How to Start an Association: A Step-by-Step Guide

Joining an association can be an enriching experience for many people, especially when it comes to networking. If you’re thinking about creating an association of your own, you’ve navigated to the right place. This article guides you through how to start an association and what you’ll need at every step of the process!

What Is an Association?

Generally speaking, an association is a group of people who have banded together for a specific, shared purpose. The organization will share a common interest and focus on networking, advocating, and serving the collective interests of members.

The first question you’ll need to answer when creating an association is what type of association you want to build. Associations can take many different forms, but three common types are:

• Nonprofit Associations: Members join these charitable organizations to serve a specific need, mission, or cause.
• Trade Associations: Industry leaders form trade associations to connect with other businesses in their industry and benefit from learning from one another.
• Professional Associations: Not to be confused with Trade Associations that count businesses as members, professional associations’ members are individuals who share the same profession or work in the same industry. These individuals join a professional association for networking and learning opportunities. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association is an example!
• Social Associations: Commonly called social clubs or social organizations, these groups consist of members with a shared interest (typically not career-related).

Why Start an Association?

There are many benefits to creating an association, both for your team and for your members. First, starting an association can give you strength in numbers, which is super helpful for advocacy. You can also gain influence as a thought leader in your community and industry, bringing even more attention to your cause and attracting more members.

Additionally, associations are great for networking, professional development, and personal development. Of course, these benefits will vary by the type of association you start, but all associations can be great avenues for resource sharing and support.

Looking for inspiration? Check out the Membership Management Resource Hub for easy access to valuable tools, webinars, research reports, templates, and events—all in one place!

How to Start an Association

If creating an association seems like a daunting task, breaking it down into specific, manageable steps can make the process much more approachable. Whether you want to help professionals in your industry connect, advocate for a cause you believe in, or some other purpose, following the steps below will help you gain more structure and turn your vision into reality.

12 Steps to Create an Association

1. Identify the Need

It’s research time. Once you have an idea of what type of association you want to create, look into and verify that there’s an open need for it. Get clear on what sets you apart from other associations and why people in your community or industry need your association. Take this time to define your mission, vision, and goals—these will guide you in determining the hole your association will fill.

2. Form a Founding Group

Assemble your team! While starting an association may have been your idea, you’ll need other people in your corner to help pull it off. Start by assembling a diverse team with shared interests. With a variety of viewpoints on your team, you’ll lessen the chance of missing important details.

At this step, you’ll define everyone’s roles and responsibilities, establish operations, set up governance, create committees, form a board of directors, and other such activities that are relevant to your association’s mission.

3. Choose a Legal Structure

Will your association operate as a nonprofit or for-profit organization? This is the time for all legal considerations. Weigh the pros and cons of each structure:

• As a nonprofit association, you would primarily focus on fulfilling a mission or serving a community. This focus makes you eligible for grants, tax exemptions, donations, and help from volunteers. However, you would be held to strict regulatory requirements and face the challenge of sustaining funding through donations and grants (versus the business activities for-profits can do).
• If you form a for-profit association, you won’t have the same regulatory requirements and can generate revenue with greater flexibility. However, you won’t benefit from the tax advantages that nonprofits get, and your for-profit status may make it more difficult to manage the public’s perception of your mission and motives.

Ultimately, both nonprofit and for-profit associations are valid types of organizations, each with advantages and disadvantages. Your choice will depend on which structure best aligns with your association’s target member demographic, mission and purpose, fundraising strategy and needs, and long-term vision and goals.

4. Register Your Association

Now is the time to register as an official association. Your steps to incorporate your association, the necessary legal documents, and the legal requirements will vary depending on which state you’re in. When in doubt, consult legal counsel and, if you’re in the US, check IRS requirements and look into the specific requirements of your state.

5. Draft Bylaws

The idea of bylaws may seem a little old-school, but these documents can be crucial in ensuring consistency and transparency. Bylaws not only provide clarity for your new association, but they’re also a framework for your operations, governance, and decision-making.

