Our Work - Associations

Who do your members look to for advice on professional matters? What's the perception among your members about the value of belonging to your organization? What value do your members derive from being a part of your association? What "member only" benefits do your members value most? What new programs and services should be provided by your association in order to maintain current members and attract new members? Are you missing-out on chances to attract new members to your association? What marketing messages will be the "hot buttons" that drive membership in your association in the future? What needs to be included in your association strategic plan for the next 5 to 10 years? How can you bolster your communications efforts with your members, lawmakers and policymakers about regulatory issues in your industry or profession?

These are just some of the questions that EPIC·MRA has helped associations answers. EPIC·MRA can help you determine member support for association activities, and then build a plan for changing programs or services to better meet the needs of members. We can also test public opinion about the issues important to your organization.

Survey Research - At EPIC·MRA, all phases of our survey research projects are managed by the firm's principals, who are experts in their field. We approach each survey project with a strong commitment to quality and confidentiality. From writing and refining the survey instrument to meet your needs, to designing the survey sample frame, administering the interviews, entering the data, conducting the analysis, and compiling the written reports and advancing recommendations, EPIC·MRA partners with you every step of the way.

Database Development Services - EPIC·MRA can create a customized database of your members to determine which legislative and congressional districts they reside in, and to support your association's communications, marketing, and grass-roots lobbying efforts. Working with you, we can add specific fields to the database that indentify particular groups, such as: association members, employees, absentee voters, frequent voters, lawmakers, policymakers, industry-related groups and other groups that share common interests or goals with your association.. By segmenting the database you gain more flexibility when it comes to communicating with current and potential members about the association programs, services and products that interest them the most, or, communicating with the public about your issue concerns and urging them to take some desired action, such as contacting their legislators.

Database "Products" - EPIC·MRA offers a broad range of database "products" to support association communications initiatives, as well as voter identification and get-out-the-vote (GOTV) efforts. These include telephone calling lists, mailing labels, neighborhood walking cards, GOTV calling lists, Election Day poll lists and automated (ROBO) calls.

Selected EPIC·MRA Association Projects

The challenges associated with managing a professional or trade association have become increasingly complex, as member interests shift to match the new paradigms in our society, government and economy. As a result, EPIC·MRA is working with a growing number of organizations to conduct surveys that measure both member and public perceptions, so that managers and board members have this research on hand when making decisions about the association's future direction.

Areas that have been probed in these surveys include: member satisfaction with the association, including its' policies, staff, communications, image, programs and services; changes that might improve the association's effectiveness and responsiveness to member needs; feedback about association member-only benefits and their importance to members; ideas for sustaining and growing association membership; member support for and involvement in the association's legislative and public policy initiatives; public perceptions about the association, its' members and their image; public support for association public policy initiatives; and the alignment of public opinion with association goals and/or positions on public policy issues.

In addition to conducting survey research, EPIC·MRA is partnering with associations to process membership files and sort them by congressional and state legislative districts; overlaying member contact information (home addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, etc.) with state and federal legislative maps in an effort to increase communications with members and involve them in the association's grass-roots lobbying efforts and in election campaigns where candidates are supportive of the association's public policy initiatives.