How WeRPN Turned 
Paper-Based Membership into a Digital Growth Engine

WeRPN now has a repeatable model for growth: lower cost per member, fewer manual handoffs, and an experience members genuinely prefer. 

saved on Welcome Kits, with 40% digital adoption
$ 0
membership growth, plus $30,000 in annual license savings
0 %
faster membership renewals
0 %
How WeRPN Turned 
Paper-Based Membership into a Digital Growth Engine

Founded in 1958, WeRPN is the voice of registered practical nursing in Ontario, representing more than 60,000 RPNs who play a vital role in the province’s health care system. 

Alongside advocacy, WeRPN supports its members through mentorship, education, awards and grants, an online shop, and a member journal, a wide range of programs that all depend on a reliable system working behind the scenes.

The Problem

As WeRPN grew, its infrastructure didn’t keep pace.

Every new or renewing member received a physical Welcome Kit and membership card, each costing $5 to $8 to print and mail, a cost that scaled directly with growth. That strain came to a head when WeRPN faced 11,000 renewals in just three months, a volume its aging, homegrown system simply wasn’t built to handle.

Renewals were processed manually, one at a time, with no clear visibility into what was working or where things were breaking down. The result was slower service, rising costs, and a member experience that fell short of what a modern association should deliver.

The approach

Member’s first touchpoint.

Rather than attempting a single, sweeping overhaul, 108 ideaspace started where the impact would be felt fastest: the member’s first touchpoint. Digitizing the Welcome Kit and membership card created an immediate, visible win and bought room to rebuild the infrastructure underneath it.

From there, the team moved in tight cycles of pilot, measure, and expand, consolidating WeRPN’s data and member journeys onto a single core platform built to support everything the association does, not just renewals.

The solution

Clean tracking and fast feedback.

Digital Welcome Kits and smart Membership Cards replaced the “wait for the mail” experience with instant access, with built-in prompts that encouraged members to actually adopt the digital option rather than default back to paper. Behind the scenes, a Salesforce-based AMS became WeRPN’s single source of truth, while a WordPress member portal brought Mentorship, LMS, Awards, Grants, eShop, and the WeRPN Journal together in one place.

Marketing automation via ActiveCampaign, integrated with Salesforce, tied it all together , powering segmented renewal journeys with clean tracking and fast feedback on what actually moved members to renew.

saved on Welcome Kits, with 40% digital adoption
$ 0
membership growth, plus $30,000 in annual license savings
0 %
faster membership renewals
0 %

The results

The shift paid off immediately.

The shift paid off immediately. Print and postage costs dropped sharply as digital adoption took hold, renewal bottlenecks eased even at peak volume, and the team gained real visibility into engagement, opens, clicks, and completions, instead of operating blind.

The first LMS based education program launched in April 2025, delivering a six figure ROI and creating a new line of business.

The shift paid off immediately. Print and postage costs dropped sharply as digital adoption took hold, renewal bottlenecks eased even at peak volume, and the team gained real visibility into engagement, opens, clicks, and completions, instead of operating blind.

The shift paid off immediately. Print and postage costs dropped sharply as digital adoption took hold, renewal bottlenecks eased even at peak volume.

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