35% Increase in Association Retention: Lessons from ABCA

Disconnected systems and manual processes cause major slowdowns for associations, unions, and non-profits. Tedious administrative tasks dominate staff time, member data is inconsistent, and the organization has trouble growing.

The American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA), is the primary professional
organization for baseball coaches. But they transformed their association with automation, consolidated member logins, a member mobile app, and centralized membership management. ABCA saw incredible results:

• 35% increase in retention rates

• 70% increase in early membership renewals

• 100% increase in annual convention attendance rates

About the association: ABCA is a professional trade association that serves over 15,000 members, ranging from youth and high school coaches to college and professional levels. ABCA provides year-round benefits through educational resources, including a vast video library, Inside Pitch magazine, and the My ABCA mobile app. The organization’s flagship event is the annual convention, attracting more than 10,000 attendees.

Here’s how they did it, and how your organization can achieve similar results. 

Jon Litchfield and Zach Haile of the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) accept their award at iNNOVATIONS USA with ASI's Kristina Drosos, Director, Client Experience

❌ The Problem: Disconnected Systems and 45% Renewal Rate

ABCA was operating with fragmented systems for membership management, event registration, and educational content. The organization struggled with a lack of an integrated membership management software.

Members faced challenges in renewing memberships, accessing benefits, and keeping their information updated. Separate systems for conventions and video content created confusion.

ABCA struggled to keep members actively engaged throughout the year. Most members joined primarily to attend the annual convention, and many saw limited value in maintaining their membership during the offseason.

This siloed data setup created a disjointed experience, with member retention rates at only 45%.

Low member retention

Cumbersome renewal process

Multiple passwords for members

Members saw limited value

✅ Solution: Better Internal Processes and Easier Member Experience

ABCA created a better experience for both staff and members by improving their internal processes and making it easier for members to get value. Here’s what they did:

1. Centralized member management with automated renewals

ABCA centralized all membership data, registration, and member benefits into a unified system. This allows for seamless renewals and robust integrations for financial processing.

The move was transformational, making the ABCA’s website a hub for all activities, including the membership portal, video library, and event management.

Want to consolidate your member data?

We hope so! Here are the three main steps, but you can get more details in our guide, It’s Not You, It’s Your Data Silos.

1. Choose the right membership management platform as your core. It needs three main components: membership management (of course), accounting and finance features that can handle complex billing structures, and website management.
2. Add the departmental modules you need. These could be embedded functionality native to your system, or tightly integrated solutions. Examples are event management, advertising and sponsorships, email marketing, automation, and engagement scoring.
3. Extend with the best integration tools. Your membership management platform should be extensible and able to integrate with the latest solutions. Ideally, you build no-code integrations to simplify things for your staff.

2. Just one password for members to remember

Previously, ABCA members managed multiple logins and passwords, making for a clunkier member experience. 

ABCA implemented single sign-on (SSO), which was possible after they unified their membership management under one system. Members can use one login for all their needs, including event registration and accessing video content.

3. Automated renewals and targeted communications

The unified system allowed ABCA to automate renewals and segment communications based on member activity.

Want to automate your processes?

The first step is assessing one of your current processes. Go through each step to understand its purpose. And no, "this is just how it's done" is not a valid reason to keep a process in place. Note any tedious steps or friction areas.

See all 6 steps in our article, Streamline and Automate Your Membership Management.

4. Year-round engagement with a member mobile app

ABCA launched their member app, My ABCA, powered by Clowder. The app that serves as a central hub for content, notifications, educational resources, and member services. Members engage year-round, not just at the annual convention, and easily access key resources like ABCA’s extensive video library.

The app also seamlessly integrates with their membership management system, allowing all membership data to flow in real time.

📘 Read the full ABCA success story.

iMIS Engagement Management System

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