RC Melbourne: Corporate Membership - What Has Worked & What Hasn’t

 

 

As the first club chartered in Australia, the Rotary Club of Melbourne, Victoria has a membership of around 250 people. They had two ‘champions’ who were keen to introduce corporate membership. Over several years, the club sought acceptance of this category in the upper layers of Rotary, and eventually were given the go-ahead to try it as part of a pilot project in 2011.

Motivators
They saw corporate membership as a way to uphold the club’s long tradition of attracting the most senior members of Melbourne’s business community, and tap into corporate networks to use their expertise to enhance their social programs. It was their belief that they could achieve significantly greater impact by getting entire corporations involved. The club is able to offer them access to a highly respected service organization, and opportunities for their staff to put in volunteer hours and engage in projects.

Five Years On...
RC Melbourne currently has 17 members from six organizations. RI, District and Rotary Down Under dues are paid for each corporate member as if they were ordinary members. The Club aims to have just one corporate partner per industry or field. Professional services, banking, and higher education are among some of the industries that are represented. (One member dropped out last year due to lack of senior level connection, and probably inadequate relationship management on the club's part.)

The Club's corporate members are engaged in one or more of its projects such as homelessness, domestic violence, and clean water. While they are enthusiastic contributors, the greatest challenge is getting and keeping their attention. They all have extensive time commitments. Attending regular lunch meetings is not easy for them, so the Club runs less frequent and more informal evening meetings to provide them an additional option to keep in touch. Also, RC Melbourne has a  corporate team which meets quarterly with all the corporate members to provide updates and identify potential areas of cooperation.

 

What Have We learned?
Perseverance and focus are required to ensure that the expectations of corporate members are met. This requires constant efforts to maintain close relationships with the corporation and the individuals. RC Melbourne found that it is better to get prospective corporate members excited in projects first, rather than just focusing on adding members.

Even with its challenges, the club has found corporate membership to be highly beneficial!