Future of Membership Project

What is the future of membership?

It's an important question for many voluntary and community organisations. This page pulls together some of our research and the latest thinking on membership and what's driving change for members and membership organisations.

About The Future of Membership Project

Between March 2009 - March 2010 NCVO Third Sector Foresight worked with the RSA and a coalition of leading membership organisations to undertake new research into what membership means and what motivates people to become members.

The Future of Membership project aimed to understand the different challenges, strengths, purposes and models of membership and to understand why people become and remain members.  The project also mapped the most important drivers for membership and membership organisations over the next decade, and developed scenarios and strategies for membership organisations in 2020.

The project was conducted through a combination of desk research, focus groups and consortium workshops. The full research findings have been shared amongst those organisations participating in the project. 

The project findings are more broadly accessible to other organisations and individuals.

Download the Furture Focus guide - What will the future of membership be like in 5 years' time?

The project grew out of the Membership Project, which sought to examine implications of developments in social media for membership organisations, and was also informed by the NESTA-funded RSA Networks project, which explored new ways of engaging with and working together with Fellows (members).

• Read the blog posts summarising implications of news stories, research and other developments relevant to membership. You can see read these in full on Katherine’s page on the Third Sector Foresight website.

Project Partners