Photo: U.S. Air Force via Wikimedia Commons

For the second year, our friends and colleagues at Greenfield Services are conducting an extensive survey to track the big issues facing Canadian associations.

And for the second year, we’re excited that Greenfield has invited Smarter Shift along as a production partner for the report.

Last year’s Pulse Report was a snapshot of an association sector that was hanging in against a tough economy, but having trouble keeping up with new trends in membership, communications, and technology. Many of them were scrambling to:

• Meet basic objectives in spite of limited funding and insufficient staffing
• Discover new ways of generating revenue, without raising membership dues
• Adopt the latest engagement tools to retain current members and attract new ones
• Counter low levels of volunteer involvement, social media participation, and non-dues purchases
• Rethink their operating models, at a time when many of the benefits members traditionally received from their associations are now just a few mouse clicks away, at little or no cost.

The 2013 Pulse Report will give us a second year of data to track against the original survey, and we’ll be asking some new questions to keep up with more recent developments in the sector. We expect to learn by leaps and bounds from the results. Just as we did last year.

If you work with a Canadian association, please click here to participate in the 2013 Pulse Report survey. For your effort, you’ll receive an advance copy of the survey report and a chance to share your own views on what the next year will bring for the non-profit sector.