€¦ · Web viewOur membership is almost exclusively community development practitioners, development agencies, trainers and students. Membership has more than doubled over the

Reviewing Membership

Summary and recommendations

Main Report:

1. Introduction

2. Key Findings 2.1 IACD Membership Stocktake 2.2 Comparing with other relevant organisations 2.3 Feedback from universities about student benefits2.4 Other key issues IACD addressing

3. Conclusion

Appendices:(i) IACD Membership Stocktake(ii) Comparison of IACD with relevant tinternational membership organisations(iii) IACD Member Table

Membership Review Group:Mary-Jane Rivers, Anna Chworow, Charlie McConnell, Jackie Arreaza, Maryam Ahmadain, Muhamello Shitu, Rob Gregory

June 2015

IACD Membership Review Report 1

Summary and RecommendationsAs a membership organisation IACD receives a mandate from members and, in turn, the organisation provides a place for practitioners to belong, to network, and to promote and grow the benefits and practice of Community Development. Members also contribute financially.

Overall, the review group considers that IACD has achieved an appropriately inclusive approach in terms of being open to both individuals and organisations. IACD is seen as a respected, recognised and relevant organisation. We are in a uniquely leading position, particularly with our UN affiliation link. One question is how do we articulate this to members? Another is how do we strategically and practically increase membership?

Our membership is almost exclusively community development practitioners, development agencies, trainers and students. Membership has more than doubled over the past few years increasing from 156 in late 2011 to 339 in March 2015. We have 3670 on our mailing list. This significant improvement has been because IACD now has a dedicated membership coordinator/secretary who, in turn, has introduced improved systems and communication. It also hides erratic membership numbers particularly in relation to the 2014 Community is the Answer Conference

Over the last 4 years membership income has averaged at 10% of total IACD income. Individual years vary, depending on total income. For example in 2014/15 membership income was about 6% because of the conference income. While we can expect to grow the membership in each of the member groups, particularly students, a key for potential development is in national/country network membership and affiliation. This would help IACD achieve another level of more tangible networking that our members are seeking and will also augment member benefits.

There is only so much that can be expected from individual, and even organisational, membership in terms of IACD income. Two other comparable, international membership organisations, the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) and International Association of Impact Assessment (IAIA) have positioned themselves as the organisations with the kudos of influencing international policy and as the standard setting organisations in their fields. The membership structure of IFSW is through country networks. IAIA has a mixed model of individual, organisational, national affiliate membership and also attracts partners and sponsorships

The findings of concurrent investigations by IACD into global community development training programmes and community development practitioner networks should assist with increasing membership and expanding approaches to membership.

The recommendations for increasing membership fall into two categories:A. Refining and building on the current membership systems and improvements that have already occurred. This includes focusing on promoting the current membership benefits and moving to 3 year memberships as the norm. There is a sense that IACD members may not be seeing full benefits in a one year membership especially when there are no networking events within that year.

B. Areas of Newer Development - expanding the IACD structure to step up IACD as a networked, membership organisation with influence

The review group was well aware of the IACD resource constraints and the commitment of both high quality staff and volunteer board members, and the need to phase in agreed membership developments.


RecommendationsA. Building on Current Membership Strengths1. Refining Current Membership Approach

(i) Actively promote 3 year membership recruitment identifying the benefits of 3 years compared with one year, and using an opt-out model for renewal payments where possible

(ii) Special OffersIn order to expand membership in two areas of low uptake introduce as special offers:

o A lower fee for organisations with an annual turnover of more than £500,000. For non-OECD countries set fees at £100 for one year and £200 for three years and for OECD countries £200 for one year and £400 for three years

o Offer a discount on Life membership for a limited period of time

(iii) Attract StudentsActively encouraging longer term involvement in IACD and bringing in younger generations was seen as important to promote and pursue, through:

o Increasing student benefits (eg member only international reading list) and interaction with other Community Development students (online exchange)

o Adding a student fee for non-OECD countries of £10 for one year and £20 for three years

o Increasing student fees for OECD countries to £15 and £30 for three yearso Introducing a discount of 25% on three year membership on graduation, for

those graduates of universities who are IACD members

(iv) Limit the number of discounted places for conferences and events per organisation. One suggestion is a maximum of 4, 6 and 8 places according to annual turnover.

