Every association and nonprofit organization has important work to carry out on a weekly or daily basis, which means you need paid staff or volunteers to carry out those tasks. But this often leads to a small number of people acting as “jacks of all trades,” wearing multiple hats, and tasked with shifting responsibilities. That’s a recipe for burnout, and for overly complex organizational structure.
Relying on an association management company, or AMC, can help you streamline your organization—and reduce overhead costs—while still being able to rely on these experienced staff and volunteers. Let’s review three main benefits:
An AMC Can Help You Reduce Unnecessary Staffing
From preparing packets and minutes for a board of directors and subcommittees to just answering the phones, dozens of important tasks can fall on the shoulders of volunteers and/or paid staff. When you work with an AMC, these tasks can be handed off to the AMC’s staff, who are often specialist experts on areas such as board governance.
This reduces the chance of volunteer burnout, because fewer hours are required and more of the time they give is directly mission-oriented.
Using an AMC Allows Volunteers and Staff to Focus on Their Passions and Best Skillsets
Passion is a precious resource for associations, but day-to-day operations often require work that’s tangential to or completely disconnected from the cause and work that drew the volunteer or employee to the organization.
When you work with an AMC, the volunteer who is passionate about teaching art to children will teach art to children, not spend time writing minutes or answering emails. The retired engineer who is excellent at raising money for scholarships will do that, not be burned out preparing fundraising mailers, maintaining the website, or preparing financial reports for the board. In these cases, the staff of the AMC will be the ones handling these administrative tasks while the teacher and engineer apply their passion and skill.
Using an AMC ensures that the task you hand off will be handled by experts with a passion for their work, and the tasks you keep in-house will be, too!
Reduce Costs with Shared Resources
Overhead costs for storage, phone and IT infrastructure, and office space can add up, especially for volunteer-led organizations. AMC’s offer physical resources that can be shared and are able to cover everything from giving you a dedicated phone number to maintaining office hours for you at their location. These facility and equipment costs can be shared among the AMC’s client organizations, reducing the cost for each. This can apply to storage of equipment archives of physical records, too.
Customization is Part of the Process
As we’ve gone along, we’ve discussed some tasks staying in-house. With an AMC, an association can…
Contract out nearly every task, leaving the board to focus solely on strategy and finances while an AMC staff carries out all operations at their direction
Choose a wide range of administrative tasks for the AMC to handle, while operational “mission” tasks are conducted by volunteers
Assign a discrete group of tasks such as customer/donor communications or organizing an annual event to the AMC, while keeping all others
…or anything in between!
Could Your Association Benefit from Working with an AMC?
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.