Welcome to fusionSpan

Those of us in the association world know that the needs of small staff associations are not very different from the larger organizations. All of us are faced with much of the same dilemmas and challenges. In staff meetings and discussions with colleagues we often find ourselves in the midst of a variety of topics including How do... read more

When you take into consideration the limited resources you have with a small staff association, it is more important than ever to prioritize. It is easy to go through the motions of your day and not think about prioritizing but by allotting time to this task, you can maximize your staff’s time and resources by deleting obsolete tasks... read more

Where do you want to take your next event? This blog will give you some important things to keep in mind when you are selecting your city and venue. It will include some tips to help you ask the right questions and make the best decision for you and your organization. These tips will also help you compare several attractive proposals that may... read more

Dear Betty, I’m at my wit’s end! I can’t tell you how often my members tell me they don’t know the dates of our conference, had no idea our Board elections were coming up, didn’t see our call for volunteers, didn’t know that we had a career center, have never heard that we have chapters, and the like.... read more

You have to get the word out about your event, and chances are you should have started your marketing campaign a few weeks ago. Don’t fret! This article will give you the inspiration to get your marketing right on track. Identify Themes Right Away Use your last event for guidance. What themes came up that your attendees feel... read more

Source: MemberClicks Hello Small Staff Associations! We found this great article by Sarah Hill of MemberClicks directed towards and written especially for you. Times are tough…and if they’re not tough, they’re always busy. In addition to the stresses Sarah talks about, the government shutdown caused some un-needed stress. Even if you aren’t directly employed by the government, they... read more

As association IT staff, we are involved in a number of un-ideal tasks: running the graveyard shift, adopting last-minute design and functional changes to applications, dealing with what we view as unreasonable requests from members and other staff, to name a few. However these annoyances pale in comparison, to process documentation, a task the mention of which we... read more

  It’s a delight to contribute several guest blog posts here on fundraising tips & tricks for associations, especially the many small organizations who face a myriad of support and resource challenges. Today’s initial thoughts start at a high level, because as important as tactics and execution can be (future topics), I believe the most important factor in... read more

Basic as these tenets may seem, it is truly stunning to see how many organizations manage to lose sight of these essential elements as other pressures mount around efforts to achieve underlying specific dollar or participation goals that may or may not have been developed with the larger picture in mind.  These challenges aren’t unique to smaller organizations. ... read more

Trying to get the attention of the media can seem like a daunting task, especially when you have minimal to no staff dedicated to this. But even with limited funds or staffing, it is still possible to get the media attention that you crave. Below are three ways to get started: Hosting or attending an event While the... read more

Your repeat attendees are wonderful — they love you and you love them.  But, that familiarity can create a bubble that seems impenetrable to outsiders. Don’t let this happen to your event. Embrace your newcomers — make them feel special and welcomed. Track Attendance Records Make sure you keep good track of attendance. Use this information to tailor... read more

Dear Betty, We have a lot of non-members at our conference. I mean A LOT: 43% of our annual conference attendees are non-members. The thing is, the majority of them are active members of their regional chapters (we know because we asked). Why don’t they want to join us, too? What can we do to entice them to... read more

Dear Betty, At the request of our Board, our association recently worked with a consultant to evaluate our membership structure. The consultant strongly recommended increasing our dues rates. I’m worried about the impact this will have on our retention rate. How do I explain an increase in dues to our members? How do I ease the blow for... read more

Higher Logic, the leading cloud-based community platform, is proud to announce the 2014 Higher Logic Learning Series session: A Kick-Ass Community Manager Round Table on Thursday, November 6 at 2:00PM Eastern. (more…)

Dear Betty: Is it already time for sending snowman-themed “happy holidays” greetings to my members and boxes of chocolates and cans of popcorn to my exhibitors and conference sponsors? Isn’t there something different I could do? Gentle Reader: I know exactly how you feel. Sometimes it seems like the sparks from the Independence Day fireworks have scarcely gone... read more

The holidays are right around the corner and we wanted to take this time to say thank you to everyone who has contributed to our company’s growth. We have had some big and exciting changes this year with our new office space located in downtown Washington D.C., and new additions to our growing staff. We could have not... read more

