The hidden engine of association growth

Bringing people together around a profession, a mission, or a cause is the hard job of associations. Keeping that connection alive between events is the hard part people underestimate. That in-between is where members decide whether your association feels essential or optional.

A strong online community fixes the continuity problem by giving members a place to return week after week to ask questions, share what worked, and find peers who understand the context. When that happens, two renewal drivers get stronger at the same time: perceived value and engagement.

Retention is a value problem, and engagement is a big part of it

We can be polite about it, or we can be accurate and direct: people leave when the membership does not feel worth it.

• In the Community Brands’ 2017 Member Loyalty Study, cited by ASAE, the top reasons members did not renew are: “it became too costly” (34%), “the organization was providing little value” (26%), and “decline in benefits or quality” (9%).

• In the iMIS’s 2025 Membership Performance Benchmark reporting, nearly half (47%) of membership professionals cite lack of engagement as a top reason members do not renew.

That is the business case in two lines: members renew when they feel value frequently, and when they feel connected.

The “launch it and they will come” myth

I have seen this mistake many times: organizations treat an online community like a one-time project. A platform launches, a few announcements go out, and everyone hopes members will magically start engaging and generating content.

Well, I got news for you: this is what happens next and it is a predictable and preventable pattern: a handful of unanswered questions, a few posts from staff, and a slow drift into silence. Leaders then blame the tool, or assume members “do not want digital”, however, in most cases, the tool is not the problem.

Of course, the technology is important for multiple reasons: you want integration with your AMS, automated payments, marketing campaign tools, digital libraries, online events, discussion forums, cybersecurity and privacy, and much more. But what really makes a difference between a thriving member hub and a digital ghost town, is an active community stewardship, led by a professional community administrator or coordinator who has the passion, the time, the mandate and the skills and capabilities to make it work.

If your association treats the online community like infrastructure, instead of a member program that needs a clear purpose, ongoing communication, and active stewardship, I guarantee you failure is in the horizon.

Most members read more than they post, and that is normal

Never judge a community only by how many people post, because you will think every community is failing.

Participation inequality is a known pattern in online communities. Nielsen Norman Group’s classic 90-9-1 rule (while disputed by some) says that in many communities, 90% observe, 9% contribute occasionally, and 1% create most content. I agree overall, based on my anecdotal experience.

The takeaway is that quiet members still get value. They learn from answers, browse resources, and follow digests. Your job is to make sure the content stays useful and easy to find.

Stewardship is what makes the difference

As I said above, online communities do not run themselves and don’t magically succeed. A good community administrator is much more than a moderator. They host, connect, and make value visible and tangible. In practical terms, this means:

1. Welcoming and orienting new members with a clear path to value.

2. Seeding discussions based on real member problems, then pulling in the right voices.

3. Connecting members to each other, through the quiet but highly impactful “matchmaking” work.

4. Highlighting the best answers and resources so the whole membership benefits.

5. Closing the loop, fewer dead-end posts, more solved problems.

   
   

When that work is done well, it feels effortless and may be perceived as trivial. It is like the bass player in a jazz band: rarely the solo, always the rhythm.

Communities compound value over time

A well-run community produces measurable signals that members find it useful.

• In their 2025 association community benchmarks, Higher Logic reports that community digest emails significantly outperform typical association email open rates, for example, 56% for daily consolidated digests and 54% for weekly consolidated digests, compared to a 36% average for typical association email.

• Also, in the previous year’s report highlights how resource libraries drive ongoing value, with associations increasing the number of resource library entries by 58% and seeing an average of 3,048 resource library downloads over the prior year.

These numbers show members repeatedly returning to member-driven content because it helps them do their job.

The cost question, answered plainly

An online community has real costs which often becomes the entry barrier. Platform fees, setup, and staff time can add up, however, the honest comparison looks like this:

• A community platform without stewardship becomes an expensive message board.

• A community with stewardship becomes a member value engine.

• An association without an engaged online community is virtually invisible in today’s world.

  
  

Buying the platform is like leasing a venue: you have secured the room. The community administrator is the host. Without a host, you have a room with chairs.

Conclusion

If your association’s mission is connection, learning, and shared progress, then don’t gamble with your future by leaving member connection to chance between events.

An engaged online community is one of the most practical ways to make your value visible, frequent, and member driven.

Strong communities require intention, and they thrive when leadership treats stewardship as a real function and invests accordingly.

If you want to sanity-check the health of your community and identify the fastest, highest-impact improvements, book an online community assessment consultation with me, and we’ll review what’s working, what’s missing, and the next practical moves.

This article is contributed by BrightLine Solutions, a Woodstock, New Brunswick–based technology consulting firm that helps associations and membership organizations adopt practical AI, build engaged online communities, and simplify digital transformation to strengthen member value and organizational impact.