Membership growth consultancy
Membership growth consultancy, from the numbers up.
A membership growth consultancy diagnoses why your numbers move — joiners in, lapsers out, income per member — then hands you a costed plan of quick wins and longer-term changes, and helps you deliver it.
A growth plan that survives the board, the budget, renewal season, year three
A growth engagementin five moves
- 01Diagnosejoiners, lapsers, income per memberNUMBERS
- 02Listenmembers, lapsed members, non-membersINSIGHT
- 03Segmentusers and supporters, by motiveWHO
- 04Costquick wins and long-term changes, pricedPLAN
- 05Deliverimplementation, measured by cohortDO
Starts withyour own numbers
01/ what a growth consultancy diagnoses
Growth is three numbers, not one campaign.
Membership grows when joiners outrun lapsers, and income grows when income per member holds too. A membership growth consultancy measures all three before it recommends anything.
Renewal alone rarely does it. The median renewal rate in Marketing General’s 2026 report stayed at 82%, and Tony Rossell concludes that unless a body is fixing a major flaw, “it cannot renew its way into growth” (US survey).
The harder market shows in the same data. Fewer associations reported growth, and fewer called their value proposition compelling (MGI, after ASAE Annual 2026). For the full guide to the levers, see membership growth.
- Associations reporting membership increases45%2025 report: 45%. 2026 report: 38%.
- Individual membership bodies: more new members50%2025 report: 50%. 2026 report: 38%.
- Individual membership bodies: membership growth49%2025 report: 49%. 2026 report: 34%.
- Value proposition compelling or very compelling57%2025 report: 57%. 2026 report: 51%.
Tony Rossell on MGI 2026 (rows 1–2) and Jana Darling, MGI (rows 3–4) · Marketing General Inc. benchmarking, US survey.
02/ a real growth brief
Kew’s plan to double, read as arithmetic.
A published brief is the best way to see what growth work involves. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew has said in public what it wants.
In a Find a Tender award notice (January 2026), Kew describes over 100,000 members on around 80,000 memberships, about 20,000 new sales and 60,000 renewals a year, and “ambitious plans to double our membership over the coming five years”. It also bought qualitative research into how members decide to renew (£50,000, 2024–25). Growth work runs on both sides of the equation.
Our arithmetic on those rounded figures: 60,000 renewals on 80,000 memberships is about 75% renewal. MGI’s steady-state formula — new members ÷ lapse rate — gives 20,000 ÷ 0.25 = 80,000. Kew sits at its equilibrium. Doubling means about 40,000 new sales a year, or renewal near 87.5% at today’s sales, or a mix. That is the diagnosis a consultancy starts from.
- Now 100over 100,000 members
- +5 years 200the stated ambition
Find a Tender, RBGKEW1471 award notice, published 7 January 2026 · government procurement notice; Kew’s own rounded figures.
Your two taps
Members over 5 years
Growing
Joiners outpace leavers at this renewal rate.
Starts at Kew’s published flows: around 80,000 memberships, 20,000 new sales (25% of the base) and 60,000 renewals a year (75%) (Find a Tender). The 75% is our arithmetic on rounded figures. Drag either tap to see what doubling takes.
Kew’s figures are theirs; the steady-state and doubling sums are ours. We have no connection with Kew or its suppliers.
03/ growth diagnosis
Diagnose before you prescribe anything.
Most growth plans fail because they start with channels. Start with five questions instead. If you cannot answer them, the first weeks of any engagement are spent finding out.
Split renewal into first-year and mature: the formula is on membership retention rate. Know what a member is worth over their tenure — the member lifetime value calculator does it in a minute.
Growth diagnosis scorecard · 0/5 answered
01Do you know new joiners a year, by source?
02Is renewal split into first-year and mature?
03Do you track income per member over time?
04Do you know why people join?
05Is there a growth target with a date?
Answer all 5 to see your result.
Our self-assessment. The bands are our judgement, not a benchmark.
04/ segment and motivation work
Members who use, members who support.
People join for benefits they use, for a cause they back, or both. Slater’s study of a British national museum’s members asks exactly that: users or supporters? The answer changes what you sell and what you say at renewal (peer-reviewed).
