The Economic Club of New York

The Economic Club of New York is a nonprofit, nonpartisan speaker forum founded in 1907. Its programme is built around addresses by public figures: the Club states it has hosted more than 1,000 speakers, including eight or more US presidents, foreign heads of government and Federal Reserve chairs, and it publishes a podcast drawn from those events. Membership is by nomination, with a monthly membership committee reviewing candidates, and comes in three classes. Full membership is aimed at senior, typically C-suite, leaders and requires two current members to propose the candidate. A five-year associate class serves people aged 45 or under with roughly seven years of experience and requires only one proposer. A non-resident class serves senior leaders living and working outside the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut area, with limited access. Dues are published and modest by the standards of selective clubs, but attendance at events is priced separately through tiered packages. A reciprocity programme allows members to attend events at the Economic Clubs of Chicago and Washington, D.C.

How it works

The Club convenes members for addresses and discussions with invited speakers, held in person in New York and streamed digitally. Members choose an annual dues-and-ticket package that determines how many events they can attend without paying per event. A Fellows programme runs alongside the main membership for prospective future members, and reciprocity with the Chicago and Washington clubs extends the event calendar.

Typical member

Full members are senior leaders, typically C-suite, distinguished in finance, technology, law, government, academia, healthcare, real estate and other sectors. A separate associate class is open to people aged 45 or under in mid-level or more senior leadership positions with roughly seven years of professional experience.

This is a speaker club, not a peer-advisory body: the product is access to the podium and to the room, and the Club is explicit that dues and event access are priced separately. That structure is the thing to understand before comparing headline dues with other organisations. Standard full dues of $1,400 for 2026 buy membership but not events; the packages that include events run from $2,400 to $8,000, so the real annual cost depends entirely on how often a member attends. The associate class is the most distinctive feature: a five-year term for people 45 and under at roughly a third of the cost of the top package, with only one proposer needed and no guarantee of moving to full membership afterwards. The Club does not publish how many members it has or how many nominations succeed.

Editorial analysis by Peer Group Guide editors. It is separated from the record above and follows the editorial policy.