Capstone - LAWAC Final Report

LOOKING TO
THE FUTURE
Growing the LAWAC Young Professionals Program
Ashley Bonanno
Cristina Gomez
Xiaoqi Jin
University of Southern California
Sol Price School of Public Policy
November 2016

TABLE OF
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION..........................................................1
EVALUATION DESIGN & DATA COLLECTION ...............4
Evaluation Design........................................................................4
Data Collection............................................................................7
Sampling....................................................................................9
FINDINGS ................................................................10
Organizational Interviews ...........................................................10
Rotary International...................................................................11
Lions Clubs...............................................................................14
Kiwanis International .................................................................15
US Fund for UNICEF NextGen......................................................18
YP Board Focus Group................................................................21
Expert Interview........................................................................24
CASE STUDY .............................................................27
Chicago Council on Global Affairs.................................................27
LITERATURE REVIEW ...............................................31

KEY FINDINGS .........................................................34
RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................37
Year 1......................................................................................39
Year 3......................................................................................48
Year 5......................................................................................55
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...............................................58
APPENDIX ................................................................59
A:Interview Questions for Organizations ......................................60
B:Focus Group Questions ...........................................................61
C:Interview Questions for the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.......62
D:Interim Report Memo .............................................................63
E:Interim Report Infographic ......................................................65
F:Sample Board Performance & Asset Assessment .........................66
REFERENCES ............................................................68

INTRODUCTION
Millennial engagement has been the popular topic of the last few
years. From getting millennials to vote to understanding millennial
purchasing behavior, it seems the entire country is grappling with a
millennial related issue. The Pew Research Center describes this
generation, of equal size to the Boomer generation, as more ethnically
and racially diverse, less religious with fewer enlisting in the military,
and “on track to become the most educated generation in American
history (Millennials: Confident. Connected. Open To Change).”
Millennials wielded their election power to vote Barack Obama into
office. Not only did they choose Obama by more than 15 percentage
points more than other voting adults, the “turnout gap” for this
demographic was the “smallest it had been since 18- to 20-year-olds
were given the right to vote in 1972 (Millennials: Confident.
Connected. Open To Change).” Millennial clout is significant and with
every passing day the opportunities for these young professionals
grow.
Organizations have been asking themselves how to tap into this
market. Getting young professionals to invest their time and money is
the crux of the issue presented to the Los Angeles World Affairs
Council (LAWAC). With an existing Young Professionals (YP) program

2
of about 200 members, the LAWAC has ample opportunity to grow
membership and engage young professionals in a meaningful way. The
central question becomes how can the LAWAC grow its young
professional membership and better convert non-member event
attendees to members?
Fortunately, LAWAC is not the only organization asking itself this
question. Service organizations like Kiwanis International, Lions Club
International, and Rotary International are faced with an aging and
therefore declining membership. While dissimilar in the majority age
demographic, the investment that each of these organizations has
made in growing their young professional membership is a good
primer for those looking to do the same. We also look to young
professional organizations, the US Fund for UNICEF NextGen and the
Chicago Global Council on Global Affairs Young Professionals program,
to learn how they have been successful in membership growth and
how their practices and lessons learned can be applied to the LAWAC.
In this report, we share the findings and recommendations of our
research. The plan set forth is organized in three frames - the
Organization, the YP Board, and Events and Engagement
opportunities. We developed this strategy with the stakeholders and
stakeholder interests noted in Table 1 and sincerely believe that with
purposeful implementation and accountability to goals and
expectations that LAWAC can be on track to grow YP membership
nearly five times the size of the current base.

3
Table 1: LAWAC Stakeholders
STAKEHOLDER PRIMARY INTERESTS
LAWAC
PRESIDENT
• Strong LAWAC
• Interesting and meaningful programming
• Funding
• Growth opportunities
LAWAC
Staff Members
• Strong LAWAC
• Resources to exceed professional expectations
LAWAC YP
Board Members
• Strong LAWAC
• Strong YP program
• Opportunities to build and leverage network and
skills
• Stand out as a leader among the premier global
affairs organization in LA
• Opportunity to meet, interact, and learn from
world leaders
• High ROI, low fees
LAWAC YP
Members
• Strong LAWAC
• Strong YP Program
• Opportunities to build and leverage their network
and skills
• Opportunities to become leaders on the YP Board
• Opportunities to be associated with the premier
global affairs organization in LA
• Opportunity to meet, interact, and learn from
world leaders
• High ROI, low fees

4
EVALUATION
DESIGN & DATA
COLLECTION
EVALUATION DESIGN
We proposed a comprehensive impact evaluation that was designed to
determine how the YP program can establish better practices to grow
and sustain their membership base. The evaluation design was
developed using a mixed methods approach to capture qualitative and
quantitative data.
Our research questions center around understanding LAWAC’s current
practices for recruiting young professionals and the membership
experience, discerning what like-organizations are doing to address
similar challenges, and designing a recommendation that is realistic
given LAWAC’s resources and limitations. To precisely evaluate the YP
program, we will focus on the following evaluation question and sub-
questions.

5
Our evaluation design reflects a qualitative and quantitative approach
with use of a focus group, surveys, literature review, and a
comparative case study. The evaluation is suited to inform LAWAC on
how to grow and sustain their young professional membership base.
The main evaluation question was designed to determine the best
practices for the LAWAC to grow their YP membership base, and
capitalize on people they keep in contact with but are unable to
convert to members. To adequately address the main evaluation
question, a set of sub-questions were added to create a more robust
evaluation.
Sub-question A was designed to determine what the LAWAC YP’s
current practices are and to determine their effectiveness. Currently,
the YP membership is estimated to be between 200-250. Given the
How can the LAWAC YP recruit new members and better
convert non-members who attend YP events?
a. How does LAWAC currently recruit, retain, and
convert young people to their young professionals
program?
b. What are other organizations doing to bolster their
young member base?
c. What resources does LAWAC have to implement a
recommendation in terms of staff and budget?

6
young professional population of Los Angeles, it was crucial to the
organization to determine if current practices are “best practices” to
engage millennials. This data was collected through a focus group with
the LAWAC YP Board members to help determine what tactics are
employed to increase membership and to market the organization.
Additionally, data from a survey administered by LAWAC in May 2016
was used to also determine whether the organization’s current
practices are effective or not.
Sub-question B was designed to determine what other organizations
are doing to better engage millennials. The information collected will
serve as a comparison point to the LAWAC YP’s current practices and
to determine what the best practices are for increasing membership.
The data was collected through interviews with organizations
addressing a similar issue such as: Rotary International, Lions Clubs,
Kiwanis International, and US Fund for UNICEF.
In addition to interviews with organizations, a case study on the
Chicago Council on Global Affairs was conducted. The Chicago Council
was chosen for a case study because of their highly successful young
professionals program that boasts more than 2,000 members. The
case study is comprised of information gathered from the
organization’s website and an interview with Jennifer Litvak, Assistant
Director.
Lastly an interview with Ozzie Morrow, a Social Media and Lifestyle
Administrator at Scion Motors, was conducted to better understand the
practices used to develop a brand and engage millennials.

7
Sub-question C was developed to determine how to make
recommendations to LAWAC YP that are feasible for the organization
to implement. It was crucial to determine what financial and human
resources the LAWAC committed to the YP program to develop the
best recommendations. The data collected also helps to determine
whether the LAWAC is adequately allocating resources to the YP
program or not and whether a recommendation should be made to
increase resources to grow membership similar to the size of the
Chicago Council on Global Affairs. An interview was conducted with
Sarah Tran, LAWAC Director of Membership, to collect data to address
the question.
DATA COLLECTION
To answer our main evaluation question, we designed a subset of
questions to determine what the current practices of the LAWAC YP
group are and if they are effective. The data collected is a result of
answering the sub questions and recommendations made will answer
the main evaluation question. To address the evaluation questions,
existing and new data was collected. The evaluation design matrix
(Table 2) outlines what type of data as collected and the methodology
for how it was obtained.