Last Friday the fusionSpan team got together to celebrate the holidays. We shared great food, libations, and many laughs. Our talented party planner, Linh, prepared a wonderful spread, with the help of our baker, Jessica, and chef, Sheree. We had a blast playing holiday themed games such as Stocking Surprise, the Present Unwrapping Challenge and Mystery Christmas Sketch... read more

Dear Betty: The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has raised over $100 MILLION to date for the ALS Association. Why didn’t we think of that?!? I know we can’t just copy it outright, but is there anything associations can learn from the phenomenal success of this viral campaign? Gentle Reader: Ah yes, I think the entire nonprofit industry (both... read more

Anyone who’s been involved with event registration knows that there can be many speed bumps along the path before reaching the end goal: a successful event that provides a positive experience for the customers (and staff!). Since I work with a few companies for their event registration processes, I decided to share some of my new-found insight from... read more

One of the burning questions that every meeting organizer wants the answer to is “What do my conference attendees want?” Attendees are demanding more value out of in-person meetings. Now more than ever, associations need to make meetings more interactive to enhance attendees’ conference experience and keep them coming back year after year.  So how do we provide a creative experience... read more

Yesterday, April 21, 2015, Google went live with the search algorithm that will boost the rankings of mobile-friendly pages. Let’s take a look at what this means to your Association: When was this first announced? Google released that they are experimenting with a new mobile friendly ranking algorithm in December 2014 and announced it officially in February 2015. What is this algorithmic update and whom... read more

I recently worked an on-site registration for a conference for the first time. I had heard many “horror” stories about the on-site registration desk and before I left, I was informed that I would be absolutely exhausted by the end of the week. However, this was no horror story for me. If anything, it was like one of... read more

Is it worth paying to have your systems reflect the data being stored in your database? With technology today almost anything can be automated. Yet so many organization are unwilling to invest capital to automate mundane tasks in order to save their employee’s time – updating multiple contact lists with the same information, generating website content after entering the same information... read more

Associations often focus on increasing attendance at their events, people signed up for their listservs, and overall membership numbers – but is that always in the best interest of members? fusionSpan spoke with Elizabeth Engel and Anna Caraveli about their recent white paper: Leading Engagement from the Outside In: Become an Indispensable Partner in Your Members’ Success. Part 1... read more

API: Application Programming Interface. A vague phrase that offers little insight if you’re not a computer science major, yet if you’ve spent any time around system vendors or website developers they’ve likely thrown the acronym around as if its taught in the third grade of every classroom in America. Fear not, we’ve created a Prezi (a free, online presentation... read more

Part 2 of fusionSpan’s conversation with Elizabeth Engel and Anna Caraveli about their recent white paper: Leading Engagement from the Outside In: Become an Indispensable Partner in Your Members’ Success. Here we dive further into what steps association’s can take now to become more member focused. Did you miss part 1 of the conversation? Make sure to check... read more

After having gone through several Win7/8 to Win10 upgrades, we found an anomaly. Users running Windows 7 and Office 2013/365 may face significant problems with their Office Suite after upgrading to Windows 10. This complication seems limited specifically to Windows 7 and Office 2013/365, and does not appear to affect upgrades to Windows 10 from any other version... read more

Mark Ace, President at Kavi Corporation We got a chance to talk to Mark Ace, President of Kavi Corporation, about his recent blogpost, “Five Characteristics of High-Performing Teams.” We also discuss the ways different organizations are leveraging their technology in order to accomplish their collaboration goals, as well as some of the issues small staff organizations face with... read more

I thought I had been assigned a simple task – To find an event registration system for a client that has an annual conference. The main goal of this group is to improve end user experience while still being able to incorporate their business requirements. Seemed like a day’s effort to me …. to research potential vendors, document the information, and... read more

It’s that time of year again: families are gathered, work is closed… Oh, and EVERYTHING IS ON SALE! The question is, when do you get the better deals? For decades, people have been running out the day after Thanksgiving to get all the lowest prices for just about anything you can imagine. Now there’s another way to get... read more

Joining ASAE  has been invaluable for our company; specifically, their small staffed community has provided support and possibilities we benefit tremendously from. The opportunities to participate in their conferences, workshops, and to network and engage in this community, centered on modest staff sizes, has been a notable factor to our own growth and achievements. The ASAE small staff... read more

