State of Associations 2026 Member Webinar

Members logged in on March 12, 2026, eleven days after NANA released State of Associations 2026, for a walkthrough of the report's findings with Director of Research Inês Carvalho-Reyes and Treasurer Haruko Tanaka. It was the third year running the research team had followed the annual report with a member webinar, a format members said in prior years' surveys they preferred over reading the full report cold.

Carvalho-Reyes opened with the headline numbers: 750 associations surveyed, up from 720 the year before, median membership growth of 2.1% for a third straight year, and median renewal up to 94% from 93% the year before. She walked through the survey methodology fielded by Fieldstone Data Partners and took questions on how associations under 500 members compared to larger ones in the sample.

She also flagged the report's third finding, less discussed than growth and renewal: median dues rose 3.8% in 2026, the fastest pace in the survey's three-year history, which several attendees connected in the chat to the renewal gains rather than seeing the two as working against each other.

Tanaka closed the hour connecting the findings to dues strategy, noting that the report's data would feed directly into NANA's own Dues Model Study, then five months from its first pilot phase. She reminded attendees that NANA's own Individual dues have held at $195 since 2023, and that whether the organization moves to tiered Organization dues remains an open board question.

The webinar was free and open to all members, recorded, and distributed by email afterward along with a copy of the report. Members who registered but could not attend live received the same recording and materials the following day.