Where non-dues revenue comes from
Dues pay for the core of what an association does. Almost everything else is funded by non-dues revenue: money that comes from activities other than membership fees. For most Canadian associations it comes from a familiar list.
- Events and conferences: registration, exhibitor fees and sponsorship.
- Education and certification: courses, exams and continuing professional development.
- Sponsorship and advertising: newsletters, websites, directories and awards.
- Publications and research: journals, salary surveys and industry reports.
- Member benefits programs: insurance, travel, software, phone plans and other offers arranged for members, where the association earns a share of what members buy.
The first four take staff time every year. A conference has to be planned, sold and run again next year. A member benefits program is different in kind: once it is running, it earns whenever members buy, without a new campaign each time. That is why boards ask about it, and why so many programs disappoint.
Why many benefits programs earn little
Most associations already have something called a benefits program. Many earn far less than expected, for three reasons that have little to do with the offers themselves.
Members can't find it
The program lives on a separate website with a separate login, or in a PDF linked from the member centre. If using a benefit takes more effort than buying the same thing elsewhere, members buy elsewhere, and the association never sees that spending.
The offers don't fit working life
A long list of retail discounts says little to an engineer, an accountant or a nurse. The offers that get used are the ones tied to members' working lives: phone plans, practice and productivity software, banking, professional insurance and travel for work.
Nobody can see what it earns
Revenue from a program arranged directly with a few sponsors often arrives as an annual cheque with no detail behind it. Without a statement that shows what members bought and what the association earned, staff can't tell what is working, and the board can't judge whether to keep it.
How a commission-based benefits program works
The model behind most modern benefits programs is simple, and it is worth being able to explain all of it to your board in a few sentences.
- A member signs in to your association's portal and picks an offer, such as member pricing on a phone plan.
- They buy from the vendor through a tracked link. Nothing about the purchase changes for them, apart from the member pricing.
- The vendor pays a commission on the confirmed sale. Sales stay pending through the vendor's return window, and refunded or cancelled sales are reversed.
- A share of that commission comes back to your association as non-dues revenue.
With MemberLoop, the program is free for your association: vendors pay the commission, and only when members buy. Your share is set in your agreement and paid monthly through Stripe to your association's bank account, with a statement for every month in your admin console. If a month comes to less than $50, it rolls into the next one.
Two things matter as much as the money. The portal runs inside your association's own brand and member login, so members see their association, not another company's website. And member data stays with your association: vendors see only the members who buy from them, as they would any customer, and nobody receives your member list.
See how MemberLoop works for the full picture.
Building the business case
A board will want a number. The honest way to give one is a simple model with stated assumptions, rather than a promise.
Annual non-dues revenue is the product of five inputs:
- Members: how many people can use the program.
- Engagement: the share of members who use at least one offer in a year.
- Spend: what each engaged member spends a year through the program.
- Commission: the average rate vendors pay, across categories.
- Your share: the part of each commission that comes back to your association.
A worked example
Take an association of 5,000 members and the starting assumptions in our calculator: 25% engagement, $150 a year spent by each engaged member, a 4.5% blended commission and a 40% share for the association. These are planning assumptions, not results, so replace them with your own.
| Step | Calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Engaged members | 5,000 × 25% | 1,250 |
| Annual spend through the program | 1,250 × $150 | $187,500 |
| Commission paid by vendors | $187,500 × 4.5% | $8,438 |
| Your association's share | $8,438 × 40% | $3,375 a year |
Engagement moves the result more than anything else, so show the board a range rather than a single figure:
| Engagement | Annual revenue | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| 10% | $1,350 | $113 |
| 25% | $3,375 | $281 |
| 50% | $6,750 | $563 |
Spend is the other lever. A member who moves a phone plan or a software subscription to member pricing spends through the program every month, which adds up to more than a one-time purchase.
Put in your own numbers with the non-dues revenue calculator.
Value that isn't revenue
The revenue is only part of the case. Members who use a benefit see what membership gives them between renewals, and a renewal notice that can point to what a member saved is easier to send. Track it alongside the revenue: how many members activated, how many used an offer, and what they saved.
Governance and compliance
A benefits program touches member data and member email, so the board will ask how it is governed. In Canada, three frameworks apply.
- PIPEDA, Canada's private-sector privacy law, governs how personal information is collected, used and shared in commercial activity, which includes a benefits program. Know who holds member data, what each party can see, and how it is protected.
- CASL, Canada's anti-spam law, governs commercial email. Messages about the program should come from your association under the consent members already gave you, not from vendors writing to your list.
- Quebec's Law 25 adds stricter consent, transparency and privacy-impact rules for personal information about people in Quebec. If you have members there, plan for it from the start.
Disclosure matters too. Members should be told plainly that their association earns a share when they buy through the program. MemberLoop shows that disclosure next to every offer.
Before the board votes
- The agreement: what it costs, how the share is calculated, how and when it is paid, and how it ends.
- Member data: who holds it, what vendors see, and where it is stored.
- Communication: who writes to members, and under whose consent.
- Reporting: what the board will see each year, and who owns it on staff.
Our plain-language overview of PIPEDA, CASL and Quebec Law 25 goes further, and the trust hub sets out how MemberLoop handles each. This guide is not legal advice: confirm your obligations with your own counsel.
Questions to ask a benefits partner
Whoever you work with, these questions separate a program that earns from one that sits unused.
- What does it cost the association, now and later? Are there setup fees, minimums or paid tiers?
- How is our share calculated, how often is it paid, and what does the statement show?
- Who holds member data? Does any vendor ever receive our member list?
- Does it run inside our brand and our member login, or do members go to someone else's site?
- How do members prove they belong: single sign-on with our system, a member number, or something else?
- Which offers fit our members' working lives, and can we add sponsors we already work with?
- Is everything available in French?
- Is there a contract term or lock-in, and what happens to our data if we stop?
MemberLoop's answers are on the pricing and for associations pages.