Challenge:

I work for a membership based, national non-profit 501-c3 support organization that was founded in  1973. We rely on the membership not only to keep our status with the IRS, but also to fund our  programs and support our staff that works daily to help our customers.  For $35.00 a year our members  receive a quarterly print magazine, discounts to events that we put on, access to  information/educational handouts, our support Branches that are throughout the US, and they also  know that this money goes to help us with our programs.  We have seen our numbers in membership  drop significantly over the last 4 years.   With times changing and people relying more and more on the  internet for information they are not willing to pay the yearly fee for membership any longer.  As an  organization we had to look at ways to keep our membership numbers up while still being able to fund  our programs.

Selection:

This is an old example from a few months ago before I learned that these technics had names, so I am  not sure which one I am describing, but I will walk you through what we did as a team.   I think we must  have used a few of the options.

Application:

We sat down as a team and talked about the membership supporting data.  We could see that each year  our numbers were being cut in half and that the following year was projected to be only 240 members.  We talked about the cost to print a full quarterly publication and mail it to our members; the cost of  membership did not pay for the cost to print and ship all of these publications out.  We also realized that  our social media numbers were doubling every year.  We knew we had to change something and fast.   The team started brainstorming; throwing ideas into our virtual notebook.  After going through all of the  options that the team came up with, we could see that we needed to change what being a ‘member’  meant going forward.   Upon further discussion we all agreed that we wanted to provide more value to  our consumers while offering our membership for free and we would offer a digital publication.  We  were pleased with the digital option because it comes for free with the adobe programs that we already  pay for.  We hoped that by making the membership free and items more readily accessible we could  build trust within our community and possibly gain donations from these members at a later date.    Could this work?  We tested this new approach on a few of our long time members, and it was a  success!  Our test proved that this change was a very necessary move to take our organization to the  next level.    With the new launch we would provide the following to our members:       Promo codes for a percentage off of purchases our online store

  Priority consideration for our kid’s camp scholarships

  First access to our brand new e-magazine that is published every 6 weeks

  Recipes, book reviews, lifestyle stories, cutting edge research, coupons

  Opportunities to receive free samples from companies we work with

  Coupons in our e-magazine from companies we work with

We also came up with a list of ways to earn the money that was lost when we made the free  membership model.

  Offering paid advertising in the e-magazine

  Gaining sponsors for our e-magazine

  Having virtual fundraisers

Because this happened midyear we had to also take into account that all of our paid members would  need to be refunded a prorated portion of their $35.00.  After the launch we were quite surprised at  how many of the members actually donated the money.  I am pleased to say that we went from 240  members to 15,000 memberships in about 6 months.

Insight & Approach:

Although I did not realize that these tools in this class existed, it seems that we took quite a few of the  options and put them to good use.  (not sure if my boss took this class prior) I think looking back now  we probably used Mind Mapping and Learning Launch the most.  We definitely will be going through  other things that need to be updated and use many of the Design Thinking options. In the end this  project helped us work better as a team.

After taking this class and seeing the many different options that we have for Design Thinking I know we  will take a more structured approach next time.  I think it would cut the time we took to come to all of  our conclusions in half


Challenge : I work for a membership based , national non - profit 501 - c3 support organization that was founded in 1973 . We rely on the membership not only to keep our status with the IRS , but also to fund our programs and support our staff that works daily to help our customers . For $ 35.00 a year our members receive a quarterly print magazine , discounts to events that we put on , access to information / educational handouts , our support Branches that are throughout the US , and they also know that this money goes to help us with our programs . We have seen our numbers in membership drop significantly over the last 4 years . With times changing and people relying more and more on the internet for information they are not willing to pay the yearly fee for membership any longer . As an organization we had to look at ways to keep our membership numbers up while still being able to fund our programs . Selection : This is an old example from a few months ago before I learned that these technics had names , so I am not sure which one I am describing , but I will walk you through what we did as a team . I think we must have used a few of the options . Application : We sat down as a team and talked about the membership supporting data . We could see that each year our numbers were being cut in half and that the following year was projected to be only 240 members . We talked about the cost to print a full quarterly publication and mail it to our members ; the cost of membership did not pay for the cost to print and ship all of these publications out . We also realized that our social media numbers were doubling every year . We knew we had to change something and fast . The team started brainstorming ; throwing ideas into our virtual notebook . After going through all of the options that the team came up with , we could see that we needed to change what being a ‘ member ’ meant going forward . Upon further discussion we all agreed that we wanted to provide more value to our consumers while offering our membership for free and we would offer a digital publication . We were pleased with the digital option because it comes for free with the adobe programs that we already pay for . We hoped that by making the membership free and items more readily accessible we could build trust within our community and possibly gain donations from these members at a later date . Could this work ? We tested this new approach on a few of our long time members , and it was a success ! Our test proved that this change was a very necessary move to take our organization to the next level . With the new launch we would provide the following to our members :  Promo codes for a percentage off of purchases our online store  Priority consideration for our kid ’s camp scholarships  First access to our brand new e - magazine that is published every 6 weeks  Recipes , book reviews , lifestyle stories , cutting edge research , coupons  Opportunities to receive free samples from companies we work with  Coupons in our e - magazine from companies we work with We also came up with a list of ways to earn the money that was lost when we made the free membership model .  Offering paid advertising in the e - magazine  Gaining sponsors for our e - magazine  Having virtual fundraisers Because this happened midyear we had to also take into account that all of our paid members would need to be refunded a prorated portion of their $ 35.00 . After the launch we were quite surprised at how many of the members actually donated the money . I am pleased to say that we went from 240 members to 15,000 memberships in about 6 months . Insight & Approach : Although I did not realize that these tools in this class existed , it seems that we took quite a few of the options and put them to good use . ( not sure if my boss took this class prior ) I think looking back now we probably used Mind Mapping and Learning Launch the most . We definitely will be going through other things that need to be updated and use many of the Design Thinking options . In the end this project helped us work better as a team . After taking this class and seeing the many different options that we have for Design Thinking I know we will take a more structured approach next time . I think it would cut the time we took to come to all of our conclusions in half