A not-for-profit’s board of directors is often busy performing necessary operational duties, when executing tactics to meet strategic goals would be of greater benefit. Introducing an association manager takes your board of directors from operational to strategic and allows the organization to focus on their mission and executing on their strategies and meeting their goals.
In the context of a not-for-profit association, an association manager is a paid staff member who works closely with the board of directors to further the association’s mission. Your association manager serves as the face of your association and as a continuous point of contact for your volunteers, membership, stakeholders, and sponsors.
What are the critical roles you can expect your association manager to fill? Depending on the association, the list is exhaustive. Your association manager works with your board, supports your committees, knows your members, volunteers, and sponsors, and supports the operations of the organization. No matter the association, the below are just a few of the benefits you can expect when working with an association manager:
- A source of Institutional Memory for your association.
In the current climate, protecting institutional memory has become a critical goal of many for-profit organizations. In the not-for-profit world, it’s even more important as you see regular turn over around the board table as prescribed by your association’s by-laws. While board members serve a set term, your association manager remains constant year over year. This means we understand your association: where it’s been and where it’s going. We understand your history and culture, your membership dynamics and we can provide valuable historical context into the reasons behind certain decisions or procedures. This directly translates into saved time for your volunteers.
- A source of Best Practices knowledge.
When you work with an Association Management Company (AMC), your association manager works with multiple other associations. This means that we’ve seen it all, what works and what doesn’t, and we can help translate that knowledge to help your association meet its goals. Why recreate the wheel when we can help support your board’s working with our vast repository of guiding principles and industry best practices?
3. The support to allow your Board to move from operational, to Strategic.
Strategic: A Board of Directors that focus on the big picture and mission of the organization without bogging themselves down in the day-to-day.
Operational: A Board of Directors that operates as “boots on the ground” taking on the administrative responsibility of their projects.
Your association manager will provide support and guidance to relieve the day-to-day work on your volunteers, allowing you to do your association’s important work – furthering your mission.
As an association management company, Redstone supplies not for profit associations with staff members to handle all of the association’s administrative needs. This includes association managers, as well as specialized support staff as required.
Here are just a few of the resources your association can expect to leverage when working with an AMC:
- Centralized office, mailing address and phone lines for your membership to get in touch
- Reduced overhead – we work with a shared resources model increasing your association’s resources and capabilities
- Specialized staffing familiar with the not-for-profit world including sponsorship specialists, membership experts and conference/events professionals
- Access to our vast buying power and industry connections – we work with lots of associations!
Redstone can help your association achieve its goals, contact us today to gain the numerous benefits working with an AMC can bring!