8
Table 2: Design Matrix for LAWAC Young Professionals
Research
Question
Information
Sources
Scope and Methodology Limitations What will LAWAC
likely say?
1a: How does
LAWAC currently
recruit, retain,
and convert
young people to
their young
professionals
program?
● Interview with
Sarah Tran,
Director of
Membership
● Focus Group
with LAWAC YP
Board members
● Survey results
from LAWAC
administered
survey
● Main strategy will be
collecting data on existing
practices.
● We will analyze information
collected focus group of 20
YP board members.
● We will analyze the data
collected from an interview
with Sarah Tran and a survey
administered by LAWAC in
May 2016.
● We cannot
differentiate survey
responses from
general members
and YP members.
● Some YP board
members have been
members for less
than 3 months
making it difficult to
have 100%
participation.
● By interviews or
surveys, it may be
hard to get the
honest opinions.
● LAWAC will be
able to use this
data to determine
if their established
goals are being
met.
1b: What are
other
organizations
doing to bolster
their young
member base?
● Interviews
with like
organizations
working to
bolster young
member base
● Case study of
Chicago
Council on
Global Affairs
● Interview with
Ozzie Morrow,
Social Media &
Lifestyle
Administrator
at Toyota
Motors
● Main strategy is to collect
data on what similar
organizations are doing to
increase membership, and
what are best practices.
● We will analyze information
from interviews with like
organizations working to
bolster young member base.
● Case study of Chicago
Council Young Professionals
group and analyze data
collected from interview with
Jennifer Litvak, Assistant
Director of Next Generation.
● Analyze information from
interview with Ozzie Morrow
to determine best practices
for social media use.
● The like
organizations
interviewed are
professional service
organizations, and
not geared
specifically towards
world affairs.
Therefore some
activities are more
service oriented
than that of the
LAWAC.
● All of the
organizations
interviewed have a
sizable budget
dedicated to growing
a younger
membership.
● LAWAC will be
able to use data
collected to
improve on
current practices,
and develop an
effective approach
to increasing and
retaining
membership.
1c: What
resources does
LAWAC have to
implement
recommendation
s in terms of
staff and budget?
● Interview with
Sarah Tran,
LAWAC
Director of
Membership
● Main strategy is to collect
data on what
recommendations would be
feasible for the LAWAC to
implement with limited
resources.
● Analyze information from
interview with Sarah to
determine the staff and
budget that would be
dedicated to growing the
young member base.
● The organization is
heavily reliant on
the Director of
Membership to
increase young
professional
membership with
limited financial
resources.
● LAWAC will likely
say that given the
current structure,
there is no way to
increase the
budget for the YP
in the near future.
● LAWAC can use
the information to
develop a 10 year
plan to increase
the budget and
staffing.

9
SAMPLING
Table 3 is a summary of sampling methods used for primary data
collection. It outlines the techniques used to collect the data and what
type of analysis was used to evaluate the data.
Table 3: Sampling Methods for Data Collection
Method Sample(s) Technique(s) Data Type Method of
Analysis
Q1a: Interview N=1 Director of
Membership of the
LAWAC
1) Targeted Outreach Qualitative Content Analysis
Q1a: Focus
Group
N=12 members of
the LAWAC YP Board
1) Targeted outreach
2) Purposive Sampling
Qualitative Content Analysis
Based on
Themes
Q1a: Member
Survey
N=343 subscribers to
the LAWAC email list
1) Random Sampling
2) Administer Surveys
via Email
Quantitative Descriptive
Statistics
Q1b: Interview N=5 membership
directors of like
organizations such
as: Rotary, Lions,
Kiwanis, US Fund for
UNICEF, Social Media
administrator for
Toyota
1) Targeted outreach
2) Purposive Sampling
Q1b: Case
Study
N=1 Chicago Council
on Global Affairs
1) Interview with
Assistant Director of Next
Generation
2)Content Media Analysis
3) Analyze best practices
set by the Chicago
Council
Q1c: Interview N=1 Director of
Membership of the
LAWAC
1) Targeted Outreach Qualitative Content Analysis

10
FINDINGS
ORGANIZATIONAL INTERVIEWS
As noted in the previous section, interviews were conducted with
organizations who are not necessarily similar in mission, but tackling
similar issues. We spoke with membership growth representatives for
the three largest service organizations - Rotary International, Kiwanis
International, and Lions Clubs International - in the country. We also
spoke to the founder and Director of the US Fund for UNICEF’s
initiative to engage millennials, NextGen.

11
ROTARY INTERNATIONAL
Rotary describes itself as an organization whose mission is to “promote
integrity, and advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace
through its fellowship of business, professional, and community
leaders (Appendix 3 - The Mission Statements And Mottos Of Rotary
International And The Rotary Foundation).” With clubs all across the
world, Rotary is perhaps best known to be a service and networking
club with a global cause of ending polio. With 70 percent of their global
membership older than 50 and a majority white and male, Rotary is
strategizing on how to recruit and grow their young professionals
demographic. Their current vehicle for engaging young professionals,
Rotaract, required members to leave the organization or become a
Rotarian after aging out at 30 years old. Hearing the voices of
disappointed Rotaract alumni, Rotary’s Council on Legislation voted to
allow “Rotaractors” to keep their Rotaract membership when joining a
Rotary club. Beyond this legislation change, the organization is looking
to make existing programs more interesting to a younger
demographic.
With seven-figure funding and four staff members,
Rotary has conducted focus groups with non-
Rotarians, marketing campaigns, and Young
Professionals Summits with the sole focus of finding
ideas that work. In their focus groups they heard
quotes like, “Rotary is expensive. Why would I pay
to go to a meeting when I can go to bar with my
friends for free?” and “Rotary doesn’t fit into my current life.” Seeking
to understand this perspective, Rotary formed the Young Professionals
Summit and invited their young professional members to continue
exploring how Rotary might integrate itself into the millennial lifestyle.
Rotary International
YP Investment
7-figure funding
4 staff members

12
The first Young Professionals Summit was conducted in Chicago and
later replicated across the country. Each summit invited the leaders of
area young professional clubs to discuss different strategies and ideas
for engaging young professionals. Not only did this method allow
Rotary to develop a better young professional model, it shows an
investment in their current young professionals that primes them for
future Rotary volunteer leadership, a critical component of the
organization.
From the Summit, it was decided that Rotary would open a grant
opportunity to clubs. Grant winning clubs could get up to $15,000 to
organize an event that engaged non-Rotarians to show visitors what it
meant to be a Rotarian and possibly dispel any myths about the club
experience. Nineteen (19) clubs were granted funds and at the end of
this Young Professionals campaign it is hoped that each club can
contribute best practices and lessons learned to an international toolkit
on how to grow the younger membership.
Some early lessons learned from Rotary’s experience have taught
them that their clubs need to evolve to meet young professionals
where they are. The traditional model of weekly meetings and meeting
for meals is not appealing to a sect still early in their careers with little
disposable income, raising young families, and always on the go with
device in hand. In the case of one club, they changed their
membership requirements to be more accommodating of young
professionals. Instead of requiring weekly breakfast meetings, this
club is now implementing a 3:1 model. This model calls for three
regular weekly meetings at the usual meeting space, changes the
fourth meeting to a service project, and makes any fifth event, during
months with five weeks, a Happy Hour at a restaurant or bar where
members do not need to buy a meal if they do not want to. This allows

13
Rotary clubs to still conduct their regular club business, but provide
more flexibility for time-strapped young professionals.
Rotarians learned they need to be more purposeful in their
engagement of young professionals and that they rigidity and
structure of weekly meetings did not appeal to young people. Instead,
they looked to increase the opportunities for “meaningful
engagement.” Their hope is that service projects help provide the
meaningful engagement young professionals think is worth their time
while also providing a space for members to be social and have fun.
Young professionals are looking for networking opportunities,
experiences with like-minded people, and that successful clubs are
those that get their young professionals invested early whether
through leadership positions, interesting events, or service projects.
With all they hope to learn from their five-year Young Professionals
campaign, they now know their biggest challenge is keeping up with a
changing world and finding the organizational flexibility to do it.
A very interesting distinction that Rotary learned was determining if
the lack of young professionals was a “dues problem” or a “value
problem.” In other words, was it the cost of membership that inhibited
growth and involvement or was it the kind of experience members had
once they joined the clubs that drove them away or enticed further
participation. Through these efforts, they hope to answer this
question.

