Industry Associations can get Advantage From Companies

Associations have many goals to achieve as they need to secure funding, attract new members, provide values to the existing members, and serve their target markets. One of the best ways to achieve all of these goals is to leverage the resources and abilities of other organisations by establishing partnerships. Establishing corporate or sponsoring partnerships, community partnerships, and partnerships with non-competing organisations that serve a similar demographic or provide complimentary services allow associations to benefit from other’s resources while providing them with something of equal value. Here, we examine how associations can benefit from partnerships.

Assets and Capability

No matter how great your association’s resource network is, you cannot provide experts for everything. A Firm with like-minded or similar, non-competing organisations with complimentary skill sets and expertise allows you to provide more valuable content and resources to your members or target market than you would be able to provide alone.

Visibility

Associating with other organisations and businesses can exponentially expand your visibility. For example, if you are marketing a new program, you can send an alert to your members. However, if you’re partnered with an organisation roughly the same size as yours and they send their members information about your program, you’ve just doubled the number of people you reached. Establishing partnerships lets you take advantage of the work other people have done in searching their market and becoming a resource. This is particularly useful if you are trying to expand your membership or visibility into a new segment of the population, but aren’t sure how to go about it or are not having much success. Joining with an organisation or company that is already connected to that population gives you instant access and visibility that could take a long time to achieve on your own.

Protection Aid

Associations always need revenue to fund their products, services and operational costs. Partnering with a corporation or business can get associations funding in exchange for promoting the business and providing it visibility among the association members.

For a company to be successful, the input and output need to be roughly equivalent for both partners with their needs by giving and receiving what they regard as equal value. While evaluating potential partners, make sure that both parties understand the value of proposals which are involved, and create a written partnership agreement that details the terms and conditions of the partnership. Having an agreement allows you to enjoy the benefits of the partnership while protecting you from any potential negative effects.