IFMA Publishes Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2021-22

Thanks to Responsive, Creative Leadership, Staff Ingenuity, and the Support of Members and Partners, IFMA Returned to a Trajectory of Growth and is Stronger Than Ever

In conjunction with its annual House of Delegates meeting, held at IFMA’s World Workplace in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, IFMA released its Year in Review for fiscal year 2021-22. The interactive digital report is available at ifma.foleon.com/annual-report2022/fy-2022/.

Like many organizations, IFMA faced perhaps the most challenging period in its history during the COVID-19 pandemic; yet, due to the responsive, creative leadership of its global board of directors and experienced management team, the ingenuity and hard work of its professional staff, a solid foundation built and sustained by IFMA chapters, councils and communities, and with the loyalty and support of its members and partners, IFMA was able to return to a trajectory of growth.

In the opening message of the report, 2021-22 Chair of IFMA’s Global Board of Directors Peter Ankerstjerne noted, “The weight of actual crises our world has faced could have flattened us; instead, it has inspired courage, understanding, resourcefulness, reform, creativity, invention. It has produced real change. For IFMA, it was an urgent call to action, ensuring that our community had what it needed to understand and adjust to new expectations.”

IFMA’s Annual Report contains a board-approved (as of Sept. 27, 2022) audited financial report. This is the third year in a row external auditors had no findings related to governance, internal controls or deficiencies related to financial reporting.

From July 1, 2021, through June 30, 2022, the association focused on being both adaptive and enterprising, introducing many new resources and initiatives that allowed IFMA to deliver notable financial results and eliminate all debt. After almost eight years of stagnant membership growth, IFMA saw more than a 10 percent increase in membership in a year’s time, including over a 15 percent increase in new members and a 12 percent increase in overall retention.

“With the support of our members, partners and sponsors, who not only stayed the course but joined us in developing useful tools, offering much-needed thought leadership and advocating for the industry, IFMA is stronger than ever,” wrote Ankerstjerne.

Report highlights include:

• IFMA recently broke the 22,000 mark globally across all membership categories.
• Coping with a longer recovery cycle due to the pandemic, IFMA events rebounded, with World Workplace and Facility Fusion conferences returning as in-person gatherings.
• Full member benefits were expanded to include IFMA’s Essentials of Facility Management: Introduction to FM module, a quarterly on-demand educational video and access to select research for free.
• In July 2021, IFMA EMEA was launched as an official legal entity, supporting advocacy efforts and educational and networking resources specific to professionals in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
• In August 2021, IFMA Global LATAM was launched, opening doors to new opportunities for Latin American FMs.
• IFMA folded the Research and Benchmarking Institute (RBI) back into the association and introduced a new research model, IFMA’s Research Advisory Committee, to benefit the industry globally.
• Mutually beneficial partnerships with other well-respected professional organizations were broadened to provide a training program that covers the entire operational life cycle of the built environment.
• FM.training, IFMA’s online learning platform, now offers a number of courses in Simplified Chinese, Portuguese-Brazil and/or Spanish-Latin America, including IFMA’s Facility Management Professional™ (FMP^®) credential and Essentials of FM course series.
• IFMA credentials are held in 109 countries, with 14,000+ FMPs and 1,400+ Sustainability Facility Professionals^® (SFPs^®) worldwide, and just over 2,900 active Certified Facility Managers^® (CFMs^®).
• IFMA Corporate Sustaining Partners (CSPs) supported and advanced the profession by investing over US$694,000 in IFMA.

In IFMA President and CEO Don Gilpin’s message, he wrote, “IFMA remains the central source of professional support and stability for the FM industry. We will continue to develop beneficial ways to engage a new generation of FM professionals, support regional-specific needs for FMs globally, help FMs create environments that are better places for everyone, and keep the industry and association firmly on the path forward.”

For the most immersive experience, IFMA’s FY2021-22 Annual Report is best viewed on a laptop or desktop computer.