14
LIONS CLUBS
Lions Club International’s is best known as a service organization
whose philanthropic focus is serving the blind and visually impaired.
Their mission is to “empower volunteers to serve their communities,
meet humanitarian needs, encourage peace and promote international
understanding… ("Mission And History").” Lions’ membership, like
Rotary, is majority male and over 55 years old and, like Rotary, they
too are looking to improve the ways they engage young people. While
Lions Clubs do not have donors funding a growth campaign, they have
activated other resources to research what interests the age
demographic and implement a growth strategy.
Lions Club has earmarked $800,000 for
membership growth initiatives generally, not
specifically for young professional growth, have
access to the organization's Marketing budget of
$17 million, and have three dedicated staff
members to lead the effort. In addition to these
two budget line items and staffing, Lions Club leaders have hired the
professional services of Boston Consulting Group to develop a mobile
application that engages young professionals. Through the app they
hope to game-ify engagement and make attending events and
meetings more fun.
Their early market research suggests that young professionals do not
want to be tied to strict membership obligations. Clubs are learning
that they need to be flexible in their membership requirements and be
sensitive to the limited free time of millennials. Their research also
indicated that young professionals tend to be less hierarchical than
older generations and do not necessarily require structured events or
organizational models. Lions Clubs leaders have noted that inflexibility
Lions Clubs
YP Investment
$800,000 + $17 million
3 staff members

15
and requiring young professionals to bend to the old models does not
encourage participation. Millennials cannot be asked to integrate into
an older culture, but be encouraged to operate in their own culture
and through their own methods.
KIWANIS INTERNATIONAL
The last of the service organizations we interviewed, Kiwanis
International, is best known for their youth programs, Key Club and
Circle K. Like the others, they also struggles with an aging population.
They too are majority white, male, and aged older than fifty. Their
international volunteer leadership has identified the gap in age
representation and has worked with staff to develop strategies to grow
clubs. Growth department representatives indicated there were few
external vocal demands for young professional clubs or for clubs to be
more accommodating of young professionals, however there were a
few success stories where alumni of a Circle K club, their collegiate
Kiwanis-family component, decided to create the club they wanted to
be a part of and the club that suited their needs. They meet in a bar
and leverage their meeting time as an opportunity for networking and
socializing. It is important to note that the propensity to start your
own club is likely highly increased when you are already a part of the
“family” as a Circle K member is already a part of the “Kiwanis family”
and therefore familiar with the organizational culture.
Growth team representatives identified a unique
opportunity to bridge the gap between older
members and young professionals in the form of a
kind of informal mentoring. They found that while
some young professionals wanted to start a club,
they did not know how to lead a club. Kiwanis
shared that more veteran Kiwanis members would often join the
Kiwanis International
YP Investment
$4 million
4 staff members

16
Young Professionals club to help them develop the administrative and
technical skills of leading a club and then would leave the club after
one year when the leadership had been properly developed. It was
also shared that while this technique was useful in training Kiwanians
that the leadership of the club needed to be undertaken by young
professionals to build a sense of ownership and credibility with the
other members. Kiwanis found that young professional clubs were
much more successful as peer-to-peer organizations as opposed to
elder-to-peer.
In terms of financial resources to back Kiwanis’ young professional
effort, Kiwanis has resourced $4 million for growth generally, not
specifically for young professional growth. As part of their national
effort to grow membership, they have enacted a “blitzing” strategy
whereby a staff team travels to targeted areas of the country to start
new clubs and build membership numbers with the help of local
Kiwanians. As it relates to human resources, Kiwanis has involved the
staff leadership team and formalized their growth campaign, called The
Formula, under the leadership of a campaign director.
Membership growth is the top priority of the organization and, as such,
the director is focused on ensuring that becoming a Kiwanian and
maintaining membership is easy. Traditional weekly meetings are no
longer mandatory, attendance at meetings is no longer mandatory,
and similar to Rotary, Kiwanis has also adopted a modified meeting
option whereby clubs meet for three sit-down meetings and then
conduct a fourth meeting as a service project. They have also created
“satellite” clubs that are associated to a larger club, but do not have
the administrative responsibilities of the larger club. Internet clubs,
while convenient for an on-the-go millennial, are harder to infuse with
a sense of community, Kiwanis noted. It is through these

17
modifications, that Kiwanis hopes to attract and keep younger
members.
The service project addition has been a successful component of the
Kiwanis growth strategy. People get to “see the organization in action”
Director Tatiana Day shared. This witnessing of the work of Kiwanis
has been helpful in communicating the Kiwanis membership
experience in a way a speech never could. The hardest element of the
service project strategy is the follow-up, however. To maximize the
service project, Kiwanis noted the need to act fast post-event and
follow up with prospective members. If too much time passes between
the event and the follow-up, momentum is lost. Day has been working
with her staff to ensure that Kiwanis members can follow-up in a
timely way. Additionally, the Kiwanis staff has been thinking through
ways to reward their current members’ recruitment efforts.
The best opportunity to grow membership, however, is to ask
volunteer leaders to look to their own sphere of influence and leverage
their personal relationships for club growth. A recommendation from
one young professional to another is more highly regarded than a cold
invitation. There’s authenticity and trust that can be leveraged from
friend to friend.
As an organization that has recently celebrated its 100th anniversary,
Kiwanis has learned that tradition is important, but the current
challenges require flexibility. Organizations need to avoid becoming
clunky or overly complicated. It should be easy to be a member, easy
to participate. Young professionals expect the Amazon model - fast,
easy, and enjoyable. Without enough opportunities to feel their impact
or be impacted, young professionals are not likely to maintain their
membership.

18
US FUND FOR UNICEF NEXTGEN
The US Fund for UNICEF is the American fundraising arm of UNICEF.
Charged with raising funds from American citizens, the US Fund for
UNICEF raises hundreds of millions of dollars every year to support
UNICEF’s work on behalf of the most vulnerable populations around
the globe. These funds are raised through a myriad of fundraising
strategies including major gift cultivation among the country’s
wealthiest philanthropists.
US Fund for UNICEF staff member Casey Rotter identified an
opportunity to engage young people. Working on the planned giving
team, Rotter helped donors to include the US Fund for UNICEF in their
estate plans and as a member of the larger major gifts team, Rotter
knew that, separate of estate gifts, the US Fund was cultivating
funding opportunities from Americans capable of giving $10,000 or
more a year, but no one was cultivating the young professionals who
would one day be the main source of major donor revenue.
Rotter brought this gap and opportunity to the US Fund’s senior
leadership and with their blessing, created NextGen. Through this
pledge program, young professionals have access to many
opportunities to learn about the issues and get involved. At a more
strategic level, NextGen engages high profile and/or high capacity
young professionals to serve on the Steering Committee in hopes of
developing in them a lifetime love of philanthropy and a loyalty to the
US Fund. Steering Committee members can serve on the following
committees: advocacy, program, events. Rotter describes the
constituency as “the most globally aware demographic. They make
more money at their young age than generations before.” Adding to
this description, Rotter noted that NextGen’s constituency has

19
connections all around the globe and have few opportunities to join
existing efforts that leverage their passion and current or future
affluence and influence.
Unlike Kiwanis, Rotary, and Lions, the goal of
NextGen is primarily fundraising. With this in
mind, the recruitment of their most involved
members is much more focused than the
building of a general young professionals
program. With limited financial resources,
Rotter leads a small team of two to manage the national program and
recommends an underwriter for young professional programming. With
a focus on “intra-preneurship,” Rotter and team look for opportunities
to leverage the connections and passion of the existing group. Their
most successful practices, whether that be to influence funds or build
membership, have leveraged existing organizational relationships.
Rotter notes that she wants to create opportunities for the Steering
Committee to engage with the organization’s older boards. As a form
of mentoring and networking, Rotter believes this opportunity will not
only develop her NextGen as future philanthropists, but teach them
what it means to be a non-profit Board member - a goal many of them
have in their sights. With eyes toward maximizing their impact,
NextGen wants to know what the larger organization is having trouble
funding and they look to solve that problem furthering the idea that
young professionals seek meaningful engagement - in this case an
opportunity to own a problem and solve it.
In terms of selecting the Steering Committee members, Rotter has
learned not to “beat around the bush,” about the minimum
requirements to serve on the committee. Members of the NextGen
US Fund for UNICEF
YP Investment
Minimal budget
2 staff members, 1 Fellow

