Research Results:
Paper Abstracts

A Portrait of Membership Associations: The Case of Indiana

Kirsten A. Grønbjerg and Patricia Borntrager Tennen

Paper presented at the annual meetings of ARNOVA, Washington, D.C., November 17-19, 2005.

Abstract

Membership organizations have long been recognized as mediating institutions that connect people to one another and to society. Past research has examined who are members of various types of organizations, but there is comparatively little information about the organizations themselves or how they compare to other types of nonprofit organizations. In this paper we draw on a survey of 2,206 Indiana nonprofits of all types to provide a portrait of the full range of membership organizations and how various types of membership organizations differ on key organizational dimensions. Two key findings stand out from our analysis: First, we found significant differences among six types of membership organizations on almost every dimension we considered. Second, these six types form two broad clusters with religious congregations, other member groups, and occupation/industry groups resembling one another on a number of key dimensions, but differing as a group from the second broad cluster composed of recreation groups, civic associations and mutual benefits associations.

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Last Updated: August 21, 2006