Publications & Thought Leadership

“An Association’s Social Purpose: A Benchmarking Tool” is a resource for industry, business, and professional associations seeking to equip themselves and their membership for future success. “An Association’s Social Purpose: A Benchmarking Tool” sets out a continuum of practice for association leaders to use in strategic planning updates and renewals.

“An Association’s Social Purpose: A Benchmarking Tool” sets out the idea that to help their sector or profession thrive, associations are adopting purposes to better support their members to serve broader society and the greater public good. This tool lays out the opportunity for all associations to become social purpose and sets out a roadmap for all associations to enhance their social and environmental programs. This will help sectors, professions and members become future-fit and ensure long-term well-being for all within nature’s limits.

“An Association’s Social Purpose: A Benchmarking Tool” introduces a tool for associations to assess their readiness and interest in accelerating their social and environmental practices and consider becoming a social purpose association. The tool is called “The Social Purpose Association Continuum”. Organizations can use it to decide where they want to be, how much more they want to do, and whether it is in their mandate to advance along the levels set out in the Continuum.

It captures a range of practices: from basic and opportunistic, to strategic and targeted, then visionary and collaborative, and finally, to the social purpose and transformational stage. Each range represents a level – one through four – enabling organizations to better envision how far they would like to advance in their approach to becoming – or fulfilling their role as – a social purpose association.

“An Association’s Social Purpose: A Benchmarking Tool” sets out a roadmap for the next stages of association development.