20
Steering Committees participate in an annual reapplication to evaluate
their performance year to year. This reapplication asks the members
to address the status of their give/get goal, the requirement that asks
them to give or get $6,000 a year, and why they should stay on the
committee.
An additional point of learning was understanding how to manage the
group’s passion. Rotter found a lot of burnout from her members
because they were working so hard. To manage the burnout and
ensure long term viability, she enacted term limits and looks to create
more touch points to the organization. When NextGen members
graduate from the NextGen program, other than Rotter and her small
staff, that member may not have another connection at the US Fund.
Rotter calls this the “This Gen” gap. To ensure that the former
NextGen’er is ushered into their ability to support the organization at a
major gift level, they need more connections to the organization than
just through NextGen.
As a way to leverage NextGen’s spheres of influence, Rotter and her
team have encouraged low cost events that tap into the members
circle of friends and puts the member in a position to host an event
and speak personally about their involvement in the organization and
their view of the organization’s importance. One such example is called
“Thought Club.” Thought Club works like a Book Club in that friends
are invited to a members home to discuss an important topic aligned
with UNICEF’s work.
In addition to creative programming, organizations need to be nimble
enough to keep up with young professionals. Rotter adds in thinking
about the challenges her organization has faced. She recommends

21
finding three volunteers that are exactly what you are looking for, give
them the power to do the work, and get out of their way.
YP BOARD FOCUS GROUP
Conducting a focus group with the LAWAC Board was critical to
understand the current YP program structure and motivations for
attending YP events and becoming members. We conducted face-to-
face interviews with 12 Board members, asking a specific set of
questions to determine what the group believed was the YP program’s
current practices, strong points, and weak points. Some questions
were designed to be open-ended to encourage dialogue with the Board
members and to generate ideas and suggestions on improvement for
the YP program.
The YP Board consists of students and working professionals, ranging
in race, industry, and age. The YP membership includes
undergraduates, graduates, and professionals resulting in a Board that
represents the diverse membership. Despite the Board being
representative of members at different stages in their career, many
Board members recently joined LAWAC YP upon joining the leadership.
In addition to new members holding leadership positions, some board
members joined leadership after being largely inactive prior to their
appointment. As a result of some Board members having little
experience with the LAWAC YP prior to their appointment, some
discussion was limited.
When asked why they joined the YP Board there was a variety of
answers, but the most commonly mentioned reasons are that they
wanted to build their social networks and find a cause outside of work.
These two reasons speak a lot to literature on engaging millennials,

22
who want to expand their spheres of influence and partake in
meaningful engagement.
Currently, Board members spend about five hours a month working on
YP programming or issues. The workload varies month to month, and
is heavily dependent on what is scheduled and which committee is
spearheading an event. The Board does have attendance requirements
such as: attend nine out of twelve monthly board meetings, attend
committee meetings, and help plan and attend YP events. However
there are no recruitment goals set or “give and get” requirements.
Board members were most engaged in the focus group when
discussing what are the group’s struggles with increasing membership
and converting members. The issues Board members discussed can be
broken down into the following themes: visibility, flexibility,
membership fees, community, and communication.
Members expressed concern over visibility of the organization,
stressing that they were not sure how people who did not have a
connection to the group would find out about it on their own. Currently
the YP program is linked on the LAWAC website, which can be found
through a Google Search. Additionally, the LAWAC YP has a Facebook
page which cannot be found through a Google search. The Facebook
page has a total of 795 likes, but posts from September to November
had garnered less than six likes per post. Additionally, on Twitter the
LAWAC YP has 277 followers. Prior to the mid-October there were
minimal posts on both social media sites, but recently more regular
posting is occurring. Additionally, based on social media postings a
total of three events were advertised: YP mixer, Future of Asia
Conference, and Social Entrepreneurship Panel Discussion. Of those
three events, two were geared specifically to YP.

23
Another theme that arose during the focus group was flexibility. Given
the geographical sprawl of Los Angeles, the YP group tends to host
events in Culver City and West LA. Although board members
encourage friends to join the LAWAC YP, often times other
commitments arise or they do not have the time to participate.
Another factor mentioned was that some Board members have friends
who want to attend, but due to the location of the event cannot make
it in time.
Board members also discussed the issue of membership fees. Although
there is a minimal membership fee of $60, people often do not want to
commit financially. Some members alluded to the fact that although
the membership fee is $60 there are still additionally costs a member
can incur if they would like to attend other events. The board
members stipulated that the events that are included in their
membership dues are film screenings held in Santa Monica.
During the focus group, Board members expressed that one obstacle
in increasing membership is a weak sense of community. For example,
when the board would regularly follow up with members who dropped
from the organization, they would express interest in the topics
discussed at the events but stated they did not feel a part of the YP
program. One Board member particularly noted it was difficult to build
a sense of camaraderie and that it is difficult to encourage non-
members to register who want to join an organization.
Lastly, communication was an overarching theme throughout the
discussion. Some Board members discussed have difficulty crafting a
pitch to potential members to encourage them to join. Not conveying

24
to non-members at events “what is in it for them” if they join the YP
program. Additionally, previous Board members worked on purposeful
event follow up, however they found that to be unsuccessful. The
organization continues to collect emails from everyone who attends
events, resulting in a large listserv of up to 2,000 members. When
Board members were asked if they brought friends to events they all
emphatically answered “yes”. However, when asked if they followed up
with their friend on why they did not join, it was noted that about 50%
stated they did not follow up.
Although the Board members had more to discuss when discussing
weaknesses of the organization, they did note some poignant
organizational strengths. The main strength noted was that the
members serve as great ambassadors, they are all very nice and
engaging at events and often make non-members feel extremely
comfortable. Additionally, the Board noted that many of the members
are eager to network, they want to expand their network not only
among YPs, but among the general membership as well.
EXPERT INTERVIEW
Scion Motors was designed for millennials with the goal of addressing
the aging population of Toyota purchasers. Scion was created to
attract younger purchasers by using relatable marketing tools such as
music and social media to create excitement around the brand. The
lifestyle team coordinated programming and social media efforts that
would entice young buyers. We interviewed Ozzie Morrow, a Social
Media and Lifestyle Administrator at Scion Motors to understand how a
corporation approached marketing to millennials.

25
Morrow stressed the importance of branding and understanding the
target audience. To create an effective brand, it is crucial to collect
data on what your audience is interested in and develop programming
around those interests. Morrow went on to discuss that Scion utilizes
Facebook analytics, a useful tool used to collect data on a target
audience. Analytics on a Facebook page can be found under “insights”
at the top of the page. It allows the owner of a page to better
understand the traffic a page experiences and who is viewing it. It
gives page owners the ability to understand how users engage with a
page, performance metrics, and which posts gain the most traction
among viewers. Facebook analytics are important for understanding
who views your page and why, but it also allows owners to see the
number of trends in “likes” and “unlikes”. This is important because it
helps the page owner determine if your current posts are retaining
members or decreasing followership. Through Facebook analytics you
can create a graphical representation of the number of unlikes and
organic likes.
In addition to Facebook analytics, Instagram also utilizes similar
analytic tools for page owners to determine what posts gains the most
viewers. Instagram insights allow owners to see four things:
impressions, reach, website clicks, and follower activity. Impressions
allows the page owner to understand how many times a post was
viewed, this differs from reach. Reach counts the number of times a
unique account viewed a post and impression includes when the same
account views a post multiple times. Morrow explained that utilizing
the impression and reach insights are important tools for determining
which posts are the most popular and to cater posts to your audience.
Additionally, a crucial insight tool is website clicks, which allows
owners to see how often a viewer clicks a link to a website listed on
the Instagram profile. Lastly, follower activity helps page owners
determine how often followers are on Instagram. This helps to

26
determine whether your audience is active on Instagram and if posts
are made regularly enough to keep up with activity.
Morrow stressed the importance of using free marketing tools such as
social media. He cited that millennials are extremely engaged with
social media, often scrolling through different platforms during their
free time. Millennials often check social media twice a day, at the start
of the day and at the end. Thus, he encouraged strategically posting
during those times of the day to increase viewership. Additionally, to
create a larger social media following it is important to utilize every
search method to ensure that posts are circulated among a wider
audience. For example, utilizing “hashtags” on Instagram helps to
promote posts on users feeds and the popular page. Using hashtags
that have the most posts listed under them is an easy way to gain
followers.
Social media is an extremely useful tool for engaging millennials and
should be used strategically and regularly. Morrow expressed the
importance of consistency with posting and ensuring that your
organization remains relevant on social media. Millennials are a fast-
paced group and are always ready to move on to the next best thing.
Morrow stated that irregular posts do not encourage followership.

