The American Heart Association (AHA) As the nation’s oldest and largest public health organization committed to fighting heart disease and stroke, the 30,000+ member American Heart Association is also the largest not-for-profit funding source for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease research.
AHA membership numbers had plateaued for years. To jumpstart growth, leadership set an organizational goal of doubling membership in 10 years.
We not only uncovered new nontraditional audiences for AHA but created a strategy to engage them. We prioritized audience categories based on likely level of engagement, then identified value-based offerings for the most promising categories. The final plan included segmented unique value propositions, new offerings, membership/partner levels and pricing structure, and a prioritized launch strategy.
In tandem with our strategy to capture new audiences, we also created a plan to shore up AHA’s traditional MD membership. We evaluated existing offerings, identified ones that were ripe for enhancement (or sunsetting), found opportunities for new products, and re-engineered the association’s Scientific Council structure for greater accessibility and member engagement.
The model changes have been approved. AHA has begun developing the recommended new-audience offerings and active recruitment is underway. Recommended changes to the Scientific Council structure are taking place, and member engagement growth will be tracked. Based on the success of this project, AHA has engaged MYB for several ongoing research initiatives, and has been asked to develop an event portfolio strategy.
