Busy modern lifestyles mean limited time for volunteer and membership activities after work and family obligations. And many common-interest groups or associations that were formed in pre-Internet days, for the main purpose of sharing information that would have been otherwise hard to come by, are dropping members in droves, now that the Web offers the world’s wisdom to anyone who cares to google for it.
Nonprofits know all this, and have been re-tooling their programs to offer more “value” in the fight to recruit and retain members.
But there’s another reason why your nonprofit's membership may be declining – the other members!
Take the case of a youth hockey coach who quits part-way through his first season of volunteer service, because he’s getting too much abuse from certain over-competitive parents of the young players in the organization.
Or the community soup kitchen that just can’t seem to keep volunteers. They peel veggies for a few weeks and then drift away – not because of the work or the constituents served or anything to do with the way the organization itself is run, but because of one sharp-tongued kitchen helper who makes new people feel inadequate and unwelcome.
Or the charitable organization that must rely on the same small core of members to run all of its fundraising events, because new members tend to volunteer once and not step up again.
- Were those newbies isolated at the event, stuck handing out programs at the gate, while the old-timers appropriated to themselves all the “fun” jobs?
- Were they were thrown in too deep, too soon – set to man an information booth and field public questions for which, as new members, they didn’t yet have the answers?
- Did anyone else even talk to them?
We know that one of the most powerful reasons why people join and volunteer with any organization is for the social aspects. A sense of shared purpose. A sense of connection, in this increasingly wired but humanly disconnected world...
We also know, unfortunately, that there’s an unattractive side to human nature that has a way of showing up whenever people are brought together in groups: the tendency to guard territory and power. And it’s a fair bet that in any organization, you’ve got at least one “old hand” whose need to control is, well, out of control.
If an established member feels threatened by a competent new member and reacts with hostility or unfriendliness, it may be damaging your membership rolls or your cause more than you know.
When new members come into your nonprofit, filled with enthusiasm and energy, the organization may welcome them warmly – but what is their experience really going to be like, once they get working in the trenches?