The Next Generation Will Decide Whether Your Association Remains Essential
The YPMI gives your membership team the benchmarks, board-ready insights, and, new for 2026, the AI readiness picture they need to win with your most at-risk, highest-potential member segment.
Years of research data
Participating assoc.
Members represented
These organizations set the field's standard for young professional membership in 2025:
Why Association CEOs Love the YPMI
Growth Focus
Reveal where your greatest opportunities are with your most at-risk, highest-potential member segment.
Bottom-Line Impact
Connect young professional engagement to retention, revenue, and long-term financial sustainability.
Board Insight
Equip your board with benchmarks on what future members expect, and, new for 2026, where the organization stands on AI.
Innovation Readiness
See whether your organization can adapt and lead through change, with the AI Horizon Profile showing exactly where to place the next bet.
AI Horizon Profile
AI Horizon Profile places your association on three horizons of AI maturity, benchmarked against the field.
"Participating in the YPMI for the last two years has allowed ASA to better understand both the value of our young member programs and to learn what other associations are doing to successfully engage with their young members. It's also a benchmark we can use to measure the value of our young member programs that we can share with member leadership and the C-suite."
American Society of Anesthesiologists
Why
Your Most At-Risk Segment is Your Greatest Growth Opportunity
Why focus here? Your youngest members decide first. Joining and staying are two different decisions now, and staying goes to the organization that actually knows where their careers are heading. Win that decision and you hold your highest-lifetime-value members for decades. Lose it and the erosion compounds every year.
The YPMI tells you where you stand. One no-cost annual assessment: where you're strong, where you're exposed, and what the field's best are doing differently. Evidence your board can act on.
A Board-Ready Answer on AI
Every board is asking what the organization is doing about AI. Most answers today are a list of activities.
Gives your team something better. Your organization's stage on three horizons of AI maturity, from internal efficiency to new member value to full transformation, benchmarked against the field. There is no single AI score and no pass or fail. The profile turns the AI conversation from activity into strategy: where you are, where the field is, and where to place your next bet.
Nobody is capturing this data for associations. This is the first year anyone will be able to say where the field actually stands on AI, and the associations that participate are the ones who see it first.
Three Steps. One Complete Picture.
Your Membership Leader Takes the Snapshot
Fifteen minutes to uncover the organization's biggest opportunities for improving young professional engagement and retention, with instant results.
Your Leaders Align
They invite three or more colleagues, including a representative from the executive team, to complete their own role-tailored snapshots. The full report shows where your leadership team agrees about the organization, and where it does not. Your own 15 minutes counts toward Tier One certification.
Your Performance Gets Benchmarked
A small set of key membership metrics builds the retention benchmark in your report: how your results actually stack up against peers and the field's leaders.
What your organization gains:
Your organization's maturity tier and benchmarks against the field, delivered in your individual report and ready for your next board conversation.
Tier One
Every participating association lands in one of four maturity tiers, and your organization's tier arrives in your individual report with a clear answer on where your team should focus next. At the top of the scale is Tier One: the organizations whose young professional capabilities set the standard for the field.
This year, that recognition becomes something your organization can visibly earn. Tier One Certified is the field's new standard: a Tier 1 result validated by at least four voices across the organization. Certified associations receive the badge, a place on the public Tier One list, and a seat at Tier One convenings throughout the year. It is recognition your members, your board, and the field can see.
Tier One Organizations in 2025
"The greatest value comes from sharing ideas, challenging assumptions, and bringing back practical strategies that help us create an even stronger member experience. Our goal is continuous improvement, and this network gives us an outstanding forum to do just that."
FAQs
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the Young Professional Membership Index.
Still have questions?
Email us
1. Register using the button on this page
2. Check your inbox for welcome email with your survey link
3. Complete the Organizational Snapshot.
That it for now; we guide you through the next two quick steps after that.
Your YPMI Individual Report, with your maturity tier, peer benchmarks, your AI Horizon Profile, and personalized recommendations. The 2026 YPMI National Report, with trends and benchmarks from across the field. Tools to align your team around a shared strategy. And, for qualifying organizations, Tier One Certified recognition.
You get your individual report, the 2026 National Report, and an invitation to the Tier One gatherings if your organization certifies. The YPMI is research we publish, not a lead-generation exercise.
There is no cost to participate in this high-value annual assessment.
At Highland we prioritize your privacy and are committed to protecting your organization’s data. We will not disclose your organization's unique data to others. Information presented in our National Index will always be aggregated or de-identified to protect your privacy.Click here for more details
Every participating organization lands in one of four maturity tiers reflecting how developed its young professional membership capabilities are. Your tier appears in your individual report along with what organizations at your tier typically do to reach the next one, so you know exactly where to focus. Public recognition is reserved for Tier One Certified organizations, with their participation.Click here for more details
A short set of questions, new in 2026, that places your organization on three horizons of AI maturity: Efficiency, New Member Value, and Transformation. Your report shows your stage on each horizon and how you compare with the field. It does not affect your YPMI scores or your tier.
You do not need to gather any data before starting the survey. After you complete your Organizational Snapshot, we send you the Young Professional Metrics Tracker, a simple tool for submitting a small set of counts about your young professional members. It comes with clear instructions and unlocks the retention benchmarking in your full results.
Public recognition for organizations that score Tier 1 with at least four participants across the organization. Certified organizations receive a badge, appear on the public Tier One list, and have a seat at Tier One gatherings throughout the year, with eligibility for the panel. Certification attaches to participation and results together, so the status is validated by multiple voices, not one respondent's view.
It Takes Thirty Seconds to Set in Motion
Most organizations we work with don't lack effort around young professional engagement. They lack a clear answer to "what's the most important thing to develop next?" The YPMI hands your team that answer, backed by the field's data instead of internal debate. The most valuable thing you can do takes about thirty seconds: send it to your membership leader with your backing.