Koala on Phillip Island, Australia Hello Small Staff Big Impact. I’m baack! I’ve spent the better part of the last year traveling around Australia and SE Asia. I’ve met a lot of great people and learned many things. As part of my experience, I held some interesting jobs to supplement my travel income, including crew on a 43... read more

Mike Fletcher, Director of Information Technology, Endocrine Society Talking business intelligence (BI) tools with Mike Fletcher, the Director of Information Technology at the Endocrine Society. Mike recently went through the process of finding a BI tool, ultimately deciding on Power BI. We discuss why he wanted a BI tool, the process of picking a BI tool, some of... read more

fusionSpan was at AMSFest, put on by Teri Carden, founder of ReviewMyAMS.com. It’s an intimate event where association professionals can get an up-close look at a bunch of different AMS (association management systems) vendors all in one place. They also can talk with industry partners (like fusionSpan) about what the trends are and what they should have on... read more

Underutilize technology and it will rust away… As part of an office redesign, an organization I used to work at installed all new screens in the conference rooms. They also installed two large touch screen projectors that allowed for an “interactive” presentation. Instead of sitting behind their laptop, the presenter could control their presentation directly from the projection... read more

“Did I lose my special treat?” A frequent question from my son. We’ve created a system in our home where if he behaves, he gets a “special treat” after dinner – usually in the form of 22 minutes of TV. While there are some issues with the system (what’s the leverage for behaving once he’s lost this special... read more

In this podcast, Justin talks with Elizabeth Weaver Engel, CEO and Chief Strategist at Spark Consulting, and Sohini Baliga, Director of Communications at the nonpartisan budget watchdog Taxpayers for Common Sense, about their white paper titled, “Steal Like a Fundraiser.” Their paper addresses innovative practices in the charitable fundraising environment that association executives might want to adopt, specifically... read more

By now, you may have heard about the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that is rattling companies from technology titans like Facebook to small businesses with a website. In short, the GDPR is a legal framework that sets guidelines for the collection and processing of personal data of individuals residing in the EU. The new policies... read more

In less than two weeks (May 25, 2018), the most significant change in data privacy in 20 years and protection regulation goes into full effect. The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is aimed at protecting the personal and sensitive information of all EU residents, regardless of where an organization is based. Under GDPR, individuals are allowed greater... read more

Last week fusionSpan was at Community Brand‘s User Conference – Xperience18! Five days packed with lots of learning, sharing and connecting. Here are a few highlights! fusionSpan was networking We had a booth. Community Brands has compiled quite a cornucopia of products, which in turn meant there was a unique range of organizations at the conference. From small non-profits... read more

Todd M. Tolbert, the Chief Administrative Officer at the Internet Society, joins us in this episode of Non-Profit Tech Podcast, hosted by fusionSpan’s Justin Burniske. The conversation touched on a range of topics around data including the differences between data privacy and data protection, common misconceptions on data privacy, and mistakes that nonprofits and associations make related to... read more

So you’re just getting started with Salesforce, a powerful CRM that offers users a great deal of functionality, and unlimited possibilities! Or, maybe you are using power association management solutions (AMS) powered by Salesforce, such as Fonteva’s MemberNation or Community Brands’ Nimble AMS. What is the best way to hit the ground running with your shiny, new AMS?... read more

Is your organization’s website performance aligned with your business goals?  Without properly leveraging your website’s data, it is difficult to know how you can improve your web presence and improve your users’ experience.  We recommend using Google Analytics, a powerful free web analytics service, to track and report your website traffic. If you manage your organization’s website, you... read more

Associations are increasingly adopting multiple software systems to obtain the best of breed for each focus area. They are moving away from integrated systems that have multiple modules that manage varied IT functions but only excel in one or two. That means most associations use a multitude of IT systems – including a Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Learning... read more

In this podcast, Justin Burniske chats with Rhea Steele, Chief Operating Officer of DECA Inc. on how to strategically implement new software systems at your association and how to successfully facilitate the change management that occurs with the implementation of systems. Here are some helpful resources that Rhea shares in this episode: Switch: How to Change Things When... read more

In the previous blog we made the case for a business hub for your association (if you haven’t read it, please do). In this blog we will go over implementing the hub with free open source software. To recap the point we are trying to make, is that associations are moving from monolithic IT platforms to multiple best... read more

