Membership Survey Questions: 45 Questions to Ask Your Members

Your membership committee wants to know three things: why event attendance dropped, whether dues feel fair and why 40 members didn't renew last spring. Someone drafts a 38-question survey and sends it the week renewal notices go out. Nine percent of members respond, mostly long-time members, and the answers contradict each other. The committee can't use any of it.

A useful membership survey starts with the decision you need to make, asks 10 to 15 well-built questions, reaches a representative mix of members and ends with visible action. This guide gives you 45 membership survey questions grouped by purpose, a ready-to-use 15-question annual survey, a plain explanation of NPS and CSAT, ways to raise your response rate and a process for turning feedback into changes members notice.

If you're surveying attendees about a specific event, use our separate list of post-event survey questions. This guide covers surveys about the membership as a whole.

Start With the Decision, Then Pick the Survey Type

Before you write a single question, finish this sentence: "We'll use the results to decide…" For example: "…whether to keep the Thursday lunch series or move it online" or "…which two benefits to fund next year." Any question that doesn't inform a decision is a candidate for cutting.

Different decisions call for different surveys:

Keep a simple survey calendar so no member gets more than a few requests a year. Survey fatigue is real, and it hits your most engaged members hardest, because they're the ones who respond.

45 Membership Survey Questions by Purpose

Copy, adapt and combine these. The answer format in parentheses is a suggestion; change it to fit your organization.

Why members joined and what they want

1. What was the main reason you joined? (Single choice: your five to seven main benefits, plus "Other")
2. What do you most want from your membership over the next 12 months? (Open text)
3. How did you first hear about us? (Single choice: friend or colleague, event, search, social media, employer, school, other)
4. Which statement best describes your involvement right now? (I mostly read updates / I take part now and then / I take part regularly / I volunteer or hold a role)

Benefit awareness and use

5. Which of these benefits did you know were part of your membership? (Checklist)
6. Which of these benefits have you used in the past 12 months? (Checklist)
7. How valuable was each benefit you used? (Matrix: not valuable, somewhat, very, extremely, did not use)
8. Is there something you expected when you joined that you haven't found? (Open text)
9. If we added one new benefit, which would matter most to you? (Single choice from four to six options you're actually considering, plus "Other")

Questions 5 and 6 work as a pair. A benefit that few members know about has an awareness problem. A benefit members know about but don't use has a value problem. The fixes are different.

Satisfaction and value

10. Overall, how satisfied are you with your membership? (Very dissatisfied to very satisfied, 5 points)
11. How would you rate the value you get for your annual dues? (Very poor to excellent, 5 points)
12. How likely are you to recommend membership to a friend or colleague? (0 to 10)
13. What's the main reason for the score you just gave? (Open text)
14. Compared with a year ago, is your membership more valuable, about the same or less valuable to you? (Three options)

Programs, events and content

15. Which kinds of activities would you like more of? (Checklist of your formats, such as workshops, socials, service projects, tours, online sessions)
16. When are you most able to take part? (Weekday mornings, weekday lunch, weekday evenings, weekends, on demand)
17. Do you prefer in-person, online or a mix? (Single choice)
18. Which topics or skills should we focus on next year? (Checklist plus open text)

Barriers to participation

19. What, if anything, has kept you from taking part as much as you'd like? (Checklist: time, schedule, cost, distance, didn't know about it, didn't feel it was for me, accessibility, childcare or caregiving, other)
20. How easy is it to find out what's coming up? (Very difficult to very easy, 5 points)
21. Is there anything that would make our events, spaces or materials more accessible for you? (Open text, optional)

Communication

22. How do you prefer to hear from us? (Checklist: email, text message, app notifications, printed mail, social media, phone)
23. How often would you like to hear from us? (Weekly, every two weeks, monthly, quarterly)
24. How useful is our newsletter to you? (Not useful to very useful, plus "I don't read it")
25. Have you recently looked for information from us and not found it? What was it? (Open text)

Belonging and community

26. How connected do you feel to other members? (Not at all to very connected, 5 points)
27. How many members would you feel comfortable contacting for advice or help? (None, 1–2, 3–5, 6 or more)
28. How welcome did you feel at your first event or meeting? (5 points, plus "I haven't attended")

Dues and pricing

29. How do you feel about the current dues amount? (Too low, about right, a little high, much too high)
30. Would you consider a higher tier that included [specific benefit] for [$X] more per year? (Yes, maybe, no)

Renewal intent

31. How likely are you to renew when your membership comes due? (Definitely won't, probably won't, not sure, probably will, definitely will)
32. If you're unsure about renewing, what's the main reason? (Single choice plus open text)
33. What one change would make you more likely to stay a member for years? (Open text)

Volunteering and leadership

34. Would you like to volunteer with us? (Yes, an ongoing role / yes, occasional tasks / maybe later / no)
35. About how much time could you give in a typical month? (Under 1 hour, 1–3 hours, 4–8 hours, more)
36. Which areas interest you most? (Checklist: events, welcoming new members, mentoring, communications, fundraising, committees, board service)

Open-ended wrap-up

37. What's the best thing about being a member? (Open text)
38. If you could change one thing about our organization, what would it be? (Open text)

Profile questions (optional)

39. How long have you been a member? (Ranges)
40. Which age range are you in? (Ranges, plus "Prefer not to say")

Skip profile questions you can answer from your member records, and make every demographic question optional with a "Prefer not to say" choice.

