10 Creative Strategies to Cut Through the Clutter

While we can’t do this all the time, we can create a platform for using that kind of powerful membership-focused case for support more than once a year, through a midyear membership upgrade campaign. At the halfway point after primary membership renewal, test a midyear membership upgrade campaign against a conventional special appeal.

• Take a democratic approach to your messaging (“Every Member Matters”).
• Value and emphasize an incremental increase in membership level (i.e., increase membership by $15 or $20), though you need to test this.
• Give members a compelling issue-based reason to participate; then, if possible, boost it with a matching gift challenge.

In addition to raising more money than you might raise in a traditional special appeal, there are attractive longer-term implications of the midyear membership upgrade. When your next annual membership renewal cycle begins, all the people who participated in your midyear membership campaign are now starting the renewal process at a higher membership level.

7. Downgrades are nothing to look down on.
As development and direct-response professionals, we are trained to upgrade. But in this economic climate, we need to rethink that.