The TopClass Blog

The need for upskilling and reskilling is increasing the demand for professional development. But most associations find it difficult to meet this growing need because of their staff’s limited capacity. What hope do you have of developing enough new programs when you’re stretched so thin?

By partnering with other organizations, your association can more quickly develop and deliver the education and training needed by members, industry professionals, and employers.

How education partnerships solve association capacity and resource challenges

When your plate is overflowing, you could turn to volunteers for help. In the past, subject matter experts (SMEs) and other volunteers have generously given their time to help with program design and development.

But many members aren’t willing to dedicate as much time to association work. Somehow, life got busier. They’re guarding their time and weighing whether they get enough value from hours spent volunteering.  

AI tools are useful, but not a replacement for experienced, knowledgeable humans.

Your association doesn’t have to go it alone. By partnering with another organization, you can:

•    Share the work, risk, and expenses
•    Draw on a deeper pool of expertise
•    Expand your market reach
•    Deliver more products
•    Generate more revenue

The Many Types of Learning Content Partners

🏭 Industry suppliers

Many of the vendors in your industry already provide education to your members, such as webinars, one-day summits, user conferences, research reports, and white papers. These companies have experts on staff who, instead of competing with you, would rather design a new program with you or tweak an existing program to your standards.

Suppliers want to be seen as trusted experts, not just salespeople. Give them a chance to show their commitment to advancing the industry and supporting your association.

🏢 Related organizations

Identify associations, foundations, and workforce development organizations that have similar missions but whose membership doesn’t completely overlap with yours. For example, an association of community managers could partner with a snow removal association, or two non-competing medical specialties interested in the same topic could collaborate.

Chances of success are unlikely between competitors, unless you’re in different verticals, for example, a sales association and a finance association serving the same industry.

🎓Colleges and universities

Continuing education departments have become profit centers for colleges and universities, which is especially important with funding cuts and decreasing enrollments. Online learning and credentialing programs are easier for colleges to ramp up because they don’t count toward a degree and are not subject to accreditation requirements.

Universities are already partnering with large employers to design and deliver non-degree credentialing programs that help with workforce development. Why not work with you? Encourage chapters to help market these partnership programs for a share of the revenue.

💪 Training companies

Many training companies in your industry are approved providers of continuing education credits. What value could you bring each other as collaborators instead of competitors?

💼 Consultants

If your association’s industry is like ours, consultants already host competing webinars, podcasts, and conferences. For example, in the association community, Tagoras (aka Leading Learning) hosts a podcast and the annual Learning Business Summit.

👨‍💻Solopreneurs/edupreneurs

Your industry also likely includes entrepreneurial individuals who offer competing online education. Some started as solo efforts, but now have a team behind them. In our industry, the Association Academy, run by Chris Gloede, offers online membership and marketing courses throughout the year. CMEpalooza hosts two one-day online conferences each year.

Some competing education providers aren’t easily categorized. The Professionals for Association Revenue, a membership organization for association business development professionals, hosts a podcast, workshops, and annual conference. Sidecar is another—they offer AI training and credentialing programs for association professionals.

As instructors and facilitators, these business owners and their staff bring their reputations, audiences, and real-life experiences to programs you develop and deliver together.

Selecting an education partner for your association

Remember what you bring to the table:

• Relationships

• Industry reputation

• Data—but bear privacy restrictions in mind

• Marketing reach—thanks to data

• Sponsor relationships

Do a competitive analysis before entering discussions so you understand the value your prospective partner brings, such as brand reputation, audience, and marketing prowess. Don’t overestimate their willingness to partner. They might be just fine on their own, preferring not to dilute their brand.

Develop selection criteria ahead of time. In an ASAE Collaborate forum discussion, Josh Goldman of Tagoras mentioned three criteria “buckets.”

• Should we? Is it a strategic fit? Are goals and success metrics aligned? Are you operationally aligned? For example, one does SCORM, but the other doesn’t. The fit here rules further discussion in or out.

• Can we? Are you aligned on the level of effort required, implementation readiness, capacity, competency, sustainability beyond initial efforts, and resistance/receptivity?

• How do we? Are you aligned on your instructional design approach, credentialing governance, availability of SMEs, accessibility, timeline, pricing, e-commerce, and branding?

Learning content partnership models

🗃️ Content licensing partnership

This model is the speediest way to get access to content. It’s a good choice if you don’t have the expertise or capacity to develop content yourself. You purchase the rights to use and sell an organization’s existing content. The licensing agreement should cover customization rights, permitted modes of content use and delivery, rights of exclusivity, fees, and duration of the agreement.

🔄 SME exchanges

Instead of developing a new program, make a live instruction trade. One of their SMEs presents to your audience and one of yours presents to theirs. This model brings new programming to your association without money exchanging hands.

🙏 Co-created content partnership

Jointly develop and deliver content under both organization’s brands. This model helps you expand brand awareness and reach new audiences but works best if the partner has similar but not completely overlapping expertise and audience.

💻 Co-branded content

While leveraging the strengths of each partner, you create content under a new separate brand and work together to bring it market recognition. These last two agreements should define each partner’s contribution, branding guidelines, marketing strategies, and revenue sharing, such as a percentage split of registration fees.

When deciding on revenue splits, consider who’s investing money and time, and who’s responsible for:

• Needs assessment

• Instructional design and program development

• Continuing education accreditation

• Instructors

• Learning management system (LMS)

• Registration

• Marketing and sales—compare reach, and industry awareness and reputation

• Data analytics

Decide if and when either partner is reimbursed for fixed costs before the revenue split, for example, to cover instructional design and LMS costs.

Your association brings more to a partnership if your LMS is capable, like TopClass LMS, of offering an exclusive learning portal for your organization partner. Find out how else TopClass LMS can deliver value to learners and revenue to your association by watching our Quick Tour video.