Angel Insights Blog

By: Elaine Bolle, ACA Board Member and RTP Capital

The following is part of our periodic ACA Blog series highlighting ACA member expertise and insights on resources for angels.  The topics will vary and include ways ACA angels are making best use of their time – and often ACA benefits – to make smart investment decisions.  The first tip is how RTP Capital provides their members direct access to ACA benefits as part of the group’s member onboarding process. Thank you Elaine Bolle (link to profile) for sharing! 

We look forward to more member tips for angels.  When you have a resource to share with angels please contact Sarah Dickey, ACA Membership Director to learn more. 

Elaine Bolle, RTP Capital Associates

Elaine Bolle believes she’s not alone when it comes to this “aha” moment: “When I first joined my group I thought ACA was for group leaders. It wasn’t until I attended my first Summit that I saw that ACA is about helping every angel grow. I thought—this is the best kept secret on earth—we need to make sure every one of our members understands that direct access to ACA resources is already a part of their benefits.”

• Approach: We keep it simple and focused. We do two main things: We integrate ACA membership directly into our membership onboarding process, and we actively integrate ACA resources into our monthly meetings.
• Process:

1.Membership onboarding: We explain to members that ACA membership is a direct benefit of joining RTP and that we will share their email with ACA so that they have direct access to ACA resources.

2.Monthly ACA emails: RTP has an administrator and this person sends the ACA Angel Insights Monthly newsletter directly to members. Even though members also get ACA eNews directly, when the monthly ACA email comes directly from our group, members pay attention. This ensures that our members are always in the know.

3.ACA Summit debriefs: As a general policy, RTP Capital encourages all members and especially the board to attend the summit.  Typically, RTP Capital funds the registration fee to cover at least one leader to attend the annual ACA Summit attendance. Key takeaways, debriefs and oftentimes workshops from the sessions are presented to members at monthly meetings.

• Benefits:

1.My job and the job of all RTP Capital leaders is easier. By sharing direct access to ACA resources we avoid having to answer the same questions repeatedly—it’s all on the ACA website.

2.Members love the direct access to the ACA knowledge center and webinars. In a recent membership survey, we found that 60% of our members have attended an ACA webinar.

3.Integrating ACA resources into our group helps us build a community of engaged investors. Education is such a big part of that and the more we all know, the more we want to share.

• Key Learnings:

1.Understand that your members may believe that ACA is only for group leaders. It’s important to change this perception. It only takes a few basic changes to directly connect your members to ACA resources so that everyone benefits.

2.Taking a passive approach to connecting members to ACA doesn’t work— we found that members just won’t take the time to connect. It’s critical to share your member emails with ACA. We have had zero members have an issue with this, so it’s a win-win.