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Associations are bucking the anti-membership trends of the past decade with 45% of leaders reporting increased retention, a big jump compared to last year’s 32%. And while 38% of those polled report that member engagement is up, and another 43% held rates steady.
That is some of the data in the 2026 Membership Performance report from association platform iMIS. More than 400 association and membership professionals participated in the 11th annual survey.
Organizational leaders are feeling confident about future growth and stability, especially those with easy access to data to track and improve performance across clearly defined metrics.
Member engagement, from onboarding through renewal, is still the key to maintaining a base. This is something these respondents know well, as more organizations are growing rather than shrinking, with increased retention and new member acquisitions.
The number of respondents who lost members (14%) is down from last year’s 24%. Of those polled who didn’t renew, 50% cited budget, lack of engagement with the organization and perceived value as the top 3 reasons. Getting those members back is a top priority. Email is being used by 70% of associations, and 46% are using member to member outreach. Slightly more than one-third (38%) are using board and executive outreach.
The top three revenue streams included sponsorships and advertising, events, and educational programs. Career centers and job boards brought in just 12% of revenue on average.
Leaders are adding to the organization’s tech stack. System integrations and inaccurate or incomplete data are top obstacles in 2026 with only 43% reporting that they can easily access and understand the data they need to monitor and improve performance. Investments are being made in membership management software, events and conference software and learning management systems.
At least some systems are in the cloud for 73% of respondents with 16% in the process of moving data there and 5% are not there yet. No information was available on the remaining 6%.
