Purpose + Profit
The Mission-Driven Nature of Healthy Revenue
Summary
At our best, associations are the integrative backbone of diverse industries, communities, professions, and movements. We provide a platform for networking, learning, and advocacy and we create and disseminate value to help move the needle on important problems. Our chances of success improve vastly if we have twin superpowers: strong purposes and healthy balance sheets.
This is often, however, a critical challenge: how to remain true to our core purpose while ensuring diverse revenue and financial sustainability. Striking the balance lies in stable leadership, strong policy, exemplary shared governance, and an embedded and accepted culture of innovation.
Properly designed and managed, purpose and profit become entwined and require a specific, focused strategy built around a strong value proposition and ongoing value creation to create deep and ongoing connection. It’s why our members join and stay engaged.
The product community is a product development learning community designed specifically for associations.
Being Purpose-Driven
“Your passions should fit you exactly, but your purpose in life should exceed you. Work for something much larger than yourself.”
Kevin Kelly
Associations are purpose-driven organizations, but many of our purposes are mushy, broad, overly wordy, or hard to remember. Purpose should always be a high bar that challenges us to strive for ambitious goals and meaningful outcomes.
Purpose is usually reflected as a mission or stated reason for existence. It is our north star that guides decision-making and rallies members around a shared vision. Purpose is also a culture driver and, properly implemented, a beacon for value creation.
Here’s how to reinforce being purpose-driven:
Clear mission – Organizations embrace stakeholder-driven strategy to help define or refine their purpose. Example: An architecture association might define its purpose as "Advancing architectural excellence and sustainability to create better living spaces for all."
Values alignment – Organizations create and communicate core values, then integrate them into hiring, performance evaluations, and decision-making processes. Example: The architecture association might adopt values like innovation, sustainability, and inclusivity, reflecting these in their programming.
Stakeholder focus – Organizations identify and regularly seek input from key stakeholders. Example: An association can consult members, the public, corporate partners, and regulatory bodies as stakeholders.
Staff engagement – Organizations can offer opportunities for employees to develop or contribute to purpose-driven initiatives. Example: Staff could be encouraged to propose and lead projects that align with or further the association's mission.
Authentic communication – Organizations emphasize consistent messaging across all platforms to reinforce and celebrate purpose. Example: The association's publications and conferences could consistently highlight how programming or initiatives contribute to its mission.
For an association to implement these purpose-driven activities takes a committed strategy and an emotionally-invested community that buys into executing on a crisp vision. It also entails a shared understanding that we need skin-in-game often through volunteering, donations, member-dues or non-dues revenue.
Member engagement – Involve members in defining and refining purpose through surveys, focus groups, and annual meetings. See my article on continuous discovery.
Learning and development – Align offerings with purpose. For the architecture association, this might mean emphasizing courses on sustainable design or inclusive architecture. It also means creating learning pathways for sustained engagement.
Advocacy – Focus advocacy efforts on issues directly related purpose. This could involve lobbying for policies that promote sustainable building practices.
Partnerships – Collaborate with organizations that share similar values and can help further the association's purpose. This might include partnering with environmental groups or urban planning organizations.
Recognition programs – Develop awards or certification programs that recognize members who exemplify the association's purpose in their work.
Community outreach – Create programs that allow members to use their professional skills in service of the association's purpose. For example, organizing volunteer events where architects design spaces for non-profit organizations.
Research initiatives – Fund or conduct research that advances the association's purpose, such as studies on the long-term impact of sustainable architecture on community well-being.
By implementing these strategies, associations can become deeply purpose-driven, creating value for members while also contributing positively to society and solving important problems in its chosen area of focus. But, if being purpose-driven means orienting your choices, behaviors, and actions around a clear sense of meaning or a larger goal, how do we grow, diversify, and sustain revenue to achieve the purpose?
Achieving Balance
“I am keen on lofty purposes that aid the companies declaring them to prosper. That is how companies can make the world a better place — sustainably.”
Roger Martin
The most innovative associations are purpose-driven and revenue-centric. This may sound like a contradiction in terms, but it’s actually our dual superpower. The most purpose-driven associations invest.
They invest in innovation, ideas, community, and the future. They invest in people and have a crisp vision and easily recognizable mission. Purpose-driven associations create energy and challenge the status quo. In turn, they become beacons of connection engaged in shaping what’s coming.
But sometimes there's tension.
