Oregon Society of CPAs

For four years, about 6 of every 100 members the Oregon Society of CPAs dropped came back within two months. In 2024, the first year the Society ran its win-back campaign in PropFuel, that number jumped to 10.2%. It has stayed above 10% every year since. What changed when the Society started asking lapsed members a question?

• Association Type: State CPA society
• About the Organization: Founded in 1908 and based in Beaverton, the Oregon Society of CPAs (OSCPA) is a voluntary association of CPAs and future CPAs working in public practice, industry, government and education. Memberships renew every year on April 1.

The Challenge

Every year, renewals close and a group of members is discontinued. From 2020 to 2023, the share who rejoined within two months ranged from 5.1% to 7.6%, an average of 5.9%. Leah Moore, Sr. Manager - Finance + Operations, tracks that number every year in her own spreadsheet, so the Society knew exactly where it stood and how little it moved.

The Solution

In 2024 the Society launched a Lapsed Member Win-Back campaign in PropFuel, built from PropFuel’s win-back blueprint for individual members. Lapsed members are added to the campaign automatically from AM.net, the Society’s AMS. A couple of weeks after renewals close, the campaign sends four email check-ins, one a week or two apart, each with a reminder for anyone who hasn’t answered.

The first check-in asks, “Did you know your OSCPA membership has lapsed?” Later check-ins ask whether members plan to reinstate, whether they’d like to rejoin now, and what’s holding them back. Members who say yes get a thank-you page and a follow-up email. Members who say maybe are asked why they’ve hesitated. Members who say no are asked why they let their membership lapse, and then they’re removed from the campaign.

The Society has run the same structure every year since, adjusting the landing pages along the way. In Leah’s words:

“The year we started using PropFuel for our win-back campaigns (that we run a couple of weeks after our renewals have completed) we just about doubled the percentage of members that rejoined in the first two months after being dropped. And that has consistently stayed around that same percentage.” – Leah Moore, Sr. Manager - Finance + Operations, Oregon Society of CPAs

The Results

• ✅ Rejoin rate up 1.8x – An average of 10.7% of discontinued members rejoined within two months from 2024 to 2026, vs 5.9% from 2020 to 2023.
• ✅ The worst year beats the best year – The lowest PropFuel year (10.1% in 2026) is higher than the best year before PropFuel (7.6% in 2021).
• ✅ Three years in a row above 10% – 10.2% in 2024, 11.9% in 2025 and 10.1% in 2026.
• ✅ Retirement was the top reason for leaving – In 2024, 8 of the 15 members who said why they let their membership lapse said they were retiring.

Leah is clear that these aren’t huge numbers. For a lapsed audience, though, every member who rejoins is one who had already left.

Why It Worked

• Timing. The Society reaches members a couple of weeks after renewals close, when leaving is a recent decision and easy to reverse.
• A question first. Most people who answered the first check-in hadn’t realized their membership had lapsed.
• More than one chance. Four check-ins, each with a different question, meant a member who ignored the first email had three more chances to answer.
• Asking why. Every “no” came with a follow-up asking why, which showed the Society that most of its lapsed members were retiring rather than unhappy.
• The same campaign every year. It runs off AM.net the same way each year and measures one outcome, rejoins within two months, so each year’s result can be compared with the last.

What's Ahead

The Society will keep running the campaign after every April renewal cycle and tracking the two-month rejoin rate against its pre-PropFuel baseline. Next, it plans to use the “why” answers to follow up by reason: pointing members who are retiring to the retired membership category, and giving members who named cost or value a reason to come back before the next renewal.

Want to see what a win-back campaign could do for your lapsed members? Schedule a call with our team.