our services
Research that gets to the
Real answer
We work with associations facing hard questions about membership and revenue. We find answers by talking directly to the people who have them. No assumptions, no recycled insights, no over-reliance on ‘friendly’ members, and no data points that lack meaning.
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Quick Wins: First Year Member Sprint
You’ve done the hard part of reaching new members. Now, let’s keep them. Get a leg up on renewal season by understanding where current new members have found value and where it is still lacking
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The Strategic Foundation: Career Journey Mapping
Map the journey that your audience goes through from early career to career switching to succession planning. Highlighting opportunities, drop-off points, and emotional inflection points, a career journey map becomes the strategic foundation for associations.
frequently asked questions
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Yes, and it can be a useful starting point! Survey data can identify where problems may live, but qualitative tells us why, and therefore helps orgs design solutions that may stand a chance of working. We can use learnings from survey results to design sharper conversations.
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Fewer than most people expect. Qualitative research isn't about statistical sample sizes but about reaching the point where the same themes keep surfacing across conversations. In practice, that happens somewhere between eight and fifteen interviews, depending on how varied your membership is. We design each sample to be representative.
A well-recruited set of 12 will tell you more than a poorly recruited group of 50.
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Member listening sessions, like a town hall, a board check-in, or a casual call, tend to produce polite, surface-level responses. People say what feels safe.
An in-depth interview is designed specifically to get past that. We use open-ended questions, deliberate probing, and a neutral third-party dynamic that makes it easier for members to say what they actually think.
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We start with a kickoff conversation to understand your question, your context, and what you already know. From there we design the research — who to recruit, what to ask, and what format makes sense. We handle all recruiting and scheduling, conduct the interviews or focus groups, analyze the findings, and deliver a plain-language report with clear recommendations.
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You can and should from time to time! But you won't hear the same things. When members talk directly to their association, they self-censor. They're polite. They don't want to seem ungrateful or critical to someone who might recognize their name next year at the annual meeting. As an independent third party, we consistently hear things members would never say to the association directly.
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If you're not sure whether we're the right match, book a call. We'll tell you honestly whether we're the right fit. If we are not, we have trusted colleagues we can refer you to.
work with
Golden Torch Insights
If your association is facing hard questions about membership or revenue, let's talk.