Member Satisfaction Survey Report
In May 2025, SIA distributed a membership satisfaction survey, which was emailed to the 18,672 members with an email address in our database. 2,631 members responded to the survey (about 11% of our total membership). Respondents represented various age groups and lengths of membership.
We received responses from every region—however, over 70% of responses were from the US and Canada, so there is an opportunity to enhance engagement in Latin America and Asia.
If you took the survey, you may remember it was quite long—over 100 questions! We plan to streamline before we send it out again in 2027. Because of its length, we are not sharing every piece of data from the survey. The satisfaction rates are rounded up or down to the nearest whole number. Additionally, if the numbers shared do not equal 100%, it means we are leaving out the percentage of members who responded “neutral” to focus on the key metrics.
We asked detailed questions about member satisfaction in the following areas:
Club Leadership & Staff , Leadership Development , Language Accessibility, Marketing & Communications , Program & Mission, Fund Development & Donors
Overall Satisfaction
76% rated their overall experience with SIA positively. While only a small portion expressed any dissatisfaction (4%), 20% were neutral.
91% said they would recommend SIA membership to a friend. This indicates a strong sense of loyalty to the organization and is worth celebrating!
“91% would recommend SIA membership to a friend.”
Areas of Strength
72% are satisfied with how the Dream Programs contribute to their member experience.
80% of donors are satisfied with how their contributions to Soroptimist’s Dream Programs are used, and just 1% are dissatisfied.
80% are satisfied with Best for Women e-newsletter. Only 1% were dissatisfied.
Club leaders scored 84% satisfaction from members for being champions of the mission of SIA.
“80% are satisfied with Best for Women e-newsletter and how their contributions support the Dream Programs.”
Areas of Improvement
We identified some areas where improvements can be made. Many of them have a theme of lack of awareness, understanding or use of existing resources by members.
57% were satisfied with SIA’s website. 17% were dissatisfied, mostly because they could not find what they were looking for or struggled to pay dues on the portal.
66% were satisfied with the 2031 Big Goal while 21% were neutral. 9% stated they were unaware of the 2031 Big Goal, highlighting an opportunity to enhance communication and education regarding this initiative, though just 4% were dissatisfied.
Respondents scored club leaders 67% satisfaction for their ability to clearly communicate organizational goals on the strategic plan and/or club roadmap.
26% contacted SIAHQ in the last year. Of that group, 70% were satisfied with the service they received. 15% were dissatisfied, with the most common reason being that they called or emailed and did not receive a response. This is a definite area of improvement that SIAHQ has flagged and is working on.
Of the leadership development opportunities and events that SIA offers, #SIALeadtoAchieve scored the highest for “not applicable” (for members who did not participate) at 72% and had the lowest satisfaction score of 49%. On-demand webinars had 52% “not applicable” score and 66% satisfaction.
Interpretation and translation services received scores of 67% and 70% satisfaction, respectively, noting that some interpreters were not prepared, did not know our terminology, or provided inaccurate translations for their region.
Conclusions and Action Steps
SIA is committed to showing our members that we see, hear and value your concerns—even if we cannot address every one of them. While change won’t happen overnight, we will evaluate our existing work plans to determine what we can implement or budget for in the future. Below are some conclusions drawn from the data above, along with common themes from open-ended comments and next steps.
“SIA is committed to showing our members that we see, hear and value your concerns.”
One clear takeaway is that the value of membership needs clarification; therefore, SIA suggests the following:
Develop a yearly report that details what SIA Headquarters staff did for members each year in terms of tactical progress towards objectives and operational work to support members.
All membership benefits should be articulated clearly and promoted often in our existing communication platforms, including networking, community building, and relationships, in addition to our mission. These include existing pillar resources (especially for fundraising and membership), club administration tools, webinars, Soroptimist UpliftHER, and #SIALeadtoAchieve.
Create and share a blog post introducing the SIA Board of Directors and staff annually. Include contact information for staff so that members can resolve their issues more directly.
Consider ways to increase the connection between membership and SIA Headquarters staff, like the ability for clubs to request a SIA Headquarters staff member to virtually attend a club event.
To address the feeling that too much is asked of members, SIA suggests the following:
Consider the use of paid ads on social media to promote membership recruitment and new donors.
Continue the work to improve the club chartering process so new members have a clearer understanding of the organization.
Review existing membership resources and make improvements, particularly regarding the new member funnel.
Continue examining SIA’s overarching event model for ways to reduce event costs for members and the organization.
In the next biennium, partner with the Region Education Chairs to encourage clubs and regions to rely on SIA Headquarters as the primary provider of role specific, club operations and leadership development training.
Additionally, open-ended feedback indicated that there is confusion about leadership roles. SIA is planning the following:
Create training resources about the club roadmap and review club administration guidance for new leaders so that they know what is expected and can do their duties well.
Consider bite-sized ways to provide information and amplify existing resources, such as a regular social media/Best for Women series where each pillar promotes resources and information.
While SIA is in a transitional space with the website and database, they are considering the following ways to improve member experiences with technology:
An evergreen section of Best for Women that links to various resources by pillar area and language to help members more easily locate required resources.
Engage a committee of members during the discovery and user-testing phases for future technology projects, such as the member resource library, to help ensure a smoother rollout.
Continue work plan to enhance the existing member portal experience.
Finally, SIA is committed to improving the experience of members who need assistance from headquarters by taking the following steps:
Review translation and interpretation quality to ensure all members can participate fully in our offerings and ensure each event has a survey question about interpretation quality.
Phone systems will be assessed and tested to ensure that all extensions are current and lead to active staff members and voicemail inboxes, so no calls go unresolved for lengthy periods due to being misrouted.
Continue to work on increasing first touch resolution for member care calls and emails.
Consider adding standing monthly open office hours for members to receive assistance with the portal or accessing resources with staff on a Zoom call.
Consider if SIA volunteer leaders can provide staff with training and insights into their cultures so we can learn more to address feedback about being too US-centric.
Of course, while SIA can take action, the local experience within each member’s club, district and region is a key driver of satisfaction. All members can help by supporting the following actions:
When it is available, sign and abide by the Member and Leader Code of Conduct to reduce civility issues at the local level and provide more structure to address them.
Ensure Best for Women is promoted as the primary news source from SIA so that new and existing members know to turn to it for events and resources.
Promote Big Goal Accelerator Projects to align non-mission-focused projects, as new members join for our Dream Programs and mission.
Take a moment to consider what your club—or even you personally—can do to improve the Soroptimist experience. Listening to a new member’s ideas, helping someone navigate their leadership position, or making sure other members read Best for Women for all the latest news and information are all small ways you can help increase retention and make Soroptimist the best it can be!
Questions? Please email Jackie@soroptimist.org.
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