3 Ways the Right Association Management Software Can Save You Time
As a non-profit association administrator, you want to focus on what makes your organization special and important, not waste your time pushing paper around. Unfortunately, those administrative affairs are a necessary evil without which your group simply can’t accomplish its goals. That doesn’t mean you can’t make those complicated tasks easier, and save some time while you eliminate a lot of aggravation. With the right association management website software, you’re on track for efficiency and progress.
Easy online payments
Whether you’re trying to collect member dues or assess fees for events ranging from webinars to in-person affairs, you want to ensure that you don’t miss a payment, and that you make it as easy as possible for your membership to comply with any required costs.
In other words, you want to avoid manual payment processes whenever possible—and you don’t want to have to send your members to a third-party website to make payments. You want your association to look professional and polished, which means that you want to accept online payments directly through your website. None of the “we’ll return you to your website in just a moment to finish payment” messages. None of the hassles and costs of attempting to integrate online payments into a website you program yourself. You just want the entire process to work: seamlessly, consistently, and reliably, with thorough security to protect the safety of your members’ personally identifiable information.
With the right association management website software, all those goals are incredibly easy to achieve. Integrated online payments? Check. No more shuttling back-and-forth between a third-party payment website and your own website? Check. Complete information security? Check. You want a solution that checks all the boxes—and at Membershine, we have the solution you need.
Straightforward communication
Just as you don’t want to shovel your members off to a third-party website for payment integration, you’d probably prefer not to do the equivalent for group-to-member and member-to-member communications. Sure, many people aready subscribe to popular social media channels, and it should be reasonably easy to convince them to visit your page on one of those sites for internal communication. But that third-party site doesn’t maintain the branding of your organization, and it places significant limitations on how and what you can communicate. Besides that, some formerly popular social media channels have lost some of their luster, as people become aware of privacy practices that make them uncomfortable.
When you choose the ideal association management website software for your group, you can manage all these communication goals directly on your website—and protect member privacy at the same time. Post significant items on a newsfeed, and either allow your members to comment on what you post, or make your updates read only. Maintain a private chat feature that enables your members to communicate one on one or in groups—again, with full privacy.
The longer you keep your members on your website, the more you reinforce their involvement with and loyalty to your brand and your goals. Shouldn’t your communication features do their part to keep your members on site?
Simplified event management
Depending on whether your organization appeals to a strictly local member base or enrolls members from beyond any particular geographic area, your events may be in person, virtual, or even a mixture of both. But regardless of where and how you meet, if your group stages events, you want to maximize the number of attendees and ensure your ability to collect any relevant ticket fees.
So no, you don’t want to use an online or downloadable PDF form that prospective attendees must print out, fill in, and mail to you, along with a check or money order that you have to ensure will clear your bank. You certainly don’t want to be processing ticket payments days after an event already has transpired, or resort to collecting cash in person.
So what’s the solution to the event management conundrum? Simple: Choose the right association management website software, set up your events through a convenient online form that captures all the details, and enable members (and, in some cases, the public) to sign up and pay the fees involved without turning the entire exercise into a huge hassle for you as the administrator and members as the attendees.
The right software makes all the difference
Has your association experimented with DIY website creation? Did you get lost in the blizzard of plug-ins, preferences, presets, and programming? Would you rather set up an attractive, professional looking website than still be hassling with all the intricacies of site setup?
With the right association management website software, all that difficult stuff becomes quick and easy to manage. No more third-party websites for communication and payments. No more huge hassles in managing events. Now you can get back to the real business of managing your organization itself, rather than wasting all your time on administrative ticky-tack.
At Membershine, we have years of experience in working with and satisfying the website needs of associations, social groups, and other organizations. That experience shines through in the features we offer you. Want to see what makes us different—and better for you? Sign up for a completely free 15-day trial, and experience the Membershine difference for yourself.
