Dues Model Study Kickoff Webinar

Treasurer Haruko Tanaka and Director of Research Inês Carvalho-Reyes hosted the kickoff for NANA's Dues Model Study on July 17, 2025, drawing chapter leaders and finance staff from associations weighing whether to change how they charge dues.

Tanaka framed the study's stakes: associations that hold to a single flat rate as they grow tend to lose members, while those that move to tiered pricing tend to gain them, though nobody in the sector had the data yet to say by how much. Phase 1 would survey 300 associations on their current dues model — tiered, flat, value- or budget-based, or something else — and track renewal outcomes against it.

Carvalho-Reyes walked through the survey instrument fielded by Fieldstone Data Partners, NANA's research partner for the State of Associations series, and explained how an association could join the survey panel. She was direct about the limits of the first phase: it would describe what associations were doing, not yet test what worked, which is what Phase 2's pilot cohort would take on starting in September 2026.

Questions from attendees ran long, mostly on how a small association with under 500 members should think about the risk of moving off flat dues. Tanaka said the Dues Model Benchmarking Report, due out in 2026, would speak directly to that question.

Tanaka also previewed the study's second phase, a 12-association pilot of new dues models scheduled to begin in September 2026 once Phase 1's survey results were in, with a results webinar planned for June 2027.

The webinar was free and open to all NANA members, recorded, and distributed afterward along with the survey sign-up link for associations that wanted to join Phase 1. Fieldstone Data Partners, which also fields the annual State of Associations survey, handled the study's data collection and confidentiality.