Best Practices

Ellie Braxton began her career in the Chamber of Commerce Industry in 1995 with the Modesto, CA Chamber of Commerce. Her first assignment, develop a retention program for a Chamber that was in an upheaval due to a sudden drop in membership. With input from the Board of Directors, Ellie developed and implemented a retention strategy that decreased the Chamber attrition rate by 10% and from there, Ellie’s lifelong passion for Chambers of Commerce as well as other Membership driven non-profit organizations began. She then spent one year implementing the Annual Fund for California State University – Stanislaus, followed by a five-year engagement as the Director of Membership and Marketing for the Telecom Corridor’s ® Technology Business Council and the Richardson, TX Chamber of Commerce. It was in 2006 while working in Richardson that Ellie hired and then joined one of the top Membership Development companies in the U.S. For ten years, Ellie traveled the US and Canada meeting with more than three hundred Chambers of Commerce, learning their best practices, gathering data, and teaching top leadership of each community the value and importance of their Chamber of Commerce. Equipped with the right tools and information, the leaders of the Chamber learned just how easy it is the sell Chamber membership and even easier to involve others in bringing in new members. Today, Ellie serves as an information and training resource for Chambers of Commerce and other non-profit staff, Board of Directors and volunteers. This accumulation of knowledge gathered from Chambers, Pharmacy Associations, Technology Councils, Economic Development Associations, YMCAs, Alumni Associations and other specific non-profit organizations is now the basis of Ellie’s Best Practices. This information is used to train Chamber Staff, Boards, and key volunteers on how important the Chamber is to the quality of life in their community, how to recruit new members, and how to build more revenue and support for the organization. Call today, to see how Best Practices and the resource of successful processes gathered and implemented can help you improve your membership sales and retention as well as educate your staff, Board, and volunteers on the sales and retention process.