Associations love to talk about fostering a sense of community. But true community is about far more than making people feel welcome at the annual conference coffee station. Community is about ensuring members have access to opportunity, visibility, influence, and a genuine sense of belonging long after they walk through the door.
In associations, we are moving beyond performing with good intentions and seeing a shift in the need for sustainable systems. Industry guidance consistently shows that organizations embracing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are better equipped for growth, innovation, and long-term relevance. Supporting underrepresented groups should not be about checking off a box on a strategic plan. It should focus on building stronger organizations, more innovative leadership pipelines, and healthier professional communities.
Foundations for DEI in the Member Experience
One of the biggest misconceptions associations make is assuming diversity automatically creates inclusion. In reality, diversity opens the door, but inclusion defines the member experience once individuals walk through it.
Recruiting diverse members, appointing diverse board candidates, or featuring diverse speakers may foster a sense of diversity within an association. However, if active or prospective members from underrepresented groups continue to feel unheard, overlooked, or excluded from decision-making, the association has only addressed half of the issues.
When associations begin to ask more meaningful questions, real progress begins:
- Who has easy access to leadership opportunities?
- Who continuously volunteers without recognition?
- Whose expertise is valued and relied on?
- Who leaves the association after one year because they never felt connected?
By focusing less on optics and more on systems, associations can move beyond surface-level diversity efforts and deliver a more inclusive membership experience.
Advice Helps Associations Plan for the Future
Advice is prospective. It’s about imagining what could be: new programs, emerging trends, untapped opportunities. When associations ask for advice, they’re tapping into the collective wisdom of their members to shape the future. Advice invites creativity, foresight, and strategic thinking. It empowers members to co-create the association’s direction, rather than simply react to its decisions. In this way, advice fosters a sense of ownership and belonging. Members aren’t just consumers of value, they’re contributors to it.
Four Ways Associations Can Better Support Underrepresented Groups
1. Build Equitable Leadership Pipelines
Many associations tend to create leadership paths that feel predictable rather than representative by unintentionally relying on the same networks for identifying leaders. Associations can create more equitable leadership pipelines through transparent nomination processes, leadership development programs, sponsorship initiatives, and volunteer opportunities that cultivate emerging leaders from underrepresented groups with more intention.
2. Ensure Recognition Is Inclusive
Associations tend to highlight their most visible contributors out of habit, while many underrepresented members lead important work behind the scenes that fosters stronger member engagement. Associations must evaluate whether their awards, recognitions, and leadership opportunities reflect the full range of contributions to the association.
3. Develop Meaningful Mentorship Programs
Strong mentorship programs should go beyond occasional networking conversations. Effective programs provide structured guidance, exposure to leadership, sponsorship, peer support, and access to decision-makers. Mentorship should help members grow authentically rather than simply encouraging them to fit into existing systems.
4. Participate in Broader Inclusion Initiatives
Associations have an opportunity to support equity both within their organizations and throughout their industries. Partnering with affinity groups, supporting scholarships, improving accessibility, and collaborating with minority-serving institutions are all meaningful ways for associations to demonstrate a long-term commitment to inclusion rather than performative support.
Inclusion Is an Ongoing Practice
A reminder to all associations that inclusion work is never “finished.” There will always be:
- New barriers to address
- Emerging member needs
- Accessibility gaps
- Generational shifts
- Opportunities to improve representation
Emerging associations approach DEI as a part of their organizational culture and governance, not as a temporary initiative. Most importantly, it requires listening to your members’ voices that have historically been underheard. The utmost support associations can provide to underrepresented groups does not center around fairness; it centers on building associations that are more innovative, more credible, and more connected to the industries and communities they serve.
Tyler LeMasters
Tyler joined RGI in May 2025 as Member Services Coordinator for two client. She graduated from Indiana University, Indianapolis, with a B.A. in Liberal Arts and a minor in Medical Humanities and Health Sciences. She has worked at St. Vincent Hospital as well as being a development intern for Women4Change.
When she’s not at work you can find her with friends and family, curling up with a good book, traveling to a new place, and enjoying the outdoors as much as possible.