Identification matters as much as perks. Among art museum members, it rose with perceived prestige, donating, tenure and visit frequency (Bhattacharya, Rao and Glynn, 1995). In 231 friends of Spanish museums, material and non-material benefits both fed identification, which fed trust and intention to stay (Camarero and Garrido, 2011). Both peer-reviewed, not UK.
So segment by motive, not only by age or grade. Testing an offer on each segment is covered in price and proposition testing.
Buys the benefits
Free entry, discounts, events. Renews if they used it.
benefit-basedBenefits first, cause second
Lead with use; show the cause at renewal.
Uses and believes
The most loyal mix. Show both every time.
coreCause first, benefits second
Lead with impact; keep benefits easy to claim.
Backs the cause
May never visit. Renews if they see the difference made.
cause-based05/ quick wins and long-term changes
Quick wins first, structural change behind them.
Good briefs ask for both. CLOA’s membership review wanted recommendations “with short, medium, and long-term priorities”. Quick wins fund patience; structural changes — categories, fees, the proposition — take a governance cycle.
The Crafts Council went further: “This is not simply about increasing membership numbers or income.” Growth that weakens the community is not growth. Say what you are optimising for before you pick wins.
Quick wins
- Fix join-page friction
- Renewal reminders that arrive on time
- Win back recent lapsers
- Ask leavers why
Medium term
- Offers by motive segment
- A first-year onboarding path
- Price and proposition tests
- A joiner target per channel
Long-term changes
- Categories and grades
- Fee structure
- A new segment or partner model
- Governance to match
The horizons are our method; what sits in each depends on your diagnosis.
06/ growth and yield over time
Your growth and income over ten years.
Three levers, one decade. Move renewal, joiners and the yearly fee change, and watch subscription income compound.
Small changes look flat in year one and large by year ten. That is why a growth plan needs a timeline, not a campaign calendar. Start from the 82% median renewal (MGI 2026, US survey), then put in your own numbers. Fee decisions belong to membership pricing.
Your three levers
Subscription income over 10 years
- Now £150k
- Yr 1 £155k
- Yr 2 £159k
- Yr 3 £164k
- Yr 4 £169k
- Yr 5 £174k
- Yr 6 £179k
- Yr 7 £184k
- Yr 8 £190k
- Yr 9 £196k
- Yr 10 £202k
Income grows
Keep the renewal rate here and the fee rise does the rest.
Your arithmetic. The 82% renewal default is the median in Marketing General’s 2026 report, a US survey. 1,000 members at £150 are example inputs. An illustration, not a forecast.
07/ a costed growth plan
A costed plan the board can sign.
A plan is a set of choices with prices. NCVO describes strategy as high-level decisions that set priorities and purpose. Government appraisal guidance, the Green Book, weighs the costs, benefits and risks of different options. A growth plan should do the same, on a smaller scale.
Price the joiner side with MGI’s maximum acquisition cost: margin per member a year × average tenure. Voluntary Action Camden’s brief asked for a projected income statement and an options paper. Ask for both.
What the growth plan contains · 0/7 in place
Tick what your current plan has.
08/ scope and price
How an engagement runs, and what briefs pay.
Published briefs show the market: a few thousand pounds for a focused review, more for research and delivery.
CLOA capped its membership review at £3,200, with a member survey in January–February and a final report by April 2026. The Crafts Council set £5,000 for member and non-member research. ARMA budgeted £10,000 ex VAT for a governance review that includes membership categories, rights and admission. Kew awarded £50,000 for renewal research. These are their published budgets, not our prices — ours are on pricing.
Public bodies publish these. Under the Procurement Act 2023, s.87, a central government authority publishes a contract details notice for below-threshold contracts from £12,000. Read a few before you write your own brief; the membership review hub links the batch.
Published budgets for membership work
01 · Diagnose
Build the baseline
Joiners, lapsers and income per member, from your own data.
02 · Listen
Hear three groups
Members, lapsed members and people who never joined.
03 · Segment
Group by motive
Users, supporters and the mix between them.
04 · Plan
Cost the options
Quick wins and long-term changes, with do-nothing as a baseline.
