Professional associations thrive on legacy — it builds trust, deepens member connection and reinforces mission. Yet too often, that history is inaccessible.
HistoryIT creates custom digital preservation strategies that protect institutional memory and transform scattered archives into searchable, branded digital museums that support fundraising, communications and long-term strategy.
“Fraternal communicators know the deep importance of storytelling within our memberships, specifically the rich traditions and history of fraternities and sororities. We are often the strongest champions of our traditions and we love digging into the meaning behind what seems like a simple historic photo. We are so thrilled, now, that this partnership with HistoryIT has allowed us to preserve our story.”
Andrea Benek
Past President, Fraternity Communications Association (FCA)
The Challenge: Inaccessible Archives
Professional associations face unique challenges when it comes to preserving and using their history:
- Scattered archives across multiple departments and former leaders
- Lost institutional knowledge due to staff or board turnover
- Lack of access to visual and narrative content for member engagement
- Time-consuming searches for historical materials during milestone campaigns
- Outdated systems that don’t support discoverability or cross-department use
The Solution: Strategic Digital Preservation
HistoryIT creates custom digital preservation strategies designed specifically for professional associations. We help you:
- Identify, digitize and preserve valuable historical materials
- Tag and organize your assets with metadata for easy search and retrieval
- Build a branded, searchable digital archive accessible to staff and members
- Ensure your legacy is protected and made usable for future generations
- Provide significant cost and time savings compared to in-house digitization efforts
- HistoryIT clients see an average savings of $5 million and 37 years.
Digital Preservation Services
- We provide surveys and questionnaires to your organization’s contact person to collect information about your historic materials.
- Online or in person, we assess the condition and content of your archival holdings as well as your technology support needs.
- A HistoryIT expert leads stakeholder meetings and interviews in order to effectively collect data for your customized digital archiving strategy.
- Based on results gathered during assessments, HistoryIT develops a customized strategy to organize and digitally preserve your archival holdings.
- HistoryIT experts work with you to pack and ship all materials.
- We handle the digital preservation imaging, tagging, rehousing, and management of the selected archival materials to include in your digital museum.
- You receive a license to Odyssey®, HistoryIT’s digital preservation platform, allowing you to store, tag, and manage items in your digital archive and share them in your digital museum.
- Your Odyssey® license includes an online timeline, biography portal, milestone celebration retrospective, and storytelling platform that give you the freedom to build and share exhibits that are fully accessible to the public.
Impact on Fundraising
Professional associations can unlock the full emotional power of their history to fuel donor and sponsor engagement.
- Use legacy stories to strengthen major gift and planned giving campaigns
- Showcase donor and member impact through interactive digital exhibits
- Build trust and emotional connection with prospects and sponsors
- Provide stewardship tools that elevate donor recognition
- Celebrate long-time donors by featuring their contributions to your mission
Enhanced Communications
Communications teams within professional associations can craft meaningful, consistent messaging rooted in legacy.
- Instantly access visuals, documents and stories for campaigns and social media
- Simplify content creation for newsletters and milestone celebrations
- Equip your communications team with compelling assets that drive engagement
- Create branded digital exhibits for anniversaries, conferences or initiatives
Improved Operational Efficiencies
A centralized digital archive helps professional associations save time, reduce redundancy and streamline workflows across departments.
- Reduce time spent hunting for historical materials
- Centralize and standardize access to digital content across departments
- Equip new staff with institutional context and ready-made resources
- Protect fragile or at-risk materials while still enabling access
- Streamline collaboration between communications, development and archives
Long-Term Strategic Benefits
Digital preservation strengthens the long-term health of professional associations by safeguarding institutional knowledge and aligning legacy with future planning.
- Preserve your legacy for future leadership and strategic planning
- Strengthen your brand identity with a well-documented history
- Support DEI, storytelling and community-building initiatives
- Make your archives a living resource, not a forgotten repository
- Ensure continuity of institutional knowledge across generations
Our Process
We transform archival materials, from whatever state they are in, into a 21st-century digital museum.
We help you envision, create and sustain digital collections that deepen engagement and deliver long-lasting value to your organization.
