Loss is never easy in associations. Whether you're running a small trade body or a large membership organisation, making a loss can leave leaders with searching questions. And loss takes many forms:

Losing Members
Members leave their associations for all sorts of reasons: shifts in focus, budget cuts, restructuring. Often, it’s not about you. But sometimes, it is. Perhaps your work isn’t resonating like it used to, and that’s worth examining.

Losing Revenue
A financial hit might be routine in the corporate world, but associations rarely have the same financial cushions. More than just going into the red, a loss could signal a trend that needs attention.

Losing Impact
Campaigns that once cut through may now fall flat. Journalists might stop calling. Your usual political allies might have moved on. On addition, your analytics are all over the chart and your content is struggling to surface.

The good news is that none of this is permanent. So what do you do?

1. Don’t panic.
It’s natural to feel frustrated or even demoralised when the association so close to your heart and professional life takes a downward turn. So it's worth being clear that we exist in challenging times and that setbacks are a normal part of the life cycle of any organisation.

2. Don’t ignore it and hope things turn around.
Wishful thinking isn’t a strategy. Losses don’t usually correct themselves without intervention. The earlier you engage with the problem, the more options you’ll have to address it effectively. Waiting too long only narrows your path to recovery.

3. Diagnose the problem dispassionately.
Take an analytical lens to what’s going on. Are your association's losses due to external factors, internal missteps, or a combination of both? What data do you have? What are your members or audiences saying, or not saying? If separating your team from this analysis feels tough, bring in an outside perspective. (Hexagon can help!)

4. Solve it in a time-bound, measurable way.
Set goals, timelines, and metrics to track your progress towards recovery.

• Lost £10k this year? Set a plan to earn it back over the next 12 months. Break it down: new members, fundraising, sponsorships, events, or new revenue levers.

• Lost 10 members? Conduct a structured exit analysis. Talk to your team, talk to the members who left, if possible, and gather insights. Use those to strengthen your value proposition to win back the losses.

• Lost impact? Audit your communications. Look at messaging, channels, audiences, relationships. Then trial new approaches and measure what lands.

These actions will stop these losses from feeling like a loss of control.