05 · Deliver
Implement and measure
Hands-on support, read by cohort each quarter.
Listening to non-members is standard in published briefs: ASCEL’s 2018 review asked for consultation with non-members and less engaged members.
09/ choosing a consultancy
What to ask a membership growth consultant.
Ask how they will find the problem, not how they will fix it. A consultancy that proposes channels before it has seen your renewal data is selling marketing.
Ask how members get a say. The Royal College of Anaesthetists put three category models to members; over 65% of its 2025 survey respondents supported simplifying. Our membership consultants hub compares the kinds of firm.
Is this consultancy worth hiring?
01Will they start from your joiner and renewal data?
02Do they name the source for every benchmark?
03Will they split first-year and mature renewal?
04Will the plan be costed, option by option?
05Do they refuse to guarantee a growth number?
Answer the 5 questions to see where you stand.
Our checklist, not an industry standard.
10/ what we promise
What we promise, and what we don’t.
We are a specialist practice. We have no named clients and no published case studies, so we will not show you a results slide. We will show you the arithmetic, the sources and the plan.
Growth is possible in hard markets: UK trade union membership rose by 192,000 to 6.6 million in 2025 (DBT, official statistics in development). It is never guaranteed. Acquisition plans are covered in new member acquisition; member research in insight-informed membership.
→ You can re-run it next year without us.
11/ questions
Membership growth consultancy FAQs.
15 minutes · video or phone
Book 15 minutes on your growth numbers.
Book 15 minutes to look at your joiners, your renewal split and the target your board has set.
- 0115 minutes, video or phone
- 02Your growth equation, read back
- 03Quick wins vs long-term changes
- 04A plain next step
Pick a day that suits · live availability
Book 15 minutes · no obligation
A growth plan built from your own numbers.
Diagnose first, cost the options, then deliver the quick wins while the long-term changes go through.
13/ sources
Every claim, and where it came from
Every source was read on 8 October 2026. US, dated and practitioner sources are labelled.
- Marketing General Inc. (Tony Rossell) — Just released: the 2026 Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report — 82% median renewal; 38% reported increasesIndustry survey, US
- Marketing General Inc. (Jana Darling) — What ASAE Annual 2026 reinforced about membership growth — 34% of IMOs grew; 51% compelling value propositionIndustry survey, US
- Marketing General Inc. (Tony Rossell) — Essential math for membership marketers (2012) — steady state, maximum acquisition costPractitioner method, US, dated
- Find a Tender (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew) — RBGKEW1471 face-to-face membership sales, UK6 award notice 2026/S 000-001160 — plan to double membershipGovernment procurement notice
- Contracts Finder (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew) — Market research — member retention research, £50,000 (2024–25)Government procurement notice
- Chief Cultural & Leisure Officers Association — Consultancy opportunity: membership review — up to £3,200Published brief, UK
- Crafts Council — Freelancer: insight-informed membership — £5,000Published brief, UK
- ARMA — Tender invitation: governance review — £10,000 ex VATPublished brief, UK
- ASCEL — Membership review: invitation to tender (2018)Published brief, UK, dated
- Royal College of Anaesthetists — Reviewing RCoA membership — three category modelsSector body, UK
- Voluntary Action Camden — Specification for a feasibility study for a fee-based membership model (2023)Published brief, UK, dated
- legislation.gov.uk — Procurement Act 2023, section 87 — regulated below-threshold contracts: noticesStatute
- HM Treasury — The Green Book — appraisal of optionsGovernment guidance
- NCVO — What is strategy?Sector body guidance, UK
- Slater, Curator: The Museum Journal — Users or supporters? Understanding motivations and behaviors of museum members (2003)Peer-reviewed, UK
- Bhattacharya, Rao and Glynn, Journal of Marketing — Understanding the bond of identification among art museum members (1995)Peer-reviewed, US
- Camarero and Garrido, Journal of Service Management — Incentives, organisational identification and relationship quality among members of fine arts museums (2011)Peer-reviewed, Spain
- Department for Business and Trade — Trade union membership, UK, 1995 to 2025: statistical bulletinOfficial statistics in development