It’s inevitable. In every implementation of a new AMS solution, we eventually come to the question of what information needs to be collected for particular transactions – joining, registering, subscribing, etc. Inevitably, we are often handed a set of forms that are either throwbacks to the age of paper or are lengthy tomes printed from online forms. And... read more

“So what do I need to do in the CRM?” The question caught me off guard. I was responsible for training new staff on the CRM, but I didn’t write anyone’s job description. How was I supposed to know what they needed to do in the CRM. “I guess whatever your manager says you need to do.” I... read more

The Problem Boarding schools in North America have experienced a continuous, 15-year decline in their primary enrollment categories. To combat that trend, The Association of Boarding Schools (TABS) launched the North American Boarding Initiative’s “Ready for More?” campaign on July 1, 2016. The initiative’s purpose is to answer a strategic imperative from heads of school to address the... read more

What is Single Sign On? Single Sign On, or SSO, is probably a phrase or acronym that you have seen a lot. To understand what it is in the most basic sense, consider this analogy: the internet is like a shopping mall, and each storefront a domain. Now, each time you enter a different store, you are immediately... read more

What is Happening If you use Salesforce or a platform built on the system, then you are probably well aware of the Salesforce Spring ‘20 release, which came out on February 17, 2020. Although the releases are a regular Salesforce event, the latest one contains a security patch, which may require a little extra attention. Patching normally involves... read more

If anyone else were to enter your marketing platform, what would they find? Would they be shocked by the vast number of membership lists that are carefully dated so you can identify the most recent list? If they looked hard enough, how many duplicates would they find? You would immediately answer their probing questions by saying, “We have... read more

Happy customers do not equal more business. Over the last few years, customer service continues to become outdated, while customer success has arrived as the new kid on the block. Contrary to what some may think, customer success is not merely a rebranded version of customer service. Customer success is changing the ideology behind the customer relationship. It... read more

Gayathri Kher Co-Founder & President This is a good time for associations to look at their project lists and re-prioritize projects that were tabled due to all-consuming events, staff bandwidth, and travel. Many of you may be grappling with how to keep teams productive, accountable, and engaged as we all adjust to the new normal of fully remote... read more

Top 12 Recommendations for Association Communicators for COVID-19 – Less is Definitely More I’m gonna go out on a limb here and guess that everyone else in the known universe has an inbox burgeoning with COVID-19 email messages ranging from their dentist to the guy who sold them an earthenware mug on Etsy. About four of them have... read more

What is Lockbox? For those associations that still recieve checks mailed to your organization’s physical address, you have had to recently address: who goes in to collect the mail, logs the checks, and what the next steps are to deposit the checks and apply payments against orders in your CRM. If your organization uses a lockbox functionality, which... read more

Managing email communication with your association’s members includes more than the marketing emails that are sent to advertise events or share information. A key part of email communication is transactional emails (also called Operational Emails), which many organizations leverage to provide members key information. These emails update members with essential information relevant to their association membership. fusionSpan believes... read more

Suppose you are reading this as the marketing manager for your association or organization. Every summer, a number of contacts in Salesforce’s Fonteva platform subscribe to premium memberships. As the marketing manager, you will want to try to understand these members by building dashboards, conducting studies and leveraging statistics. In fact, you might have already done this by... read more

In our latest Non-Profit Tech Podcast, fusionSpan’s Justin Burniske talks content creation with Hilary Marsh, Chief Strategist of the Content Company and returning guest Elizabeth Weaver Engel, Chief Strategist of Spark Consulting, LLC. Associations are content machines, and we are all looking for ways to reduce the load on staff through effective content curation. Tune in as the... read more

Welcome to Your AMS Journey: Selection to Adoption, a blog series presented by fusionSpan. Throughout our work providing consulting, implementation, and support services to non-profits and associations, we have seen our share of successes and challenges that the entire selection and implementation process involves when adopting a new Association Management System (AMS). In this series, we will shed... read more

As an organization that specializes in AMS support and implementation, we typically step in after the selection of an Association Management System has already been made by your organization. Our first step is to ask the AMS partner or association for their Request For Proposal, but a surprising number of clients never issue one. What is a Request... read more

In today’s age of digital transformation, leveraging data efficiently and effectively is imperative for associations looking to deliver consistent value to their members. We often work with clients leveraging platforms such as Salesforce and Fonteva, which are tools that offer a wide range of functionalities and customization when it comes to reports and dashboards. For some readers, you... read more

