2013: Membership Engagement Initiative

The Junior League of Pasadena won the 2013 JL Award for Membership Development for their Membership Engagement Initiative.

Program Goal

Faced with a troubling, five-year decline in new membership and disconcerting rates of retention over the same period, The Junior League of Pasadena developed a five-pronged membership engagement initiative to improve retention and recruitment.

Program Descriptions

The first phase of innovation centered on recruitment, which was modified to include three educational open houses with visits from Sustaining members and walking tours of the League’s headquarters.

Secondly, Provisional training was enhanced with bootcamp-style team-building exercise, a JLP 101 seminar, and a bus tour of Pasadena featuring stops at League projects but also spots in need of help.

Integrating Provisionals into the membership was the focus of phase three, which included both planned socials with Sustaining members and the support system of a buddy program. In the fourth phase, new members were tasked with managing every aspect the newly adopted Kids in the Kitchen program, from logistics to marketing. To cap off their integration experience new members were encouraged to attend any of several socials with a variety of themes designed to promote friendships and connections.

Evaluation

The League’s program produced some significant results:  retention rates that spiked from 16 percent in 2007-2008 to a high of 76 percent in 2011-2012 and recruitment of as many as 63 members in a new class.