The Board approved the framework during its meeting in Indianapolis on August 14, following a months-long, community-driven process that began at ASAE’s 2025 Leaders’ Retreat with a clear goal: to ensure ASAE continues to evolve alongside the needs and opportunities of the association community.

More than 500 volunteer leaders, members, and partners helped shape the framework through the most inclusive strategic planning process in ASAE’s history.

The result is an enterprise-wide strategy designed to be agile, collaborative, and focused on measurable impact – providing strategic clarity while allowing ASAE to respond with agility as the needs of members and the broader association community evolve.

“This framework is a reflection of what is possible when an organization listens deeply and brings its community together around a shared vision,” said ASAE President and CEO Michelle Mason, FASAE, CAE, AAiP. “I am incredibly grateful to our Board, our dedicated volunteers, members, partners, and stakeholders who invested their time, ideas, and expertise in shaping this next chapter for ASAE. Their contributions have given us more than a roadmap, they have given us the clarity and confidence to pursue meaningful growth, create greater value for our members, and strengthen ASAE’s impact across the association community. I’m excited about what we can accomplish together.”

Three interconnected strategic pillars will guide ASAE’s work:

• Grow Influence & Impact — Convene leaders and ideas, elevate the voice of associations, and help shape the future of the profession.
• Enrich Talent & Organizational Readiness — Develop leaders, strengthen organizations, modernize learning and credentials, and elevate association management as a profession.
• Optimize the Member Experience — Co-create solutions with members, foster meaningful connections, and deliver experiences that help organizations succeed today and prepare for tomorrow.

In support of the Optimize the Member Experience pillar, ASAE is also launching ASAE Labs, powered by ASAE Business Solutions, to co-create innovative solutions for the future of associations. ASAE Labs will include Mini-Labs, bringing members together to test ideas, tackle emerging challenges, and co-create solutions that help associations navigate a rapidly changing environment with confidence.

Together, these pillars form one integrated enterprise strategy that will guide how ASAE partners with members, delivers value, allocates resources, and advances the association community in the years ahead.

 

Strategic Investments to Advance the Framework

As part of its meeting, the Board also approved strategic investments in two initiatives that directly support the new framework and its long-term priorities.

 

Trust Associations Campaign

The Board approved a strategic investment to make the Trust Associations campaign a cornerstone initiative of ASAE.

ASAE launched the Trust Associations campaign last year as part of its advocacy efforts to protect the association community’s tax treatment on Capitol Hill. Working with the Community Impact Coalition, ASAE successfully helped keep onerous proposals targeting associations out of the eventual tax legislation.

That success demonstrated the power of coordinated advocacy, but the work continues. The strategic investment in Trust Associations will enable ASAE to build a stronger baseline understanding among policymakers and opinion leaders of the value associations provide and to deepen recognition and trust in the work of ASAE members and the broader association community.

 

CAE Growth & Talent Ecosystem Initiative

The Board also approved a strategic investment in a pilot CAE Growth & Talent Ecosystem Initiative, advancing the framework’s focus on enriching talent and organizational readiness.

The CAE Credential has long been a mark of excellence for association professionals, representing mastery of eight knowledge domains essential to effective association leadership. As the profession continues to evolve, ASAE sees an opportunity to build on that foundation with new pathways for professional development at every stage of an association professional’s career.

Through the pilot initiative, ASAE will explore the development of a modern ecosystem of microcredentials aligned with the CAE knowledge domains, expanding access to relevant, high-quality learning opportunities while creating new ways for professionals to build and demonstrate expertise throughout their careers.

“Together, these investments reflect ASAE’s commitment to putting its new strategic framework into action – strengthening the association community’s influence, developing its talent and organizational capacity, and delivering meaningful value to members,” Mason said.

MEDIA CONTACT: Chris Vest, CAE, 202-626-2798, cvest@asaecenter.org

 

About ASAE

ASAE is a membership organization of more than 50,000 association executives and industry partners. Since it was established more than 100 years ago, its members have and continue to lead, manage, and work in or partner with organizations in more than a dozen association management disciplines, from executive management to finance to technology. With the support of the ASAE Research Foundation, a separate nonprofit entity, ASAE is the premier source of learning, knowledge, and future-oriented research for the association and nonprofit profession and provides resources, education, ideas, and advocacy to enhance the power and performance of the association and nonprofit community. Visit ASAE at Welcome to ASAE — American Society of Association Executives (asaecenter.org)