New Membership Campaign Kicking Off

Lever Press is in the final year of its initial membership funding cycle. Consequently, we are gearing up for our next membership phase. In 2019, the Oversight Committee worked with staff from TBI Consulting, who assessed our membership model and provided guidance on how best to expand our base. With those recommendations in hand, we set the stage in late summer to launch a new membership campaign. To this end, we hired Suzanne Bonefas, a consultant with broad experience in higher education, as our campaign manager. Suzanne is contracted to do the heavy lifting between now and April as we organize and roll out the campaign, specifically, guiding the pre-launch phase—including working with a vendor to create marketing materials—and developing a recruitment plan.

A subgroup of the Oversight Committee is serving as the Campaign Task Force and meeting regularly with Suzanne to move the process forward. We have kicked off the quiet phase of the campaign by holding information sessions for our membership. Those sessions were designed to bring members up to speed on Lever’s current financial position and the campaign, and to solicit input on the campaign plan. If you are a current member and missed the information sessions, just let us know and we’ll be happy to send you a link to the slides and recordings.

Once we formally launch the campaign this spring, we will provide regular progress reports on the Lever website. If you’re ready to sign on now, click the Make a Membership Pledge button at the top of the Join Us page to access the pledge form.

In the meantime, we are seeking stories and testimonials from our current membership that will help us appeal to prospective members. Tell us what you value most about Lever Press!

—Marta Brunner, Lever Press Oversight Committee Chair