The philosophy of this organization is built upon the idea of "Givers Gain®": By giving business to others, you will get business in retur Chapter format:
The BNI organization works by creating a group of people from various industries and encouraging regular passing of referrals.
-Each chapter allows one person per occupational classification, and prospective members must be approved via an appl
ication process.
-BNI's philosophy is "Givers Gain" - members are expected to focus on giving referrals to other members to build relationships and receive referrals in return.
-BNI draws a distinction between a "referral" and a "lead." A lead is contact information for a prospect for a member's business, while a referral occurs only when the prospect has already expressed interest in the business in question, and is ready to be contacted by the referred BNI member.
-Chapters have specific rules regarding required attendance in order to cultivate the relationships needed to create a comfort level in referring business.
-Chapters track the monetary amount of passed business in order to prove the value of the financial and time commitment. Financial structure:
Members pay a one-off joining fee, an annual membership fee, and a weekly meeting fee to cover room hire and refreshments. Statistics:
Number of chapters: over 6,866 (as of 2011)
Number of members: 170,000
Total annual value of referrals: 5.4 million referrals resulting in $6.5 billion (U.S.)
