Is Your Association Website Up to Standard for 2026?

Most association websites look fine on the surface. But many are still hard to use, hard to manage, and disconnected from how the association actually operates.

For 2026, the question isn’t “Do we need a redesign?”
It’s “Is our website actually helping our members, staff, and volunteers do their jobs?”

Below are five simple, testable checks you can use to answer that — no theory, no technology debate, just practical reality.

1. Can a New Member Find What They Need in Under Two Minutes?

If someone joined your association today, could they quickly:

• log in
• see upcoming events
• access member-only resources
• update their personal or organisational details

If the answer is no, that’s friction.

And friction loses members — not because they’re unhappy, but because things feel harder than they should be, especially in those first few weeks after joining.

Early member experience matters. If people struggle to find their way around straight away, confidence drops and engagement stalls.

A member portal doesn’t need to be clever or clever-looking. It needs to be clear, obvious, and reliable — so members can get on with why they joined in the first place.

2. Is Your Website Doing Work Your Staff Shouldn’t Be Doing?

Take an honest look at where staff time goes.

If your team is regularly:

• emailing PDFs
• manually updating member records
• resending event details or links

then your website isn’t pulling its weight. A well-set-up association website should reduce admin, not create more of it. If staff are acting as the bridge between members and information, something isn’t working.

3. Does Your Site Reflect How Your Association Actually Works?

Most associations evolve over time. Boards change. Committees form and dissolve. SIGs come and go. Events grow. Resources build up.

The problem? Websites often don’t keep up.

Ask yourself:

• Is the structure of your site clear and logical?
• Do boards, committees, interest groups, events, and resources make sense to someone new?

If only “the person who built it” understands how things fit together, that’s a risk — especially when staff or suppliers change. Your website should mirror how the association operates today, not how it operated years ago.

4. Is Your Content Written for Members — Not About the Organisation?

This is a common one.

Many association websites talk about the organisation:

• history
• structure
• internal language

When reviewing a page, ask:

• Does this help a member take action?
• Does it answer a real question they have?
• Is it written in plain language they’d actually use?

If not, it’s probably serving the organisation — not the membership.

5. Can You Improve One Thing Without Rebuilding Everything?

This is the most important check.

If every improvement requires a full rebuild, the issue isn’t design — it’s setup.

Strong association websites are modular:

• you can fix navigation without redesigning the homepage
• improve member access without changing branding
• tidy structure without touching content

If change feels risky, expensive, or impossible, that’s a signal worth paying attention to.

The Bottom Line

For 2026, associations don’t need prettier websites. They need websites that:

• reduce workload
• support members properly
• reflect how the organisation actually functions
• get used — not worked around

Start small. Fix what’s slowing you down. Build from there.

If you’d like help thinking through where to start, that’s exactly the conversation NZSAE is here for.