Cultivating the Next Generation of Student Members

Organizations can only continue to grow and be successful for many years to come if they start cultivating the next generation of potential members while they are still students. By offering a nominal student membership fee or perhaps a free membership to today’s students, you will be providing them with tools they can put in their toolbox - great networking connections that could lead to career opportunities and access to valuable association resources now, all of which will support them beyond their college years. 

They will certainly appreciate your generosity, and if you reach out to them right before they graduate (setting an admin reminder in their member profile in your database), they will hopefully convert to a full paying member after graduating and starting their career. Perhaps you can even create a special discounted plan just for them during their first year of membership while they are getting established in their industry and before they start paying for a regular membership plan.

You will, however, need to make it easy for your prospective student members to learn about your organization and its respective benefits by connecting with them where they are at - social media platforms. By utilizing our Multipost feature, you can simultaneously post encouraging content for students to join through Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Hannah Carvalho, Senior Editor at Associations Now, shares more ideas in her Approach to Student Engagement: Nurturing Future Leaders article.