2026 Member Survey

by FWB Staff

published February 04, 2026

We ran our first member survey since 2024 to understand what members want and how to focus our energy in 2026. Responses (88) came primarily from long-time members (90% have been here 2+ years) who've been less active recently.

The core finding: content and events aren't competing priorities. They're two sides of the same thing. Content that builds cultural credibility (29%) slightly edged out events and IRL programming (23%) when forced to choose one priority, but together they account for more than half of what members want. For reactivating disengaged members, local events ranked #1 (67%) and quality content ranked #2 (56%). Event Keys (member-led local events) was the most-requested returning program by a wide margin (48%).

The other thing that came through clearly: members want to participate and need pathways. 90% said they'd contribute something if the paths existed. 40% would help organize local events. 60% would participate in curation.

On paid membership: 63% are open or persuadable. Most prefer under $10/month, with a ceiling around $20. We're continuing to explore this; existing members will have some kind of grandfathering period as we figure it out.

What we're doing based on this…

Events: Event Keys relaunching this month with a rolling application. If you want to host a dinner, salon, workshop, or gathering in your city—apply. We'll provide budget, assets, and promotion. Beyond Event Keys, we're working on FWB-hosted events in LA, SF, Paris, ETH Denver, and CDMX. If you're in one of those cities and want to be involved, reach out.

Media: Editorial coming back with a consistent voice and point of view. We're using the ⁠curation channel in Discord to surface what you're reading, watching, thinking about—the stuff that bubbles up there will feed into what we publish.

Portal: Building toward something that brings together editorial, audio, events, and member contributions. Target is later this spring for an MVP. This isn't set in stone. We're going to iterate based on what works. But we're moving forward based on what the data is telling us. The full survey receipts and plan are available here.