(v) Produce and offer an IACD member logo, with agreement based on sign up to a set of terms and conditions

2. Membership Management - additional streamlining(i) Invest in making improvements to the database to record more information with the

aim of connecting better with our members and identifying trends. Information could include:

o number of members in any year and the attrition rateo motive for joiningo how people heard about IACDo who individual members are and any organisations they are associated

(ii) Add an automatic renewal on Stripe and link to manual renewal via Stripe on website

(iii) Accept Western Union payments and state this on the website (add under payment methods)

3. Promote Membership Benefits(i) Communicate member benefits clearly to avoid disappointment and false

expectations (including stating what we do not offer)


4. Enhancement of Current Membership Benefits(i) Look for additional deals and spin offs for members (eg. Get2grips with grants, and

the subscription discount for the CDJ journal as a member benefit1) (ii) Improve the member-only web pages(iii) Create a funder database for members only(iv) Improve the look of the e-bulletin(v) Carry-out regular surveys of member satisfaction

5. Personalise Member Contact(i) Bi-annual e-mail to all subscribers to check they receive the e-bulletin, encourage

them to join and make a donation to support the network (but not an obligatory fee as a subscriber)

(ii) Organisation members receive hard copies of their welcome letter, certificate, Practice Insights and Annual Report by post when they join

B. Areas of Newer Development - Expanding the IACD Membership StructureConnect the drive for increased membership with encouragement of networks and the development of events that increase membership benefits and the ‘value-add’ of IACD

1. Consider adding national networks as a category

(i) Encourage the development of country/national community development networks – and these networks to become IACD network members. These may grow out of existing informal connections, self-organising groups or around student/practitioner learning groups. This approach could support the role of country correspondents and regional directors

(ii) We will need to consider how individual members of an existing network might join IACD and/or whether the network as a group might join, and as such what is the system and level of subscription fees. (IFSW bases its national membership association fee upon the respective number of members with $1.5 p.a. per member being the average fee).

2. Explore the potential of special interest or theme groups These may connect with other fields eg gender and community development, environment, health, resilience etc related to the Sustainable Development Goals

3. Invite UN-affiliated Community development NGOs to join IACD as members We might consider a one-off incentive three year subscription to attract such organisations to join IACD.

1 Discount to CDJ is used by front-line practitioners in Great Yarmouth


1. The Review TaskA task group was given the remit by the Board to review membership of IACD, led by Mary-Jane and the staff team and supported by Charlie, Rob, Maryam and Shitu, with everyone actively contributing. The aim of the review was to look at ways of strengthening our membership in terms of increasing recruitment, renewals, engagement and sustainability. The group took the following approach of:

(i) Learning from our current situation(ii) Working with other IACD strategic initiatives(iii)Learning from others(iv) Identifying key steps/strategies for increased membership

2. Key Findings2.1 IACD Membership Stock-take 2015This section of report looks at current membership, the slow and sometimes erratic growth rate, improvements from 2011 until now and potential areas for development.

IACD’s current membershipIACD members are enthusiastic and diverse (see stock-take “snapshot” from March 2015 in the appendix).2 We seem to appeal to all ages and from varying backgrounds - those in the academic field as well as activists, charities, development workers and very experienced practitioners.

There are many reasons why our members join and stay with us, but it is worth sharing a message IACD received recently from a member in Ireland: “being a member is a way of holding on to some sense of community in struggling times”.

On 5 March 2015 IACD had 339 members - 36 organisations and 303 individuals. Most of our members are individuals including 31 students. At the moment, individuals and organisations living in countries with non-developed economies have cheaper member fees, as do students living/studying in developed economies.

We receive a good response to our member surveys and requests for information such as the mapping study and invitations to events and conferences. This is encouraging. Although we are keen to encourage networking opportunities among members, it is also worth noting that some of our members just want to be kept informed.

Many of our members are keen and long-term supporters of IACD and we currently have 24 life members: 9 complimentary, 9 non-OECD countries and 6 OECD countries. Financially, Life Membership is equivalent to 10 annual membership fees.

At 31 the number of student members is low. Currently it is not possible to determine how many students transition from Student to Individual membership. There is an area of potential growth and generation of new income from individual students at universities, the universities themselves and their graduates. Financially if all current students renew for another year, this would translate to an approximate £170 increase in income.

Since 2012, organisations have paid according to their annual turnover. There are three turnover categories: a turnover of less £100,000, those between £100,000 and £500,000 or those with a turnover more than £500,000. However, fees are still seen as too high for organisations, especially those over £500,000 and quite often an individual from that organisation joins instead. IACD currently has 8 members in this category. It has taken a 2 See Appendix 1 Stocktake report prepared by Jackie ArreazaIACD Membership Review Report 5

great deal of persuasion for some of the current organisational members to join, so while there is potential, the current approach is not particularly productive.

Currently, we have limited ability for country-based/national or specific topic networks or informal groups to join IACD. This is another area of potential development which the review group expects will be informed by the project mapping practitioner networks currently being undertaken by IACD.

We have limited ability to provide historically comparative information prior to 2012 because the current database started at the end of 2011. We have not been able to input all the members who either joined or received complimentary membership before then - only those who renewed their membership at any point.

