Looking Forward 2021 Dashboard

Association Laboratory is pleased to offer free access to this data to the association community. To access the dashboard, simply register below. You will receive an email with a link to the dashboard, as well as access to a video walkthrough, Executive Summary and other helpful information.  

About the Dashboard

The most recent, relevant and customizable data to inform you decisions is critical in a dynamic and uncertain environment.

For 10 years, Association Laboratory has produced our annual environmental scan of the association strategy environment – Looking ForwardTM.

More than ever, you will need to know what the future looks like now, to enable you and your Boards to make faster, better decisions.

New this year, we broke up the survey into two parts: Impacts and Solutions.

Impact: Provides you information on the overall environment within which associations will need to be successful going forward and how those impacts are changing the way members interact with you.

Solutions: Provides you with a breakdown of 120 associations strategies, from membership and meetings through advocacy and education, to benchmark your association’s offerings against others and help you generate new ideas.

Looking Forward data is also now provided via a customizable dashboard, allowing you to focus on the segment of the association sector most critical to you, your staff and your Board. See what issues are impacting members and identify the most likely challenges you’ll face and the solutions to solve them, and download the custom report to guide discussions with your team and volunteer leaders.

Not sure how to get started with those conversations? We are providing you with a discussion guide and high-level Executive Summaries of the Looking Forward 2021 data sets, complete with sample agenda, worksheets and how to program a Zoom meeting to have these discussions.

How to use the dashboard

The homepage of the data dashboard displays top-level results of the Looking ForwardTM 2021 data. Clicking “Explore” in each chart will allow you to dig deeper into that topic area.

Each chart has a book icon in the bottom right corner, which allows you to see the question that was asked of respondents. 

In addition, once you clicked “Explore,” you will see a list of filters along the right side of the page. These filters allow you to adjust the data set by annual budget, member size, organization type, location, profession and organization type (meaning professional or trade). 

At the bottom of each page, the printer graphic allows you to print a PDF of the page to use in conversations with your Board.

Association Laboratory is proud to be the founder and leader of the Association Laboratory Research Alliance.

The Association Laboratory Research Alliance is a collaboration of more than 20 state, national, specialty and global societies of association executives designed to investigate, lead the discussion of and provide insight into the future of the association business model. Since its inception, the Alliance has investigated the forces shaping association members and the implications of these forces on association strategy. In addition, the Alliance provided an analysis of the strategic and economic impact of COVID-19 on the association sector and acted as a clearinghouse for vetted information informing association decision-makers. The following groups comprise the Research Alliance:

• American Association of Medical Society Executives
• Association Forum
• AMC Institute
• California Society of Association Executives
• Council of Engineering and Scientific Society Executives
• Colorado Society of Association Executives
• Empire State Society of Association Executives
• Florida Society of Association Executives
• Global Association Hubs Partners
• Georgia Society of Association Executives
• India Association Congress
• Indiana Society of Association Executives
• Iowa Society of Association Executives
• Mid-Atlantic Society of Association Executives
• New York Society of Association Executives
• Ohio Society of Association Executives
• Philippine Council of Associations
• Tennessee Society of Association Executives
• Wisconsin Society of Association Executives

Association Laboratory's Strategic Partners

CE21 is a cloud-based technology and services company providing a full-service Learning Management System (LMS) that delivers distance education, online registration and physical product sales solutions to professional education verticals including: Legal, Accounting, Health Care, Insurance, Business, Education Content Providers, Professional & Trade Associations and Non-Profit Organizations.

CE21’s award-winning LMS can help your organization deliver a best-in- class e-learning experience designed specifically for your most important customers–your learners. Built for today but designed with the flexibility to take on tomorrow’s changing needs, CE21 provides an elegant, mobile-optimized learning environment that will transform your organization into a 24/7 on-demand value provider.

For more information, visit CE21.com.

Nucleus is the official Data Analytics Solution to the Association Research Alliance. 

The Nucleus data analytics platform was built specifically for associations and is designed to meet the unique needs of the member industry. It aggregates the vast amounts of powerful member data currently stored in different systems across member-based organizations (AMS, email marketing, events, learning management, online community and more) and makes insights into this data available to everyone: staff, leadership, components, the board – and even members.

The “Looking Forward 2021” data dashboard is Nucleus, specially configured to show this important environmental scan information and allow you to explore it. We are thrilled to have been chosen as the official data analytics solution of the Association Laboratory Research Alliance and hope you enjoy this new way to benefit from the Looking Forward study.

 We invite you to browse the Analytics for Associations Success Kit to learn more about Nucleus and to contact us to discuss use cases at your organization at analytics@gravitatesolutions.com