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How do corporate memberships work?Corporate membership is an alternative membership type aimed at engaging leaders of corporate and other large organizations within your community. Corporate membership enables a Rotary club to expand its network in the community and foster new partnerships that can be leveraged to tackle big challenges. For a corporation, corporate membership gives the benefits of membership but allows them to send fellow employees on their behalf when they can’t make meetings or events, and is an opportunity to engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR) through Rotary.
Click "Read More" for examples of popular corporate membership models and other ideas.
Model 1: A primary corporate member pays dues, along with a selected number of alternate members (often 1-3) who don’t pay dues but can attend club meetings in place of the primary member. Many clubs ask for the alternates to be named and approved by the club before they can attend, but some don’t. As the primary corporate member must pay RI dues, he/she is reported as the active member. In this model, the alternate members aren’t normally charged RI dues, so they are not reported to RI but their membership details can be recorded locally by the club.
Model 2: The club charges a flat rate of dues for a certain number of corporate members (often 3-5) and all are able to regularly attend the club’s meetings. In this model, RI dues for all the corporate members are included in the flat rate. This model allows all the corporate members to be full, active members of the club and count in the club’s membership data.
But don’t let these models limit your club.
You have the freedom to structure corporate membership in a way that best serves your club and community, as long as you keep in mind that individuals, not the corporations that employ them, are its members.
Below are a few examples of how clubs have implemented corporate clubs in their communities:
- Check out what has worked and what hasn’t worked for the Rotary Club of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia when they implemented corporate membership
- Rotary Club of Welland (Ontario, Canada) not only asks details about the prospective member, but also asks questions to get to know their the company as well in their corporate membership application
- The Rotary Club of Demotte-Kankakee Valley (Indiana, USA) asked local businesses to sponsor employees as Rotarians, which led to 9 members (and counting) that have signed up under the corporate membership program
- Rotary Club of Harrogate Brigantes, England lists their corporate members on their club’s website to showcase their relationships with local businesses
- Prospective members can fill out a corporate membership application to the Rotary Club of Los Angeles (LA5, Los Angeles, USA) on their website, and view information on membership dues and charitable giving programs
- Through an established membership approval process, the Rotary Club of Madison West Towne-Middleton, WI allows a business or other organization to appoint up to three designees (one Primary Member and two Designee Members) to enjoy the benefits of membership
Membership Leads report
Membership leads submitted through rotary.org/join are first sent to the district leadership team. I hope your district has established a process for quickly and effectively managing leads and connecting these prospective members with the right club. I’ve attached the Membership Leads Progress Analysis report run from 1 July 2018 to 31 October for each district. In this easy-to-read report full of infographics, you’ll be able to view:
- How far leads have gotten since they were assigned to your district
- What percentage of leads haven’t been followed up on
- What percentage of leads are no longer interested in membership
- How many leads have been admitted to a club
Regional Blurb
Are you looking for quick and interesting videos to share with clubs in your district? ARC Lawrence Furbish from district 7780 has created a series of animated videos on important membership topics that include great ideas on how to engage members. The videos are no more than 2-3 minutes long, and have been a huge hit when played and shared at membership seminars. The topics are engaging, relevant, and also fun to watch. Try forwarding the videos to your club membership chairs each month, with a note of encouragement on their membership efforts. After the video is played, encourage club leaders to have an open discussion on their thoughts about each topic. Click on the links below to view, and don’t forget to them pass along to club leaders.
District Membership Progress to Goal
I’ve attached your September 2018 District Membership Progress to Goal report. We have district 6310 with 9% of members under 40, way to go! District 7790 has a membership net growth of over 2%, good job! Then we have district 7410 with close to 40% of female members, woo hoo!!! Great job to you all, looking forward to next month increases.
Kind Regards,
Diana
Diana Edwards
Regional Membership Officer I Membership Development
Tel +1.847.866.3496