Key Takeaways
- Chambers have a limited planning window left in 2026 once holidays, events, and staff leave are factored in.
- A year-end health check can reveal where member engagement, retention, and non-dues revenue are performing well and where gaps need attention.
- Non-dues revenue now accounts for about 62% of annual chamber revenue, according to recent ACCE data.
- Engagement and retention should be reviewed alongside revenue because weak member value can undermine future sponsorship, event, and program performance.
- AVARAN Chamber Solutions recommends using current performance data as the baseline for setting 2027 goals, strategies, and tactics.
Why Start 2027 Planning With A Chamber Health Check?
By October, the calendar starts closing quickly for chambers of commerce. Once Thanksgiving, Christmas, year-end events, board commitments, and staff vacation time are taken into account, there may be only a handful of productive weeks left to solidify a 2027 business plan.
This time crunch creates pressure to move immediately into goal-setting. How much sponsorship revenue should the chamber generate next year? Which events could be expanded? Should it introduce a new fee-for-service program? Are there opportunities to grow foundation funding or create new investor packages?
Those are worthwhile questions, but AVARAN Chamber Solutions recommends starting with a thorough health check first. Before deciding what should change in 2027, chambers should establish a clear picture of where they will stand at the end of 2026.
Why Non-Dues Revenue Deserves A Close Look
For many chambers, non-dues revenue is no longer secondary income. ACCE’s 2025 Chamber Operations Survey found that non-dues sources generated about 62% of total annual chamber revenue for the third consecutive year. The share has also increased steadily over the past decade.
That makes revenue diversification a major part of chamber sustainability. Common sources can include sponsorships, events, investor programs, advertising, fee-for-service activities, foundation funding, training programs, travel, economic research, and other mission-aligned initiatives.
But a list of possible revenue ideas is not the same thing as a strategy. A chamber could add another event, increase sponsorship prices, or create a new program without first understanding whether members are engaged enough to support it, whether sponsors see sufficient value, or whether staff have the capacity to deliver it well. A health check helps bring these issues into the planning process.
Start With Member Engagement
Member engagement is one of the first areas worth reviewing because it gives context to almost everything else. A chamber may have hundreds or even thousands of members, but membership count alone says little about how actively those businesses participate.
Look at attendance across events and programs. Review email engagement, committee participation, referrals, educational programs, advocacy involvement, sponsorship activity, and other meaningful interactions.
The aim is not to create one universal engagement score. Different members engage for different reasons. A small business owner may primarily value networking and referrals, while a major employer may care more about advocacy, workforce development, or regional economic initiatives.
The more useful question is whether members are participating in ways that reflect the value proposition being offered to them.
That makes engagement data particularly useful during year-end planning. If attendance is declining in one program but increasing in another, the chamber may want to shift resources accordingly. These findings can then influence which revenue opportunities make sense for 2027.
Look At Retention Before Setting Growth Targets
A chamber can continue recruiting new members while quietly losing existing ones at a rate that limits overall growth. That is why year-end planning should look beyond total membership numbers.
Review the overall retention rate, then break it down where possible. Are newer members leaving more often than established members? Are small businesses renewing at different rates than larger employers? Are there patterns around particular industries, membership levels, or participation levels?
It can also help to compare engagement and retention together. If members who attend events, participate in committees, or use specific benefits renew at higher rates, that may point toward activities worth strengthening.
If highly engaged members are still leaving, the chamber may need to investigate other issues, such as pricing, communication, changing business needs, or perceived return on membership.
New non-dues programs may bring in income, but weakening membership could still reduce event participation, sponsorship demand, referrals, and long-term organizational stability.
Audit Current Non-Dues Revenue Before Adding More
Once engagement and retention are understood, chambers can take a harder look at non-dues revenue itself.
Start with what already exists. Which programs generated revenue in 2026? Which met or exceeded their targets? Which required significant staff time but delivered limited return?
Events are a good example. A large annual event may generate impressive gross revenue, but that number does not tell the full story. Staff hours, venue costs, food, production, marketing, and other expenses all affect its actual contribution.
The same principle applies to sponsorship packages, training programs, publications, advertising, affinity programs, and other revenue streams.
Review both financial performance and strategic value. Some programs may generate modest direct revenue while creating strong member engagement or supporting an important community objective. Others may bring in revenue but consume disproportionate resources.
The goal is not simply to generate more income from more places. It is to understand which revenue streams support the chamber’s priorities, provide value to members and partners, and can be delivered sustainably.
Identify Revenue Concentration And Gaps
A health check should also ask how dependent the chamber is on individual revenue sources.
If a large percentage of non-dues revenue comes from one annual event or a small group of sponsors, that concentration may create risk. A single cancellation, sponsor departure, or economic change could have an outsized effect on the budget.
On the other hand, a chamber may discover areas where demand already exists, but revenue opportunities have not been fully developed.
A year-end review helps leadership identify these opportunities based on actual member behavior and organizational strengths rather than simply adopting whatever another chamber is doing.
Turn The Findings Into 2027 Priorities
The value of a health check comes from what happens next. Once chamber leaders understand the current position, they can set more grounded goals.
If retention is slipping among first-year members, improving onboarding and early engagement may deserve priority before launching another major revenue initiative.
If a particular program consistently attracts members and sponsors, there may be room to expand it.
If one event generates substantial revenue but little engagement and consumes significant staff capacity, leadership may decide to redesign it rather than automatically increasing its target.
The same data can help shape tactics. A broad objective such as “increase non-dues revenue” becomes more useful when leadership knows which programs have room to grow, which member segments are engaged, where sponsors see value, and where revenue is overly concentrated.
Use The Remaining Planning Window Wisely
By the final quarter of the year, chambers do not have unlimited time to build their next annual plan.
That makes sequencing important. AVARAN Chamber Solutions recommends beginning with the health check because it gives leadership a factual starting point before conversations turn to budgets, targets, programs, and new revenue ideas.
Review engagement. Understand retention. Audit non-dues revenue. Identify concentration risks and overlooked opportunities.
Then set the goals. Non-dues revenue is already responsible for a substantial share of chamber income, and the opportunities available to chambers continue to evolve. But stronger revenue planning starts with understanding the organization that exists today.
A focused year-end health check can give chambers that clarity and provide a more useful foundation for the strategies and tactics that will shape 2027.
AVARAN Chamber Solutions
phyllis@avaran-chambersolutions.com
37 Ridge Road
Ravena
New York
12143
United States