27
CASE STUDY
CHICAGO COUNCIL ON GLOBAL AFFAIRS
The Chicago Council on Global Affairs “the Council” is regarded as a
premier policy think tank by the “2015 Global Go To Think Tank Index”
housed out of the University of Pennsylvania. Organized to bring
leaders together to discuss, understand, and analyze global issues, the
Council runs three models focused on young people. The Council’s high
school influence stems from supporting teachers with curriculum
addressing issues of global significance. The Young Professionals
Network (YPN) aimed at engaging young professionals is an
organizational priority. The YPN team is three staff members plus an
intern. The Emerging Leaders program is a one year fellowship
program allowing a deep dive into foreign policy. This 10-month
program is highly competitive and designed for people between 30 and
40 years old.
In terms of pricing for membership, students pay $40 and pay no
additional program fees. The basic membership of $100 covers
operations, programs, and requires an additional $10 “gate fee” at
events. The next level of membership is $250 and is designed for

28
people coming to 5-15 programs because their cumulative costs save
them the additional $150 in gate fees and they are invited to bring a
guest for free. The highest level of membership is $1,000 and affords
members all the perks of the $250 membership, in addition to
invitations to exclusive events like a pre-event reception with US
Secretary of State John Kerry.
In 10 months, The Council hosts 150-180 events in addition to 20-30
YP events. YP events are designed based on The Council’s focus with a
little added flair to appeal to young professionals. The YP program has
three major events a year; they are Council 360, Town Hall, and Pub
Trivia. The Council 360 event is an open invitation to the community to
learn about what The Council and YP programs do throughout the
year. It is a place where prospective YP members can meet current YP
members and get a holistic understanding of the program. The Town
Hall is a two-hour question and answer session with The Council
President and a unique opportunity for YPs to engage the leader of the
organization. The Pub Trivia night has evolved from a fun night of
trivia and socializing to a fundraiser in this last year.
The Council’s YPN leadership team is called the YPN Ambassadors or
“Ambassadors.” The Ambassador concept has been evolving over the
last few years as the organization understands how to better leverage
and support their growing membership of 2,000. The Ambassadors
were originally selected based on events, involvement, and giving. In
their roles, they would host at events and serve as brand
ambassadors. In the last year, the model has been completely
overhauled. What was a 75-member program is now a 30 member
program that received more than 300 applicants. Upon selection, they
participated in a full day retreat and formed committees such as
membership, fundraising, and communications. The entire Ambassador
group meets monthly and with their committees more regularly.

29
Ambassadors pay, at minimum, $150 for their special status
membership.
The Council thinks critically about how to engage young professionals
and give them opportunities for meaningful impact. In addition to
surveys, The Council provided many opportunities for YPs to network
with each other, understanding that this is an attractive element of YP
involvement.
When it comes to building their membership base, they see the need
for full time focus. They employ several strategies post membership
expiration including follow up throughout the year and offering a
reduced rate to renew membership. They also look to partnerships as
a way to be introduced to a new constituency and a chance to appeal
to their interests. Universities being a natural partner, the YP program
presents to student groups and meets with clubs. They also approach
companies and offer presentations to their young professionals. No
outreach is the same as The Council customizes its strategies based on
the audience and highlights the most relevant parts of the YP
experience. From research papers to employment opportunities, there
is much to gain from a YP membership.
As it relates to a marking strategy, YP staff keep all communications
and social media channels current and relevant. The YP program aligns
its goals with those of the organization so that both are moving in the
same direction. Organizationally, The Council has prioritized
broadening digital outreach and as such those efforts are also reflected
among the YP group. Additional communication methods include
emails, newsletters, and private Facebook groups. The most recent
addition to the marketing and communications strategy toolbox is the
use of infographics.

30
For groups looking to increase their young professional demographic,
the Chicago Council on Global Affairs’ YP program suggests finding the
organizational niche and acting on it.
Their strategies for engaging millennials necessitates an authentic
voice that maintains the integrity of the organization. They are
consistent in their program delivery and fresh in content. YP programs
are places where young people can feel unique within the whole.
The YP program asks itself three questions:
● What are we uniquely empowered to convene?
● What is special about us?
● What can we do?

31
LITERATURE REVIEW
Various scholars on engaging millennials note that one of the best
ways to engage young professionals is “to promote the results-driven
citizen engagement” (Myung & Levis, 2016). When choosing what
organization to join, millennials often look for organization that engage
them in a meaningful way. By centering engagement around an issue
and allowing young professionals to deliberately engage through
problem solving, organizations can meaningfully engage members. It
is important to not only create a safe environment to deliberate issues,
but to create a collaborative effort on solving issues so that people can
develop deep connections with one another. This approach helps to
establish long-term relationships among people in an organization.
Millennials are eager to participate in organizations that can appeal to
their interest in social justice, engaging them in work that resembles
social work (Barnes& Schmitz, 2016). Organizations do not need to
market programming as a non-profit model, but instead create
programming that is educational and issue oriented. “The word
‘nonprofit’ can scare people away” because of the misperceptions
towards the sector (Fish, 2015). An organization is most successful in

32
engaging young professionals, when it can create an impetus to
participate.
Interesting programming is crucial to retaining new members and to
encourage your target audience to engage with an organization. Iif an
organization fails to strongly communicate the value of programming,
despite the actual quality, millennials often have difficulty justifying
participation. Therefore, it is important that organizations spend less
time on marketing tools that “and more on communications that
educates and informs” (Association Laboratory Inc., 2015, p. 16). This
will help to create a sufficient knowledge level, as well as allow the
young professionals to make an informed choices..
Additionally, young professionals often fail to engage due to financial
constraints, as they have minimal discretionary funds available (West,
Wolinsky, & Leeman, 2015). Most associations focus on targets,
operating within budgets, but fail to consider organizational support for
young professional members. Young professionals do not want to
participate in events without adequate financial support. Therefore,
setting an appropriate membership fee structure should be considered,
to increase participation and membership cache.
Older members often have a fear of the unknown regarding the
presence of the young professionals in organizations. Thus, older
members tend make it difficult for the young professionals by limiting
the resources they can access or neglecting their roles as mentors.
Results-oriented management makes the older members of the
association resistant to change as they block all attempts to make the
associations more collaborative and participatory (West, Wolinsky, &
Leeman, 2015). Older members often feel as though they have
invested a lot of time and energy into the solving of a particular

33
problem and are resistant to change. To better incorporate millennials,
it is important to develop the younger group to serve as Board
members. Hiring younger staffers can help to bridge the gap between
different age groups. Young staffers can act as advocates for young
professionals' needs but also have profound knowledge on fundraising
and leadership that is critical to such organizations.
Most organizations fail to engage young professionals due to the
failure to recognize uncertainty young professionals face at the early
stages of their careers. They also fail to identify their goals and needs
quickly. Some young professionals are still at the college level, and at
the time they are employed, this workforce is still at the evaluating
stage of their careers which is characterized by uncertainty (Kobus &
Maree, 2016). Associations should not overestimate the focus and
commitment of these professionals at any stage of their career
because most of them are usually unsettled, and still evaluating their
next step.

