How Do You Market Civic Associations and HOAs?

In addition to our closed Facebook group, email blasts, & newsletters, we also try to cross-promote with the other groups of our community, namely the swim club & the PTA. We announce their events and co-sponsor activities with them & vice versa. We have also tried to make it easier for residents to pay dues by accepting credit card payments via Square & PayPal. I prefer Square because the service fees are lower per transaction than PayPal, and you also have a better point-of-sale system. Not everyone will carry cash or check with them, but they will most likely have a credit card. Using that allows us to pitch the association & sign them up on the spot. We have also added recommended donation blocks, newsletter ad sales, and volunteer opportunities as shopping cart options. Lastly, we have an annual Clean Up Day in May where a lot of residents pay their dues (despite being due in January). Following that event, we reconcile the members on record for the current year against the members on record from the previous year. For those who have not renewed their dues, we hand deliver gentle, "We hope it was an oversight on our part" letters encouraging folks to renew their dues. In some cases, we learn that residents have moved, or they did pay and it somehow did not get accounted for.

We are a civic association. Our dues are $15/year and Square's flat transaction fee of 2.75% equates to a $0.41 surcharge per dues transaction. PayPal is I believe 2.4% + $0.30 which equates to $0.66 per dues transaction.