Hey IRL builders,
We’ve got a BIG Christmas present for you🎄
This holiday season, give your club the gift of sustainability. Rally your people to join as founding members and chip in with dues.
Wonder how clubs have survived for centuries?
Membership drives.
We’re bringing them back, and making it silly easy to run in minutes.
Don’t believe us? Meet Bella.
Her club, Bridges, went from 0 → 40 contributing members in one week with Build IRL club campaign.
You know our mantra: build your club with your people.
So this one’s for every builder quietly covering venues, snacks, and supplies out of pocket — and wondering how to stop doing it alone.
Your club can be next.
In this edition:
🥇 Membership drives: the most powerful (and underrated) club tactic
💥 Bridges Social Club: One week that changed everything
⚡ Launch your own Club Campaign in minutes
🥇Member Drives: The most underrated club tactic (that actually works)
Before apps, platforms, and newsletters, clubs survived because of membership drives.
Drives created momentum for new members to join and commit to regular dues.
Toastmasters had New Member Talk-Ups.
Rotary had Membership Month.
Lions Club had “Just Ask” Campaigns.
Member drives weren’t fundraisers. They were invitations:
“If you want to be part of this, help carry it.”
People joined knowing:
- they’d show up
- they’d contribute regularly
- the club existed because of them
The contributions didn’t make clubs transactional. It made them strong.
Somewhere along the way, we forgot this.
👉 Today 80% of clubs can’t cover their costs.
So we’re bringing membership drives back, and making them 10× easier to run.
✨ One week that changed everything
Meet Bella Malvini, founder of Bridges Social Club.
She ran a Build IRL Club Campaign in Oct 2025 to reach:
$0 → $2,000 / quarter
30+ contributing members
in just 7 days
We sat down with Bella to hear how it happened.
Q: Tell us about Bridges Social Club.
A: I entered the SF career scene feeling frustrated - male-dominated, inaccessible, not fun. Bridges is a space where women are celebrated, supported, and surrounded by ambitious peers.
Q: How big is your club?
A: We started small. Then one of my TikToks hit ~70K views, bringing hundreds of applicants in a single day. Overnight, we were a big community. I couldn’t do it alone: so we grew our volunteer team from 2 → 10 in 3 months and launched dues for sustainability with Build IRL.
Q: Let’s talk money. How did you cover costs at first?
A: For the first year, Bridges was free - I personally covered everything. Costs ballooned as we grew. Even small gatherings add up fast.
Q: Why ask members to contribute?
A: Honestly? Because I couldn’t afford it anymore. I was scared to ask. I didn’t want it to feel disingenuous or like a profit grab. But running high-quality communities isn’t free. It wasn’t fair for one person to pay for everything.
Q: How did you decide the amount?
A: Accessibility was non-negotiable. We landed on $15/month with a 6-month commitment: affordable yet a meaningful commitment, and enough to cover our fixed costs.
Q: Why use Build IRL Platform?
A: The campaign feature was critical. It turned a scary ask into a shared movement. The countdown, contributor names, and live progress created excitement and social proof.
It helped:
💸 Show real club costs
🤝 Build shared ownership
📈 Create momentum with live progress
🎯 Give people a reason to join as members now
At first it was 1… 2… 3 members. By day three, it snowballed to 15… then 30… and kept climbing. Most members joined in that single week.
Q: Are you happy with the results?
A: Very. 40+ members contribute quarterly today. Free-to-paid conversion for communities is ~2%. We hit 7–8% in one week - more than 4x the norm.
Q: How did dues change your club?
A. Everything. Predictable funding means no more scrambling, consistent programming, invested long-term members and stability for our volunteer team. It’s crazy to think that we’re now planning our entire 2026 calendar.
Q: Favorite member stories?
Q: Advice for other builders?
A: Progress over perfection. People give you grace. Just start.
⚡ Introducing: Club Campaigns Feature
Think Kickstarter — but for IRL clubs.
Campaigns help you:
Show what it actually takes to run your club
Rally members to contribute with recurring dues
Build momentum with goals, deadlines, and live progress
💡 Why it works:
Builders share real costs transparently
Members co-create instead of consume
Contributing IRL feels meaningful
This is how we rebuild contribution culture.
👉 Launch your first club campaign in minutes
How it works [Quick how-to video]
1️⃣ Create your club page
2️⃣ Set member tiers + connect Stripe (Build IRL is free; we only pass Stripe fees)
3️⃣ Launch a campaign — set a target # of members, show club costs, add a deadline
Share it at an event, Slack, or IG.
Watch members raise their hands. That’s it.
🎄 A holiday note
The holiday season has a way of reminding us:
what we’ll remember isn’t what we scaled,
it’s who we shared it with.
The clubs.
The tables.
The relationships built IRL.
Here’s to clubs that last.
To members who step up.
To builders who don’t do it alone anymore.
Happy holidays ✨
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