from their talk in no specific order.

Centralize - think about centralizing your sponsorship activities under one person so you can provide a consistent customer experience throughout the conversation with all potential sponsors.

It’s more than an event, it’s a revenue generator and you need to think about it that way.

Less is more!  Focus on what events work best for your chamber and has a positive revenue impact on the bottom line.  Get rid of the rest.

A couple of thoughts on the process:

Do you offer a first right of refusal to those sponsors from the previous year?  If not, you must.  That’s just good business.  And you should ask that question right after the event is done when they are riding high.

Do you have an investor pool - create a list of possible companies who might want to sponsor an event?  Please know that not all investors will take that additional step to sponsor an event in addition to their normal support.  That’s ok, but let them know they always have the opportunity to do so in the future.

Do you have a brochure with a list of sponsorship opportunities with dates, times, and a description of the audience that will attend?  This packet of information needs to be digestible for any potential sponsor.  And you must share it with your members and non-members alike.

When to ask?  I’m a fan of working on a calendar year vs a fiscal year basis.  Start asking in October for the following year and this will allow you to finalize any sponsorship deals by January.

Once you’re in the new year you can always backfill at each event with possible new sponsors to meet or exceed budget.

Alignment:

Do you promote your events around themes?  Technology, Leadership, Finance, B2B just to name a few!

You can pitch sponsorship deals to companies who care about that subject matter and are thought of as thought leaders in those sectors.  That’s a win win!

How about content generation from potential sponsors?  It allows you to showcase your sponsor as an expert in the field and create content for the newsletter, magazine, website for the coming months.

They mentioned that your sponsorship fee should at least cover the cost of the event.  Registration fees should be all profit.  And remember, always load all your costs, not just the price of food/beverage and the rental of the room.  You must include staffing, marketing, etc.  It’s called program-based budgeting.

For a previous blog post on that subject matter go HERE.

And don’t forget about trade-outs for your bigger events.  Think AV costs that could run into the tens of thousands of dollars that you could trade for a sponsorship.

Final thoughts and suggestions:

Ask your potential sponsors what they are looking for from the sponsorship. Make a list.  Delivering on that promise will help you retain that sponsor for next year and the years ahead.

Don’t be afraid to customize your opportunities to get that sponsor.

Do you recap your events with pictures to showcase your event and sponsors on social media?  That’s a great way to also promote the sponsor at the same time.

At the end of the day, the sponsorship should work for both of you. Think partnership not just a transaction.

Good luck!

5 Myths About Chamber Revenue and One Legend

Chris Mead with the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives recently conducted a webinar on the title of this blog.

The following are his 5 myths and one legend with a follow-up comment or two from me, based on my experience working with chambers over the past 15 years.

Myth #1

Total resource campaigns are trending down - 35% - 40% of budgets are accessed by those chambers who do it.  15% growth in YGM's clients doing campaigns.  This method of raising money has proven to be very effective for many chambers around the country.  Not sure how I feel concerning the monetary benefits given to members, who participate in these campaigns, based on their performance.

Myth #2

All membership events (drives) have bad renewal rates - one or two-day events to gain new members (think a formal member-get-a-member campaign).  Don't forget, the membership dues raised comes in immediately.  You have a year to work on retention.  What better way to sell a membership than have one of your current members telling their peers that they should belong too!

Myth #3

Affinity programs are dead - they're not for everyone but if managed properly they can be profitable.  What's key is that you have a product or service that your members want or need and you have the numbers of members to support the offering of the product.

Think office supplies, printing, shipping, or myth #5 - the travel program.  What are those potential programs for your chamber?  A challenge for the local chamber is doing an affinity deal with a national company when you may have local members who can supply that same product, albeit, maybe not at the same discount.

