They're not waiting until forty to join—and the clubs that understand this are building relationships that will define the next three decades

The private club industry has spent years obsessing over Millennials. Conferences, webinars, and countless boardroom discussions have dissected how to attract the avocado toast generation, adapt to their digital expectations, and accommodate their supposed disdain for tradition.

Meanwhile, a more consequential shift has been unfolding with far less fanfare.

Generation Z—born between 1997 and 2012—is entering the membership conversation earlier than any generation before them. The oldest among them turn 29 in 2026. They're not hypothetical future prospects anymore. They're founding companies, inheriting wealth, starting families, and making lifestyle decisions that will compound over decades. And they're evaluating private clubs through a lens that looks almost nothing like their parents' or grandparents'.

The clubs paying attention are already adapting. The clubs that aren't may not realize what they're missing until it's too late to catch up.

A Different Kind of Affluence

The traditional path to private club membership followed a predictable arc: climb the corporate ladder, accumulate wealth through salary and bonuses, reach a certain professional stature, then join the club where business gets done and social standing gets cemented. Membership was a destination you arrived at, typically in your forties or fifties.

Generation Z is rewriting that timeline entirely.

The explosion of entrepreneurship, tech wealth, and creator economies means significant affluence is reaching people decades earlier than historical norms. A 27-year-old who sold a software company, built a substantial social media following, or landed early at a successful startup may have the financial capacity for membership—but none of the traditional markers clubs historically used to evaluate candidates.

This creates an evaluation challenge for membership committees accustomed to assessing prospects based on corporate titles, years of professional experience, and established community presence. A Gen Z candidate's LinkedIn might show three jobs in five years—not because they can't hold a position, but because that's how careers work now. Their “community involvement” might be a Discord server with 50,000 members rather than a board seat at the local hospital.

Clubs that cling to legacy evaluation frameworks will systematically filter out exactly the prospects they should be courting. Those willing to update their criteria—while maintaining genuine selectivity—will build relationships with members who could remain engaged for fifty years or more.

Values as Vetting Criteria

Every generation believes it cares more about values than the one before. But Gen Z's purchasing behavior suggests this isn't just rhetoric.

Research consistently shows that Gen Z consumers are more likely to research a company's practices before buying, more willing to pay premium prices for sustainable options, and more inclined to abandon brands that conflict with their values. A 2024 study by First Insight found that 73% of Gen Z consumers are willing to pay more for sustainable products—the highest of any generation.

For private clubs, this translates into a set of questions that rarely surfaced in previous generations' membership decisions:

What are your environmental practices? How diverse is your membership and leadership? What's your relationship with the surrounding community? How do you treat your staff?

These aren't peripheral concerns that can be addressed with a paragraph in the membership packet. For many Gen Z prospects, they're threshold questions. A club that fails them never gets to the conversation about golf course conditions or dining quality.

This doesn't mean clubs need to become activist organizations or abandon their traditions. It means they need to be thoughtful—and transparent—about where they stand. A club with genuine sustainability initiatives, a credible diversity strategy, and a reputation for treating employees well has a compelling story to tell. A club that hasn't considered these questions will find itself flat-footed when prospects ask.

The Research Generation

Gen Z didn't just grow up with the internet—they grew up with the internet in their pockets, available every waking moment. This has produced research behaviors that should fundamentally change how clubs think about marketing.

By the time a Gen Z prospect requests a tour, they've likely already:

• Watched every video on your social media accounts
• Read reviews on Google, Yelp, and niche platforms
• Searched for your club on Reddit and other forums
• Checked Glassdoor for employee reviews
• Scrolled through tagged photos and posts from current members
• Researched your leadership team individually

They're not arriving as blank slates to be impressed by the dining room. They're arriving with preformed opinions to be confirmed or contradicted. The tour isn't the beginning of their evaluation—it's often the final checkpoint.

This has profound implications for club marketing. Every digital touchpoint matters because Gen Z prospects will find all of them. A neglected Instagram account with sporadic posts from 2019 isn't neutral—it's a negative signal. Employee complaints on Glassdoor aren't hidden—they're part of the club's public narrative. The disconnect between marketing promises and member reality won't be discovered after joining; it'll be uncovered during research and eliminate the prospect before they ever reach out.

The clubs winning with Gen Z prospects are those with digital presence that matches their physical experience. Not because they're chasing trends, but because they understand that digital presence is now inseparable from reputation.

Redefining “Social” in Social Club

The original purpose of private clubs was fundamentally social—creating spaces where people of similar standing could gather, connect, and build relationships that benefited them professionally and personally. Somewhere along the way, many clubs lost sight of this mission, becoming venues for individual consumption rather than genuine community.

Generation Z, despite stereotypes about screen addiction and social isolation, is actively seeking third places—spaces that are neither home nor work where they can form meaningful connections. The decline of traditional community institutions (churches, civic organizations, neighborhood gathering spots) has left a vacuum that private clubs are uniquely positioned to fill.

