Direct-mail Tips for Membership Organizations

After acquiring these new members, membership organizations face the challenge of getting them to renew.

"Usually the first-year renewal rate of a new member or a new donor is about half of what the overall renewal rate is for people who've been with you for some time," Hines says.

One solution, she says, is to preempt a new member's decision not to renew by contacting him by telephone before the regular renewal process starts and talking about his experience with the exhibit or opening, relating that to the benefits of membership, asking him to renew his membership and giving him the opportunity to do so on the spot. Hines says that this approach resulted in a first-year renewal rates of 40 percent to 45 percent for one of her clients.