Hidden Association Revenue Opportunities and Four Ways to Find It (S2:E7 *Finale!*)

James Young: People don’t want more stuff, but they want to be connected. They want their problem solved.

Marcus Maleck: Associations are changing, but one thing is not changing, right? It’s bringing people together. It’s what we do every day of our lives, which is creating relationships, creating connections, bringing people together and then letting them do the business.”

Carolyn Shomali: I’m Carolyn Shomali, host of the *Association RevUP* podcast, presented by the Professionals for Association Revenue. And this episode is all about finding your next association revenue program…which today’s experts say could be hiding in plain sight.

You just heard from Marcus Maleck of the Society for Clinical Research Sites and James Young of the Product Community.

They’re joining us to share lessons you can put into practice when it comes to identifying a successful non-dues revenue product—many of them are rooted in something the market itself is gifting you. That’s exactly what Letty Klutz discovered at the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology

Letty Kluttz: It really was the perfect storm.

Shomali: We’ll hear how APIC found a revenue opportunity generating real member value

This episode is for anyone involved in value creation at your organization. And according to Jim Young, that’s all of us.

Young: We all own value creation. It’s not in learning or marketing and the growth officer and the Business Development Officer. It’s we own it together.

Shomali: And guess what – It’s our final episode of the season—so let’s begin!

Finding new revenue opportunities requires you to pay attention to what your members need, and what the market is demanding. Conveying the value of that offering happens when you aren’t selling the product itself, but the outcome that it leads to.

For Marcus Maleck, the VP of Global Business Partnerships at SCRS, that became abundantly clear during a time we all remember…even though we often avoid saying the word.

Maleck: Can you guys remember back, it was about four years ago, something like big happened in the world, and we all had to change, right? … That’s when I understood the value of associations … It’s when I realized that we’re in the business of community and not in the business of events, because we were getting calls every day from our members who really just wanted to stay connected with one another.

Shomali:  Marcus’ distinction is powerful: associations are selling an event, but what members are actually buying is connection. Associations aren’t in the business of events. They’re in the business of community.

So, when a global disruptor shut down in-person gatherings in 2020, SCRS uncovered a new product offering hiding in plain sight—because they got to the core of what members really wanted: community, regardless of format.

Maleck: So very early on in the pandemic, we came up with this concept called *Sites Now.* … It was a monthly opportunity to bring our community together to talk about the topics members voted on … Some months we’d have panelists, some months it was interactive, some months breakouts. But month after month, members kept joining us. It helped bridge the gap until we could meet in person again. And then we realized—it’s our job as an association to bridge the gap between when we can’t have conferences and when we can.

Shomali: So the first takeaway to finding association revenue opportunities hiding in plain sight, is to focus on the outcome you want to sell and find or develop the product to match.

The second takeaway involves the very thing that disrupted all of us in 2020 – our trademark in-person events. They are a hallmark of what we do, and according to a CVENT 2024 study, they are still the number one non-dues revenue generator for our associations.

Jim Young says that’s a risky statistic.

Young: The scariest statistic that I have in working with two associations as chief learning officer and then working with lots of other associations is that we are banking 60% of our revenue on four days out of the year. Sixty percent of our revenue, four days out of the year—and only 20% of our members engage.”

Shomali: The solution isn’t to scrap events, but to stop viewing them as stand along experiences. Associations spend an exorbitant amount of time developing, marketing and executing our events. The content that comes out of them is often the best we produce all year long. So let’s use them as a catalyst for more… More engagement, more learning, more revenue opportunities.

Young: Everybody looks to the annual conference as a source of inspiration and community. I challenge us to think of the annual conference as a source of ideation, as an incubator and as an unveiling … We are classically in the space of single use, one and done.

Shomali: Instead of “one and done,” Jim suggests turning events into springboards. That could mean:

* Building year-long fellowships

* Hosting short-course series

* Running innovation contests

* Or turning conference content into a sponsored podcast (hint, hint that’s exactly what we did here)

So the second takeaway for finding revenue ideas hiding in plain sight is to extend the life of your event. It’ll keep your members engaged throughout the year, and it’ll diversify your revenue so that 60% of it isn’t focused on four days.

An easy way to think of both Marcus and Jim’s points is by thinking about the National Football League- both because it is a great example, and I wanted to add an NFL reference (go Ravens).

