2010: Rebuilding After Katrina Member Initiative

Program Goal

The Junior League of New Orleans goal was to develop a new strategy for membership recruitment and retention in a city undergoing dramatic demographic change.

Program Description

With its community devastated by Hurricane Katrina, the League needed a new strategy for recruiting and retaining members. Many members lost their homes and were forced to relocate. Also there was an influx of bright young people to the city creating a possible source of new members. To remain relevant to a population in the midst of radical change JLNO re-positioned itself as a player in the rebuilding of New Orleans and implemented new approaches to recruiting new members.

The League broke with tradition and opened recruitment to women who lacked relationships with Active members and allowed any Active member to sponsor up to two Provisional members. If a strong candidate lacked the required signatures, members of the Executive Board were permitted to serve as the second sponsor. The League also used their website as a recruitment venue. Any women interested in joining could easily access all the information on the website. The League re-vamped its logo to depict the rebuilding of the community. JLNO also invested in new community projects to respond to the city’s most urgent rebuilding needs. This created a higher public profile for the League and helped get the attention of potential members.

Results/Impact

The strategy resulted in the largest Provisional class ever, and significantly improved rates of retention. The record class of 150 Provisionals was a milestone and an indication of a successful approach of developing flexible policies. For the first time membership for women without prior connections to the League were welcomed. Every member was expected to help recruit prospective members and help every new member feel welcome. Reaching out to new members became a part of what you are expected to do.

Evaluation

The new sponsor pool is being tracked to measure how many new members are coming due to the new flexible sponsorship policy. This group is also checking in on the new members to ensure they are getting what they need to remain members.