Build a Membership Offering for a Science Non-Profit Serving Students and Young Graduates

You are a product manager asked to design a membership program for a non-profit organization. Here is what you know about it: - Its audience is split into two roughly equal halves: college students aged 20 to 24, and graduates aged 25 to 30. - Its core work is science facilitation, delivered through summits, workshops, online content and training programs. - It has broad access to subject-matter experts across many science disciplines. - Its audience is highly loyal to the organization's name and holds it to high expectations. Design the program: what membership is meant to achieve, whom it serves, what members receive, how people join and stay, and how you would judge whether it works. ```hint Start from the two halves Compare what a student a few years from graduating and a graduate a few years into a career each want from this organization, then ask what a membership could give them that a single event ticket or a free article cannot. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - What should membership do for the organization: bring in recurring revenue, deepen participation, build a community, or develop future volunteers and donors? - Is a membership fee acceptable, and may students and graduates be charged differently? - Which of today's summits, workshops, content and training programs are free and which are paid, and do any have limited seats? - Should the program serve both age groups with one design, or may it treat them differently? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A stated purpose for the program that fits both the non-profit's mission and its finances - The two audience halves compared by their needs and stage of life, with a decision on how membership treats each - Member benefits built from the organization's real assets (events, content, training and its expert network), with a view on what stays open to non-members - Pricing or eligibility, and the member journey from joining through renewal, including the move from student to graduate - Success metrics with guardrails, and the risks of changing what a loyal, demanding audience receives ### Follow-up Questions - How would you introduce membership without longtime supporters feeling that something they used to get freely is now locked away? - A year after launch, graduates renew at a healthy rate but students rarely do. What would you look into, and what would you change? - If demand for expert time outgrows what the experts can give, how would you ration it without disappointing members?