Sequence Consulting

Sequence Consulting Sequence Consulting helps associations grow membership, engagement, and revenue through smarter strategy and sharper insight. Let’s talk!

Trusted by leading associations nationwide. Subscribe to our newsletter: 📩 insights.sequenceconsulting.com At Sequence Consulting, we help associations grow membership, engagement, and revenue with proven strategies. Since 2001, we’ve partnered with 12 of the top 20 associations, delivering exceptional results—tripling growth rates, 10X non-dues revenue, and doubling membership.

08/04/2026

Membership is holding, and events are full again.
For a lot of associations, this is the most confident they've felt since 2020.

Our co-founder Chris Vaughan has been asking leadership teams a sharper question about that confidence:

- Compared to what?

Measured against 2020, almost everything looks like a recovery. But 2020 was a false floor, and stability relative to a crisis isn't the same as progress relative to what an organization could become.

The associations pulling ahead are choosing a tougher benchmark. Instead of comparing today to their hardest year, they're comparing it to what they could be if they were built for the environment they're in now.

Which baseline is your board using right now?

07/23/2026

A room of nurses thinks differently from a room of advertisers. Their professions trained them differently for years before they ever joined a board.

A nurse can't afford a mistake. Because when they do, people can lose their lives.
Whereas an advertiser jumps from idea to idea all day.

When those professions become an association, the association inherits the mentality. Some associations default to caution, others to speed, others to rigor, and others to the hustle.

The character carries over. Sometimes, that personality serves the decisions in front of them. Sometimes, it boxes the org in.

What's the personality of your association, and is it still serving the decisions you have to make?

07/22/2026

AI for content and customer service is now standard across associations. That's useful work, and it's also the new baseline. The associations finding real value start somewhere else.

They look at the data and expertise only they have, and build AI capability around that asset.

The Institute of Food Technologists is a great example. As the only organization that cuts across every food science discipline in this country, they hold cross-disciplinary research no one else can replicate.

They turned it into a subscription AI service that helps members do research nothing else could support.

What is the asset only your association has?

07/20/2026

One question changes more strategic conversations than any other we facilitate at Sequence:

"What if we do nothing?"

We take the trends already in motion at your association, like membership, dues, retention, and program participation, and project them forward as if nothing meaningful changes.

Most leaders project a steady line forward.

The data usually reveals a slow leak.

That's the moment "doing nothing" reveals itself as a decision, where revenue shortfalls widen, retention compounds, and programs that look sustainable today show real stress in 2 or 3 years.

Suddenly, the question becomes "can we afford not to change?"

When was the last time your team modeled the cost of staying the same?

07/14/2026

AI is hitting the juniors first, doing the research and analysis that takes 3 to five 5 to grow into real judgment. When that work disappears, so does the path to middle management.

If AI replaces all your junior analysts today, where will tomorrow's executive director come from?

07/08/2026

A piece making the rounds this week: Sarah Hernholm published an interesting take in Forbes on the five human skills AI can't replace.

Her list runs from ethical judgment and empathy through creativity, critical thinking, and adaptive learning.

Sitting with the list as a firm that works inside the association world every day, what stands out is how often these are the same five capabilities that separate a thriving association from a stagnant one.

It makes the whole "AI will replace us" conversation fall flat.

If your team had to grade itself on those five skills today, which one would honestly be the lowest?

Link to the Forbes piece in the comments.

07/02/2026

A finding from the 2026 ASAE State of Associations report keeps coming up in our work.

Last year, 51.6% of associations created new programs. Only 19.1% retired any. The roster of programs keeps growing, and stopping one is rare.

That's how an association ends up with dozens of programs running at once and no clear sense of which ones are still worth running. New programs are easy to start. A member asks, it looks good on the agenda, it seems worth a try, and adding always feels safer than cutting. Stopping is the hard part, and it's usually the part that gets skipped.

If you had to retire one program this year, which one would put up the biggest fight?

07/01/2026

This stat from GrowthZone's 2026 association survey caught us off guard.
79% of associations have no formal program to win back members they've already lost.

We invest in finding new members. We invest in keeping current ones happy. The members who've already lapsed mostly just slip into the void.

Reactivation usually costs less than acquisition. Lapsed members already know you. They already decided you mattered enough to join in the first place. The reason they left lives in your data if someone goes looking.

That's a missed opportunity, and it's hiding in plain sight in nearly 4 out of 5 associations.

Does your association have a real win-back program in place, or is it simply a "we miss you" email when someone remembers to send it?

06/18/2026

The average association board is almost entirely made up of CEOs. While membership tends to be mid-career Directors/VPs.

That mismatch shapes everything: the decisions, the priorities, the programs that get built, and the ones that get cut.

We recently saw a board do something rare. They looked around the room, realized they did not reflect the membership, and actively recruited people who did. Mid-career members got seats they would never have had a few years ago.

Their decisions got sharper almost overnight.

The reason is simple. CEOs and mid-career professionals have very different problems. The mid-career member is still trying to become an executive. The CEO is already one.

Who is missing from your next board meeting?

06/11/2026

The clearest signal of where non-dues revenue is actually moving right now is what sponsors are doing with their checks.

Logo-on-a-banner and traffic-to-a-booth deals are getting priced down.

The bigger checks are going to associations willing to put their unique standing in the field on the table and co-invest in things that need the association's role to even exist.

-- Cobranded workforce research.
-- Joint credentialing initiatives.
-- Public awareness campaigns the field will trust because the association is standing behind them.
-- Digital platforms aimed at the shared audience.

Chris wrote about this shift in ASAE Associations Now (link below): the biggest non-dues dollars are flowing to what an association uniquely does for its field.

What would your next sponsor conversation look like if you started by mapping what you and the sponsor could build together for the field?

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