For more than twenty-five years, the largest and most respected associations in the world have brought us their hardest growth problems. Here’s what that experience has made possible.
3X membership growth. 10X nondues revenue. Membership doubled in three years.
These aren’t edge cases. They’re what happens when associations stop relying on assumptions and start making decisions based on a clear read of what members value and where growth is actually available.
Four service areas. One focus: finding where your next growth opportunity is hiding.
Real associations. Specific results. Including 3X membership growth and $43M in new revenue.
Real associations. Specific results. Including 3X membership growth and $43M in new revenue.
Most associations don’t have an effort problem. They have a clarity problem. Members say they’re satisfied but don’t renew. Recruitment campaigns run but the numbers don’t move. Revenue feels stuck even when the mission is strong. The strategies that worked five years ago produce less than they used to, and it’s not always obvious why.
Sequence helps leaders see what’s actually driving results, and what’s quietly working against them.
We help leadership teams cut through competing priorities and make decisions they can stand behind. Clearer direction, stronger alignment, and a growth plan that reflects what the market is actually telling you.
We diagnose why members join, stay, disengage, and leave, then help you build models and value propositions that work better. Recruitment, retention, segmentation, dues strategy, and the harder question of what membership should mean going forward.
We’re independent, we’re candid, and we’ve been doing this work exclusively for twenty-five years. We don’t bring generic frameworks and apply them to associations. We bring deep knowledge of how associations actually work, where growth typically stalls, and what it takes to move the numbers in a meaningful way.
Leaders rely on us for clarity and results that move their organizations forward. Here’s what they say about the outcomes we achieved together.
Todd Unger | SVP Membership | American Medical Association
David Schutt, PhD | CEO | SAE International
Arthur Evans, PhD | CEO | APA
Margaret Mueller, PhD | CEO | Executives’ Club of Chicago
Here’s what associations can achieve when they work with us.
The AMA doubled its membership growth rate after partnering with Sequence. See the behavior-based segmentation and storytelling strategy that turned physician apathy into record membership.
The AMA was reaching just 1% of employed physicians — because the membership model was built for a world that no longer existed. See how a new health system model drove record total membership.
AARP understood the 50+ consumer better than any organization on earth — and brands were failing to reach that audience. See how they turned that expertise into a $43 million marketing agency in three years.
SAE had an asset no competitor could replicate. See how they built a new business around it and grew non-dues revenue tenfold in three years.
The Executives' Club of Chicago doubled membership in three years. See the innovative engagement strategy we developed to restructure their model and reframe their value proposition.
ACR grew membership 50% in three years by rebuilding its model around how rheumatology is actually practiced — as a team. See how that shift nearly tripled interprofessional membership.
Chris and Lisa Vaughan left big strategy consulting in 2001 to build a firm focused exclusively on associations. The work was too important to be treated as a side practice. Here’s how we approach growth, how we partner with leaders, and the results that focus has made possible.
Twenty-five years. Hundreds of engagements. Every one of them with an association that had real work to do and needed a partner who understood the stakes. That’s still what drives us.
Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer
Chris brings a philosopher’s clarity and a strategist’s discipline. He helps associations cut through noise, get to the heart of an issue, and make decisions they can stand behind..
Lisa has a gift for making big goals feel possible. She helps teams sort out what matters most, build plans they can own, and keep moving even when the work gets complex.
What’s coming next for associations? These are the trends every leader should be watching and acting on.
Most associations that call us start with one question: why isn’t our growth strategy working the way it used to? If that question sounds familiar, it’s worth a conversation.