New-member check-in

41. How clear was the information you received after joining? (Very unclear to very clear, 5 points)
42. Have you found at least one activity or benefit that fits what you were looking for? (Yes, not yet, I haven't looked yet, plus open text)

Non-renewal (exit) survey

43. What was the main reason you decided not to renew? (Single choice: cost, didn't use it enough, moved, changed jobs or retired, schedule, experience with the organization, forgot, other)
44. Was there a point when membership started to feel less worthwhile? What happened? (Open text)
45. What, if anything, would bring you back? (Open text)

Ready-to-Use Template: A 15-Question Annual Member Survey

This combination covers goals, use, satisfaction, barriers, communication, belonging and renewal in about ten minutes. Test the timing with a few members and state the real number in your invitation.

[Organization name] Annual Member Survey

Thank you for taking about 10 minutes to help plan next year.
Your answers are confidential: only the membership committee sees
individual responses, and we report results as totals.
The survey closes on [date].

1.  Which statement best describes your involvement right now?     (Q4)
2.  Which of these benefits have you used in the past 12 months?   (Q6)
3.  How valuable was each benefit you used?                        (Q7)
4.  Overall, how satisfied are you with your membership?          (Q10)
5.  How would you rate the value you get for your annual dues?    (Q11)
6.  How likely are you to recommend membership to a friend
    or colleague? (0-10)                                          (Q12)
7.  What's the main reason for the score you just gave?           (Q13)
8.  Which kinds of activities would you like more of?             (Q15)
9.  When are you most able to take part?                          (Q16)
10. What, if anything, has kept you from taking part as much
    as you'd like?                                                (Q19)
11. How do you prefer to hear from us?                            (Q22)
12. How connected do you feel to other members?                   (Q26)
13. How likely are you to renew when your membership comes due?   (Q31)
14. If you could change one thing about our organization,
    what would it be?                                             (Q38)
15. How long have you been a member? (optional)                   (Q39)

Thank you. We'll share what we heard and what we're changing by [date].

Pair it with a short invitation from a real person:

Subject: 10 minutes to shape next year at [Organization]

Hi [First name],

Every year we ask members what's working and what isn't, and we use the answers to set next year's program and budget. [Last year, you told us evening events were hard to reach, so we added a monthly online session.]

This year's survey takes about 10 minutes and closes on [date]: [link]

Thank you for helping us get this right.

[Name], [Role]

NPS, CSAT and Other Satisfaction Scores Explained

Satisfaction scores turn many opinions into one number you can track.

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

NPS uses question 12: "How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?" on a 0–10 scale. According to Bain & Company's description of the method, you subtract the percentage of detractors (scores 0 to 6) from the percentage of promoters (9 or 10). Passives (7 or 8) count in the total but not in the subtraction. The result ranges from −100 to +100.

Worked example: 240 members answer. 108 give a 9 or 10 (45%), 84 give a 7 or 8 (35%) and 48 give 0 to 6 (20%). NPS = 45 − 20 = +25.

Customer satisfaction score (CSAT)

CSAT uses a direct satisfaction question, like question 10, and reports the share of respondents who chose the top two answers. If 176 of 240 members choose "satisfied" or "very satisfied," CSAT is 176 ÷ 240 = 73%.

Comparing the main scores

There's no reliable public benchmark for a "good" score in membership organizations, so compare against your own trend, measured the same way each year. Watch small samples: with 60 responses, one member moving from detractor to promoter changes NPS by 3.3 points. Pair every score with an open "why" question, because only the comments tell you what to fix.

Survey Design Rules That Improve Your Data

Small wording choices change the answers you get. Pew Research Center's guide to writing survey questions is a good reference. These rules matter most for member surveys:

• One idea per question. A question that asks about two things at once is hard to answer and impossible to interpret.
• Offer real choices instead of agree/disagree statements. Pew notes that people tend to agree with statements put in front of them, so give respondents alternatives to choose between.
• Balance and label your scales. Use the same number of positive and negative options, label every point and keep the direction consistent throughout.
• Ask general questions before specific ones. Earlier questions shape answers to later ones. Ask overall satisfaction before detailed benefit ratings, so one complaint doesn't color the overall score.
• Include an exit option. Add "I haven't used this" or "Doesn't apply" so members don't guess.
• Design for phones. Many members will answer on a phone. Avoid wide grids where possible and keep open-text boxes optional.
• Be accurate about privacy. "Anonymous" means you can't connect answers to a person. If you use personal links or ask for a name, say "confidential" and explain who sees what.
• Test with five members before sending, and fix anything they misread.