Slow and Erratic Growth RateIACD membership has seen a slow, overall steady but sometimes erratic growth over the past few years. The growth rate is slow partly due to the low level of recruitment and also to the lack of renewals. We have been losing between 70- 100 members a year through non renewal by members. These are both issues for urgent attention.

Some people join IACD as a one-year trial and as their expectations are not met they do not renew their membership.

The database started in 2011 and records show that since 2011 the total number of lapsed members is 243:

In 2011 31 members lapsed In 2012 38 members lapsed In 2013 74 members lapsed In 2014 100 members lapsed

Many of these people have misconceptions about IACD being a funding agency, giving out scholarships, providing mentoring services, working directly on local community projects, helping to find jobs. Many think that IACD has regional offices/chapters all over the world.

In general, there is disappointment with the poor connections made with other members in their region. This is something IACD is trying to address by sending Regional Directors a list of new members in their regions for them to get in touch. We have also identified the need for country correspondents to serve as IACD contact people in individual countries.

IACD has concentrated membership in certain regions of the world (around conferences and Board members in the UK, USA, Australia/New Zealand and more recently Nigeria) and so there are gaps in Europe, Latin America, Asia, North Africa and the Middle East, which often puts people off joining.

At the moment, there are few opportunities for interacting with other members across the globe. Some members send items for e-bulletins giving them a chance to reach 3670 subscribers. Some have a member profile on the website, and take part in the odd event and communicate regularly with HQ staff. Unfortunately, there is a low participation up-take in our blog and social media seems to have taken over - although this is not limited to members only.

Basically, while we offer networking as a member organisation not a lot takes place. Our assessment is that if there were more opportunities for members to get involved and interact, then recruitment - and renewal - would increase.


Recruitment is also not as easy as it would seem. Many people apply but don’t get around to making the payment and they seem to lose interest quickly, either finding if difficult to make the payment overseas or not seeing the value of the benefits.

Improvements in the Past Few YearsFrom a financial point of view, income from membership was £7,827 last financial year 2014/2015, £9,016 in 2013/2014 and £8,268 in 2012/2013. It was only £2,970 in 2011/2012 and £1,515 in 2010/2011. Fees were increased in 2012 (and the option of Life membership introduced) so this has helped membership income.

Over the last 4 years membership income has averaged at 10% of total IACD income. Individual years vary, depending on total income. More specifically in:

o 2012/13 membership income represented 13% of IACD's income.o 2013/14 it represented 21%.o 2014/15 it represented 6%.3

The percentages in the past 2 years have been skewed by the Community is the Answer (CITA) conference.

Graph 1

Membership IncreaseThere was definitely a boost in membership income at the beginning of 2014 when people were registering for the Community is the Answer conference and taking advantage of the member discount. In general people join IACD (or renew their membership) when there is something going on like an international conference. Membership income dropped after the conference as there was no major motive for people to join or renew. In fact 100 members did not renew their membership this year, which indicates that people need to have a tangible reason for being a paid-up member. This is clear from Graph 1 above. Therefore, the more real member benefits we can offer the better.

Payment ImprovementAnother improvement has been the online application process and being able to pay fees online. This is using Stripe for credit card payments and PayPal which allows automatic renewal payments for renewals. The strategy of using automatic renewal payments via PayPal is working.

Database InvestmentAlso, we made a substantial investment in a membership database in 2011 which means that we are becoming more familiar with our membership by collecting more data in the application form and recording this information on the database e.g. interest areas and skills.

Website Changes3 Graph and data on membership as a % of IACD’s income prepared by Rob Gregory


We have worked hard to improve the IACD website and have started member-only web pages (new members receive a password to access these when they join) and allowed members to write their own blogs on the website. We are continually updating the member profiles on the website as well as the member map. The member map is appreciated by organisation members as they can add their website and increase their profile. We also share member publications on our website, again, particularly a benefit for organisation members who have research and books to promote (these are highlighted in the e-bulletin as well).

E-BulletinThe numbers of subscribers to our monthly e-bulletin has also risen dramatically over the past few years. Currently we have 3670 on our mailing list, providing a large number of readers for our (and our members’) news, events and publications. In comparison we had 2086 on our mailing list in 2011. Our presence on social media is also improving with over 1,650 people in our Facebook group and over 1,800 likes on our Facebook page and 500 on LinkedIn receiving regular updates. We have 229 followers on Twitter and 6,000 impressions over the past three months!

Room for improvementAs mentioned above, and in our recommendations for moving forward, providing more opportunities for networking and putting people in touch with others is a clear and obvious need. This may be through interest groups (including Community Development students), national face-to-face networks or virtual forums. Communicating our member benefits more effectively to better encourage people to join and renew their membership is a high priority.


2.2. Other Relevant OrganisationsWe looked at a number of other comparable organisations to gain some insight into more effective ways of growing and managing membership.4 The two organisations which we gathered more in-depth information from were the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) and the International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA). Information from websites was gathered from Amnesty International, CIVICUS, the International Association of Administrative Professionals (IAAP) and the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2).

