This is the sixth (and final) article in our Community Management Series. Read part one, part two, part three, part four, and part five.

Over the course of this series, we’ve explored the powerful role communities can play in transforming associations — from enhancing member engagement and loyalty to extending the value of in-person events and creating more dynamic, year-round experiences.

But let’s be honest: Building and sustaining a thriving community isn’t easy.

Many associations launch communities with great hope, only to run into familiar obstacles: low member participation, staff resistance, leadership hesitation, or an inability to demonstrate tangible value. It’s no surprise that some communities plateau — or never quite get off the ground.

The good news? These challenges are not only common — they're solvable.

This final article explores the most frequent hurdles associations face with community-building, offers practical remedies, and shares examples of associations that turned their struggling communities around.

Common Community Challenges

Low Engagement

If your community feels like a ghost town, you’re not alone. Many associations see an initial spike in interest that quickly fizzles.

What causes it? Often, members don’t see a clear reason to participate. Maybe they weren’t properly onboarded. Maybe the community lacks facilitation. Or maybe it just doesn’t feel relevant to their day-to-day needs.

What to do:

• Spark early momentum: Use “community rituals” like welcome posts, weekly prompts, or themed discussions to create predictability and connection.
• Shine a light on members: Feature user-generated content, member spotlights, or peer-led AMAs (Ask Me Anything).
• Invest in facilitation: Empower community managers or member champions to cultivate engagement and model participation.

Lack of Internal Buy-In

Sometimes the biggest skeptics aren’t members — they’re internal staff.

Community may be seen as someone else’s responsibility or treated as a nice-to-have rather than a strategic asset.

What to do:

• Align community with strategic goals: Frame it as a tool for retention, innovation, professional development, or advocacy — not just socializing.
• Break down silos: Involve cross-functional teams in the community’s design and success metrics.
• Educate and socialize: Help staff understand what community is, how it works, and how it can benefit their own departments.

Leadership Hesitation

Senior leaders often hesitate to fully back community initiatives. Sometimes it’s a lack of familiarity with digital engagement. Other times it’s fear — fear of complaints, controversy, or losing control of the narrative.

What to do:

• Make the case with data: Present examples of how communities improve trust, surface member insights, or increase NPS.
• Position community as risk mitigation: Rather than fearing criticism, leaders can view communities as early warning systems that help associations respond faster and build credibility.
• Start small: Pilot a focused community initiative with clear objectives, then scale based on outcomes.

The Monetization Question

Not long ago, I spoke with an association executive who was grappling with a difficult question: Can we — and should we — monetize our community? Their board wanted to see more revenue-generating programs. The staff worried that introducing paywalls or sponsorships would alienate members. And the community itself? It was still growing, slowly but steadily, with an engaged core group.

This isn’t an uncommon scenario. Many associations are walking the same tightrope — trying to deliver member value while also meeting financial expectations. But here’s the key insight: Monetization should never come at the expense of trust. And it can’t come first.

Communities thrive on relationships, not transactions. If members feel the community exists to extract value from them rather than create value for them, they’ll disengage — or worse, disappear.

That doesn’t mean monetization is off the table. Quite the opposite. In fact, communities that consistently deliver value often open the door to natural revenue opportunities. One association I worked with found success by introducing exclusive access tiers — members who wanted deeper, more focused conversations around regulatory changes could opt into a paid sub-community that also included monthly roundtables and curated insights. Another association partnered with sponsors to fund learning experiences inside the community — but only after members had made it clear that education was a top priority.

The lesson? Monetization is viable, even desirable, when it’s a byproduct of trust and relevance. When community becomes a space where members get real value, they’re more open to contributing financially — especially if it enhances their experience. But when monetization feels like the driving force, it rarely ends well.

Proving Community Value

When the CFO walks into your office and asks, “What’s the ROI of this community?”,what do you say?

It’s a question many association professionals dread. Not because they don’t believe in the value of community, but because that value can feel hard to quantify. Engagement feels intangible. Relationships don’t show up on a balance sheet.

But with the right approach, the impact of community can be both visible and measurable.

One association I worked with started by looking beyond simple activity metrics. Yes, they tracked logins, posts, and replies — but they also asked a more meaningful question: What’s happening because of the community? They began collecting stories of collaboration sparked in discussion threads; of mentoring relationships that formed organically; and of members who found new jobs, clients, or research partners through community connections.

At the same time, they aligned their analytics with broader organizational goals. When member retention increased by 7% among active community users, they were able to draw a compelling line between engagement and revenue. When volunteers for new programs began surfacing through the community itself, it became clear the community wasn’t just supporting the association’s mission — it was accelerating it.

They packaged these insights into short, visual “Community Impact Briefs” and shared them regularly with senior leadership. Over time, the tone of internal conversations shifted. The community was no longer seen as a nice-to-have — it was a vital strategic asset.

Quantitative metrics matter. But so do qualitative ones. Together, they create a story that not only proves community value — but strengthens the case for continued investment.

Lessons From Associations That Turned It Around

ASAE: Turning Data Into Strategic Community Value

ASAE’s online community, Collaborate, is a standout example of how a member community can become a strategic engine for growth — when backed by the right data.

By integrating Collaborate’s engagement metrics with their CRM and marketing systems, ASAE discovered that members who interacted in the community at least once a month generated 5× more revenue than less-active members. Even more striking: Community-active members renewed their membership at 50% higher rates, and annual meeting attendees were logging 6× more community activity than non-attendees.

These weren’t just interesting insights — they were transformational. ASAE began sharing these metrics through internal dashboards, aligning programming, content strategy, and retention efforts with what members were doing and saying in the community. Community engagement became a leading indicator of member loyalty, purchase behavior, and satisfaction.

By making data visible and actionable, ASAE repositioned its community as a mission-critical asset — an engine of member insight, connection, and value creation. In doing so, they didn’t just prove community ROI — they operationalized it. NRAEF: Reimagining Career Paths Through Community.

The National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (NRAEF) faced a different kind of challenge. While their community-based workforce programs like ProStart and Restaurant Ready reached thousands of young adults, the perception of restaurant jobs as “dead-end” roles lingered. According to their internal research, while 70% of participants saw restaurant work as a great first job, fewer than 50% saw a future in the industry.

Rather than doubling down on messaging, NRAEF listened — and responded. They redesigned their programs around clear career pathways, added earn-while-you-learn apprenticeships, and embedded more community-driven mentoring and support into the experience. The result? Community engagement and retention surged. Today, more than 150,000 young people participate annually, with many now seeing foodservice as a viable, long-term career.

NRAEF’s story underscores the power of starting with community insight — and then designing programs and pathways that reflect and reinforce what participants truly need. Community didn’t just supplement the program — it helped reshape it.

Final Thoughts

Community is not a silver bullet. It requires time, attention, and cultural alignment. But when done well, community becomes more than a platform — it becomes the connective tissue of your association.

The associations that succeed in the future will be the ones that build not just programs — but people-powered communities.

Let that be your North Star.