How to Raise Your Survey Response Rate

Two numbers tell you how your survey performed:

Response rate   = completed surveys ÷ members invited × 100
Completion rate = completed surveys ÷ surveys started × 100

If you invite 850 members, 260 start and 212 finish, your response rate is 24.9% and your completion rate is 81.5%. A low completion rate signals a survey that's too long or a question that drives people away.

There's no universal "good" response rate for member surveys. What matters more is whether respondents look like your membership:

Here, first-year members are badly underrepresented, so the results mostly reflect long-time members. A targeted reminder or a few phone calls would fix the picture. Your member database supplies the membership side of this comparison.

Tactics that help:

1. Send from a person, such as the president or membership chair, not from a no-reply address.
2. Say why, how long and what happens next in the first two lines of the invitation.
3. Show past results. "Last year you told us X, so we did Y" is the strongest reason to respond.
4. Pick a quiet week. Avoid renewal season, major holidays and your biggest event.
5. Make it one click. No login and no password.
6. Remind non-responders only, twice at most, and close on the stated date.
7. Use more than one channel. Add a QR code at meetings, a post in your app and phone calls for members who rarely use email.
8. Keep incentives small and certain. A thank-you such as a free coffee at the next meeting often works as well as a big prize. If you run a prize drawing, check your state's rules first, because they vary.
9. Write a clear subject line. Our guide to email subject lines and open rates has examples.

A simple schedule:

Analyze Results and Turn Them Into Action

Work through the results in a fixed order so the loudest comments don't drive every decision.

1. Clean the data. Remove test responses and duplicates.
2. Segment the results by tenure, membership type and level of involvement. Averages hide the differences that matter.
3. Link satisfaction to behavior. Compare renewal intent with benefit use. If members who used no benefits are far less likely to renew, your priority is helping members start using them, not adding new ones. After renewal season, check intent against your actual member retention rate to see how well the survey predicted it.
4. Code the open comments. Read every comment and tag it with a theme, such as "schedule," "cost," "new member welcome" or "communication overload." Count the tags. Twenty comments about evening scheduling outweigh one passionate paragraph.
5. Plot importance against satisfaction. For each benefit, compare how important members say it is with how satisfied they are.

6. Choose three actions, each with an owner and a date. More than three rarely gets done. Our list of member benefits ideas can help when the data shows a gap you need to fill.

If your form tool can show results as charts and export responses, this step goes much faster. In campai, questionnaires can show follow-up questions based on earlier answers, display results in charts, calculate averages for rating fields and export responses as CSV or Excel files.

Close the Loop and Keep Listening

Feedback only builds trust when members see what happened to it.

• Publish "You said, we did" within 30 to 45 days. List three things you heard, what you're changing, and one thing you can't change and why. Put it in your newsletter and say it out loud at the next meeting.
• Follow up on individual problems. If a member reports a specific issue and leaves contact details, respond personally within a set time, such as two business days. Acknowledge, fix or explain, and record the outcome.
• Report to the board with the scores, the top themes and the three actions, not 40 pages of charts. The membership committee usually owns this report.

Surveys are only one way to listen. Combine them so you hear from members year-round:

Quick polls work best where members already talk to each other. In the campai Community App, teams can run polls with a closing date to choose the next outing or a meeting time. Results from all these channels feed directly into your member retention strategies and your member journey map.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many questions should a membership survey have?

For an annual survey, 12 to 15 questions that take about ten minutes is a practical limit for most organizations. Pulse surveys should have one to three questions, and new-member or exit surveys four to six. Test the timing and state it honestly in the invitation.

What is a good response rate for a member survey?

There's no reliable universal benchmark. What matters more is whether respondents reflect your membership by tenure, type and involvement, so compare the two and follow up with underrepresented groups.

Should membership surveys be anonymous?

Anonymous surveys can produce more candid answers, but you can't follow up or link answers to member records. Many organizations use confidential surveys instead, where a small group can see individual answers and results are reported only as totals. Whichever you choose, describe it accurately.

How often should you survey members?

Run one annual survey, a short new-member check-in, an exit survey after lapses and occasional pulse questions. Keep a survey calendar so individual members aren't asked more than a few times a year.

What is a good NPS for a membership organization?

There's no dependable public benchmark for membership organizations. Track your own NPS the same way each year, focus on the reasons behind it and expect small samples to move several points by chance.

What's the difference between NPS and CSAT?

NPS measures willingness to recommend on a 0–10 scale and subtracts detractors from promoters. CSAT measures direct satisfaction, usually as the share of respondents who are satisfied or very satisfied. NPS leans toward loyalty, and CSAT toward how well things are working right now.

Next Steps

1. Write the decision your next survey will inform, and cut any question that doesn't serve it.
2. Start from the 15-question template and swap in questions from the list above that fit your organization.
3. Test it with five members, time it and fix confusing wording.
4. Schedule the invitation and two reminders for a quiet week, and compare respondents with your membership mix before you close.
5. Publish "You said, we did" within 45 days, with three concrete changes.