Building the Ideal Association Tech Stack
To thrive in this digital age, associations must harness the power of technology to connect with their members, streamline operations, and deliver a deeply valuable and holistic member experience. When you create a comprehensive, interconnected experience for your members, it gives them more reasons to engage with you and fosters stronger relationships.
What is an Association Tech Stack?
Your technology infrastructure – what you might hear called a “tech stack” – is what allows your association to deliver this personalized member experience while simultaneously keeping staff workloads sustainable. Each system you use – from your marketing and communications platform, to your education delivery, to your online community – serves as a building block for creating a truly member-centric ecosystem.
What Are the Key Components of An Association Tech Stack?
These are some of the technology solutions your association needs to support member needs. And when these systems are connected or integrated, they work even better!
Association Management Software (AMS), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), or Membership Management Software
An AMS or Member Management system is often the association’s “database of record.” It’s used to manage member data, renewals, dues, and other transactions. It can also be used to track interactions with members, potential members, and sponsors.
Higher Logic Thrive integrates with many AMS, CRM and other association technology solutions to streamline your data and maximize staff time.
Online Community Software
Online community software provides a platform for members to interact, share ideas, ask questions, and most importantly, engage. Much more robust than a listserv or forum, your online community can include discussion forums, social networking features, community digests, and member profiles. All this creates a sense of connection between members, and with the association. Online communities encourage member participation and enhance the overall member experience.
Email Marketing Platform (with Marketing Automation)
Email is a powerful tool for communication. Email marketing platforms help associations send newsletters, event invitations, and other important updates to their members. Having marketing automation capabilities within their email marketing platform can save association staff time and deepen their ability to personalize
their communication.
Website and Content Management System (CMS)
A website is essential for sharing information, resources, and news with members and the public. A CMS makes it easier to update and manage website content. It can also help you lock down members-only or audience-specific content.
Higher Logic Thrive Platform brings together the pillars of association technology – from online community, to marketing, to job boards, to volunteering and mentoring, and more – into one integrated and easy-to-use solution. Create the perfect digital ecosystem for your association, with optional add-ons that work seamlessly to drive deeper member engagement. Unlock actionable insights into what your members value most, enabling organizational growth and creating staff efficiency while minimizing technology costs.
Volunteer/Mentor Management System
For associations that need to manage volunteers or mentors, having a specialized volunteer or mentor management system helps ease the effort needed to recruit, organize, and engage volunteers and mentors effectively. These tools are designed to streamline the process of matching volunteers or mentors with suitable roles or mentees, tracking their involvement, and ensuring a positive experience for involved members.
Job Board
A job board platform provides a dedicated online space where associations can post job listings, career opportunities, and employment-related resources for their members. They help associations solidify their position as a key part of their member’s career growth by enabling the association to facilitate job searches and career development within the association’s industry or niche.
Learning Management System (LMS)
A learning management system (LMS) is a software platform designed to facilitate the creation, delivery, management, and tracking of educational content and courses. Associations often use LMS platforms to offer a wide range of learning opportunities to their members, such as online courses, webinars, workshops, and training materials. They can also use an LMS to facilitate flexible learning pathways and encourage members to own and track their learning journey.
Credentialing Platform
Credentialing programs – including certification, certificates, and micro-credentials – provide significant value to association members by enhancing their professional credibility, career opportunities, and ongoing development. They simultaneously benefit associations through increased membership, revenue, and industry influence. That said, they can be challenging to manage – and drive engagement for – without the right platform. Credentialing platforms help take the guesswork and manual effort out of your professional development programs, empowering associations to personalize members’ journeys, nurture members, streamline recertification, help members who fail, and more.
Event Management Software
For associations that host events, conferences, webinars, or meetings, event management software can help with registration, ticketing, scheduling, and attendee management.
Mobile App
Members are spending more time on their mobile devices, leading to the increasing popularity of mobile apps for member engagement and connection. Mobile apps allow members to connect anytime, anywhere – and they also offer distinct advantages for associations. On a website, members have to come to YOU, and they often only do that when looking for specific information. Meanwhile, a mobile app offers proactive engagement – you have the opportunity to push information to the right users, keeping them informed about what matters most to them.
Blog
Blogs are an excellent way for associations to share valuable content, industry-related knowledge, association news, member stories, and thought leadership with members and the broader community. An association can use their CMS, Community, or a separate dedicated tool to create, manage, and publish articles, news updates, and other written content.
Analytics and Reporting Tools
To make data-driven decisions, associations may use analytics tools to track website traffic, member engagement, email campaign performance, and more.
Out of the box reporting in Higher Logic Thrive makes it easy to understand the effectiveness of your efforts. You can also gain insights into member behavior that can be used to inform your outreach and engagement strategies.
Everything You Need to Complete Your Association Tech Stack
Higher Logic Thrive Platform is designed for associations to make creating powerful member experiences simple. It comes with Community, Marketing, Events, and Jobs solutions. Associations can also scale as they grow by leveraging add-ons for volunteering, mentoring, learning management, credentialing, a mobile app, and collecting and reviewing submissions. Got sub-communities or multiple chapters? No problem with our Component Management solution.