Press release
Tiered dues outperform flat dues for small associations
The first phase of NANA's Dues Model Study, based on a survey of 300 associations, finds tiered-dues organizations gained members while flat-dues organizations under 500 members lost them.
Haruko Tanaka
Treasurer, Alliance of Regional Credit Unions
The first phase of NANA's Dues Model Study has published its findings in the Dues Model Benchmarking Report: associations with fewer than 500 members lost a median 3.4% of their membership over three years under a flat-dues structure, while comparable tiered-dues organizations gained a median 1.2%.
What the survey found
Researchers surveyed 300 associations on how they structure member dues.
Tiered dues: 41% of respondents
Flat dues: 33%
Value- or budget-based dues: 18%
Other structures: 8%
Flat-dues organizations under 500 members lost a median 3.4% of their membership over three years, while tiered-dues organizations of the same size gained 1.2%.
Why the gap
Treasurer Haruko Tanaka, who leads the Dues Model Study, said the pattern held even after controlling for sector and region. Smaller flat-dues organizations appeared to lose price-sensitive members at the low end without a lower tier to retain them, while tiered structures gave those same members a lower-cost way to stay.
"A flat dues structure treats a two-person nonprofit and a twenty-person trade group the same way. The data says the two-person nonprofit is the one that leaves."
— Haruko Tanaka, Treasurer
Director of Research Inês Carvalho-Reyes, who ran the analysis, said the findings don't settle whether every association should move to tiered dues, only that size matters more than most executives assume when they set a flat rate.
Where the data came from
The 300 associations surveyed were drawn from NANA's own membership and a broader outreach effort run with Fieldstone Data Partners, the firm that fields the annual State of Associations survey. Respondents reported their current dues structure, membership counts at the start and end of a three-year window, and, where available, dues levels across that window. Carvalho-Reyes said the survey deliberately did not ask associations to self-report why members left, since that data is harder to collect reliably than membership counts themselves.
The 300-association sample spans all six of NANA's chapter regions and organizations ranging from fewer than 50 members to several thousand.
What the finding doesn't show
Tanaka was careful to note what the report doesn't claim. It doesn't show that tiered dues caused the retention difference, only that the two groups moved in different directions over the same three years, and it doesn't cover organizations above 500 members, where the pattern was far less pronounced. Larger flat-dues associations in the survey held membership roughly flat, suggesting the effect concentrates specifically at the smaller end of the market.
What comes next
The study's second phase, running September 2026 through May 2027, will pilot a new dues model with 12 member organizations, including the National Society of Water Utility Engineers, the League of Independent Pharmacists, and the Association of Seed Library Curators. A results webinar is planned for June 2027.
NANA's own Individual dues have remained $195 since 2023. Whether the association moves its own Organization dues to a tiered structure remains an open board question.
About NANA
NANA is the professional society for association executives, boards, and staff, providing research, peer community, and advocacy for the people who run the organizations that hold civic life together.