Guide · September 2026
Groups for family-business owners: federations, national bodies, university centres
Family-business organizations divide into an international federation, national bodies that convene and lobby, regional alliances with tiered dues, and university centres with peer groups. What each publishes, and who it admits.
The organizations for owning families admit more broadly than CEO peer groups — usually the whole family, across generations, and often the non-family executives who run the business — and they are correspondingly less selective and less expensive. The choice is between scale and locality, between convening and advocacy, and between a membership and a programme with tuition. This guide sets the records side by side for an owner deciding where to start.
The organizations
7Family Business Network (FBN)
Members of business-owning families — owners, executives, non-executive shareholders and next-generation family members — where the family controls the business
The international federation: national member associations, no single application or fee, entry through the association covering your country. The family must control the business and the business must matter to the family's wealth; FBN Asia publishes its schedule (SGD 7,000 family, SGD 3,500 individual, SGD 2,000 next-generation) where the global body publishes none.
Family Business UK
UK family businesses of any size and generation — owners, shareholders, family directors, next-generation family members and the non-family executives and NEDs who work with them
Now Family Business UK: membership held by the company and extended family-wide, on an eight-band published scale tied to turnover from £550 to £4,675. Broad rather than exclusive; an industry body with policy work, not a selective club.
Family Enterprise USA
Owners and executives of American family-owned businesses and multi-generational employers, plus advisers and firms that serve them
A policy organization with a membership wrapper — representation on tax policy and a route into Capitol Hill meetings — at four published tiers from US$1,000 to US$10,000. No forums, no succession curriculum; know that before comparing it with peer networks.
Family Business Association
Owners, family members, emerging-generation members and non-family executives of Australian and New Zealand family businesses, family enterprises and family offices — plus the accountants, lawyers and consultants who advise them
Australia and New Zealand: A$695 for the first family member and A$350 for each additional relative, with facilitated Forum Groups at A$3,650 to A$4,600 a year where the peer-advisory value sits. One of the cheapest routes into a family-business network anywhere.
Loyola University Chicago Family Business Center
Middle-market, multigenerational family businesses and the whole family around them — including family members who do not work in the business, in-laws, and non-family executives
A university centre in Chicago whose peer-group design is the most thought-through on the list — eight streams sorted by role and stage, relatives placed in different groups — at US$7,500 a year plus programme fees. Regional and in person.
Family Enterprise Center at Kennesaw State University
Family business owners and leaders in Georgia and the surrounding region, plus students from family businesses through the centre's next-generation programming
Kennesaw State's family enterprise centre north of Atlanta: US$1,000 for open programming, US$2,500 for the tier with the monthly peer group and reserved forum seats. Among the cheapest structured family-business memberships available.
Family Business Alliance
Family-owned businesses in West Michigan — owners and family leaders running the business, next-generation family members preparing to lead, and the non-family executives who work alongside them
West Michigan only, with tiered dues from US$625 to US$10,000 that buy quantities — event tickets, peer-group slots — rather than status. Structurally what the national peer groups do, at a fraction of the price and with a hard geographic boundary.