34
KEY FINDINGS
Based on our findings there are seven recurring themes throughout
our conversations with various organizations and our literature review.
The themes best describe what are the most important things to
consider when engaging millennials, and how to keep them
continuously interested in participating in an organization.
The first theme, audience as your architect means allowing members
to be charged with creating and implementing the direction of an
organization. This boosts member involvement and helps to develop a
deeper connection to an organization. If young professionals are
involved in a strategic plan for the organization, they will be more
invested.
Another important theme is to value time. Millennials are an over
extended group, often not having much time to commit to
participating in an organization. A high-quality experience will ensure
that millennials feel like their time is being respected and valued.
1
2

35
Additionally, flexibility was a theme that was prominent throughout
our discussions with various sources. Flexibility requires that
organizations acknowledge that millennials are often under
constraints, from tight work schedules to geographic location. To
engage millennials effectively, groups must find a way to meet young
professionals halfway and design an experience that accommodates
millennial calendars and constraints.
Meaningful engagement, is another theme that came up in every
discussion with sources. Many people stressed the importance of being
able to engage millennials in a way that is meaningful to them.
Understanding your target audience and creating programming and
leadership opportunities that creates a vested interest in your
organization and its mission. It is important to appeal to millennials’
greater sense of purpose through meaningful engagement to
encourage them to join an organization.
Many organizations interviewed recognized that young professionals
are an ambitious group. Organizations with general membership and a
young professionals program expressed the importance of connecting
members. Millennials are constantly looking for networking and
mentorship opportunities. If an organization can bridge the gap
between age groups, they create a deeper connection between a
young professional and the organization. The deeper connection
impacts membership renewal and leadership participation.
Another recurring theme is understanding young members’ spheres of
influence. For an organization to grow it is important to understand
what networks members can offer. Knowing what spheres of influence
members have allows organizations to tap into those networks to help
grow an organization and improve the experience.
3
4
5
6

36
Lastly, many sources expressed the importance of leadership. The
leadership of an organization should be fully vested in the success of
an organization, and be representative of the membership base. Young
professional programs are only able to succeed if its leadership wants
it to succeed. Leadership is and should be the main source of work and
recruitment. The stronger your leadership board is the stronger the
organization will be.
7

37
RECOMMENDATIONS
Recommendations are organized in three frames: the Organization,
the YP Board, and Events and Engagement with an implementation for
the next five years. Generally, to grow a YP program, LAWAC needs to
understand the target audience’s expectations. Young professionals,
millennials, require organizations to be nimble and responsive.
Bureaucratic, overly structured experiences are too slow moving for
millennials. Their leisure activities need to be as dynamic as their lives
are.
It is also recommended that the organization design, implement, and
analyze surveys to understand the value of the programming and the
membership experience. Surveys should be conducted after every
event and annually. With the data collected from the surveys LAWAC
will gain a better sense of what works, what does not work, what
needs to be improved, and how members and non-members value
events. Surveys should be specific to the YP membership and
audience, otherwise the data is not reliably helpful.
Like-organization interviewees emphasize the increased quality of the
young professional experience when young professionals felt like they

38
could put their skills and networks to use to solve a problem or
organize events. We encourage LAWAC to identify how to put YP
members, especially Board members, to work solving organizational
problems, hosting events, and leading their peers.

39
Year 1
Progress by December 31, 2017

40
The Organization
On an organizational level, we see tremendous benefits in conducting
thoughtful and purposeful event follow up. As noted in the LAWAC
survey results 75% of non-member attendees are interested in joining
the LAWAC. The key to membership growth is to start with the low-
hanging fruit. The low-hanging fruit are the guests who show up and
do not sign in, show up and do not convert to membership, show up
and are not followed up with, and those whose membership has
lapsed. Most immediately, steps to formalize a sign in process must be
enacted through physical sign in sheets at events that record basic
contact information (Name, Address, Email, Phone Number, and Social
Media handles) to pre-event sign ups through applications like
Eventbrite and Evite. The collecting of this information enables LAWAC
to build a large constituent database and begin developing
relationships on social media. The importance of constituent databases
cannot be overstated as they allow for member and leadership
prospecting, strategic mailings, and strategic engagement.
Conversion strategies need to be undertaken to follow up with guests
who attend events but do not convert to membership. Such tactics
include immediate post-event follow up via phone, email, and timed
emails and mailings to highlight the benefits of membership.
Conversion begins before the event in the form of engagement via
reminders and friendly notes and continues at the event with the
hosting responsibilities of the Board and other volunteers, and
continues post event with the tactics in addition to surveys to gauge
the caliber of the event and other important information that will help
LAWAC YP develop its program and improve its experience.
Like guests who have not converted would be the recipients of timed
emails and mailings to highlight membership benefits, members whose
membership has lapsed should be provided three opportunities to

41
renew their membership, including a last opportunity to renew at a
reduced rate.
In addition to follow up, the experience of becoming a member,
retaining membership, and signing up for and attending events should
be simple. When signing up to be a member, the prospective member
should not have to click too many times or enter data repeatedly. Sign
in at events should be seamless and using the latest registration
information. Prospective guests should be able to sign up for
membership at any event. Staff should be prepared to accept new
memberships everywhere an event is hosted and celebrate new
members publicly at all events which encourages others to sign up.
We recommend the development of a Internship Program specifically
to support YP program administrative functions and growth. The hiring
of one intern in 2017, would enable current staff to task the intern
with a variety of responsibilities from event logistics and follow up,
social media strategy and implementation, and YP Board strategy
development and support. It is crucial to develop a team focused on
effectively marketing. Less than 10% of respondents to the LAWAC
2016 survey noted they heard about the organization through
advertising. Together with the intern, staff should prioritize developing
relationships with university groups, young professional organizations,
and companies with significant numbers of young professionals. Each
of these presentations should be customized to speak to that particular
audience with an emphasis on the benefits of membership that could
be most appealing.
The resounding feedback from like-organizations is that their YP
programs are institutional priorities and the institutional priorities are
reflected in the goals and priorities of the YP program. With this in

42
mind, the current staff and Board are encouraged to do vision planning
to envision how the ideal Board, and membership by extension, be
constructed to reach organizational goals. Such planning would require
the staff and Board to consider the diversity of industry, age, wealth,
influence, network, neighborhood, and experience and how these
characteristics are reflected on the Board. This exercise requires
constant examination, analyzing, and recruitment. Board members
should be expected to leverage their networks to grow the
organization and for this reason a diversity of experience and
representation will be important. A sample Board Diversity Matrix and
how it might evolve over five years is included below.
Table 4: Board Diversity Matrix
We further recommend that LAWAC consider restructuring their
membership fees to allow for a greater and more varied membership
benefits experience. Distinction between YP membership levels will
invite membership at higher levels and create a more exclusive
experience for those who contribute at greater levels. As the YP
program increases its membership and cache, we recommend LAWAC
revisit the suggested rates below and consider an increase that would
reflect the improvement in programming and experience. We further
suggest that membership prices be communicated at the per month
rate to emphasize the value of engaging at a higher level.

43
Table 5: Sample YP Membership Fee Structure
Sample YP Membership Fee Structure
Membership
Level
Membership
Amount
Option A
Membership
Amount
Option B
Benefits
YP Member $60
($5 a month)
$120
($10 a month)
● Access to YP only programs and events
each year
● Invitation to the annual YP Town Hall with
LAWAC President
● Reserved YP section at larger Council
public programs to facilitate networking
● Reduced admission to more than 150
public LAWAC programs each year
● Discounts on subscriptions, professional
development classes, and restaurants
● A monthly YP e-news with insider updates
YP Leader
(giving
expectation for
Board)
$100
($8.33 a month)
$200
($16.67 a month)
● All of the YP Member benefits
● Special professional development and
mentorship opportunities
● Pre-event exclusive access to special
events and guests
● Free admission and reserved seating at all
public events
YP Diplomat $400
($33.33 a month)
$500
($41.67 a month)
● Free admission at all public events
● Special guest passes to all public events
● Pre-event exclusive access to 1 special
event (preselected)
YP President’s
Circle
$700
($58.33 a month)
$800
($66.67 a month)
● Special professional development and
mentorship opportunities
● Pre-event exclusive access to special
events and guests
● Free admission and reserved seating at all
public events
● Special guest passes to all public events
and 1 special event
● Express registration at events

