The Human Side of Member Engagement
Stories, Strategies & Science from the Foundation Think Tank
by Amanda Lea Kaiser, MBA
Think about the times when you’ve walked into a room and felt instantly at ease. Or joined a breakout and felt like the group was already cheering for you. Or posted in an online community, and someone responded right back with generosity.
Most of the time, those aren’t accidents. Those experiences are designed.
And when associations design for positive experiences, engagement flourishes.
Engaging New Members is the most common worry about membership; specifically, the large number who join but never use their benefits, according to 71% of the participants in the New Member Engagement Study. New members join with good intentions, but then nothing seems to happen. Silence. Emails go unread, no logins, and certainly no registrations or renewals.
The problem is that unengaged new members don’t just keep it to themselves. They tell their friends, and we don’t just lose out on that one member’s potential future contributions and thought leadership; we also can lose their network of colleagues.
During the 2025 FSAE Think Tank, participants shared their most pressing new member engagement challenges, and several clear patterns emerged