In an ideal world, people donate to and support causes purely out of the goodness of their heart and don’t expect anything in return. After all, we’re talking about nonprofits, not businesses, right? But realistically, when we choose to invest in a cause we care about, we do expect something in return -- and we deserve it -- even if it just starts with a simple thank you note. And, depending on how much someone gives to a cause, it’s only natural that they receive a bigger return on investment.

That’s where membership value comes into play. Now, we’re not talking about going Oprah and giving out cars to major donors or sending every individual donor some cheesy swag just for the heck of it. But it is important to think strategically about what you are offering back to your supporters across various levels, from the $10 donor to the $10,000 donor. If someone values your mission and work enough to invest in it, shouldn’t you find a way to show much you value them? (Short answer: yes!)

We’ll outline a few ways that you can provide value to three key constituents as they move up that ladder of engagement, and keep them coming back for more.

If you're a member organization looking to offer tasty content for a members-only area, we offered a tantalizing idea on Friday for providing logged in users access to private contact information of other members in Salesforce. A valuable service to your members with no additional website management for you.

Today is the same song different verse, this one to the tune of the cash register.

If you collect dues and track them in Salesforce, you've got a pile of valuable data about the times your members have rung the cash register.

Add value to your members-only area by providing logged in users a list of their past payments. Include amounts and dates. Let them know when their membership expires. All through integrating your website with your Salesforce instance.

Tell us if this sounds familiar: you're a membership organization that wants to have a members-only section - but you have no idea what to put in your members-only section that will encourage members to login and login often?

You're not alone. It's a common dilemma member organizations face. Since content is king on the interwebs, you don't want to unnecessarily restrict great content to only logged in members when if really should be public. You also likely don't have time to create regular and robust content exclusively for a members-only section.

So, how do you share enticing, mouth-watering members-only content they'll want to login to dig into without doubling your web management task?

For websites integrating with Salesforce, there will be a few great ideas to consider. None will require additional staff time to manage content beyond what you already do. Each will encourage folks to login.

I recently logged into my account with a major financial services company for the first time in awhile. The next day, I received an email from the company saying “Hey! Thanks for stopping by our site yesterday! S'up?”

That wasn’t verbatim, mind you. But it was close. And it prompts the first in our blog series of simple ideas for successful online nonprofit membership management using Salesforce.

Are you rolling out the online welcome mat for your members? How can you tell and how can you improve so that welcome mat is more welcoming?

Needing to draft your own army to move mountains of paperwork for member management? What if there were ways to reduce the workload and increase effectiveness?

Back in August, we posted an article sharing 15 reasons why membership organizations love Non-Profit Soapbox and Salesforce. In it, we offered specific ways the Soapbox platform is being used by nonprofit membership organizations to integrate with their Salesforce instances to increase staff efficiency, bolster member satisfaction, and become more effective in meeting their missions.

As we've been building integrated online solutions for membership organizations, we continue to be impressed by the vast potential that connecting this world-class CRM with one's website has to supercharge member organizations.