44
The Board
In the first year of redevelopment, we see the opportunity to
implement some small, meaningful changes what will improve the long
term outcomes for the Board. First, we encourage LAWAC to develop
and conduct a Performance and Asset Assessments with Board
members upon their joining the board and annually until their terms
expire to determine networks, connections, talents, skills, and goals.
Through this conversation, LAWAC understands the true resources at
their disposal and has the opportunity to clearly communicate the
expectations of being a LAWAC YP Board member. Understanding
these things about each of the Board members positions the LAWAC
YP program to leverage those assets to increase membership and
improve programming. Additionally, we believe LAWAC YP would be
best served if the Board had personal give, get, and recruitment goals.
According to the 2016 LAWAC survey results 29% of non-member
attendees stated they attended events as a result of a personal
connection. Therefore, by setting a minimum standard, LAWAC YP is
not only elevating the role and responsibility of the Board member, but
elevating the program as a whole.
In addition to this asset audit and goal setting, we also encourage
LAWAC YP to grow Associate Boards in other LA-area neighborhoods to
encourage participation from those areas. Millennials place a high
premium on their time and traveling for more than one hour one way
from the eastside to the westside of Los Angeles to participate in a one
hour event hardly seems worth the traffic battle. To accommodate
current members and prospective members from the eastside
communities, we envision Associate Boards that would lead activity in
their areas and report up to and be part of a larger, more
comprehensive LAWAC YP Board. We envision that the Associate
Boards would meet with the LAWAC YP Board quarterly. Each

45
Associate Board would be comprised of a Chair, Programming Officer,
and Membership Officer and meet monthly among themselves. In the
first year, we believe developing one Associate Board in addition the
existing LAWAC YP Board would be an achievable goal. An example of
an Associate Board structure is included below.
Chart 1: Sample Associate Board Structure
Events & Engagement
In terms of an event and engagement strategy, in the first year, we
recommend that the LAWAC Board and staff think through strategic
events that highlight the many benefits of becoming a member. In
addition to the existing programming and mixers, LAWAC YP might
consider adding an annual service project. A service project would give
prospective members a chance to see the organization in action and
interact with current members and leaders in a meaningful way. It
would also provide LAWAC YP members an opportunity to select a

46
cause and give back to the community which could also result in
attracting a different kind of member.
A general interest meeting could be a nice way to start the year and to
introduce potential members to current members, highlight
membership benefits, and introduce Board opportunities and leaders.
A “Hob Nob” event in the style of a Town Hall where young
professionals have access to influential city leaders like LAWAC
President and CEO Terry McCarthy or other prominent business leaders
and LAWAC Board members would be a great opportunity for a
question and answer session. This could also double as an opportunity
to cultivate a LAWAC donor especially one who is interested in young
professional development or sponsoring the Young Professional
program. Ultimately, the most important event-related tactic is the
follow up that happens post-event.
A robust marketing strategy that further utilizes and maximizes free
social media tools is an important opportunity that could be organized
and led by an intern. In addition to daily posts, interns could research
and incorporate into their strategies the best times of day to post and
what kind of information has the best click-through rates at certain
times of day. So much is already developed regarding social media
strategy, that an intern could easily find completed research to
develop an annual social media strategy broken out by channel
(Instagram, Snap, Twitter, Facebook) and corresponding to the event
calendar. Other creative ideas to leverage social media include Board
member/member features, member/industry connections, Snap Chat
Takeovers, travel diaries, special interviews or features with VIPs, and
“behind the scenes” experiences at high profile events or with VIPs.

47
Year 1 Total Membership Growth
Through the implementation of Year 1
strategies, we believe LAWAC YP could grow
membership from its current 200 members to
313 members. We are encouraging a goal of
5% growth through membership follow up,
Board recruitment goals of two new members
per year, adding the Associate Board
leadership count of three and recommending
Associate Boards recruit 20 new members.
Furthermore, we are ascribing a 10-person
new member goal to each service project and
general interest meeting. We see an
increased opportunity to recruit new
members at the Town Hall event and
prescribed a goal of 20 new members to be
secured at that event.
Table 6: Year 1 Growth Table

48
Year 3

49
The Organization
In addition to moving the organization toward fulfilling its year three
YP Board composition goals, we recommend the development of a
mentorship and networking strategy that involves partnering with
LAWAC general membership. One of the main reasons that young
people join membership organizations is for the networking
opportunities available to them as they develop in their career. A
mentorship program that partners YP members with general members
will increase the value of being a LAWAC YP member especially at the
leadership levels as leaders and those in the President’s Circle have
special access to a mentorship opportunity. To develop such a
program, staff will have to consider how to make the experience
beneficial and meaningful for both parties.
General membership might appreciate the opportunity as a chance to
give back, mentor someone younger in their career, and meet
prospective new talent for their own business networking. YP members
will relish the opportunity to learn from someone with senior
experience and build their network for future career possibilities. Staff
will be required to design a matching questionnaire to develop
appropriate matches between mentors and mentees and a suggested
engagement calendar to help provide structure to when and how
mentor/mentee groups should meet. As the calendar is just a
suggestion, mentor/mentee groups would have the opportunity to
customize the experience to suit their schedules and needs, but at a
minimum have the backup plan provided by LAWAC. While groups
should be provided this opportunity, there should be 1-2 keystone
events that bring all mentors and mentees together to set
expectations and to celebrate the program. Aside from the execution
of such a program, staff should be prepared to assess the quality and
effectiveness from year to year to ensure a strong program and
experience for the general membership. In addition to this analysis,
staff should also be keen to qualitative data that tells the story of this

50
experience. Through feedback and testimonials, staff could learn a
great deal about the mentorship program and likewise gather
interesting and meaningful quotes and stories for advertising,
communications, and collateral.
As part of the mentorship experience, we would encourage the
development of Career Roundtables with LAWAC YP leaderships and
the general member leadership. Partnering these two groups of
leaders will be a fun and unique opportunity for career discussion,
information mentoring, and community building within LAWAC.
In addition to a mentorship program, we would further recommend
that LAWAC ensure networking opportunities between the general
membership and YP membership. This cross-constituency networking
will give YPs the opportunity to meet and engage with people with
significantly more experience. Within the YP program the range of
experience is limited because the age demographic is restrained. This
is why it is important to build opportunities to integrate the two
groups. In addition to creating a meaningful mentorship opportunity
for the general membership, LAWAC will also be connecting the YP
members to the organization on a larger level encouraging continued
participation beyond the YP experience.
With the development and implementation of the aforementioned
events and strategies, LAWAC YP would be in a position to need more
interns especially to ensure the success of the Associate Boards. We
recommend adding interns to the Internship Program as the Associate
Board model grows.

51
We also urge LAWAC to leverage their current general constituency to
find donors and sponsors of the YP program. Through the mentorship
and networking programs and through donor research, staff might
unearth prospective or current donors who could be moved to support
the YP program. The YP opportunity is unique among the work that
LAWAC does. The message of exposing younger generations to global
affairs and nurturing the next generation of industry leaders could be
particularly interesting to certain potential donors. With funding, the
YP program could further expand staff support and program
development that would positively impact the growth the program.
The Board
By the third year of implementation, we would expect that LAWAC
would continue to follow its diversification strategy to meet pre-
determined goals. In addition to diversity implementation, we would
encourage LAWAC YP to target Associate Board creation in one new
neighborhood for a total of two neighborhood representation.
Following the creation of Performance and Asset Assessments, we
encourage the full implementation of the assessments by Year 3.
LAWAC YP should have a good sense of the impact assessments have
made and should have created a system for meeting with Board
members and prospective Board members individually. Board
members will also be more familiar with the process and together with
the staff can determine what additional tweaks need to be made to
ensure the process is effective and holding members accountable. We
would further recommend that by year three no one with less than one
year of LAWAC YP experience serve on the Board. Membership on the
Board is a responsibility as much as it is a privilege and by being
selective and developing a process to qualify for Board membership,
LAWAC YP builds cache with serving on the Board.

