For a job that is often voluntary, managing an association is a lot of work. From responsibilities such as growing memberships, routine administration, member communications, and staff management, you can often feel overwhelmed as an association manager.
Despite all the hard work, many associations are hardly getting the results they want. According to some statistics from the state of community management 2020 report, an average of 52% of the members are inactive. Only 11% share actively, while 7% act and answer.
There are many reasons why this is the case, but they are all symptoms of the deeper problem that is poor association management. Association management software can deal with these woes by taking over your association management, especially now that COVID-19 has forced most activities online.
WHAT IS ASSOCIATION MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE (AMS)?
Association management software is a software solution designed to handle membership tasks for associations. Every good AMS software should handle common tasks such as:
- Member registration and database management
- Communication with members of a mass scale
- Manage customer information
- Financial management, including payments and donations
- Reporting and analytics
- Website builder tools, plugins, or templates
- Event management
In other words, association management software is a digital, often cloud-based database you can use to manage your association’s members and their various interactions. It also allows you to perform administrative functions more efficiently.
These associations can be professional organisations, trade associations, housing associations, non-profits, and many more.
CONSOLIDATION IN THE INDUSTRY
At first, associations needed to look for “all-in-one” AMS tools to handle all their needs. However, these turned out to be largely inadequate because they failed to excel in every facet of association management. For example, they could be good at database management but terrible at financial administration.
Today, many specialized solutions are cropping up so that associations can no longer ignore them. These rely on machine learning and AI to offer much better functionality, making them the current best-in-class solutions for association management.
Many of these niche service providers have since joined forces to offer powerful, consolidated, and integrated association management software solutions.
Many other changes have occurred to shape the industry, including:
- Data and privacy laws have been passed to protect member data
- The development of centralised cloud technology has made the work much more convenient.
- More advanced tools for data processing and decision-making
- More dynamic integration with other software tools used in association management
With the monopolies gone, the old bait-and-switch advertising no longer works. Vendors can no longer afford to provide sub-par functionality because there is always competition waiting to take over.
When choosing the best association management software, you have a wider range of software tools to choose and pick from.
CONSIDERATIONS WHEN YOU’RE CHOOSING AN AMS
Association management systems are quite different. None can quite tick all the boxes, no matter how advanced or expensive it is. However, there are some common features you do have to look out for to ensure that the system will serve your needs perfectly.
Before you even start looking at the system features, you have to make a list of what kind of functionality you are looking for. You’ve to think about what kind of association your organization is, the size of your membership, integrations with existing software, and much more. Once that is done, you can then go through the following considerations.
- Can the AMS support your size and growth? Scalability is important when selecting AMS software to future-proof it. You need to be able to customize the software to your needs, collect unlimited data sets and records, and perform advanced alterations to suit your organization.
- What kind of setup and help getting started will you need? Implementation is always the toughest part of the job. The cost and timelines involved in personnel training, data migration, testing, and other tasks contribute to the total cost of ownership.
- What kind of ongoing support will you need? Routine system maintenance and upgrades will be necessary, but you may also need technical support, training of new employees, and other services. This is all part of customer service and should not be compromised.
- Advanced reporting. Data is the life-blood of associations, and you need to be able to track and analyze membership metrics to help you engage and retain members.
- Automation is important, although not a necessary feature of AMS tools. They help take over repetitive work and free you to focus on high-level duties such as strategy.
Our Association Management Software Picks
| Best non profit association management software | AMO – Association Management Online |
| Best homeowners association management software | AppFolio Property Manager |
| Free association management software | Raklet |
| Best trade association management software | AMO – Association Management Online |
| Open source association management software | Sumac |
| Professional association management software | iMIS |
| Best website membership management software | AMO – Association Management Online |
THE BEST ASSOCIATION MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE OPTIONS
1. ASSOCIATIONS MANAGEMENT ONLINE // AMO
It’s easy for us to say that our Associations Management Online software is the best AMS software because we know it inside out. However, biased or not, we know that almost every customer who has used AMO to date couldn’t be happier.
What makes our clients happy is also why you should consider AMO as your first choice:
- All-in-one system. Association Management Online is a full-featured platform with all the tools you need to successfully manage your association. Our list of features is long, but it includes powerful reporting, integrated accounting, broadcast email, event management, member portal, and many more.
- Dedicated support with agency backing. Thanks to ArcStone as our partner agency, we offer you our vast experience with digital marketing, SEO, paid advertising, social media advertising, content marketing, website design, development, hosting, virtual events, and more.
- Flexibility and versatility. We customise AMO to work just the way you need it to, including automated dues followup.
- Friendly customer support is our priority. You have phone and email support at any time,
- Simple, straightforward deployment of the system. We even import your data for free.
Of all the AMS software tools out there, AMO is the only one that strives to retain the human, personal aspect of digital association management. However, if you feel that AMS is not right for your organisation, there are still many other good options you can consider.
WORDPRESS BASED PLATFORMS
- Wishlist
- MemberPress
- MembershipworksMemberSpace
- Membee
STANDALONE-ISH OPEN SOURCE
- Tendenci
- CiviCRM (Also can be done in WordPress)
- Sumac
FOR LARGER GROUPS
- iMIS by ASI
- Netforum
FOR SMALL TO MEDIUM-SIZED GROUPS – MULTI-CHAPTER
- GrowthZone
- SilkStart
- MemberNova
FOR SMALL TO MEDIUM SIZED GROUPS
- Memberclicks
- Raklet
- GlueUp
- MemberSuite
IF YOU USE SALESFORCE
- Nimble
- Fonteva
- ReadyMembership
Association Management Software FAQs
How to replace spreadsheets with association management software? While it can be daunting to think about migrating from spreadsheets to an AMS, if you follow a tried and true process, it’s not only doable, it will result in a huge pay-off. It’s all about preparation! Prepare your data for migration by scrubbing your member records, getting rid of duplicates, make necessary updates to your data before the migration, and removing data unnecessary.
What is association management software? Association Management Software called AMS for short is a tool used by professional associations to manage their members and functionality related to membership. Implementing an AMS can save associations money and time, while also providing high value for its members.
Association management software that integrates with Squarespace? While Squarespace lacks the functionality required for most mid to larged sized associations, it can work for small or new member groups without many requirements. If your association is using Squarespace and doesn’t require much in terms of functionality, try SilkStart.
Who Uses Association Management Software? An AMS (Association Management Software) is used by both professional associations and association management companies (AMCs) to organize and maintain member data and related functionality. Since many people using association management software are volunteers, it’s vital to choose an AMS system with good customer support.
What is an AMS database? An AMS database is the organized collection of records for association members.
CONCLUSION
Whether you’re looking to get started or upgrade existing AMS software, it pays to take time and make your choice carefully. That is the only way to make sure that you don’t invest in expensive but otherwise useless platforms.
We invite you to try AMO for free today and to see just how well our top-shelf AMS solution fits your organization.