As an association leader, you see firsthand the hard work that goes into managing these organizations. While this process requires significant effort and coordination, supporting your members with opportunities for education and networking can be very rewarding.

For instance, you might watch a member go from an entry-level employee to a seasoned leader with numerous professional contacts. Your community of professionals and the educational opportunities you offer are what build the connections and resources that make these transformations possible. But to build this supportive community, your organization must invest in the right association management platform.

In this guide, we’ll cover the basics of association management software (AMS) platforms and what to look for in a solution:

• What is an AMS platform?
• Why should your association use an AMS platform?
• What should associations consider when choosing association management software?
• What are the essential AMS platform features to look out for?
• What are some of the top AMS platforms?

Whether your association already has an association management system or has never used one before, it’s worth learning more about the purpose of the software, essential features to watch for, and more. Let’s start with the basics by defining what an AMS platform is.

What is an AMS platform?

An AMS platform is a software solution equipped with all the tools your association needs to manage members and program operations. Typically, AMS platforms offer features like:

• A robust, cloud-based member database
• Membership management capabilities
• Membership directories
• Billing and payment processing tools
• Online community capabilities
• An online store
• Reporting tools
• Event planning, registration, and management features
• Marketing tools

AMS platforms keep all important association data on one secure platform, making it easy to organize, analyze, and report.

Additionally, this software can automate repetitive tasks and set up self-service functions for members, saving your staff time on administrative duties. For example, e-commerce features allow members to purchase event registration or merchandise independently without assistance from a staff member.

What is the difference between a CRM and an AMS platform?

The terms “CRM” and “AMS” are often conflated, and it can be difficult for associations to determine which one would best serve their needs.

AMS platforms are designed to manage the specific, day-to-day tasks associated with operating a member-based organization. A customer relationship management (CRM) system can be used by all kinds of organizations to manage relationships with the organization’s contacts, track interactions, and drive revenue.

Here are a few quick facts about each of these tools:

AMS software:

• Facilitates day-to-day operations and member engagement strategies
• Is built for membership organizations, such as trade and professional associations
• Offers core functions like membership management, dues processing, event registration, committee tracking, member engagement, and financial reporting

CRM software:

• Manages relationships with contacts and tracks interactions with them
• Is built for all types of organizations, used most commonly among larger ones
• Includes core functions like pipeline tracking, lead nurturing, contact segmentation, marketing automation, and contact service and support ticketing

As you can see, each of these tools supports different areas of your association’s operations. That’s why it’s best to choose either a CRM that can integrate with your association management technology or opt for a CRM-based AMS.

CRM-based AMS platforms like Protech mesh the tools together, meaning all of your member data, analytics and reporting capabilities, and other essential association management tools will be housed on one streamlined platform. This option is ideal because it offers the best of both worlds, meaning you’ll never have to choose between an AMS or CRM again.

Why should your association use an AMS platform?

AMS platforms exist to make your life easier and bring members the valuable experiences and opportunities they deserve. Implementing or upgrading your association management solution can offer a host of benefits by solving common challenges like:

• Fragmented or siloed data. When associations use several solutions to manage their operations, data is stored in multiple locations. This makes it difficult to compile data and gain a truly comprehensive overview.
  • Solution: Because your AMS can manage all essential association operations and store your member data, all critical information is stored on a unified platform.
• Inefficient member engagement. It can be difficult to learn about members’ preferences and interests, and personalizing communications on a large scale is virtually impossible without the right tools.
  • Solution: AMS platforms allow you to automate emails, newsletters, targeted content and recommendations, and other communications based on member preferences. Boost engagement by providing and promoting engagement opportunities members truly want to participate in.
• Difficulty planning events. Events involve so many moving parts, and most association leaders aren’t event-planning professionals. Plus, you may need to implement several different tools to manage registration, virtual events, and attendee communications.
  • Solution: Choose an AMS containing all the essential event planning tools you need. You’ll be able to track key metrics, facilitate registration, market the event, coordinate with vendors and exhibitors, create and share session schedules, and more.
• Low member retention rates. Low retention rates typically indicate that, for one reason or another, members can’t justify paying the membership fee. In other words, your association isn’t providing the opportunities and value they seek.
  • Solution: Use an AMS platform with a member portal that can house exclusive, gated resources only members can access. Leverage insights from the platform to track and understand members’ preferences and behaviors. Then, customize the resources, educational courses, events, and other content to fit their needs and expectations.