Your bylaws should outline important details that could cause conflict and misunderstanding, including the rules and procedures your association will follow, membership criteria and classifications, your board’s structure and roles, procedures for electing and removing board members, and meeting conduct and frequency. This isn’t a complete list of every topic your bylaws should cover—depending on your association’s needs and structure, you may need to include more or less.

6. Create a Budget

Estimating start-up costs for your association can be challenging, but do your best to include everything you think you’ll need funding for in your initial budget. Next, you’ll need to include your ongoing operational expenses.

Once you have a budget, you’ll get to work on funding it. Your options (depending on what type of association you’re starting) can include collecting membership fees from your first round of members, applying for grants and sponsorships, and throwing fundraising events.

If your association will be a nonprofit, get some inspiration from this extensive list of fundraising ideas. 

7. Implement Technology

From a technology standpoint, sustaining your association involves much more than just storing member data. You’ll need to periodically update and manage that data, keep track of engagement touchpoints with members, send communications, distribute member benefits and rewards, and more. If you can, automate as much of this as possible with technology to make these tasks easier to accomplish.

Getting membership management software, such as Neon CRM for Associations, early on will set your association up for success by making operations a lot less chaotic for your team.

8. Define Membership Criteria

In the most not cult-like way possible, this is the step where you’ll determine who can join your association. What type of profession do they need to be in? What requirements do they need to meet? You should also outline what type of membership offerings you’ll have, including membership levels (if you choose to offer them) and the benefits that each level will enjoy.

9. Recruit Members

Now that you’ve defined your membership criteria, it’s time to start enrolling members. But it’s easier said than done—you’ll need strategies on strategies, plus ideas for increasing membership. Outreach is your best friend at this step, and marketing is your second best friend. But to start, a membership drive is a great first step!

10. Create Value for Members

As you begin to recruit members, you don’t want to stop at the attracting stage. You want to outline how your association will continuously engage and retain members. This could be through events, workshops, and networking opportunities. Get to know your new members, identify their needs and interests, and design relevant programs that will benefit them and give them reasons to stick around.

11. Create an Online Presence

At this step, it’s time to get online! Secure your social media account handles, website domain, and email addresses. Set up a membership website complete with all the features you and your members need, which could include a way to accept donations (if applicable), access the member portal or member directory, find information about upcoming events, and learn more about the organization.

Pro tip: Do your best to get the same social media handles on every platform. This will make promoting your social accounts smoother and make it easier for people to find you.

12. Build a Marketing Plan

Remember when we said marketing would be one of your best friends when it comes to recruiting members? This is the step where you’ll get into the details of what type of marketing you’ll do and how.

First, you’ll identify your target audience (Step 8, where you defined what type of members you’re looking for, will help with this) and craft messages that appeal to their needs and interests (Step 10, where you decided how your association will create value for members will be helpful here—you’ll want to play up those networking opportunities and other member benefits!).

Don’t be afraid to utilize both traditional and digital marketing, including direct mail brochures and postcards, social media campaigns, email marketing, public relations, etc. Start to build relationships with the media and businesses, conferences, and other places where your target audience might be found.

Starting an association is exciting! You’re embarking on an endeavor that can bring people together to advance a cause, achieve common goals, and make a positive impact. By following the twelve steps outlined in this guide, you can chart a clear path forward and build a solid, effective association. Embrace the process, learn from each stage, and watch your association thrive.

Grow Your Association with Next-Level Technology

So, you’re starting an association in the digital age—this means you have unique opportunities to leverage technology to make running your organization more efficient! From member engagement to data management, the power of technology can streamline your operations and free you up to focus on your association’s mission.

Consider integrating a tool like Neon CRM for Associations. This software solution empowers you to organize and promote events, automate routine tasks like member renewals, seamlessly process membership transactions, and so much more.

Let us show you around—sign up for a Neon CRM for Associations demo today!