We also investigated the possibility of strengthening connections with students through email and skype discussions with universities in Canada, USA, Australia, Norway, the Philippines and Nigeria.

Membership StructureMembership structures vary among organisations. The IFSW is made up of national associations. Individuals can receive some services but they are not members and cannot vote. Each country has only one member association and all member associations have one vote. IFSW takes an inclusive approach to who is a social worker. Their members each have to sign up to being committed to their global standards on training and practice, but there is not a common graduate qualification in all countries. e.g. in Nepal many members in their national association are monks.

IAIA has multiple forms of membership - individual and student membership along with affiliated regional/country branches and groups. Affiliates are officially recognised and able to use the IAIA logo. There are two options for corporates that enable a number of individuals in the organisations to be members. Individual membership is the largest form of membership with approximately 1800 members.

CIVICUS has individual and organisational paid membership and free ‘members’ or ‘friends’. Only paid members have voting rights. IAAP is based on individual members only with two categories of student or professional membership. IAP2 varies between three regional organisations of Australasia, USA and Southern Africa. Among them they have individual (full and student) and group membership, corporate and small business membership. Amnesty International has both individuals and networks eg NGOs and Trade Unions

Most organisations have variations of graduated fees for OECD and non OECD countries, for students and for businesses. (see Appendix 2 for more detailed information)

IFSW has a distinctive approach. BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries and non-OECD countries pay US$1.50 per individual member of their national association. OECD countries paying $2.50 per person. IFSW also has a solidarity fund contributed to by associations in developed countries, eg Norway, to support emerging associations. Nepal is one such example where a new association has been supported joined. Their voting and payment system has shifted the balance of influence on the board of IFSW and in the work they do. It has highlighted social justice and social development rather than individualised 'case work', which has become so strong in both the US and UK.

4 Comparative information is in Appendix 2IACD Membership Review Report 9

Member BenefitsIFSW, IAP2, IAIA and IAAP have a core focus on supporting the development and standing of their particular field, and in supporting the professional development of members. CIVICUS and Amnesty International are more cause-focused organisations with CIVICUS being an international alliance to strengthen citizen action and civil society. Amnesty International is a global human rights movement.

For many of the associations core member benefits are much like IACD. They include newsletters, reduced fees at events and conferences and networking opportunities. Some go further. The IAAP membership includes access to discounted products and services. Both IFSW and IAIA focus on professional development for members.

IFSW provides a range of practice support resources on the website, links to relevant, wider networks such as the Social Work Trainers Association. As well, there is free access to member-only parts of the website.

IAIA provides access to special-interest sections such as social impact assessment or health impact assessment and a searchable member directory. IAIA also sees training of EIA professionals as being a vital for development of the field. As a result, the IAIA web site provides members and non-members with information about training manuals, training courses, and other aspects of EIA capacity building.

IAIA and IAP2 are growing organisations. IAP2 has an increasing number of country-based affiliates and IAIA’s membership has grown considerably over the last 10 years. IFSW appears to be the lead international association for social workers with new associations joining.

IFSW members often join for the kudos of being part of a global body that is having policy influence, that can offer resources, publications and events and that are seen as setting the benchmark for high quality practice.

In a similar manner to the IFSW, a key value to IAIA members is that IAIA is now positioned as the standard setting organisation for Environmental Impact Assessment and various sub-specialties eg health impact assessment and social impact assessment. IAIA umbrellas well recognised and respected training. IAIA membership and networks have allowed members to be recognised as skilled practitioners.

Their conferences are annual and popular. IFSW engage between 1,500-3,000 participants. IAIA adds on a training/professional development day for each annual conference which both attracts new members, and promotes and supports the professional and teaching skills of more established members. Their conferences attract about 500-700 Environmental Assessment professionals usually from 70+ nations.

Income Base for IFSW and IAIAThe IFSW annual income of around US$350,000 is from members. They employ 1.5 FTE (full time equivalent) staff based in Geneva and contract out communications functions such as work on the website and journal.

They have a policy of NOT seeking government, philanthropic or business funding for the organisation. They have tried this and expended much time to little effect. However, when a national association 'hosts' an IFSW event, the national association can seek such support. Country IFSW network members may also receive grants or sponsorship for training and workshops. IFSW in Malaysia receiving funds from UNICEF for child-focused social work development is one example.


IAIA was a low budget NGO in 1980s and 1990s, similar to IACD. In the late 1990s and early 2000s they made a conscious decision to be more sustainable. Developing a strategic plan to lift the organisation onto another level was the first and key step. While still an NGO, IAIA is now also semi-commercial

IAIA currently has an annual income of approximately US$1.2million with annual outgoings of US$1million. Membership fees contribute approximately 13% of IAIA’s income. Over 12-15 years it has built up reserves of $1.8million. Since the early 1990s IAIA has grown from an organisation about the size of IACD to now having a ‘head office’ of 5 staff. Four are based in Fargo, USA and the CE is based in Ontario, Canada.