Myth #4

Obama killed chamber health care and it's never coming back - legislation passed in 2018 to open up the country geographically to offer plans across state lines.  Stay tuned on how that will affect this affinity program.  But don't forget many chambers are in the business and making money.  Association Health Plans (AHP's).  I could make the argument that doing away with the state restriction will allow a national company to provide a plan across the country for the betterment of all. Associations were pushing for this for years.  Let’s wait and see how it plays out!

Myth #5

Chamber travel ran out of gas – they are still going strong. There are so many different trips available today by many different travel companies.

The China trip seemed to be the first that chambers started to participate in over 20 years ago.  Now there are multiple companies providing these trips to many places around the world.

And One Legend

Capital Campaigns - not to raise money for new staff but for something big in your community.  These campaigns are typically multi-year  (3 years or more) to raise a large some of money that it designated for something specific.  Why specific? That's what you're raising the money for, think a new chamber office building.

Thanks Chris for a great session and for anybody who doesn’t know Chris, he’s the author of The Magicians of Main Street and more information on that product can be found HERE.

Why You Should Set Recruitment, Retention and Revenue Goals Each Month

If you don't set recruitment, retention and revenue goals on a monthly basis you really can't measure your success or lack of success with any accuracy.

Membership is a numbers game, right?

You must track your progress on a regular basis.  What frequency are you tracking your efforts?

Obviously, it depends on the resources at your disposal to create these reports to track your success.

For me, I track on a daily basis (money), weekly basis (number of new members) and monthly basis (retention), the three pressure points in membership.

The key for these reports is to try and get them produced automatically. If you don't have to crunch the numbers it makes it a lot easier.  Today's technology allows for setting up these reports fairly easily.

Most chambers I work with use an anniversary due date for their membership renewals.  If you're in this category, it's imperative that you set up these daily, weekly and monthly reports.

And by the way, armed with these reports, will allow you to accurately budget your membership revenue from year to year.

That's an added bonus when it comes to budget time!

For the latest Membership Marketing Benchmarking Reports from Marketing General Incorporated go HERE.

How Does Your Board Define Success?

That’s the big question!

I'd suggest you ask this question to your board on a yearly basis. It's important to define it, write it down and measure it.

It's your chance to prioritize your chambers resources to deliver the most value to your members.

And it gives you a yearly outline on how you can be successful by delivering on what your board defines as success.  It outlines where you should be spending your staff's resources.

Here are some of the answers I hear when that question is asked are the following:

• Number of members
• Annual revenue or growth in annual revenue
• Amount of revenue sent to reserves
• Advocacy successes
• Quality and number of programs
• Economic development/workforce successes

I hope the discussion to define success is on the agenda at your next board retreat!

For a great resource from The Bridgespan Group on becoming a more effective nonprofit board go HERE.

Kicking Sacred Cows To The Curb

Sacred Cows. We all have them in our organizations.

What do we call programs that lose money? A member benefit! Do not get caught in that cycle.

I speak with chamber execs all the time that share their frustration of that new project initiated by the new chairman. We’ve all been there.

When we add new programs, do we delete a program? No. Use these economic times to shed those losers.

I wrote about scorecards in a previous post. Creating a scorecard can be very effective in sun-setting those programs, products or services that: don’t make money; members don’t value anymore, or have become a sacred cow of the organization.

A scorecard to measure the value of your programs, products or services should track at least the following items as a starting point:

• Revenue
• Costs - direct and indirect (i.e., staffing costs)
• Stated goal of program, product or service
• Evaluation of program, product or service by members
• Measure the results

As a sidebar, we should be reminded of the “Hedgehog Theory” stated by Jim Collins in his book titled, Good to Great, and include the theories’ three criteria in the final analysis:

1. Do we have passion for this program, product, or service?
2. Are we, or can we be the best in delivering this program, product or service?
3. Do we make money on this program, product or service?

After you’ve implemented this assessment tool in your yearly review process, it should provide a strong argument on whether to continue a program, product, or service in the coming years – or kick that sacred cow to the curb!

For a previous blog post on program based budgeting go HERE.