The best thing about joining the ILM from a personal and professional perspective was that I had a blank slate and the existing team were incredibly open to ideas. Prior to creating my role, the ILM primarily viewed subscriptions and renewals as the core element of the membership activity, so they really wanted someone to come in and actively shake things up. Such a scenario was a dream role for me at the time. During the pandemic I had been affected, like many others in charities, by endless unavoidable ‘pivots’ in response to new directions and income streams, and an unsettling lack of role definition. In 2021, after almost 10 years in various charity membership roles, I already knew it was what I wanted to continue doing, and it was time to find a new ‘home’ where I felt I could make a real difference. My journey since has seen considerable membership and income growth for the ILM.
Autonomy and trust were, and continue to be, the main pillars of my success here at the ILM. If any readers are recruiting to a newly created membership role, I can not emphasise enough how crucial these values within the team will be for the incoming candidate to feel truly welcomed and appreciated.
I was able to bring so many previous learnings with me, it was a genuine joy to be able to present these to my CEO and Directors, and give evidence of how they could work in practice. I had many things I could implement quickly, from simply surveying members about the right things, to creating a comprehensive recruitment strategy.
I reached out to existing members who had multiple locations or branches who were not all in the network. These existing memberships revealed a relevance for the linked charities in terms of possible legacy gifts, and also gave me a clear pathway to some new potential members. I spoke at their network events and developed relationships with colleagues there, leading to several more branches seeing the value in our membership. Another really significant point for me was to maximise on the referral support of the right people. Trustees or other partners in your association may well have a contact you can approach in your target organisation/s, and it can really help to be introduced in a meaningful way, and most crucially as a trusted person.
I also wanted to trial and test new ideas. Some were things I had wanted to do before but had not necessarily been able to implement, in part due to the red tape and barriers that can come with working for a much larger organisation. One of these, and also one of the most successful in terms of growth and member feedback, has been the introduction of a WhatsApp networking group. When I first suggested this to a (slightly horrified!) panel of Board members, there was understandable concern about the constant ‘pings’ and the potential volume of messaging to keep up with.
However, by setting clear rules and having a one person admin management system (avoiding too many cooks!) it has become an invaluable support resource for our members. The principal aim is to give them a low tech tool they can easily use and a new way they can connect. Our web Forum had lost some of its appeal, as I know many other online providers have also experienced, and WhatsApp provides an accessible new way to learn from one another. It also gives members solutions to things I could not personally answer for them, as I am not a legacy management expert! So, I step in and I escalate when needed, but the group are there to talk to each other – it is not an ILM marketing tool, and it is not the place for them to raise any issues with us. We have other clear channels for that, so there is no confusion over the purpose. The group has grown to 200 opted-in members since I set it up in 2022 and is still expanding every week.
Connecting and learning is the bedrock of our member offer – this may not be seen in many traditional in-person opportunities these days, but it is crucial that we provide new ways of helping members to communicate and network. The decline of in person events has really paved the way for online delivery to thrive, and we are able to offer a huge raft of training for our members. It has also helped to streamline training into more digestible one hour ‘chunks’ in many cases – effectively removing some non crucial content. Online delivery may not suit all associations, of course, and it is equally important not to lose any valued event such as an Annual Conference.
I would, however, urge you to always carefully consider the evidence for needing a face to face event. Ask yourself, is the learning outcome going to be different? are all members equally going to be able to travel to the location? is it fair to ask them to spend time and money on doing so? can you reach more members and at a much lower cost online instead? It may be that you need to invest some energy in finding out just how much you can do online, and how to use the tools available to maximise the member experience – I promise it will be worth it. The main consideration with remote and in person training and events is to understand your members, of course – ask them what they want and test ideas, you will soon find out!
Another valuable lesson I have learnt in my role, and found I can do more easily than I had realised – the need to sometimes just say ‘no’! It is important to find a balance between a willingness to try things out when people make suggestions, and standing ones ground when lessons and insights tell you that something will fail or is just not practical. Again, displaying trust and implicitly giving your team the permission to say no is deeply valuable.
I think the other huge thing that has been at the core of the ILM’s membership growth success of 480 (where we were previously stuck for many years) to 770 members, has been driving the need to invest – both in the right people and the right tools.
I can’t take all the credit for this growth though. Crucial success factors have been implementing vastly improved renewal methods and processes, recruiting the right people in the team to help with these, and getting the right systems in place. Sounds simple, but as I am sure most if you will know, this can be years in the making! I wanted someone in a supporting role with more of a technical background than a training and relationship background, because I knew I needed support with getting buy in for a new CRM, and also someone to help me to find the right product. Be clear with decision makers as to why your systems and people are crucial to your organisation’s goals, and how the current ones are letting you down – if this is impacting growth, your Directors and senior leaders will be much more likely to take this on board.
If you are interested in the work of the ILM and would like to understand more about the charity sector in general, we have a brand new course coming up in early 2026, called Charity Concepts. You can check this out here and have a look at our Love your Legacy Manager campaign here. Our training is open to non-members.
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