An Argument for Membership Based Sustainable Ecotourism Initiatives:
The Case of Pronatura Veracruz
by Jim Dion

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What can the smaller, foreign based NGO do to take advantage of the benefits of a member based donor program?

At Pronatura Veracruz we have decided to follow the business model of membership programs, offering discounts on products and services while automatically furnishing our clients with member status. We have also linked our membership to a single issue in order to capture a membership niche. While the large NGO may be able to promote membership by touting efforts to save the planet the small to medium NGO is better served by emphasizing their efforts in how they can create concrete positive results on a single issue and on how local communities may benefit on a strictly regional basis. If it appears that the program has a broader than regional long term effect, so much the better.

At Pronatura Veracruz our membership program is based on support for the Veracruz River of Raptors conservation and environmental education program. As south central, coastal Veracruz is the fly over point for, according to studies conducted by Pronatura Vaercruz since 1991, over 4.5 million raptors of 19 species, which makes it the world's largest migration corridor, the argument can be made that perhaps there is no more important place in the world to foster and promote habitat conversation vital for migrating birds.

Bird watching in the USA is an over $1.6 billion dollar industry. (Bird Conservation Magazine, 1998)

Pronatura Veracruz has been able to take advantage of the active and expanding recreational bird watching tourism industry by promoting, selling, organizing and conducting guided visits to observe the raptor migration in multi-day guided tours. These clients formed the core base of members as each tour guest automatically becomes a member of the "Amigos Del Rio Rapaces" membership program. Twice yearly, in the fall and spring when bird watchers are most active, members receive a newsletter with news and notes about the progress of the River of Raptors conservation and community based environmental education programs. The newsletter also contains informative and interesting articles, donated by recognized names and institutions in the birding world, covering areas of interest to the raptor aficionado. The newsletter also contains easy to follow instructions on how to re-subscribe your membership, or join up, as well as a detachable coupon and pre-addressed envelope, in order to make doing so as convenient as possible.

In addition to the two newsletters members receive a thank you letter, sent out within ten days of receiving the donation, signed by the Pronatura Veracruz director. A tax deductible receipt is sent 60 days before the end of the U.S fiscal year. In this way donor members receive four direct contacts from the organization each year.

The aim is to make each donor member feel like an appreciated and vital part of our conservation program. Through timely and adequate communication we can demonstrate to the donor member how important we feel them to be to us and to demonstrate our dedication and professionalism.

In summary it has been our experience that small and medium sized conservation issue, foreign based NGO's can take advantage of the financial and public relations benefits of a membership based donor program by:

1. Linking the Membership to an existing interactive project. This project link can be eco-tourism, other tourism, or can also take the form of direct community links. (Education exchange, handcrafts, pen pal programs etc.)

2. Communicating with member donors in a timely, efficient and professional manner.

What follows is a brief, preliminary, summary and analysis of the current and historical data of the "Amigos" membership, dating back to the inception of the program in 1996.

Records available for 1996 and 1997 are questionable as to their completeness. The data for 1996 are especially incomplete.

Records for 1998 and 1999 appear to be accurate. Although it must be noted that the process of gathering the 1998 and 1999 data was problematical due to the nature of past record keeping and inconsistent management, I feel that the Amigos data for 1998 and 1999 is accurate enough as to be acceptable for means of interpretation and meaningful analysis.

Membership Summary:

Overall the membership has grown by about 5 percent since 1998. However it is notable that the average donation has declined by $28.05. It should also be noted that the membership individuals are not the same for both 1998 and 1999.. Rather, there is quite a bit of movement in the membership of those who became inactive (i.e. did not re-subscribe) between 1998 and 1999, and first time members in 1999.

On preliminary analysis the rate of re-subscription seems somewhat lower than is acceptable. If we had a re-subscription rate of 80 percent we would have seen significant growth in the program from the new members in 1999.

Our membership goal for 2000 is to have an 80 percent re-subscription rate, 100 new members and a 10 percent average donation increase. This would result in a 38 percent rise in membership income to $35,240.00 in 2000.

On the cost side the, the US$1,250.00 is an estimate. What is known are the costs for mailing and printing the newsletter and mailing the thank you letters and tax deductions, and contract labor. What is not known is the cost of in house labor, materials, phone, computer, administrative and fixed costs. A preliminary estimate would estimate total costs of the membership to be roughly 10 percent of ingress and hence to be in the neighborhood of US$2,200.00.

From a cost / benefit stand point it is obvious that the return on monetary investment is quite high. This is what is very attractive for NGO's to operate membership programs in the first place. True costs, including time, opportunity cost and the value of money over time, when factored in, would increase the 10 percent operational cost estimate, but it is fair to assume that even if the "real" costs of the membership are 20 percent, then the return on investment still remains attractive.

The numbers also indicate that with a relatively small donor base significant funds can be raised. What has not been analyzed is if human resources and material costs are better applied to undertaking another type of fund raising effort such as writing a grant proposal. However, there are significant intangible benefits to maintaining the membership program.

Intangible benefits include the goodwill garnered from having individual contact with a donor base. The program also provides a pretext for public relations initiatives, helps re-enforce the mission statement of Pronatura Veracruz and to disseminate information and develop contacts abroad. The program also promotes tour participation in Pronatura sponsored tours to the Veracruz River of Raptors and serves as a platform in which to launch other eco-tourism products.

In summary we can see that that the "Amigos" membership program has produced significant net tangible and intangible benefits for Pronatura Veracruz.

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