A  Learning Management System (LMS)  is a type of software that delivers learning materials in a digital format. It offers a base server and user interface that keeps everything organized in a step-by-step learning format where users can work through materials, track their progress, and more. This system supports educational programs that help learners expand their knowledge efficiently.

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This learning format is especially convenient for professionals continuing to grow their careers and for organizations that want to expand their capabilities. In this article, we’ll provide a complete overview in the rest of this article to show how an LMS can align with the unique needs of your association or nonprofit.

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An LMS for nonprofits and associations provides a centralized place for all relevant learning materials. In addition to serving as a cost-effective training method, an LMS also makes training accessible to users in multiple locations, provides scalability as organizations grow, and allows data tracking and analysis. This robust platform ensures that training is streamlined and easily accessible.

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Next, let’s review the unique benefits an LMS can have for associations as well as nonprofits, to show how it can be well-suited for either use case.

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Benefits of an Association LMS

Many association members are looking for education that will benefit their professional capabilities and careers. An LMS offers associations the opportunity to provide continuing education while fostering community engagement. Some of the key benefits include:

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• Increased Member Engagement: How do you keep members engaged outside of association events and activities? Offering new and interesting training modules through an LMS portal is a great option.  Plus, it can be a great place to communicate with members or allow for social learning and knowledge sharing amongst the group.

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• Monetization: Many associations look for ways to monetize outside of membership fees. An LMS makes it easy to offer paid courses and efficiently distribute course materials to members who sign up. When learners receive significant value that benefits their career, they’ll be happy they signed up and are part of the association. 

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• Association Management System (AMS) Integration: Having programs that integrate provides a smoother and more well-rounded experience for your team and your association’s members. An LMS built for associations—Elevate by Cadmium—can integrate with your association management system (AMS) to help you organize communication, events, and activities alongside learning options.  

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Benefits of a Nonprofit LMS

Nonprofits often need affordable training and education solutions, and there aren’t always enough staff members to go around to train new volunteers or educate donors and members. The right LMS mitigates those challenges by providing a centralized and accessible learning resource. Some key benefits include:

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• Scalability and Accessibility: As your nonprofit grows, your LMS can grow with it and be accessible to everyone through a convenient online learning portal. That way, whether you expand to new locations or are growing your volunteer base for a new initiative, you can easily add more training and education to your LMS and make it available to everyone. 

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• Affordability: Hiring staff members to train every new volunteer or employee can be a big constraint on nonprofit budgets. Providing online training through an LMS is typically a much more affordable approach, enabling you to stretch your budget further while getting volunteers educated with the right skills and ready to step in as soon as possible.

‍Spread Your Message: Members and donors will want to learn about your cause. An LMS provides a resource you can pack with all the essential details and knowledge you’ve gained from research and community involvement. It can also help you show why your mission is important—and how others can contribute.

The most commonly used LMS is a cloud-based SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) LMS. It makes everything accessible via a web-based portal. Using an LMS makes it easier for your team to upload and manage content while providing an intuitive training process for new users to log in and access materials from anywhere. Elevate by Cadmium is cloud-based and a popular LMS choice for associations and nonprofits. 

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Some other key features that make this the best LMS for most organizations include:

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• Updates and Support: When an LMS is web-based, it makes it easy for the company behind it to provide continuous updates that improve its functionality. Plus, they can provide support if issues like bugs or errors pop up. 

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• Intuitive Interface: This option provides a good balance of customizability to make the software fit your organization’s needs while still being easy to use. That way, you can plug and play without a big learning curve to create educational courses and manage new users as they sign up.

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• You Don’t Have to Host Servers: Cloud-based solutions are ideal because their operation requires fewer in-house resources. The servers are managed by the company offering the LMS, so all you have to do is log in and use the software. 

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The main alternative would be hosting the content on internal servers, which can prove to be cumbersome and costly and require more technical expertise, also making the software harder to distribute to users.

When you have a tight budget, it’s common to want to look for a free LMS for nonprofits and associations. While this can help you get initial certification programs off the ground, it’ll often have several limitations that can affect your success, especially as your organization grows. Common limitations of free LMSs are:

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• Limited Customizability: The LMS is an extension of your nonprofit’s image, so making it feel tailored to you is important. Unfortunately, free LMS offerings usually have very limited features and functionality, which can make it hard to customize—limiting your ability to provide more interactive learning experiences that align with your priorities.

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• Limited Number of Courses: A free LMS will typically only give you limited storage space on their servers. This limits how many courses you can upload and manage at once, which becomes more of a constraint as you use it longer—or as your nonprofit’s needs grow. 

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• Limited Number of Users: Free LMSs may also cap the number of users you can have to sign up for your portal, access provided materials, or take your created courses. This again provides limitations that become more pressing as you may look to scale and grow your organization’s reach. 

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• Limited Support and Updates: With a free LMS, you won’t receive as much support from the company behind the platform, whether you have questions about getting started or if any bugs or errors occur. Updates to improve the software will also be less frequent. 

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Given all these limitations, free LMSs aren’t always the best choice for nonprofits and associations, and it's worth opting for a paid solution with more capabilities for long-term success when possible. Even if you were to start with a free option, it could be a hassle to transfer the courses you already created to a new LMS later on. Therefore, the best LMS for nonprofits or associations will be something that balances the right features with affordability.

To help with the LMS selection process, here’s a quick checklist of key factors to consider:

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• Features: First and foremost, evaluate the features of each LMS to determine which feature set aligns best with your organization's objectives. Consider common features that nonprofits and associations look for, which include communication and community management tools, social sharing, course search and navigation capabilities, and support for live events. 

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• Integrations: Most associations and nonprofits will benefit from an LMS that easily integrates with other software like AMS, event management, and e-commerce platforms or systems. 

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• Analytics and Data Tracking: Analytics will help you understand how your courses perform to improve what you offer. For example, if users are highly engaged with a certain type of continuing education course, you might decide to make courses in the future that are similar. 

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• Support and Troubleshooting: The company offering the LMS should provide support whether you need help getting set up or run into technical difficulties along the way. 

‍ offers each of these features and is tailored to the unique needs of associations and nonprofits to ensure a smooth user experience.

An LMS is highly beneficial for organizations offering continuing education or nonprofit education and training.  

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When you choose an option with the features outlined in this article—such as being tailored to the needs of associations and nonprofits, well-rounded support, integration with other tools, and analytics and data tracking—you’ll have everything you need to maximize the impact of your LMS and the learning resources you offer. 

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Enhance Your Organization’s Learning System With Elevate from Cadmium

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‍Elevate by Cadmium is an LMS that is tailored to the needs of nonprofits and associations. It gives you everything you need for learners to begin or continue their educational journey with curriculum development, social learning, integration with an AMS, and on-demand and live events, all in one easy-to-use platform that helps you monetize and grow your content library. Click here to learn more

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