Additionally, AMS platforms can save your staff many hours that would otherwise be spent on administrative tasks that don’t contribute to your association’s growth. Instead, they can invest that time into brainstorming creative ideas, implementing strategic new initiatives, or engaging with members one-on-one.

What should associations consider when choosing association management software?

When investing in association management software for the first time or upgrading your existing platform, the process can feel overwhelming. There are so many considerations to make, and it’s easy to feel lost in lists of providers and product pages.

However, there are some specific steps you can take to help you choose the right provider:

1. Understand your association’s needs. Outline your goals and what you need to accomplish them. Highlight any specific needs or challenges your organization is facing as well.
2. Determine your size and budget. This is define by your current number of staff and members and yearly revenue. Organize a meeting with key stakeholders to determine a reasonable software budget in light of annual revenue.
3. Consider integrations and partnerships. Your association may be retaining some of the other tools and software it already uses to keep operations running smoothly. Decide which tools you’ll keep and look for providers that integrate or partner with them.
4. Research providers. Next, research various AMS platform options by browsing lists of software providers and looking over the information available on their websites. This can help you quickly rule out the options that don’t fit into your current tech stack, wouldn’t meet your association’s needs, or fall outside of your budget.
5. Book association management software demos. Create a list of around three to five potential partners and schedule demos. During each demo, you’ll have the opportunity to see how the software works and ask the sales representative, solutions or systems engineer, and any other product experts attending the call your questions.
6. Ask questions. Attend demos with a prepared list of questions. You might start by asking how they provide support, how long implementation takes, or what the process of transitioning from your current solution to theirs would look like. Include any other questions specific to your industry or organizational needs.

Once your team finds a solution that aligns with your budget, size, needs, goals, and tech stack, you can begin the process of migrating to the new software. You should also ask your provider to assist in facilitating the transition to ensure data is safely and securely migrated from your old system to the new one. Once you’re close to the go live date, you may set up training sessions with staff to get everyone on the same page about how the software works.

What are the essential AMS platform features to look out for?

Membership Management

Membership management features organize member data to provide positive, valuable member experiences. Leverage these tools and your member insights to create educational materials around topics members are interested in, source knowledgeable speakers and presenters, build their professional networks, and assist with upskilling.

Quality AMS platforms include:

• Profiles that members can create and update at any time
• The ability to update payment and membership information
• Self-serve registration for events, membership renewal, and merchandise sales
• Mobile-friendly design

These membership management features are designed to improve member experiences by making it easy for members to complete activities (like registering for an event) independently.

Event Planning & Professional Development

Planning events and professional development opportunities gives members enriching experiences and adds value to your offerings.

Event planning features reduce the time you spend planning and organizing events. They should also track key event metrics like attendance, empower you to attract sponsors and advertisers, and juggle the logistical details. Look for specific features like:

• Simple, easy-to-use registration processes
• Streamlined meeting setup and the ability to create one-time and recurring meetings
• Transaction management for event booths, badges, and sponsorships

Another way to add value for members is to offer educational and professional development opportunities. Create your own courses for members to complete or promote industry-specific certifications that are proven to boost sales or job performance. Look for an AMS with a membership portal that tracks members’ current accreditation or certification status and educational goals with features like:

• Fields for educational history, goals, and certification progress
• A learning management system (LMS) to organize courses, learning materials, and discussions

Your association can use members’ education data to understand their interests and measure engagement in certain courses. Then, use those findings to shape future events and meetings.

e-Commerce & Fundraising

These capabilities are designed to garner more financial support for association initiatives or charitable causes. Secure additional funding for your association by selling merchandise, paid event registration, and educational courses through an e-commerce platform. Many association management software providers include a built-in e-Commerce tool that allows users to:

• Offer discounts and special promotions
• Automatically calculate shipping costs and sales tax, if applicable
• Streamline sales data into your financial reports
• Leverage a secure payment processing system

When it comes to fundraising, your association should be able to create and manage donor profiles to understand donors’ giving behaviors and capitalize on fundraising opportunities. You should also be able to accept recurring gifts, in-kind donations like supplies or pro-bono services, and even charity auction items—all without adding to your staff’s workload.

Data Analytics & Reporting

Data is one of your association’s most valuable and powerful assets. But you need the right software to reveal the insights your organization can use to attract and retain more members.

Track and analyze member data using customizable reports and dashboards. Powerful software makes it quick and easy to generate reports that provide actionable insights you can use to make data-driven decisions. With these features, staff and executives can:

• Share the custom-built dashboards with association staff
• Create visualizations of data
• Collect, store, and manipulate data within one platform
• Build interactive reports

You can also use your AMS to track financial data. Look for a solution that integrates with your preferred financial management software, such as Intuit QuickBooks or Dynamics GP. Solutions that allow staff to automate accounting processes, like entering sales data each month, can save staff members’ time and limit errors that result from manual entry processes.