To Marcus’ point, the NFL isn’t in the business of events even though it’s what draws millions to watch every Sunday afternoon. The NFL is in the business of fandom, connection, even distraction that their games allow fans to experience. And to Jim’s point, while the games are the main event, they contribute to only a portion of the NFL revenue. Entering the 2025 season, the average NFL franchise is worth 7.65 BILLION dollars, a large portion of which comes from media rights deals, corporate partnerships and merchandise sales. Ticket sales from the event itself account for just a portion.

Are associations the NFL? No. But maybe we should view our events in a similar way to spark other engagement and revenue opportunities.

Speaking of events…if you’ve been listening, you know by now that the content of this podcast is directly pooled from our in-person event, the RevUP Summit. It’s 3 days dedicated to association business discussions with friends and members of the Professionals for Association Revenue. Our production company for that event each year is VPC Incorporated. VPC is a boutique production company that knows how to put on big time events…even in the aforementioned NFL – using them for your association event will undoubtedly elevate the production level as it has done for us every year. Now in our final episode, I am thankful for VPC’s support and partnership.

Alright.. Our next tip for finding revenue opportunities in plain sight is to look at what you’re doing and find out how your audience can consume it more easily. That’s what David Upbin of the Mortgage Bankers association did when he decided to bundle its more that 450 training programs into a one time transaction.

Upbin: It was about simplifying the process for our members and also helping the members save money and recognize the value of their MBA membership dues

Shomali: MBA’s Education Advantage program allows its member organizations to pick an educational tier that works for them – no more a la carte educational training programs, but instead a one time transaction to provide the type of training that each company needs.Upbin says the majority of participants are choosing the highest tier, and MBA is nearing $1 million in gross revenue from the program.

So tip 3…simplify your offerings and see where you can package things together to increase both member value and revenue.

The fourth and final point comes courtesy of Letty Kluttz and the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology. APIC ‘s members are frontline healthcare professionals dedicated to preventing hospital acquired infections…and APIC assists in helping them prepare for their certification programs. But there was a long-standing problem.

Kluttz: We had a certification prep course, and I use that term very lightly. It was PowerPoint slides. Our members had been telling us [it did not meet their needs] for many, many, many years.

Shomali: At the start of the episode, we noted new revenue ideas come from understanding both what members need and what the market is yielding. Both of these occurred with APIC…members wanted better certification prep programs, AND at the same time a new certification hit the market.

APIC developed three new certification prep programs with the help of Holmes Corporatin…they came to market in just 14-months. And the result? An association that is using business to advance its mission… something we’re all striving to do.

Kluttz: What is so unbelievably rewarding is that we by offering these these courses, by getting people ready to sit for different certifications, we’re literally making the world a safer place,” Kluttz says. “At the end of the day, who doesn’t want a world without infection?”

Shomali: Alright, that’s it for Season 2 of the Association RevUP podcast. At the start of this season, we set out to showcase stories of associations who are using business to change their pocket of the world. Among the associations we heard from were those who…

• Used partnerships to launch a clinical trial
• Turned to the lean startup method for product development
• Engaged members through AI-powered personalization
• Eliminated the Expo floor in favor of more connection
• Used a fellowship program to develop the next generation of leaders
• Scrapped sponsorships in favor of a partnership program that capitalizes on industry expertise

These associations all serve different markets … and while there aren’t similarities in the industries they serve, there are commonalities in all of their work. Every single association we featured possessed Big/out of the box thinking, leadership that supports innovation, and a focus not on maintaining the status quo but creating a new one.

And each of them, are using business to make their missions happen.

As we wrap up, my thanks to Eli Eisenberg and his team at VPC Incorporated. They are the type of partner that have elevated our association and can do the same with yours.

This podcast has been written, produced and edited by me – Carolyn Shomali. Whether you listened to one episode or all of them, thanks for sharing 15-minutes with me each time. The emails I received along the way from some of you requesting to be put in touch with a featured guest made this all worth it. And that’s what this has been all about – furthering connection, extending the life of our own event, and unlocking new ideas to advance the work of associations.

If what you heard this season resonated at all, like this show, drop a note in the comments, and above all forward it along to someone who needs to hear it.

Thanks for listening.