IAIA’s approach is to support specialist topic interest groups. This helps build networks, standards and skill development. IAIA seeks partners in developing the field. For example the World Bank has funded the development, thinking and guidelines for environmental impact assessment in partnership with IAIA. The World Health Organisation has worked with IAIA, and contributed funding towards the development of guidelines and training for health impact assessment.

For 10-12 years the annual conferences, held in a different location each year, have been healthy contributors to funding the running costs of the organisation. IAIA has developed a contract with affiliates/national groups for running the Conference. Part of this contract is for the affiliate/national group to:

o organise paid sponsorship either for the conference or for the individuals who find it hardest to get to conferences

o ensure that there is pre-conference training session. These sessions are seen as draw cards. (The trainers receive course registration fees and IAIA charges an organising fee)

Donor organisations have often helped, for example:o African Development Bank pay the cost of sending people from the

continent, seeing it as capacity building opportunityo AusAID/DFAT sponsored large numbers of African members to IAIA’s

Portugal-based conferenceo NORAD, SIDA and CIDA and the Dutch Government’s international aid,

sponsor either the training itself or people’s access to trainingo the World Bank has supported training in China, including training of

trainers, where EIA is an a emerging field

Separate from membership, these arrangements essentially act as a form significant. IAIA also has a carefully managed franchising process – usually through pilots.

For the future IAIA is investigating:o setting up on-line training opportunities and processeso operating more regional conferenceso connecting regionally through connected websites of affiliates

2.3 Feedback from universities about student benefitsJackie received information from a selection of universities and colleges in Canada, USA, Australia, Norway, the Philippines and Nigeria about the place and potential of IACD for students. Overall, the feedback:

o supported the value of sharing resources


o favoured the potential of lists of Community Development texts and case studies (Interestingly, CDJ have a list of their publications on their website)

o suggested using a separate CD student web page. o reported interest in interacting via social media, possibly using a facebook group for

students to chat/share, that could be facilitated by IACD for consistency.

There was also feedback that IACD is highly respected and that some of our members, Keith Popple, Marj Mayo, Gary Craig are all well known in the field, providing a strong base to build on.

From the point of view of increasing membership the potential benefits of students staying on as members after they graduate is significant, especially if they see IACD as their professional body.

Communications Approach Anna and Jackie summarised the communication tools we currently use, setting out how we can use them and how we distinguish member benefits. One example was how we can use the tools to amplify the voices of our members. There are still questions around how we use the e-bulletin, which goes to non-members, as a recruitment and promotion tool.

It was agreed that there could usefully be more work on a communication strategy, specifically how we take our recommendations forward and market/communicate the benefits, to our subscribers and other potential members, of joining IACD.

2.4. Concurrent IACD Topics of InvestigationThere are two other substantive enquiries concurrently being undertaken by IACD. Their findings are very likely to affect approaches to membership the finding of this review group .

Community Development Training ProgrammesThe first is IACD’s investigation into graduate training programmes around the world. The intention here is to reach out to the new generation of Community Development practitioners undertaking graduate training. By attempting to locate the contacts for training institutions, IACD’s aim is to forge links with the trainers and successive student years. Ideally we want to develop a relationship where the training provider promotes information about IACD to each new student intake.

The membership review group discussed potential options that IACD might offer such as a special subscription based upon students enrolled. Assuming this research will increase our intelligence data base of such providers, we could provide them with for example, an information pack/posters about IACD and its benefits to their students, but also to the lecturers as a teaching/learning resource.

Community Development courses vary enormously, with few specialist named Community Development graduate programmes, but a great variety of courses where Community Development is a part of a wider programme e.g Public health work, social work, social impact assessment and extension work.

IACD will need to consider such issues as courses in OECD and non OECD countries. We will need to consider the level at which to pitch a three year incentive subscription and bulk purchases where an institution takes out a multiple of subs. The approach taken by IAP2 could provide some guidance.


Mapping Practitioner NetworksThe second research study is mapping practitioner support networks. Here IACD is aiming to encourage such networks to join IACD. We could be building up the foundations for a membership category closer to IFSW or IAIA affiliate groups.

National and community of interest networks create many opportunities for IACD in terms of greater authenticity and links with what is going on within a country or network of interest e.g. Community Development and Health practitioners. National networks would also be obvious candidates as Country Correspondents.

We need to consider here how individual members of an existing network might join IACD and/or whether the network as a group might join, and as such what subscription fees. IFSW bases its national membership association fee upon the respective number of members with $1.5 p.a. per member being the average fee.

