Membership Leaders: This is the New Playbook for Young Professional Membership Growth
Get the clarity, insights, benchmarks, and organizational momentum you need to win with young professionals, all from one simple annual assessment.
Build a Membership Strategy That Works for the Next 10 Years — Not the Last 10.
Until now, associations lacked a clear, shared framework for assessing and improving young professional engagement. The YPMI fills that gap—providing a research-backed tool that helps you evaluate your performance, compare with peers, and learn from industry leaders.
Four Enabling Factors. One Clear Path to Growth.
The Young Professional Membership Index is built on four critical capabilities—what we call the Enabling Factors—that organizations need to engage and retain young professionals.
Grounded in extensive research, these factors support the delivery of the kinds of experiences young professionals actually want and provide a clear foundation for long-term membership growth.
Leadership Focus
When leadership commits to young professional growth, everything changes. Are your key leaders prioritizing this segment in ways that shape direction and action?
Culture of Value
Young professionals expect more than a roster of benefits—they’re looking for meaningful experiences. Is your organization equipped to design and deliver value that actually connects?
Strategic Alignment
Even great ideas can fail without alignment. Are your efforts to engage young professionals supported across teams, strategies, and priorities?
Experience Infrastructure
Big goals need real support. Do you have the structure and systems in place to deliver consistently strong experiences for young professionals?
See where you stand and what to do next
Start your annual YPMI assessment with a 10-minute organizational snapshot and get instant insight into:
- Where you're strong in engaging young professionals
- Where you may be stuck or underperforming
- Where to focus next time to improve retention and impact
Three Simple Steps to Actionable Insights
1. See Where You Stand
Start with your 10-minute Organizational Snapshot to uncover your biggest opportunities for improving young professional engagement and retention. You’ll get clarity, direction, and momentum for your strategy.
2. Align Your Leaders
Invite up to five other leaders from your organization to complete their own 10-minute Snapshots. Each leader receives tailored insights based on their role, helping you quickly drive critical org-wide attention to the needs of young professionals.
3. Benchmark Your Performance
Use the Young Professional Metrics Tracker to capture key metrics and compare your organization’s engagement and retention performance against peers and industry leaders. You’ll learn what’s working in the field and what to focus on next.
What You Get
Actionable Insights
Get rich guidance to engage and retain Young Professionals—your most critical segment.
Opportunity Benchmarking
Highlight your biggest areas for growth through clear, reliable comparisons.
Proven Practices
Learn what industry leaders are doing to succeed.
Organizational Alignment
Helps your whole team focus on what Young Professionals really need.
FAQs
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the Young Professional Membership Index.
Still have questions?
Email us
- Register using the button on this page.
- Check your inbox. You’ll receive a welcome email with your survey link.
- Complete the 10-minute Organizational Snapshot. That’s it for now—we’ll guide you through the next two quick steps after that.
By participating, you’ll gain:
- A tailored YPMI Individual Report with insights, peer comparisons, and a set of personalized, actionable recommendations for your organization
- The 2025 YPMI National Report, highlighting trends and benchmarks from associations across the field
- A clearer view of how your organization stacks up on the key capabilities that drive young professional engagement and retention
- Tools to help your team track progress, build a stronger business case, and align around a shared strategy
You don’t need to gather any data before starting the survey.
After you complete your Organizational Snapshot, we’ll send you the Young Professional Metrics Tracker—a simple tool for submitting a small set of data about your young professional members.
It’s easy to complete, comes with clear instructions, and helps unlock your full YPMI results—including benchmarking insights that show how your organization compares to peers across the field.
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.
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