For many associations, a job board is just that, a job board. A place for members and non-members to post jobs, compare listings and apply for work. While this is a fantastic community asset by itself, Job Board is capable of so much more. From encouraging membership to driving enormous revenue growth, Job Board is not only an invaluable resource for members, but also a hidden weapon associations can wield to drive non-dues revenue, expand reach and add value.
To help your association leverage a job board to the max, we interviewed three MemberClicks clients currently gaining members, driving growth and taking names with Job Board. The first of these, Women in Development of Greater Boston (WID), has become our top revenue earning client, generating 16x the value of their AMS in 2023. The American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE) achieved the same incredible rate of growth after users began flocking to the site in 2021. Finally, the Idaho Nonprofit Center leveraged its relationships with other regional organizations and institutions to build mutually beneficial partnerships and drive major revenue.
Without further ado, let’s dive into the top 10 most effective job board strategies we’ve documented across all three associations, how each works to drive revenue and growth, and how your association can employ the same Job Board strategies for unprecedented results.
1. Tear down the paywall
While Women in Development wanted to keep their job board behind a paywall at first, once it was removed, the job board’s value skyrocketed, said Managing Director Judi Fanger. She initially worried that members saw the board as a benefit to paid membership, and that if the organization suddenly offered it to everyone, members would no longer see a reason to continue paying. This turned out to be far from true. Rather than turning off existing members, removing the paywall allowed WID to offer members the ability to post jobs at a much cheaper rate than non-members, incentivizing membership, growing the board’s viewership and value and ramping up revenue all in one.
Removing the paywall also made the board highly shareable, increasing reach and visibility fivefold. For women throughout Boston and New England, WID’s Job Board became a critical touchpoint, connecting 2600 women in the area to a thriving network of motivated development professionals. The board provided countless opportunities for employment, career mentorship, career advancement, and professional development for women in Boston and beyond. As it turns out, bye bye paywall meant hello pay day for Women in Development!
2. Let your members know
Setting up a job board is only the first step in maximizing its full potential. Once your job board is up and running, shout it from the rooftops! Send an email announcement, make a post on LinkedIn or, even better, on your member social hub. Make sure to include all the relevant details about the new job board, including where to find it, how to post a listing, and what fees, if any, are attached for members.
Across all three organizations we spoke to, effective communication with members emerged as a constant. Over 40 years, Women in Development has amassed a loyal following of female professionals in the greater Boston area. For decades, the organization sent out job listings to its members via snail mail, so the switch to an online job board was big news to their membership! Similarly, the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE) and the Idaho Nonprofit Center let their members know as soon as their job boards were up and running, along with all the benefits that came along with it. Letting members know about new features, like Job Board or CommUnity, can not only add value and help members maximize their benefits, but also keep them renewing year after year.
3. Keep your members informed
It’s not enough to only let your members know about your new job board once. Instead, it’s critical to keep them in the loop. A great way to do this is by sending out a monthly or bi-weekly newsletter announcing the latest listings, reminding them how to post, and making it easy for members to invite colleagues or friends outside the organization to post on the board. Idaho Nonprofit Center does this in the form of a bi-monthly newsletter, while Women in Development sends an email out monthly.
If you’ve worked hard on creating and maintaining your job board, don’t let your efforts go to waste! Remind your members about all the amazing benefits your job board has to offer and ensure they put them to good use. Keeping your members in the loop will help them feel valued, heard and appreciated by your organization. If you can find a job board solution with automated posting distribution, you have the ability to automate communication to interested job seekers and the potential to upsell posters for more distribution opportunities.
4. Establish a payment structure
Offering differing payment structures to members and non-members is a fantastic way to strategically encourage membership! Just ask Women in Development. While existing members of WID could post listings on the organization’s job board for a small fee, non-members were required to pay extra. Yet, for only a slightly higher fee ($10 more), non-members can upgrade to full membership. For WID, this strategic pricing adds value for existing members, posting jobs at a lower fee, while incentivizing frequent posters to join WID and experience the full suite of benefits offered by a membership.
AAHHE, meanwhile, offers two separate categories of membership: institutional and individual. Institutional membership pricing is tiered based on number of enrolled students, and the key benefit for institutional members is access to unlimited job board postings, saving frequent posters thousands and encouraging more job postings. In 2023, one institution posted over 970 jobs and with their institutional pricing, only paid $2.05/post. Without an institutional membership, they would have paid over $400,000 in postings alone.
To maximize the impact of their job board and advertise their institutional benefits (and savings), AAHHE reached out directly to higher education human resource departments and informed them that unlimited job board listings were now an added benefit of membership. For frequent posters, this meant it was cheaper to become a member than to continue posting without the full benefits of membership.
5. Offer bundle pricing
If a company or other frequent posters report high rates of satisfaction with your job board, consider offering them discounts in the form of bundle pricing. For WID, this kind of pricing was especially valuable to companies and independent posters who had hired someone found through the organization’s job board. To maximize revenue, WID offers these businesses bundles of job listings for a reduced rate. In return, WID earns the loyalty of their frequent posters, as they return to purchase bundles of listings again and again.