Community Development Organisations Accredited to the UNA third new constituency which we have identified during the mapping work has been Community Development organisations accredited to the UN. The number runs into three hundred. They range in size. Here we might consider a one off incentive three year subscription to attract such organisations to join IACD.

3. ConclusionIACD is seen as a respected, recognised and relevant organisation. We are in an uniquely leading position, particularly with our UN affiliation link. Overall, the review group considers that IACD has the right inclusive approach of being open to both individuals and organisations.

Our membership is almost exclusively community development practitioners, development agencies, trainers and students. Some belong simply because they believe in community development and want to support IACD. IACD membership has seen a slow but steady growth over the past few years. There has been much improvement in the recruitment of members and there is still opportunity for more. Retention remains our Achilles heel with a particularly noticeable fall-off following the ‘Community is the Answer Conference’.

While we can expect to grow each of these groups as members, particularly students, a key for potential development is in national/country network membership and affiliation. This would augment member benefits and help IACD achieve another level of networking which is something our members are seeking.

As well, only so much can be expected from individual, and even organisational, membership in terms of providing IACD income. Two other international organisations, the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) and International Association of Impact Assessment (IAIA) have positioned themselves as influential and as the standard setting organisations providing a strong ‘add value’ for members who see kudos in belonging

Opportunities for building on the good work already undertaken by IACD to increase and retain membership. We certainly need to think how we can get the 3000 subscribers to join us. Perhaps an incentive reduced rate? Numbers give us more legitimacy.These include:

If IACD expands beyond the current individual and organisational membership approach, and also strengthen the professional standing of IACD for potential members the review


group is keen to ensure and inclusion. We do not want to see excluded the community organisers, animators, volunteers and activists who don’t see themselves as professionals. We want to maintain diversity. It was agreed that embracing language in our communications/marketing is the key

The directions for increasing membership fall into two categories:A. Refining and building on the current membership systems and improvements that have already occurred. This includes focusing on promoting the current membership benefits and moving to 3 year memberships as the norm. There is a sense that IACD members may not be seeing full benefits in a one year membership especially when there are no networking events within that year.

B. Areas of Newer Development - expanding the IACD structure to step up IACD as a networked, membership organisation with influence through:

o national/country networks of practitioners or self-organising groups. For this there is much to learn from IFSW and IAIA about the development, support, funding and membership charges

o potentially special interest or theme groups eg around health and environmental issues, related to SDGs

o UN –affiliated community development organisations becoming members of IACDo sufficient number of events to promote networking o the idea of a solidarity fund whereby members in richer countries twin with those in

poorer and in effect pay their fee or a part of it.


Appendix i

IACD Membership Review 2015

Stock-take – prepared by Jackie Arreaza

1. How many members and who are they? Taking a snapshot on the 5th March 2015, we had 339 current members - 36 organisations and 303 individuals.

The 36 organisations include: National and regional networks/associations/journals

(Mongolia’s Community Development Network; World Comics, India; Victorian International Community Development Network, Australia; Institute of Community Development Practitioners, Nigeria; Regional Organisation for the Growth and Development of Communities, Kuwait; Civil Society Forum of Tonga; Community Development Journal; Community Centres South Australia Incorporated; Community Development Network Western Australia; CLD Standards Council Scotland; Scottish Community Development Centre; National Rural Development Program, Pakistan; Community Development Foundation, UK)

University CD departments (College of Social Work and Community Development, Philippines; The Norwegian University College for Agriculture and Rural Development; Community Development, Glasgow University; Coady International Institute, Canada; Department of Applied Social Studies, NUI, Maynooth, Ireland)

Community centres and local projects (Umuebu Neighbourhood House, Nigeria; Songdehs Football Academy, The Gambia; Edinburgh Tenants Federation; Linkwest Inc, Australia; Lismore Neighbourhood Centre T/as Northern Rivers Community Gateway, Australia)

Education and training centres (Cancer Resource and Education Centre, Malaysia; Mmanze Centre for Rural Development and Training, Uganda; Changes, UK; Create Training First Wessex, UK; Systemania Opportunities International, Nigeria)

Charities and Foundations (Yanapuma Foundation, Ecuador; Kuwait Charity for Family Development; Seoul Welfare Foundation; Community Outreach Development and Empowerment, Nigeria; New World Hope Organization, Pakistan; Social Care Ideas Factory, Scotland)

Public bodies and local authorities (Christchurch City Council, New Zealand; Leisure and Culture, Dundee City Council; Great Yarmouth Borough Council)

272 individuals include: Community Development Professionals University Professors and researchers Community activists, volunteers and leaders Development and aid workers


Note: I don’t have the exact figures for these as it would be time-consuming at the moment, but we are working on improving the database to be able to input and extract this information about individuals and their interests etc. I estimate a fairly even spread though!

