Cerebral Palsy Sport is the UK’s leading national disability sports organisation improving the health and emotional wellbeing of people with cerebral palsy through physical activity, and engaging the community in a number of programmes and interventions. Currently going through a digital transformation to provide a simpler and brighter future for each and every member.

What’s it like working in membership?

I have been working with membership organisations, mainly NGBs (National Governing Body), for a long time now and it’s an exciting area to work in. I really enjoy the building of a community and providing a service that people value.

How important is membership to Cerebral Palsy Sport and how does the success of membership impact the overall aim to raise aspirations, promote inclusion and support people with cerebral palsy and other disabilities to play, participate and enjoy sport and active recreation?

We want to develop the importance of membership and people to see that CP Sport is a great thing to be a part of. We have started giving substantial discounts to members but need more partnerships and understanding of what our members want from us and why they would pay for a membership. This is a key area for our growth – we don’t have a wide reach and that is what we are currently working on, developing our networks.

How has the global pandemic (COVID-19) impacted your member numbers and planned events through 2020 and 2021?

We have gone from delivery across the country to a totally virtual platform. However, there has been an opportunity as it was through the pandemic that we started with JustGo and our membership has already doubled. We are really excited about the future and will run both virtual and on the ground events when it is safe to do so.

How have you responded to this challenge and have your efforts helped with member retention and growth?

Most importantly we have taken the time to get to know our members more and come up with new ideas to engage people and keep them active even while they are at home. This has seen very positive results so far.

Before COVID-19 struck what, would you consider your main membership challenges to be? 

The operational processes and what people get for their membership. Prior to using JustGo, we had a paper-based system in order to manage the membership process with the paper then feeding into an Access database that only one member of the team understood how to use and there was complexity in trying to report from the database. In March 2020 we moved quickly from working in an office to working from home and we needed to update our operations for membership and JustGo was our answer.  Our challenge now is to create a membership that is a good offer and has benefits that attract people to our organisation and to reach the cp population. Discover more about our membership. 

How have you overcome or how are you working towards overcoming these challenges? 

Modernising our processes, talking to our community and looking at corporate partnerships to provide benefits. We are also collaborating with other cp organisations on specific projects to provide opportunities for people to get active and to bring the community together. We are currently updating our website and going through a re-brand in order to make the best use of the digital transformation we are going through and to raise our profile as an organisation that can help people to have good physical and mental health.

What are the main benefits you have found working with JustGo?

Easy people to work with, very helpful, the system has revolutionised the way we do things both for membership and events.

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Want to know more about Cerebral Palsy Sport and the fantastic work they are doing to improve the health and emotional wellbeing of people with cerebral palsy? Visit their website here.