Generating non-dues revenue is definitely on most organization’s and association’s minds. While there are a multitude of different ways to generate revenue, including events and fundraisers, you might not realize that you can use an existing learning management system to increase your non-dues revenue. In this article, we’ll discuss the concept of non-dues revenue and give you a few examples of how you can boost yours with an LMS system now. Check it out below.
Importance of Non-Dues Revenue for Organizations
Every association relies on certain income methods to generate revenue. Sometimes these are memberships or subscriptions. Unfortunately, those can fluctuate or decline at times. That’s why non-dues revenue is so important to these organizations. Any income that isn’t directly tied to membership fees can be considered such revenue. Whether it’s leveraging AI to help create better courses, obtaining sponsorships, advertising, offering a wide variety of different products, or doing live events, it’s more vital than ever for companies to embrace non-dues revenue to gain greater financial stability and diversity in our current economic climate.
Customization
LMS systems are good for so much more than just the training and development. They can also be used as a conduit for supplying personalized, customized experiences for their members. You can tap into this by utilizing the data and analytics you have on your most popular courses, most completed courses, and most engaging courses to develop learning products you can sell. Offering tailored courses and content based on individual preferences and help you not only increase the value but also lead to higher course completion rates that can increase your non-dues revenue. Customization and gamification often engage people more than standard learning. That means you might be able to command a premium for courses in the future for this type of engaging content. Using this idea to increase your non-dues revenue via your LMS is a sensible and pragmatic way to leverage an existing system for the benefit of both your association and your customers.
Customer Support
Effectively generating non-dues revenue through an LMS can seem a little complicated at first, but it’s actually pretty easy. You can develop a marketing plan to utilize it to create digital offerings, specialized courses, and webinars that you can sell to generate additional income. Email marketing, social media, and other communication methods can help you build a strong user base to help increase such revenue. A big part of that is creating strong customer support to keep your paying customers coming back. Ensuring that users have access to timely, knowledgeable support improves the overall experiences and increases the likelihood that customers will continue to engage and support with your paid courses/materials. E-commerce functions should be built into your LMS to help you market and sell your paid content so you can diversify your revenue quickly and easily.
Fundraising
Another way to generate non-dues revenue for your organization is to use fundraising. Fundraising isn’t just the domain of non-profit organizations. Fundraisers can be useful for collecting donations and earning revenue that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to obtain. Using your LMS to manage a fundraiser (and register people for it) can help you track progress, set goals, manage campaigns, and provide donors with automated thank you messages whenever they contribute. Using an LMS also provides organizations with detailed reporting and analytics capabilities. That means you can gain a better understanding of who is doing/engaging with different courses, what courses or e-commerce items they’re buying as part of the fundraiser, and more. With its streamlined approach and data insights capabilities, utilizing an LMS for fundraising is a great way for associations or nonprofits looking to increase their non-dues revenue streams, and should not be overlooked as a potential option for a fundraising opportunity.
Freemium and Paid Certifications
Another excellent, but somewhat overlooked method for generating non-dose revenue is offering paid certifications and using a “freemium” model to lead into more subscriptions. You can do this through your LMS or LXP system. Not only do they provide a convenient way to offer educational opportunities, but they also allow members to demonstrate their knowledge and expertise through tangible credentials. Furthermore, the cost associated with these certifications isn’t very high. In addition to paid certifications (which usually include a series of courses that result in a user being certified in something and up to a certain standard in that area), you can entice people to use your LMS with a free or freemium model. This is where you offer certain things for free but lock certain courses once they get to that level. They must then subscribe or purchase the course to have access to it. This can be a good way to increase revenue and drive engagement while also making your LMS more accessible.