31 students (undergraduates and PhD) come from: 14 Europe (Glasgow (5), Caledonian, Edinburgh, University of West

Scotland, Durham, Northumbria, Manchester, Sussex, Italy, Ireland) 8 Australian (Queensland (2), Western Australia (3), Victoria (2),

NSW) 9 North/Latin America (Mexico, Maryland, George Washington,

Denver, Arizona State (3), Kentucky, South Dakota)

2. What are the categories and current costs? I have completed the table below with the numbers from 5th March, but can I point out that this doesn't represent actual income as people/orgs who joined in 2012 for three years paid old fees. Also, some lifetime members did not pay but received complimentary membership (agreed before my time might I add!). I have broken down the total numbers into regions too, to show trends.

Table1. IACD individual membership fee

Individual Membership

StudentOne Year Three Years Life Membership

Non-OECD

countries

£15 11 (5 in

Asia, 6 in

Africa)

£30 76 (19 in Asia,

2 in Middle East, 4

in Papua New

Guinea, 51 in

Africa)

£150 11 (6 in

Asia, 1 in Middle

East, 4 in Africa)

OECD

countries

£30 60 (27 in

Europe, 15 in

North

America, 18 in

Oceania)

£60 102 (31 in

Europe, 22 in

North America, 49

in Oceania)

£300 12 (5 in

Europe, 4 in

North America, 3

in Oceania)

£10 per

year 31 (14 in

Europe, 9 in

North America,

8 in Oceania)

Table2. IACD organizational membership fee

Organization Membership

Turnover> £100,000 £100,000 ≤turnover≤

£500,000

Turnover< £500,000

One Year Three

Years

One

Year

Three

Years

One Year Three

Years

Non-

OECD

£50 5 (2 in

Asia, 1 in

£100 7 (1

in Asia, 2

£75 £150 1 (in

Tonga)

£150 2 (in

Asia)

£300 1 (in

Asia)


countries Latin

America, 2

in Africa)

in Middle

East, 4 in

Africa)

OECD

countries

£100 2 (1

in Europe,

1 in

Oceania)

£200 5 (3

in Europe,

2 in

Oceania

£150 3

(in

Europe)

£300 3 (2

in Europe,

1 in

Oceania)

£300 2 (1

in North

America, 1

in Europe)

£600 5 (3

in Europe,

2 in

Oceania)

Note: the OECD/non OECD categories have caused confusion in the past! We have made it easier using the online form so that as soon as you enter your country the system calculates the fee automatically.

Note: Organisations with annual turnovers over £500,000 find the fees high and we have a low uptake on membership, so it might be an idea to reduce them to £100 and £200 for three years in Non-OECD and £200 and £400 in OECD category OR revisit the whole system!

Note: We offer one year’s student membership of £10 to people in OECD countries, but many students in non-OECD also want that offer! The individual membership for them is already reduced to £15 so there is not a lot of difference, but there are a few insistent ones! It might be fairer to make it £10 for all students OR make the student fee for OECD £15.

3. How long can members join for?Members can join for one or three years or take individual lifetime membership. We offer an incentive to pay 2 years of fees and get 3 years of membership at the moment (for individuals and organisations), but we could come up with more offers I'm sure, especially if we have a Life membership special reduction at some point!

4. How can people pay membership fees?Members can pay online via PayPal and Stripe (with a credit card), via bank transfer (accounts in UK and Australia), sending a £ sterling cheque to the office or cash at events that staff or Board members are attending. PayPal has a recurring automatic payment setting and people in the UK can set up a direct debit if they want to pay annually (most people pay for 3 years though). We have used Western Union a few times as well.

Note: some Board members are good at passing on the money to HQ (Shitu and Ingrid are brilliant!), but we’ve had cases in the past where we haven’t ever received the membership fees. It’s also worth noting that we rely on Ingrid to administer the bank account in Australia and it probably couldn’t be passed on to anyone else as IACD is not a legal entity in Australia and regulations have changed.

5. What do members receive when they join IACD?


When members join they receive a welcome e-mail, with an official welcome letter, receipt and member certificate attached. More recently new members receive a welcome letter from Charlie as President. We set up an account on our website and send new members their password to access member only pages. We also add them to our database and mailing lists to receive the e-bulletin and special member mailings. All of these communications encourage new members to contribute to IACD and actively engage by:

Creating their member profile for the website Contributing to the e-bulletin and Practice Insights Sharing their publications on our website Starting a blog on our website and adding comments to other blogs Finding IACD on facebook, twitter and LinkedIn and take part in

discussions as well as share their events and news Taking advantage of the CDJ subscription discount as well as

discounts for conferences and study visits etc. Joining the Board and/or task groups Taking part in member surveys and consultations, as well as the

mapping study just now.

