The Society for Nonprofit Organizations

2014 Society for nonprofits accomplishments early in 2014 The Society has begun activities to address The 2014 budget, evaluate lines of business, and seek feedback from a portion of our market, (affiliate members, consultants, The Nonprofit advisory board, our ad rep, and our account rep at village press) The result of these conversations was The unanimous recommendation that The Society continue to print npw. Some of The reasons: The only publication that addresses The needs of small nonprofits, it is practitioner focused, it is The gateway for learning more about The Society, and it is a signature piece for recruiting new members for our affiliate members. Below are some of The areas The Society examined and The results. Section 1. External recommendations 1. The recommendation to unbundle npw and funding alert from The "membership" concept has been recommended and needs more research. That research will be initiated by a pilot marketing strategy that will offer The publications as a standalone subscription...not as part of a membership. Each will be offered at 39/subscriptions, (10 less than our competitors). We may also market it as a sale with a 29 price. This will test The price point and The concept of a "sale". This was tested with poor results. It is suggested by staff that we offer them unbundled on The web site as an option, however not put a lot to time into marketing The option. 2. The first level of membership will offer The 2 publications as The primary benefit, as well as discounts on The certificate series, books, etc. This level will be offered at 69. We have continued The current membership level, with no test of new membership models. 3. The second level of membership will bundle The publications together as well as adding grantstation membership. This membership will be offered at 150. This was not done, The Society continues with 3 membership levels, this being The most robust. 4. Another recommendation is to make The library of articles from npw free. This would attract people to The site and be a link on many web sites. The library is currently available only to members and this would be an opportunity to showcase The lasting value of articles in npw. The hope is this will drive subscription sales. The last 12 months of npw would not be available. This has not been done or researched 5. The recommendation that The Society exchange ad space with like Organizations to create more exposure. This might replace The loss of revenue from The lack of ad sales. This is in process with one organization. 6. Initiate partnerships with Organizations that would promote The Society and even initiate new products: bundle articles by topic, create new courses/webinars for each topic, and create a professional blog for The writers of articles in npw as a destination branded by The Society. Many of these ideas have yet to be explored, but they do represent some of The suggestions from our partners. 7. Offer The Society's library of webinars free on our site and linked to other sites. Again, this would create real value for those who visit The web site. Initiate new webinars. The webinars would be free to members and a nominal charge for nonmembers. Free webinars for members began in october with good results. Registrations grew from an average of 15 attendees to 90. 8. Solicit members to invite colleagues to subscribe or join and provide them with language and a digital copy of npw/fa to send with their invitation. We are waiting for The marketing company to design a marketing campaign that can be shared by members, writers, etc. There a number of other marketing efforts to explore but that will take time. Section 2. Internal recommendations staff recommendations since revenue is The challenge, many of The above suggestions are made in order to create more exposure for The Society and our products and create sales. However, there are some additional cost savings we have discovered. 1. Reduce The amount of color on pages from our current process that puts it on each page to half of The pages. This change would move The cost of each magazine from 1.35 to 1.05 for 4,500 copies, a savings of 1,364.65 per issue. Done 2. The Society also may have The opportunity to barter The graphics and layout for npw. This approach would have The Society provide ad space in a number of venues in exchange for The graphics and layout. This would save The Society approximately 1,900. We could not arrange this. We will remain with our current graphics provider. We have a very competitive price from them. Since The current cost of producing and mailing npw is approximately 12,000 without adding administrative costs, implementing option 1 would reduce The cost per issue to 10,635.35. Implementing both option 1 and 2 would reduce The cost to 8,735.35. Only option 1. With 2,000 of advertising for each issue The cost would be 6,735.35. (2,000 is currently under contract) this is about The approximate net revenue-m 1,759.2, a-j 3,715.2, if The Society cannot barter The graphics The cost would be: 8,635.35. The Society implemented both option 1 and 2 and that will reduce The cost to 8,735.35. Section 3 recommendations to The board from staff 1. Go forward with The production and mailing of j/f npw and add The color savings to The layout. We think it is worth The financial risk to take that step and immediately implement some of The revenue ideas. This was not done, we implemented The quarterly schedule. 2. Begin The test of stand alone subscriptions to npw and fa as soon as we can adjust The database to process them. This was done with a poor response. 3. Begin The process of offering The library of articles from npw and The webinars free as a way to drive potential customers to The web site. Contact our partners and ask them to alert their constituents to this new resource. This is in process. Where are we now? 1. Moving to The quarterly publications has saved The Society money. There does not seem to be any push back. We have not lost any affiliate members due to The change. 2. We continue to seek new affiliates and some are good prospects. It takes a long time to secure one. 3. Enrollments in The certificate series have increased due to sales. We have also increased The price. 4. We have a group in india that is interested in offering The series to their students. The loa is in process. 5. Finances: The attached report will show a positive balance. I think The changes we have put in place and our outreach is paying off. Future plans 1. We are exploring The development of marketing materials, etc that we can share with our constituents to help market The Society. 2. We have redesigned The web site to be more intuitive and feedback has been good. 3. We have been successful in adding one new board member. 4. We have just learned that grantstation will be increasing The fee to The Society by 4.00 next year from 6.00/membership to 10.00/membership. This is a 66% increase. The Society was able to negotiate a reprieve and establish a new process for rates. The next review will be in 2016. We were able to keep The current rate. Many of The initiatives stated in 2014 will be continued in 2015. Respectfully, katie burnham laverty, president