Nysca & The Art Of Soliciting New Members And Growing Your Non-Profit Volunteer Base

The New York State Chess Association or “NYSCA” self-describes itself as a promotor of chess in New York for over 150 years, sponsoring America’s oldest and longest running chess tournament, the New York State Chamionship. As with similar not-for-profit volunteer organizations, the directors of NYSCA put in tireless hours for their own love of chess but also for the advancement of chess to the next generation, the New York State’s youth and student chess enthusiasts.

Membership associations like NYSCA — be they EMS/rescue, fire departments, vintage cars, Protestant churchs, bowling leagues, choral and music groups and even Kiwanis & Lions Clubs — continue to face the challenge of getting new members and keeping long-standing members. Membership is everything. Membership provides both human and financial resources, donors and donations, pairs-of-hands to get things done, and, group-support to meet whatever needs the organization faces. At Cornerstone, we hear the same thing year-after-year, namely “we need more members”. The math of this dilemma is not a surprise — few volunteers take on more of the work. But to get volunteers, and the “social capital” that comes with volunteers, you almost always need to start with getting members. From members come long-term volunteers, be they board members or helping breakdown folding tables; both duties represent the “social capital” necessary for nearly all 501(c)(3) organizations.

One can make the case the social capital is significantly more valuable than financial capital in building a cohesive community. Any member of an EMS/Volunteer Fire Department group would also tell you that if the long-term outcome is only based upon the wallet, and not the heart, then almost any group endeavor such as the building a new fire station will not have the long-term sustanance to ensure the survival of such organization.

Undoubtedly, from your side, you’re facing a similar calculus, i.e. “many hands make light work” but is typically the “usual suspects” doing all the work. So, if you’re a chess club like the NYSCA, for example, you might also be future-thinking about filling seats on the board and committee, and not just putting cash in the coffers. Here’s a simple means by which Cornerstone Services, is helping NYSCA get new members and perhaps that will be of some help to you, as well.

We start with giving away something free first. Here, we help NYSCA send out complimentary issues of their quarterly newsletter. A cover letter is included explaining simply that the issue is a courtesy, and, we hope that the recipient will subscribe (i.e. become a member). For some organizations, we also include a #6 3/4 remittance envelope (a.k.a. a courtesy reply envelope) to assist with the onboarding process. This is a “givers get” strategy where we use the Law of Reciprocity in strong hope that the charitableness of this mild gift will yield membership, and, future participation in the organization.

First, we need to know who are these new prospective members, and, where are they? To get new members for any organization, you of course need to acquire specific names and addresses. People don’t just knock on your door. Further, it must be said that we at Cornerstone cannot “buy” (note: no one in the US ever “buys data, you only “rent” data) names/addresses specifically for “Chess Enthusiasts”. There are many demographic lifestyle, enthusiast or hobby interests by which we can query for names/addresses, but “chess enthusiast” simply isn’t tracked the same way that “golf enthusiast” or “pet ownership” is. The problem is that it’s a niche area, and has a statistically much lower adoption level than other lifestyle interests. Also, there’s simply very little money it the tracking, whereas a household indice such as “yacht ownership” while niche is a much more profitable lifestyle vertical nationally, and therefore is tracked with greater attention.

Bottom line: to solicit new members for a chess club, we have to go to the “watering holes” (limited to the State of New York) where other chess players congregate. So, we start with getting names, so Cornerstone uses a variety of web presence locations. Here are some lets-get-names ideas that might give you some inspiration for your membership organization:

* Facebook Groups
* Past/lapsed members
* Chess Tournament results
* College/High School Chess Clubs
* Regional Chess groups
* Review of email inquiries
* National Chess websites
* Out-of-state (NYS) members of ajoining state-level chess associations

Unfortunately, there’s no silver bullet for associating addresses with the names in chess, although for other membership organizations (like vintage car clubs), it’s much easier to get addresses. For chess enthusiast names + addresses, however, Cornerstone uses a variety of public and private sources to get addresses and usually has about a 95% accuracy. We also have to go further and use caution in some cases such as the suppression of specific children’s names when found. The good news is that we don’t actually need a ton of names/addresses — we just need to reach 200ct in order to achieve the USPS bulk mail discount threshold for a not-for-profit mailing.

Once you get more members, subscribers, donors, etc., then you start inviting them to events. Lead with generosity. If you are running a volunteer organization, you actually don’t ever ask for volunteers… you ask for help. “Hey, I (we) could use your help this weekend parking cars for the chicken BBQ… could you spare 2 hours?” You approach people who have been on your mailing list (not email list, mailing list!) and who have been receiving something for free. Hopefully, you have gathered more information from them (emails, phones, better address) and you may deepen the relationship process because you have a “bridge” to them, a mild rapport, and license to connect. If you need similarly to boost your chess club or niche membership organization, just email us at info@crst.net or call us at (845) 255-5722.

[Of final note, and perhaps of further interest, these demographic trends was robustly detailed substantiated in a 2019 University of Maryland research paper presented titled “A Less Charitable Nation: The Decline of Volunteering and Giving in the United States” by Do Good Institute, School of Public Policy leaders Nathan Dietz and Robert T. Grimm, Jr. wherein the authors well describe the trends, challenges, pitfalls and benefits for how volunteering is a cornerstone for American societal health.]