August 21, 2025
IES Confronts Membership Decline With Growth Blueprint
Targeting 7,500 members by 2029, with dues projected to climb from 24% to 70% of IES revenue
When the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) Board opened part of its August 20 meeting to members at IES25 in Anaheim, it did more than tick a box for transparency. It quietly affirmed that the most pressing challenge facing the Society isn’t a lack of standards output, or any e-learning portal matters — it’s rebuilding the Society on foundation of membership and revenue growth.
The Society’s recently published 2024 Annual Report laid out the urgency. With a $2.35 million net loss and membership down 45% since its peak in 2020, the IES is actively working to reposition itself for long-term resilience. And at the heart of that plan is an ambitious, but carefully modeled, vision to grow membership over the next five years.
The Growth Model on the Table
In Anaheim, leadership shared a multi-year scenario that envisions a path from 4,500 members in 2025 to 7,500 by 2029. That’s a 67% increase in just four years, grounded in a relatively simple formula:
- 10% attrition rate per year is assumed based on its own data.
- A steadily increasing number of new members recruited annually.
- A year-over-year compounding effect as the base grows.
Here’s what the model looks like:
| Year | Starting Members | New Members | Attrition (10%) | Ending Members |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 4,500 | + 750 | - 450 | 4,800 |
| 2026 | 4,800 | + 1,155 | - 480 | 5,475 |
| 2027 | 5,475 | + 1,223 | - 548 | 6,150 |
| 2028 | 6,150 | + 1,290 | - 615 | 6,825 |
| 2029 | 6,825 | + 1,358 | - 683 | 7,500 |
The IES growth plan focuses on initiatives aimed squarely at boosting membership. Efforts include ongoing win-back campaigns to re-engage former members, expanding emerging professional (EP) programs to attract younger talent, and enhancing the onboarding experience to improve retention. The Society also plans to leverage existing membership initiatives more effectively and explore partner discounts as added value for members. These steps, combined with regular KPI reporting to measure progress, form the foundation of IES’s strategy to grow and sustain its membership base.
It’s not a forecast. It’s not even a promise. But it’s a signpost. A framework to show what steady, intentional growth could look like — if systems and strategy are aligned.
7500 Members by 2029: Is it attainable?
Still, as encouraging as the membership growth model appears on paper, it’s fair to question how attainable it really is — especially in light of the steady declines that have marked the past five years. From 2020 to 2024, total IES membership dropped 45%, with no single year showing a meaningful reversal. The projected climb from 4,500 to 7,500 members would require not only new outreach and retention efforts, but also a shift in momentum that has thus far proven elusive.
To be fair, the two-hour open session in Anaheim wasn’t designed to deliver a full tactical briefing, and it didn’t pretend to. But it does raise the question: How many past board meeting membership presentations have been followed not by growth, but by further erosion?
The plan was presented by Jared Smith — IES Vice President from Halifax, Nova Scotia — who will take on the presidency of the Society on January 1, 2026. Under his leadership, the challenge will be not just to set ambitious goals, but to lay the groundwork for measurable, sustained progress. If this is the path to 2029, that work begins now.
The Retention Challenge (and Fixable Gaps)
That 10% attrition figure seems well within normal bounds. What’s more concerning is that some portion of those lapses are unintentional. Members miss renewal emails, forget their login credentials, or simply get busy.
Which makes one system shortcoming all the more urgent: IES currently does not support automatic credit card renewal for individual members.
It’s not for lack of desire. It’s a platform limitation — one that could be costing the Society thousands of dollars in unnecessary churn each year. In today’s subscription economy, auto-renewal is expected. Most people don’t write checks anymore, and fewer still actively manage annual memberships in online carts.
A modest change may require a time-consuming backend system overhaul. But adding an opt-out auto-renewal option — could make a measurable difference. It won’t solve attrition entirely, but it will certainly help retain members who intend to stay.
From Awareness to Action
Of course, retention is only part of the equation. The main push is for new member acquisition — and here, the Society believes it is making progress.
- Over 8,500 users have engaged with IES e-learning platforms since 2020.
- 40% of them are non-members, meaning there’s an engaged audience already within reach.
- Initiatives like the NEMRA Lighting collaboration show how existing curated content can be monetized while serving both educational and recruitment goals.
These are the kinds of strategic tools that can feed the top of the funnel — and help support the member growth targets outlined above.
Building for the Long Haul
The shift toward a membership-centric revenue model — with a goal of dues contributing 70% of revenue in future years — is more than a financial pivot. It’s a philosophical one. As once robust LightFair revenue decline, the Society is making the case that its most sustainable future is one in which it’s funded primarily by the community it serves.
The 2024 numbers and the Boards own emphasis on membership make clear that change is needed. But they also show that there is a path forward. The combination of more consistent renewals, smarter outreach, and deeper member engagement won’t yield results overnight. But if executed well, it can rebuild the Society’s foundation — one member at a time.
