Orpheus Musical Theatre Membership Management Case Study
Transformational Growth Done Purposefully: Orpheus Musical Theatre
As Canada’s longest-running not-for-profit community musical theatre (since 1906!), Ottawa-based Orpheus understands that having a solid relationship with an audience is integral to long-term growth and success.
As with many organizations in the arts, the global pandemic severely tested Orpheus’s operations. But they saw it as a blessing in disguise: giving them the opportunity to rethink their work, how they wanted to grow their audience and how they could connect with them–better and smarter.
125%
BOOST IN REVENUE
A deliberate growth strategy leveraged with Member365
“Success here all comes down to connecting well with people,” Morris explains. “Pre-2020, everything we did was volunteer based and depended entirely on one very shaky Excel spreadsheet. It was an impossible situation that had to change.”
Indeed, membership churn was an annual problem at well over 50%. And that was because there was no way to reliably and consistently remain in contact with members.
Morris’s arrival in 2020 as Orpheus’s first-ever full time Managing Director was followed soon by the adoption of Member365 as a much welcomed membership-management solution. “All of this gave us an incentive to rethink how to connect with our members and do more than before,” says Morris.
“The transition to Member365 was effortless, it proved as easy as we’d hoped it would be. It’s opened up my time to connect better and more personally with members.”
It’s All About Connecting Better
With Member365, Orpheus today devotes their resources to focus on the human connection where it counts with members.
On the automated side, auto renewals and a built-in payment gateway help to drastically reduce membership churn.
That leaves more time for the personal side: connecting with members via email outreaches, upcoming event invites and registration, among other valuable advisories now shared effortlessly. Morris also notes an unexpected benefit: automated notices sent out tend to prompt members to pick up the phone. “Now it’s not a cold call–it’a a friendly one.”
The Results
The results were nothing short of transformational. Membership retention rates skyrocketed to 95% over just two years. Then came 3x membership growth, a 5x email subscription rate, and a 125% boost to revenue. All thanks to a well thought-out membership engagement and growth strategy, leveraged in part by Member365.
3X
Membership Growth
95%
Membership Retention
5X
Email Subscription Rate
125%
Boost to Revenue
Goodbye Spreadsheets
A major improvement to Orpheus’s operations, thanks to the adoption of Member365, was the centralization of its patron and donor information–goodbye spreadsheet–into one robust, secure database. “Having one place for all members with all the information we need to connect and link others has really helped me focus where it counts, making our operation grow and serve Ottawa in new ways.”
The transition to Member365 was effortless, Morris adds: ‘It proved as easy as we’d hoped it would be. It’s opened up my time to connect better and more personally with members.”
Helping to create ideal conditions for new growth and new success: that’s the added value Member365 delivers to Orpheus. As Morris concludes: “Without them, we’d still be stuck on a spreadsheet and depending on some social media platform to get our message out to members. Instead, we work smarter now.”
Learn More
Find out today how Member365 can help your membership-based organization grow faster, connect better and serve more.