The path to aligning purpose with financial success can have its challenges, especially if revenue-generating activities are viewed at the expense of its core mission. To successfully navigate these challenges, associations can employ these strategies:
Clearly articulate a compelling purpose. The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) purpose is "to reduce the incidence of fraud and white-collar crime and to assist the membership in fraud detection and deterrence." This purpose can help attract and retain members who are passionate about the cause.
Double down on a compelling value proposition. A value proposition is a promise of value to the member community. Well-designed, it is crisp, easily recognizable, and drives decision-making and identity. When properly embedded, it becomes a rallying cry for connection. When you’ve nailed it, the right people will pay to engage.
Implement a usable business model. Business models often get confused with business plans (they are completely different); a business model is a way for an organization to create, deliver, and capture value, while also generating profit. Associations need to develop, clearly articulate, and reinforce their business models
Develop mission-aligned revenue streams – The American Chemical Society (ACS) generates significant revenue through its scientific publishing division, which directly supports its mission to advance the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of earth and its people. See my article Ten Product Ideas.
Measure and communicate impact – The Project Management Institute (PMI) regularly publishes reports on the state of project management, demonstrating the value of the profession and, by extension, the association itself.
Cultivate innovation – Associations can employ innovation to explore new ways to deliver value to members and generate revenue, ensuring the organization stays relevant and financially healthy.
Form strategic partnerships – Many associations partner with various organizations and companies to provide cutting-edge tools to its members, enhancing both its purpose while diversifying the bottom line.
An explicit example of successfully balancing purpose and profit is the American Heart Association (AHA). The AHA's purpose is clear: to be a relentless force for a world of longer, healthier lives. They've aligned this purpose with various revenue streams, including:
Research funding through grants and donations
CPR and first aid training programs
Cause marketing partnerships with corporations
Health publications and guidelines
Ultimately, we should think of a purpose as so compelling and ambitious that we want to think of it as a deep investment in our future. Designed properly, this can create strong value for joining and sustaining connection.
This graphic by Jeroen Kraaijenbrink via Afdhel Aziz and Bobby Jones’ book Good is the New Cool: The Principles of Purpose clearly lays out the return on investment (ROI) for purpose and the seven reasons why purpose pays.
We need to measure beyond financials by developing key performance indicators (KPIs) that reflect progress toward the purpose. Achieving purpose reflects strong and stable leadership. This means reinforcing the message and how being financially healthy only strengthens purpose.
By diversifying revenue while staying true to their mission, the AHA has become one of the most influential health organizations in the United States. To implement these strategies, associations should consider the following practices:
Regularly review and refine the organizational purpose to ensure it remains sharp, relevant, and compelling.
Maintain transparent communication about financial decisions and their alignment with the association's purpose.
Invest in member value and engagement to build a loyal and active community.
Embrace continuous learning and improvement, adapting to changes in the industry and evolving member needs.
Associations can indeed thrive as purpose-driven organizations while achieving financial success. The key lies in viewing purpose and profit not as competing forces, but as complementary elements of a successful association. By aligning revenue-generating activities with core mission, associations can create a virtuous cycle where financial health enables greater impact, and greater impact drives financial success.
The Culture of an Innovative Organization
“Culture is not like a mission statement; you can’t just set it up and have it last forever.”
Ben Horowitz
We don’t exist to create money, but we need money to fulfill our missions. This money takes the form of investing in strategy, business models, and value creation. Stated more clearly, bridging purpose and profit is, ultimately, an intentional investment in people.
I believe in the future of associations because I believe people will always want to be connected to shared concerns, purpose, or problems. People will always want to engage in a focused way. People will always want to learn, but they also want to solve problems or move the needle in a profession or industry. This helps us frame purpose explicitly as a promise to our stakeholders. The promise entails striking a healthy, open, and focused expectation that will balance our purpose with stable and sustainable finances.
I also believe the best associations need to be strategically-focused organizations that celebrate engagement, but also make shrewd choices about their identity, investments, and outcomes. Good associations deliver value, celebrate community, and foster connection. World-class associations do this, but make lasting-impact through value creation and product development.
Developing and implementing adaptive strategies push us to align current activities to an ambitious high-impact outcome. Achieving this outcome takes enormous dedication, alignment, and Regular strategic reviews that consider how well current activities serve the purpose, and willingness to change course if needed.
About the Author
James Young is founder and chief learning officer of the product community®. Jim is an engaging trainer and leading thinker in the worlds of associations, learning communities, and product development. Prior to starting the product community®, Jim served as Chief Learning Officer at both the American College of Chest Physicians and the Society of College and University Planning. Please contact me for a conversation: james@productcommunity.us