Why aren't they renewing?

Your renewal schedule, even if it's as straightforward as Jan 1 or year-to-date, is not topmost in your members' minds.

They may simplty not realize that their membership is up. This is particularly likely if they continue to get meeting announcements from you. BTW, and just between us, they should definitely stay on your mailing list even after their membership has expired.

Keeping members involved and engaged is the prinicipal goal of a membership association. You want them to renew and participate. You send announcements of events. You also email them personalized renewal notices.

You do everything you can to offer good programs, excellent benefits, a vibrant and caring organizaiton.
Yet membership attrition is a fact of life for most associations. Why?

What's one of the main reasons they don't renew at the due date? I believe it is unawareness. Your members simply aren't paying attention to when it's time for them to renew. Or more importantly when their membership will and has expired.

Can it be that many of your members are ignoring your emails? They probably saw the first one that said they had another thirty days of membership left. They put that aside, and then forgot. They got some more notices, but in the course of their normal business they found these easy to dismiiss.

Once enough time passed between the past due renewal notices and daily life, your lapsed member looked upon himself as a member of the organization's community. He was seeing weekly flyers about upcoming programs; he was still on the list.

Time for you to do one of two things: threaten to cut off all communication if s/he did not renew in 10 days?
A bit harsh. Send a survey request to explain why s/he did not renew their membership.

Include the question that requests action: [  ] I did not know my membership lapsed. I'll go renew right now. Link that second sentence to your renewal pages, of course.