Chartwell Research was founded from a simple observation: the membership sector plays a critical role across industries, yet reliable structural data about how membership organisations operate is remarkably scarce.
Professional bodies, trade associations, and industry networks shape standards, influence policy, and support professional communities.
Yet leaders within these organisations often make strategic decisions without clear comparative evidence about how membership markets actually function.
Chartwell Research was established to address this gap.
Our work focuses on developing structured intelligence about membership markets — how organisations create value, how members decide to join and renew, and how membership propositions evolve over time.
Through structured datasets and analytical frameworks, Chartwell aims to bring clarity and comparability to a sector that has historically relied on anecdote and fragmented information.
Membership organisations create value in structured ways.
Once the structures are understood, membership markets become measurable.
At the centre of Chartwell’s research is the Chartwell Membership Economics Model (CMEM).
The model provides a structured framework for analysing how membership organisations create value and sustain long-term engagement.
Rather than treating membership organisations as a single category, the model examines the underlying economic and structural dynamics that shape membership markets.
CMEM considers factors such as:
The model allows membership organisations to be analysed consistently across industries.
Chartwell applies this framework through structured datasets and comparative analysis of membership organisations.
This enables the production of:
The objective is simple: to provide decision-ready evidence about how membership markets actually work.