When you lead an association or other nonprofit, you may have to depend on volunteers, maintain high overhead staffing and offices, or some combination of both. You may have heard that an Association Management Company, or AMC, can help with these problems. But what can an AMC actually do for you? Let’s review some of the common tasks AMC’s handle for nonprofit clients.
Office and Administration Services
Your AMC can save time for volunteers and overhead expenses by taking care of administrative tasks, providing:
A mailing address
Dedicated phone and fax lines, voicemail, and email addresses.
Answering or forwarding communications—Based on your instructions, they can answer the calls, mail, and email they receive, or simply forward them on to your staff.
Printed material (letterhead, envelopes, membership and certification brochures, etc.) kept on hand in the required quantities.
Registered agent services
Archiving historical materials or records
Maintaining shared Google Drives and other online workspaces and repositories.
Finally, an AMC can act as your physical headquarters and public office, maintaining open hours for the public.
Board Assistance
AMC employees can assist your board by providing reports, assisting the President/Chair in preparing meeting agendas, preparing reports and board packets, and distributing agendas and minutes. They can also attend board meetings to answer questions as they come up.
Record Keeping and Inventory Management
It can be difficult for organizations to maintain the space to store documents and necessary equipment. An AMC can maintain copies of basic documents like constitutions, bylaws and minutes, but can also ensure financial records, teaching materials, state and federal filings, or any other papers important to the organization are archived. An AMC can even store physical items that are used in regular workshops or conferences.
Financial Management
AMC personnel can manage the day-to-day financial operations of your organization: Payables, receivables and payroll, keeping accounts in QuickBooks or other accounting software, ensuring 501(c)3 compliance, etc. This can extend to assistance with annual financial compliance, such as preparing the budget, assisting accountants with annual audits, and making necessary filings.
AMC personnel can also monitor your association’s investments, and report to the Board regularly.
Marketing, PR and Internal Communications
A full-service AMC can act as your marketing agency, maintaining your website, helping your board or marketing subcommittee develop an effective marketing plan, creating marketing materials, overseeing social media campaigns, and more. It’s also common for an AMC to develop, write, design, and distribute the member newsletters for the associations they serve.
Member Services
If your organization is volunteer-led or has minimal staff, an AMC can handle all member services from onboarding/certifying new members to recognizing membership longevity with a pin or certificate. And of course, fielding member inquiries and requests is all part of the job.
Donor Services
If your organization uses donor funding, AMC staff can maintain donor relations for you. This can range from simple administrative tasks (thank you letters for incoming donations, etc.) to planning and executing fundraising campaigns.
Event Planning and Operations
Whether it’s a large annual conference, a dozen regional workshops, a donor banquet, or anything in between, a full-service AMC can provide turnkey planning and execution of your association’s events, from promotion and registration to setup and tear-down.
Strategic Planning and Board Governance
Planning for growth and providing excellent, ethical leadership is a must for every association. An AMC can lend their expertise to help you accomplish these top-level tasks.
On-Demand Expertise
Speaking of expertise, when you need a professional expert, such as an IT specialist or a lawyer well-versed in non-profit law, an AMC can either provide them, or connect you to them. This makes the process easy, saves time when it matters most, and lets you rest assured you have help that has your best interests at heart.
Maintaining Scholarship Programs
Providing educational funding is a great way to plant seeds for the next generation. Your AMC can streamline the process for you, handling promotion, applications, and disbursement of funds.
Could Your Association Benefit from Working with an AMC?
The bottom line is that an AMC can take on a scope as small as maintaining a PO box and as large as running every aspect of your organization at the direction of your board. You just need to choose the scope—and company—that best fits you and your mission.
At V2, we’ve provided full service and outsourced services for national associations for many years and can deliver the resources and expertise that help you thrive. Get in touch with us today, and let’s see how we can improve your association together.