This strategy has also produced a positive feedback loop wherein the more engagement a job posting receives, the more people become inclined to post on the job board, Judi Fanger explained. You can do the same by reaching out to frequent posters and offering them a bundle of listings for an agreed upon price. The number in that bundle can vary depending on industry, the needs of the company, and so on. But regardless of how many listings are purchased at once, your loyal posters will thank you, and so will the members who enjoy access to even more job listings than ever.
6. Do your research
For associations catering to a very specific client base, a little bit of research can go a long way. This is especially true for AAHHE, an association seeking to place Hispanic Americans in higher education. As Director of Operations Lucia Gutierrez explained, Hispanic-serving institutions receiving financial support from the government are more likely to advertise on a Hispanic job board.
Armed with this knowledge, Lucia accessed the federal government’s list of 200+ institutions she knew would have a need for AAHHE’s Job Board and contacted them directly. Lucia’s efforts provided the association with a stream of reliable, quality leads in need of AAHHE’s services. Your own association can do the same by leveraging federal or local government data for free and reaching out to potential customers you know will have a need for the services you offer.
7. Price competitively
AAHHE didn’t stop at targeted advertising. As Lucia explained, once the association had compiled their list of potential institutional users, AAHHE took things a step further with competitive pricing. After some quick googling, Lucia noted the prices of other job boards in the same industry that catered to similar demographics, then priced AAHHE’s at a much lower rate. Charging significantly under market value helped AHHE stand out from the pack, and greatly incentivized choosing AAHHE over the competition.
While your association may have to make different decisions when it comes to pricing for budgeting reasons, consider taking a note from AAHHE and do some research into how similar associations are pricing their job boards and other services. If you can, think about pricing yours at a lower rate than competitors. For institutions and individuals looking to post jobs who may be on the fence, a better deal may be just what they need to finally pull the trigger.
8. Include volunteer positions
As the name suggests, job boards are primarily for posting and applying for paid opportunities — but this should serve as a guideline, not a limitation! As the Idaho Nonprofit Center explained, many associations and especially nonprofits have no shortage of volunteer positions in need of filling. By encouraging nonprofit organizations to post openings for board members and other volunteer positions that every organization must have, Idaho Nonprofit Center has significantly enhanced their job board, both in terms of value and reach.
If you know your association’s job board caters to any percentage of nonprofit organizations, consider trying the same strategy! Send out an email or make a post on your association’s community page encouraging nonprofits to advertise paid as well as unpaid positions on your job board. This can include board member positions, treasurer, secretary, committee lead or team supervisor. Feel free to get creative with titles!
9. Leverage professional relationships
As associations and nonprofits, others in your community look to you as a source of truth. You’ve likely built a network of professional relationships with other reputable organizations in the years you’ve been operating. A fantastic but often underutilized way to draw attention to your job board is to leverage these professional relationships into partnerships and other formal agreements.
Just ask the Idaho Nonprofit Center, who built a relationship with the City of Boise as well as with both of Idaho’s major universities. Both universities share the Nonprofit Center’s Job Board with graduating seniors, meaning a new class of eager young professionals is accessing the board year after year. As the center explained, this annual boost of fresh faces is a major talking point when it comes time to pitch the job board to potential members, as anyone looking to post jobs through the center is guaranteed to reach the entire graduating class of both major universities in the state. Depending on the demographics you serve, your association can employ a similar strategy. Try reaching out to other organizations or institutions you have a good working relationship with local ones especially and ask if they’re interested in directing their users to your job board. This is typically a mutually beneficial arrangement, as in the case of university students, a job board is a much-appreciated asset!
10. Make mutually beneficial arrangements
Finally, consider other mutually beneficial arrangements you can facilitate within your network. The Idaho Nonprofit Center, for example, established a working relationship with a local employee recruitment firm. A handful of the firm’s clients are nonprofits, so they utilize Idaho Nonprofit Center’s Job Board to post jobs and find employees. To maximize this relationship, the nonprofit center struck up an arrangement wherein they receive a small payment each time the recruitment firm successfully places an employee in a position.
Your own association can make similar mutually beneficial arrangements with organizations in your community or industry. Consider reaching out to recruitment firms and similar institutions and striking a deal. That way, whenever someone gets hired through your job board, not only is its value enhanced, but you receive financial compensation — bringing you one step closer to having your job board that can pay for your AMS entirely.
Maximizing Job Board Strategies
The strategies outlined from successful associations demonstrate the transformative power of leveraging a job board beyond its conventional role. By tearing down paywalls, engaging members through effective communication, and establishing competitive pricing structures, these organizations have not only driven revenue growth but also expanded their reach and member engagement.
For associations and nonprofits, a job board represents more than a recruitment tool—it’s a dynamic resource capable of generating substantial non-dues revenue and fostering community engagement. These strategies illustrate the potential for job boards to drive growth, providing tangible benefits to members, partners, organizations and the industries you serve. Job boards serve as vital assets in connecting professionals, facilitating career advancement, and ultimately enriching the overall mission and impact of associations and nonprofits.
Ready to see these strategies in action? Schedule a demo today and revolutionize your association’s growth!
