Millennials and Gen Z will make up roughly 70% of the workforce within four years. As that shift takes hold, associations are already feeling the pressure. Nearly a third of associations executives say membership retention and engagement is their biggest challenge.
Younger professionals are ambitious, they’re looking for community, and they want resources that help them grow. Associations need to be ready to meet those needs if they want to resonate with the next generation of members.
Multiview set out to better understand the younger professional audience by going directly to them. The resulting Voice of the Member study surveyed individuals within five years of graduating college asking what they knew about associations, what would drive them to engage, and what they needed at this stage of their careers.
Several themes came back clearly. First, awareness wasn't the problem. Most young professionals knew associations existed. What they didn't know was that associations could help them navigate early career growth. Second, they were eager for resources that made career progression feel less uncertain. Coming out of school loaded with knowledge but unprepared for the realities of the working world, they were looking for something to fill that gap. Third, when it came to events and networking, bigger wasn't better. Small, intimate gatherings, mentorship opportunities, and workshops were preferred to large conferences.
The throughline: young professionals aren't disengaged. They're just looking for a reason to engage. For associations willing to respond, this is a wide-open opportunity.
“As a Gen Z professional, I’m proud to work for an association that’s actively investing in and supporting the next generation of leaders,” says AJ Wunder, Membership and Sales Coordinator of FPSA.
FPSA, the Food Production Solutions Association, ran into the same signal through their own workforce study. What they found confirmed what Multiview's research had surfaced: younger members wanted career guidance, a visible path upward, and a sense that someone was invested in their growth.
Rather than sit on the data, FPSA moved.
"Time’s ticking," says Allison Wachter, who leads event and marketing efforts at FPSA. "It's critically important for all associations right now to be thinking about this [shift] If they're not, they're probably behind."
FPSA built two programs from the ground up. The first, the Emerging Leaders program, is a six-month cohort experience designed for professionals who are either new managers or on their way to becoming one. It combines two in-person components, strategically placed in Chicago, where many FPSA members are based, to make travel as frictionless as possible, with hybrid virtual sessions offering flexible scheduling. Professional facilitators were brought on board, with curriculum shaped in part by FPSA's own workforce study data.
The second program, Cultivate Leadership Growth Lab, casts a wider net aimed at the broader Gen Z and millennial audience, and designed intentionally to feel nothing like a traditional conference. "It's not a PowerPoint conference," Wachter says. "It's going to be very hands-on — learn as you go." The two programs are threaded together: Emerging Leaders participants close out their cohort experience at Cultivate, where FPSA board members will also be present for joint meals and a fireside chat.
Both programs were built and launched in roughly four months, by a staff of six.
“The Emerging Leaders program reflects FPSA at its best—innovative, member‑driven, and committed to shaping the future of the industry,” says Chris Mazzon, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at Multiview. “At a time when young professionals are seeking connection, mentorship, and real career momentum, FPSA stepped up with a solution that meets those needs head‑on. It’s a standout example of an association understanding its members’ challenges and delivering real value.”
To help develop an outreach strategy for reaching younger professionals, Wachter is on the search for a marketing intern from that demographic. She’s found candidates through Handshake, a recruiting platform built specifically for college students and recent grads, and selected universities in the local area so the intern could work on-site and be part of the actual strategy conversations.
"Who better to help us reach this audience than the audience itself?" Wachter says.
It's a principle FPSA is applying more broadly. They're asking member companies to designate an emerging professional ambassador — someone from within their own team who can help plan events, participate in the emerging professionals network, and potentially take over social channels to promote programs like Cultivate. The audience isn't just being marketed to. They're being brought inside.
FPSA's story is impressive not just because of what they built, but how — quickly, with limited resources, and with a willingness to iterate as they went. The process wasn’t perfect, and applications came in slower than expected, but they moved forward anyway.
For association leaders wondering whether this kind of effort is achievable, Wachter's experience offers a useful answer: it is, if you're willing to start before you have everything figured out.
Three places to begin:
Ask your members. Survey your younger members directly. Don't assume what they need — the only way to know is to go to the source. The answers may surprise you, and they'll almost certainly be more useful than your best guess.
Build what they tell you — and start small. Act on what you learn, even if the program isn't perfect. The associations that are building something imperfect today will be miles ahead of the ones still planning something perfect in three years.
Bring them into the process. Your audience is your best resource for figuring out how to reach your audience. The more ownership younger professionals feel over the programs designed for them, the more invested they'll be in seeing those programs succeed. Invite them in. Planning committees, interns, and ambassador programs can provide great insight into this demographic.
The workforce shift is already underway. The associations that will thrive aren't necessarily the ones with the biggest budgets or the largest staff. They're the ones that stopped guessing, started listening and then did something about it.
At this point, engaging younger professionals isn’t a question of whether you can afford to invest in it. It’s whether you can afford not to. For many associations, the answer is becoming increasingly clear.