For a membership-driven organization to thrive, it needs to understand its members. As obvious as that is, many organizations take members for granted until it is too late. The Colorado Library Consortium (CLiC) did not want to be such an organization. In fact, CLiC keenly understood that it could only be as strong and vibrant as it wanted to be if its member libraries saw it as an essential partner and fully understood all the ways they are able to engage with CLiC to cost-effectively enhance their own service offerings.

CLiC asked JVA to host member focus groups and conduct member, staff and board surveys to help CLiC understand how its members perceive CLiC and its products and services. Because CLiC wanted the research to inform a rebranding effort, we also tested CLiC’s current messaging and the degree to which member perceptions of the organization were aligned with CLiC’s mission, vision and values.

CLiC told our team that it specifically wanted to work with a firm that would treat CLiC as a collaborative partner in the process and not merely as a client.

“JVA always wants to work as closely with clients as possible,” said Laura Morales, JVA managing associate for research and evaluation. “The closer we can work with a client and the more engaged a client is in the entire process, the better the results are. With CLiC, I feel like we learned from each other every step of the way. The insights that staff and board members shared with us from beginning to end made all the difference in the success of this project.”

CLiC assistant director Elizabeth Kelsen Huber said JVA’s final report to CLiC is everything the organization could have hoped for.

“We had a great discussion after you left (the meeting where the report was presented) about some of the areas for improvement and next steps. The staff were really engaged and it was exciting,” she said.

“I am so thrilled. You have given me so much to work with for the rebranding. Thank you! The data reinforced a few beliefs that we already had and several things to improve upon.”