But Gen Z's conception of community looks different from previous generations. They're less interested in formal events with assigned seating and more drawn to casual gathering spaces with organic interaction. They value authenticity over formality, shared experiences over parallel ones. A wine dinner where everyone sits at separate tables listening to a sommelier lecture is less appealing than a casual tasting where people mingle, ask questions, and actually meet each other.

Clubs that redesign their programming around genuine connection—rather than passive attendance—will resonate with Gen Z members seeking community. This might mean:

• More frequent, casual events rather than fewer formal ones
• Programming that encourages interaction rather than observation
• Spaces designed for spontaneous gathering, not just scheduled activities
• Member interest groups that form around specific passions
• Mentorship programs connecting younger and established members

The clubs that become genuine communities—not just collections of individuals who happen to share amenities—will thrive with this generation.

Flexibility as Feature

The traditional membership model assumed a certain lifestyle: predictable schedules, long-term geographic stability, and consistent usage patterns that justified fixed monthly dues. That model is increasingly misaligned with how Gen Z lives and works.

Remote work has untethered careers from geography. A member might spend three months in Austin, two months in Miami, and summers in Montana—all while maintaining the same job. The rigid expectation that members will be consistently local and consistently present simply doesn't match contemporary professional life.

Gen Z also demonstrates lower tolerance for paying for things they don't use. Subscription fatigue is real for a generation managing Netflix, Spotify, gym memberships, meal kits, and countless other recurring charges. A country club demanding significant monthly dues regardless of usage faces skeptical scrutiny that previous generations might not have applied.

Forward-thinking clubs are responding with membership structures that offer flexibility without abandoning commitment:

• Tiered memberships with different access levels and price points
• Reciprocal arrangements with clubs in other markets
• Usage-based components that supplement base dues
• Seasonal memberships for members with predictable travel patterns
• “Pause” options for members facing temporary life changes

The goal isn't to race to the bottom on commitment—clubs still need engaged members who contribute to community. The goal is recognizing that commitment can take different forms than it did in 1985, and that flexibility often enables rather than undermines engagement.

Content Before Contact

Perhaps no generation has been more conditioned by content than Gen Z. They've grown up consuming information through YouTube tutorials, TikTok explanations, podcast deep dives, and Instagram stories. Their default mode for learning about anything—including private clubs—is to find content about it first.

This creates an opportunity for clubs willing to invest in genuine content creation. Not promotional material dressed up as content, but actually valuable information that serves prospects whether or not they ever join.

Imagine a Gen Z prospect considering a yacht club. Before reaching out, they might search for content about:

• What yacht club membership is actually like day-to-day
• How to evaluate whether a yacht club is right for them
• What questions to ask when visiting clubs
• Common mistakes people make when joining
• What different membership tiers typically include

The club that provides this content—honestly, thoroughly, without hard sell—builds trust and relationship before any human interaction occurs. When that prospect eventually reaches out, they arrive pre-educated and predisposed to trust.

This content-first approach requires genuine expertise and willingness to be helpful rather than purely promotional. But for clubs that commit to it, the results compound. Content lives online indefinitely, working around the clock to attract and educate prospects that traditional marketing would never reach.

The Long Game

The temptation when discussing Gen Z is to focus on immediate acquisition—how do we get 28-year-olds to join right now? But the more strategic question is about relationship building over time.

A 24-year-old who isn't ready for full membership today might be the perfect candidate at 32. The question is whether your club will have built a relationship with them over those eight years, or whether you'll be starting from zero while competitors who invested earlier reap the benefits.

This is why emerging member programs, young professional events, and junior memberships matter even when they don't generate significant immediate revenue. They create touchpoints that keep your club relevant during the years when prospects are building careers, forming preferences, and developing the networks that will shape their future decisions.

The clubs that win the next thirty years aren't necessarily the ones that sign the most Gen Z members in 2026. They're the ones that build relationships now that mature into memberships, referrals, and eventually legacy commitments over decades.

What Doesn't Change

It would be easy to read all of this and conclude that everything must change—that clubs need to abandon their traditions, chase trends, and remake themselves entirely to appeal to younger members.

That conclusion would be wrong.

What Gen Z actually wants from private clubs isn't fundamentally different from what every generation has wanted: genuine community, excellent experiences, and a sense of belonging to something meaningful. The timeless elements—quality, service, tradition with purpose, authentic hospitality—remain essential.

What's changing is how clubs communicate these elements, how they structure access to them, and how they demonstrate alignment with contemporary values. The substance can remain constant even as the delivery evolves.

The clubs that thrive will be those that distinguish between principles worth preserving and practices worth updating. They'll hold tight to genuine excellence while releasing attachment to “how things have always been done” when those traditions serve no purpose beyond inertia.

Generation Z isn't asking clubs to become something they're not. They're asking clubs to be the best version of what they've always been—and to prove it in ways this generation can see, research, and believe.

That's not a threat to private club culture. It's an invitation to strengthen it.

Is your club positioned to connect with the next generation of members? Contact Private Club Marketing for a complimentary assessment of your Gen Z readiness and strategies tailored to your club's unique character.