Manage Membership Programs

Under the Membership program tab, you can quickly view the total active memberships and any membership alerts — such as the number of membership cards waiting to be printed. Depending on your security rights, you can also enter membership dues, print membership cards, send renewal notices, and run reports.

Under the Activity tab, you can quickly see information at a glance — such as the number of renewals and rejoins, new memberships, lapsed memberships, and upgrades and downgrades.

To view the total memberships for a certain category, select the "number of" link. When you select the "view all levels" link within a widget, the Widget Level Summary page appears. To change the widgets to display based on level, tier, or a certain date range, under Show information, change the values.

For more information, see View Activity Widget Details.

Under the Revenue tab, view revenue received for the program over a certain time period. To view the info in more detail, select the Membership dues revenue report. For more information, see Membership Dues Revenue Report.

From the General tab, you can edit general info about a membership program, such as its name and description.

Note: When you set up a membership program, you indicate whether it is an annual, recurring, or lifetime program. You also indicate whether it is dues-based, contributions-based, or both. Once saved, you cannot edit these settings.

For annual, single-term programs, select the Levels tab to enter a name and description for each level. If the program is dues-based, you set a price for each level. If it is contributions-based, you set the price range for each level. If the program is both dues- and contributions-based, you can base some levels on dues and others on contributions.

For each level, you also specify:

• the number of members, cards, and children

• whether to assign a reporting group (to compare similar levels of different membership programs)

• whether members are downgraded automatically when renewing at a lower amount

Tip: With dues-based programs, you can also manage add-ons from this tab. For more information, see Associate Add-ons with a Membership Program.

Tip: To further classify membership levels, you can use membership types. For more information, see Membership Types

For annual, multiple-term programs, select the Terms and Levels tab to specify the terms for the program, such as one year or three years. For each level, you enter a name and description. If the program is dues-based, you set a price for each level. If it is contributions-based, you set the price range for each level. If the program is both dues- and contributions-based, you can base some levels on dues and others on contributions.

For each level, you also specify:

• the number of members, cards, and children

• whether to assign a reporting group (to compare similar levels of different membership programs)

• whether members are downgraded automatically when renewing at a lower amount

Tip: To further classify membership levels, you can use membership types. For more information, see Membership Types

For recurring and lifetime programs, select the Payment Options/Levels tab to enter a name, description, and price for each level. For more information, see Payment Options for Membership Programs.

For each level, you also specify:

• The number of members, cards, and children

• Whether to assign a reporting group (to compare similar levels of different membership programs)

• Whether members are downgraded automatically when renewing at a lower amount

Tip: To further classify membership levels, you can use membership types. For more information, see Membership Types

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Some membership program offer special benefits at a certain level, such as a key chain or calendar. You can associate benefits with benefit levels so that higher levels have higher-value benefits. You can also make benefits cumulative. Benefits Catalog is located in Fundraising, but you can also add benefits from a membership program record.

The monetary value of a benefit reduces the tax deductible amount of the membership. For example, if a benefit is worth $5, the tax deductible amount of the membership, if applicable, would be reduced by that amount.

From the Benefits tab, you can manage benefits associated with the program. You can also:

• Select which card format to use for membership cards

• Select which name format to use for the membership cards

• Specify whether all, part, or none of the amount of membership dues is tax-deductible

Note: Add-ons and benefits are similar. Benefits are things like items members automatically receive with their memberships or membership levels. Add-ons are optional offerings members can "add on" to their membership, for an additional cost or not depending on the item.

For each membership program, you must set up certain rules. For example, for dues-based programs, you specify whether a portion of the dues amount is tax-deductible. For contributions-based programs, you specify which types of giving activity are counted toward a membership.

To edit these rules and other program-specific settings, from a membership program record, select the Rules tab.

For more information, see Rules for Dues-Based Programs and Levels or Rules for Contributions-Based Programs and Levels

For dues-based and contributions-based programs and levels, you set rules for renewals and the renewal window. You set rules about the membership term and when dues-based levels expire.

For dues-based programs, when a membership is in the renewal window, the membership page for the constituent has a Renew now button. Prior to the renewal window, this button is Upgrade now and is used for a mid-term upgrade to the membership. For contributions-based programs, the Membership contribution process uses the renewal window to determine when existing members are eligible for a renewal.

To expire the memberships for the program on the same day and month every year, select Is fixed and enter the month and day in the Expiration date column. In the Push to next period after column, enter the membership join date that extends the membership until the next expiration date. For example, you enter 12/31 in the Expiration date column. If you enter 09/01 in the Push to next period after column, the expiration date for a constituent who joins on or after September 1 is December 31 of the following year, not the current year. You can enter multiple rows of dates in this grid if you want to expire and push multiple dates throughout the year.

You then define the renewal window and what happens before and after the expiration date. You also specify what happens after the renewal window closes.

Tip: To avoid lapsed and expired memberships, encourage members to sign up for auto-renewal. For more information, see Automatic Membership Renewals.

Tip: To automatically update members' status based on the renewal windows for your membership programs, run the Update Membership Status global change process. For more information, see Manage Renewal Information for Membership Programs.