Note: We stopped sending hard copies of welcome letters, Practice Insights and Annual Reviews by post a few years ago to save money. Charlie is suggesting that we start doing this again so there is a need for discussion.

Note: I send lists of new members to Regional Directors and hope that they can establish contact and include in their networks.

Note: It is really important that we improve member-only pages on the website, the e-bulletin, blog, social media discussions etc. I cannot sustain this on my own! It would be great to have member-only discussions/webinars or virtual chats, maybe focusing on interests/topics and Gavin will work on recording member interests on our database to facilitate this.

6. What do members receive over a year?In a year, members would ideally receive 12 e-bulletins, 2 Practice Insights in PDF format, an Annual Report in PDF format, information via 10-12 e-mails about events and opportunities, discount for a conference or a practitioner exchange, discount for CDJ subscription, an opportunity to meet with other IACD members in their country, an invitation to our AGM (and a vote), as well as a chance to nominate themselves or someone else as a Board member, a chance to contribute to a member survey and volunteer in some way. Most organisations would have been profiled in an e-bulletin and been able to advertise their events.

7. What were the main findings in Juan's survey?Services valued by members:

Website and publications 93% Sharing work experience 55% Special e-mail updates 49% Participating in task groups and consultations 42% Discount on conference fees and events 31% Discount for CDJ subscription 22%


Access to restricted areas of IACD website 16% (note: we had started sending out passwords just before this survey)

Additional services wanted: Sponsorship 23% Local networking opportunities 18% Training for members 18% Study tours 9%

Suggestions for improvements: Strengthen IACD outside of the UK Expand publications involving members Prepare case studies and use them for training Continue to advocate for CD on behalf of small NGOs Engage regional organisations in collaborative work

8. What is the status of translating the website into different languages?We have used the Rosetta Foundation’s Trommons, to translate parts of our website for free and are happy with this service but have not spent the money to get this text integrated on the website.

9. Are members satisfied with how their work contributed to IACD?Contributions include presenting at and attending conferences, taking part in practitioner exchanges, sending items for e-bulletins, Practice Insights, sharing publications on our website, starting a blog, helping with the mapping study, representing IACD at the UN, taking on a role as a Regional Director or office bearer of the Board and others. A member survey could find out how satisfied members are with their contributions. Many members do not wish to contribute though and are happy with just being kept informed.

10. Do members/organizations need various learning/training facilities provided through the IACD?Most members would appreciate learning opportunities via webinars and conferences and some of our members could provide the training and facilitation.

11. What are members’ motivations for joining? We ask this question in the online form and can identify the following reasons for joining IACD:

Networking and meeting new people Receive updates, news and events Practice Exchange, sharing experiences Access to publications Sharing knowledge, tools, resources and research Being part of a credible/professional association Personal development


Profile own work International perspective/global discussions Creating partnerships Peer review and support United Nations affiliation Career advancement Share similar goals and values

12. What is our attrition rate, ie how many members do not renew their membership each year (as % of total membership), from 2010 to date?The database was started in 2011 and the total number of lapsed members I have recorded since then is: 243.

In 2011 31 members lapsed In 2012 38 members lapsed In 2013 74 members lapsed In 2014 100 members lapsed

Note: I’m not able to provide an attrition rate at the moment, as the database is not set-up for giving me the numbers of new members in any given year. However, I am in contact with the database designer about providing this report.

Note: Of course there are many more lapsed members - the current member number is 1776, so in fact we know that 1,437 have lapsed in total! I have not entered all the past members into the database. I have Excel lists of conference delegates from Cameroon (2005), Hong Kong (2007), Nova Scotia (2008) and Brisbane (2009) and others who received free membership for one year and did not renew but these lists all need formatted correctly to be imported into the database. In 2011 I sent e-mails to everyone on the lists reminding them to renew their membership and a few did (but many e-mails bounced and some folks asked to be taken off mailing lists).

Note: my observation is that many organisations lapse, mostly because they did not receive the member benefits they had hoped for. Some of this is due to misconceptions about what IACD is and does, for example, we are not a funding agency, we do not carry out community projects in different parts of the world, we do not offer free training or mentoring or even scholarships, we do not hold regular regional meetings and we cannot help find people find jobs. It is also worth noting that some people did not renew after the fees went up in 2012.

13. What do we know about members' experience of IACD? Where do they see our strengths / weaknesses? What are their expectations, and to what extent do we fulfil them? How important / beneficial, in their view, are the services we provide? Do they join for member benefits, or with expectation to contribute / in solidarity with the network? What, in their view, we should be doing more / less of?

Anna has sent out a survey to members recently to gauge the above!



Appendix ii: Comparison of Relevant Organisations with IACD


Appendix iii: IACD Member Table


Documents

€¦ · Web viewOur membership is almost exclusively community development practitioners, development agencies, trainers and students. Membership has more than doubled over the