Nonmembers
Membership

Data Nugget: Why Don’t They Join? (Scholarly Society Edition)

The top-cited reasons for not joining an association, according to a broad survey of members and nonmembers of scholarly societies.

John Wiley & Sons, Inc., journal-publishing partner to more than 900 global scholarly societies, conducted a survey in 2014 to uncover why people do or don’t join such organizations. When asked why they don’t join, nonmembers cited the following four reasons most frequently. The study focused on STEM fields, but it’s not a stretch to imagine that these barriers to joining associations exist in other fields, too.

  1. ​High Cost (24 percent)
  2. ​Never Been Invited To Join (15 percent)
  3. (tie) ​Don’t Know What’s Available (12 percent)
    ​Never Occurred To Me To Join (12 percent)

Source: “Membership Matters: Lessons From Members and Non-Members,” Wiley, March 2015

(Oko_SwanOmurphy/ThinkStock)

Associations Now Staff

By Associations Now Staff

The Associations Now team of editors covers all aspects of association management in print, blogs, and daily news. MORE

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