Marketing

Through your marketing efforts, you can establish your association’s reputation as an organization that provides members with meaningful, professional connections and enriching experiences.

Your AMS platform should offer marketing capabilities that reach untapped audiences of potential members. These offerings simplify the marketing process by:

• Making it easy to create member segments based on a variety of characteristics and classifications
• Allowing staff to send emails to individual members, segments, or your entire organization
• Tracking marketing metrics and campaign progress
• Integrating with other software in your tech stack like your email marketing platform

Because an AMS platform can offer a wide range of marketing capabilities, it’s important to know what your association needs. If you already have an established, effective marketing strategy in place, you might look for an AMS platform with a few marketing tools that integrate with your other systems. On the other hand, smaller associations without a robust marketing strategy can benefit from platforms with more extensive marketing options.

What are some of the top AMS platforms?

Protech

Best for: Associations that use Microsoft and are looking for a solution that will seamlessly integrate with their existing tech stack.

Solution Overview: Protech Associates helps associations streamline operations by automating membership management tasks, payment processing, event planning, and more. Data is consolidated and compiled into convenient reports that help you identify key insights at a glance.

With Protech, leverage powerful features for:

• Membership management: Personalize each member’s experience to boost engagement and retention. Members can access exclusive content via a single sign-on portal, manage payments, register for events, and more from any device.
• Event management: Easily create one-time and recurring meetings to prepare for virtual events. For conferences, manage transactions with registrants and exhibitors from Protech.
• Professional development: Help your members upskill to remain valuable contributors to your field with guided courses and certifications. Track members’ education history in order to better understand their needs and interests.
• Payment processing: Easily accept payments for membership dues, fundraisers, merchandise, and more through Protech’s secure, integrated payment processing system. This top-of-the-line platform makes it possible to handle multicurrency payments, manage digital wallet transactions, detect fraud, update credit card information, and much more.
• Fundraising: Maximize additional revenue streams and easily manage fundraising campaigns. Accept a variety of gifts such as recurring donations and in-kind donations—plus, you can easily manage auction item processes.
• E-commerce: Sell branded merchandise and allow members to register for events in a self-serve online store.

At Protech, we’ve been serving member-based organizations for more than 35 years. Browse our case studies to see how our comprehensive solution benefits the organizations we serve.

Pricing: Reach out to our team to get a quote.

Fonteva

Solution Overview: Fonteva is a Salesforce-native solution. Because it is already built on the world’s number-one CRM, you won’t have to worry about setting up complicated integrations. You’ll have access to the rest of the Salesforce ecosystem, including the huge library of applications on the Salesforce AppExchange. This way, the solution is truly scalable.

Fonteva helps you provide positive member experiences with collaborative communities, member directories, event management tools, secure payment processing, and learning management features. Plus, members can access your resources and community from any device. Customizable dashboards and reports will provide actionable insights for your team.

Fonteva also offers multiple upgrades throughout the year so you can get the most out of our software.

Pricing: Reach out to our team at Fonteva for a quote.

Novi AMS

Best for: Trade associations looking for a tool designed to meet their unique needs.

Solution Overview: Novi AMS was designed by trade association professionals to address pain points that association staff often encounter. Its event management technology, e-Commerce tools, and reporting features help associations stay organized and make progress toward their goals. Novi AMS also integrates with Intuit’s QuickBooks, making it a good option for organizations that already use QuickBooks for financial management.

Pricing: Pricing varies based on your organization’s annual revenue.

Additional Resources

When you have a deeper understanding of AMS platforms and why your association needs one, your staff and leaders are better equipped to choose a solution tailored to your association’s needs. As you research providers and review demos, keep in mind that, above all else, your system should allow staff to understand and manage members’ needs and expectations. For a solution that will help you achieve this (and much more), contact the Protech team to book a demo.

If you want to learn more about AMS platforms and association management tools, check out these additional resources:

• 20+ Association Management Software (AMS) Providers for 2025. Discover 20+ high-quality association management providers that give you member insights and add value to your programs.
• How to Choose a CRM for Associations + 9 Top Providers. Learn more about the difference between an AMS and CRM as well as how to get the best of both solutions.
• One-Stop Buyer’s Guide to Membership Management Software. Get all the facts you need about membership management software, how to choose the right solution, and our top recommendations.