52
To engage more millennials across Los Angeles, LAWAC YP can add
Ambassador Teams to each Associate Board. Because the Associate
Board leadership structure is smaller than the larger YP Board, there
would be a need to recruit more leaders both to act as physical bodies
present to help at events but also a training ground for prospective
Associate Board and LAWAC YP Board members. As the Associate
Board model grows and adds the Ambassador Team, LAWAC will need
to develop a training and expectation system for each of the Associate
Boards and Ambassador Teams. While each Associate Board and
Ambassador Team will have it’s own quirks and personalities, it is
critical that there are baseline expectations to ensure that caliber and
quality of both the organization and the experience. With the addition
of an Ambassador Team, the LAWAC YP leadership structure might
look like the following.
Chart 2: LAWAC Organizational Structure with Ambassador Team

53
Events & Engagement
We recommend that LAWAC bolster their service project opportunities
by partnering with strategic organizations. The YP program could find
great value in partnering with organizations like the US Fund for
UNICEF NextGen, Human Rights Watch, and other organizations whose
mission focus is international affairs. Should LAWAC choose to focus
their service projects on impacting the local community, there a
plethora of opportunities and organizations to chose from. Nationally,
the largest service days of the year are Make-a-Difference Day which
happens around Earth Day in April and Martin Luther King Jr. Day in
early January. In addition to these two days of service, September 11
has also become a day from Americans to give back to their
communities which would provide an interesting dimension if LAWAC
YP adopted veterans groups or issues as their philanthropy of choice
as veterans have a unique global affairs experience.
In addition to service project partnerships, we would encourage
Associate Boards to enact a “Thought Club” to engage membership
separate of guest speaker events. A Thought Club works like a Book
Club, but without the book. Members are provided some literature on a
topic and invited to the home or business of another member for a
group discussion on the topic. Thought Clubs are low budget ways to
engage people and also an opportunity for Board members and
Associate Board members to leverage their personal networks for
increased topic awareness and potential membership growth. Before
the discussion begins, the host would welcome guests and share some
brief information about LAWAC, LAWAC YP, and encourage continued
involvement and membership. Like with any other event, the follow-up
will be a critical component of converting guests to members.

54
As a way to have more control over their events, Associate Boards
might look to partner within the community to host additional events
separate of those organized by LAWAC headquarters. Fruitful
partnerships could include International Rescue Committee, Chamber
of Commerce, LA Council, and the diplomatic offices and communities
in Los Angeles.
Through the implementation of
strategies through Year 3, we
believe LAWAC YP could grow
membership to 581 members. We
continue to encourage a goal of 5%
growth through membership follow
up, maintain the Board recruitment
goal with the addition of two new
Board members by Year 3, and the
addition of one more Associate
Board. We are ascribing a 10-person
new member goal as an annual
Thought Club goal and through
engagement with partners.
Table 7: Year 3 Growth Table

55
Year 5

56
The Organization
By year five, we would encourage LAWAC YP to continue their
Associate Board growth and be in four neighborhoods. As noted
previously, this growth will require the assistance of internship support
and we further recommend that LAWAC continue to build a robust
internship program. If possible, LAWAC should hire a second staff
member to support the growing YP Board. Lastly, we encourage the
organization to begin planning the next five-year plan in year four of
the five year plan cycle.
The Board
With the assessment process fully integrated, LAWAC will have
increased knowledge of Board members contributions to the
organization and areas for improvement. By year five, the Board
composition should reach its ideal diversity balance and begin to look
for opportunities to maintain the balance in the next strategic plan.
With the existence of Associate Board, LAWAC has a unique
opportunity to enact an election process for LAWAC YP Board if it so
chooses.
Events & Engagement
In the fifth year, we recommend the organizing of a Young
Professionals Summit so that LAWAC YP is positioned as the premier
young professionals organization separate of the excellent global
affairs programming. A Young Professionals Summit could be focused
on organizing young professionals for civic life, networking, and
professional development. It would be a tremendous opportunity to
leverage the leadership and connections grown through the Associate
Boards and their memberships and continue to grow the YP

57
membership base. We would also recommend that this weekend
summit be capped by a formal fundraising luncheon or dinner to
celebrate the year’s accomplishments, fundraise, and inspire members
for the upcoming year.
Through the implementation of strategies through Year 5, we believe
LAWAC YP could grow membership to nearly 1,000 members. With the
maintenance of the 5% Follow Up goal, the addition of new Board
members, new Associate Board leaders and members, and the exciting
YP Summit and fundraising
event, we feel that a focus on
goals and accountability to
those goals will lead to a
membership nearly five times
the current size. It must be
noted that the execution of
tactics alone will not
maximize growth potential. It
is through the effective
prescription of goals and the
diligent reinforcement of
those goals that LAWAC YP
will achieve membership
growth success. Table 8: Year 3 Growth Table

58
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Special thanks to interviewees and research participants Brianne
Haxton and Rotary International, Tatiana Day and Kiwanis
International, Kevin Cherep and Lions Clubs International, Casey
Rotter and the US Fund for UNICEF NextGen, Ozzie Morrow of Toyota
Motors, Chris Boyce, Jennifer Litvack and the Chicago Council of
Foreign Affairs, and Bonner Campbell.
We appreciate the partnership of the Los Angeles World Affairs Council
in this effort especially Sarah Tran, Daniel Cox, and the Young
Professionals Board.
Thank you to Bernadette Lane and Tanya Stanfield who aided in
connecting us to interviewees.

60
Appendix A
Interview Questions for Organizations

61
Appendix B
Focus Group Questions

62
Appendix C
Interview Questions for the Chicago Council on
Global Affairs

63
Appendix D
Interim Report Memo

65
Appendix E
Interim Report Infographic
Themes from interviews with organizations
grappling the same issue.
ENGAGING
YOUNG
PROFESSIONALS
MAKE YOUR TARGET
AUDIENCE YOUR
ARCHITECT
1
Amazon Model: Fast, Easy
Reliable
Give existing members the
opportunity to do meaningful
work.
Young professionals want
access to mentors.
Tap into members' existing
network to grow and build on
personal relationships.
What do you want your board
to look like? What
expectations are there?
TIME2
Create more touch points for people to engage and
become invested. Asking members, "what do you
want out of this experience?"
Young professionals are an extremely mobile group.
Organizations must be able to meet them halfway,
and to keep up with their fast-paced lives.
FLEXIBILITY
ENGAGE IN A
MEANINGFUL WAY
BRIDGE THE GAP
BETWEEN AGES
SPHERES OF
INFLUENCE
LEADERSHIP
3
4
5
7
6

66
Appendix F
Sample Board Performance and Asset Assessment

68
REFERENCES
1. Appendix 3 - The Mission Statements And Mottos Of Rotary International And
The Rotary Foundation. 1st ed. 2016. Web. 15 Nov. 2016.
2. Association Laboratory Inc. (2015). Engaging young association members.
Association Laboratory Inc.
3. Barnes, M. & Schmitz, P. (2016). Community Engagement Matters (Now More
Than Ever). Sanford Social Innovation Review. Sanford University.
4. Burke, R. J., & El-Kot, G. (2010). Work engagement among managers and
professionals in egypt. African Journal of Economic and Management Studies,
1(1), 42-60. Doi: 10.1108/20400701011028158.
5. Fish, S. (2015, May 28). Engaging the next generation: Attracting millennials
to work in the nonprofit sector. CharityVillage Ltd. Retrieved November 02,
2016, from
https://charityvillage.com/Content.aspx?topic=Engaging_the_next_generatio
n_Attracting_millennials_to_work_in_the_nonprofit_sector#.WBnQbrWkU_s.
6. "Millennials: Confident. Connected. Open To Change". Pew Research Center’s
Social & Demographic Trends Project. N.p., 2016. Web. 29 Oct. 2016.
7. "Mission And History". Lionsclubs.org. N.p., 2016. Web. 15 Nov. 2016.
8. Myung, L. J., & Levine, P. (2016, Fall). A new model for citizen engagement.
Stanford Social Innovation Review. Stanford University. Retrieved November
02, 2016, from
https://ssir.org/articles/entry/a_new_model_for_citizen_engagement.
9. Novell, R. J. (2012, November 15). How does a young social worker gain the
respect of their service users? . The Guardian. Guardian News and
Media.Retrieved November 02, 2016, from
https://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/2012/nov/15/question-of-
respect-social-work
10. West, D., Wolinsky, C., & Leeman, P., (2015). Engaging Young Association
Members: A Strategic White Paper for the Association Industry. Association
Laboratory Inc.

Capstone - LAWAC Final Report

Recomendados

Recomendados

Más contenido relacionado

Destacado

Destacado (20)

Similar a Capstone - LAWAC Final Report

Similar a Capstone - LAWAC Final Report (20)

Capstone - LAWAC Final Report