So what should I look for in my next Association Management System? As implementers, we often get asked this question is some shape or form during the AMS Journey. For those following this series in order, we have asked “why do we need a change from our current system?” and then developed a vendor selection process through the... read more

In today’s age of social media and digital transformation, email is often overlooked as a marketing tool to effectively use to reach members. Email campaigns are an inexpensive option for associations to reach a large group of members and are even still relied upon as the primary form of communication. One email marketing tool that fusionSPAN’s Digital Strategy... read more

You made your product selection, and are excitedly looking forward to implementing your new AMS platform. Now comes the decision to select an implementation partner. Look carefully at who you plan to use to implement your chosen product. You want a team that understands your business, knows how to integrate all the best of breed systems that you... read more

As an association in an increasingly digital world, providing value to members through online-content is essential. However, it can be difficult to determine whether or not that value is truly being delivered without knowing how users are interacting with the content on your website. By using Google Analytics, associations can measure return on investment, identify which digital strategies... read more

Forms are very common features on association websites to collect information from visitors, regardless of if they are members or not. The information gathered on forms can help turn anonymous visitors into identified prospects. For example, when a visitor provides an email address in the form while signing up for a free newsletter, you will be able to... read more

NetForum Enterprise is a feature-rich association management system (AMS), but most associations will inevitably find themselves needing to customize. That’s fine – NetForum allows customizations. The challenge comes in down the road when you’re looking to upgrade and the customization does not support new functionality available in the new release or worse breaks down completely. Implementing customizations that... read more

Well, it’s time to begin! In Your AMS Journey, Implementation is the execution phase of the whole endeavor. In Step 6 you defined the scope of your project, and the System Implementer (SI) will now begin to bring your vision to life. The key is structure, accountability and discipline. While the earlier stages of the project have been... read more

Data conversion, or data migration, is the task of bringing over relevant data from your legacy system to your new CRM. This is one of the most crucial steps for a successful AMS implementation. Bad data will result in a failed project, no matter how good the features are within your new platform. As you continue your AMS... read more

Your organization has been hard at work throughout the implementation and data conversion phases of the project. The team has made great progress, but all the activity has been predominantly conducted by the core project team working on perfecting individual modules of the overall project. The testing that has occurred so far is unit/module level testing. It’s time... read more

The end of Your AMS Journey is in sight – you have undergone testing and training, and are now ready to prep for launch. In fact, preparing for go live is something the team has to keep in mind throughout the entire project. Here are some important items to consider: Constituent Communication We recommend that the association begin... read more

Dashboards have always been a crucial part of analytics. As the demand for Business Intelligence (BI) tools increase each year, the amount associations spend on BI products has followed suit. Robust platforms, such as Einstein Analytics and Domo, mainly charge fees by user count. This in turn might limit the number of users that can see visualizations. Should... read more

Your organization has put countless hours of work and research into your new AMS, and now it is time to introduce it to members and stakeholders. Go live day usually begins calm, but soon gets hectic and turns into a stressful few weeks. We warn our clients that AMS go lives are something that an association goes through... read more

You are live, have gone through the go live challenges, and have worked on the other phases whereby the implementation project can be closed. What now? Here are a few items to consider: Expand Training Spend time developing training materials, and put a system in place for keeping the training materials up to date as business processes change.... read more

This blog was originally published on September 18, 2013. Are you ready for a new Association Management System (AMS)? If you just answered ‘YES’ or ‘MAYBE’ then read on… Finding the right AMS for your organization can be like Prince Charming finding Cinderella. Sure, you have a glass slipper – you know what you want. Now, how do... read more

Many association professionals are undoubtedly aware of the membership life cycle of Awareness, Recruitment, Engagement, Renewal, and Reinstatement. The concept can be pushed further since your relationship with members does not look the same year after year, instead, it evolves. Thinking about the membership life cycle three-dimensionally is more realistic. Therefore, we now have a Membership Spiral! In... read more

Many associations want to quantify how engaged their prospects or members are with the organization. While this is ideal, many associations do not have an integrated system that can look at how the user engages across multiple platforms – web, marketing, and CRM. Various marketing tools have the capability of scoring users based on engagement, but the key... read more