Get Started with Membership Forms

Membership forms help grow your organization's membership base while increasing membership revenue. These customizable forms provide supporters with a dedicated way to join your organization. When you create a membership form, you can configure its content, payment settings, layout, and confirmation experience before sharing it with supporters.

Note: Membership forms are available if you have the Membership module with Raiser's Edge NXT.

To build a membership form, from Online Giving, select Membership forms. Next, select New membership form.

Get Started

Get started defines the form’s identity and determines which membership options donors can select. You can also enable features such as gifts of membership and extra donations to give supporters more ways to contribute when they complete the form.

  1. Under Form name, enter a descriptive name for the form.

  2. Under Memberships, select the memberships you want to include on the form.

    Note: To add new membership categories, go to Configuration, Membership Categories in database view.

  3. To allow supporters to give a membership as a gift to someone else, select Enable gift of membership.

  4. To allow supporters to include a donation alongside their membership purchase, select Enable additional donations, then select a fund under Designation for those gifts to go toward.

  5. Optionally, under Hidden fields, you can add a campaign and appeal to link to the membership record, or add constituent codes to apply to the member's record and the gift recipient's record after the form is submitted. These fields don't appear on the supporter-facing form.

  6. Select Next.

Payment and Fees

Payment and fees connects the form to a payment configuration and determines how to handle online transaction fees. You also set whether the form operates in test mode or processes live payments.

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  1. Under Payment processing, select the payment configuration to use for processing transactions.

  2. Direct debit is available if you want to allow supporters to pay by bank transfer. Select Enable direct debit.

  3. Under Transaction processing, select the form mode:

    • Test mode without creating gift or membership records — processes test transactions without creating records.

    • Test mode and create one-time gift records and membership records — processes test transactions and creates records so you can verify data.

    • Start processing donations — processes real transactions from supporters.

      Warning: After you select Start processing donations, you can't return the form to test mode or use test card numbers. Test the form thoroughly before going live. When you copy a form, the copy starts in test mode.

  4. Under Fee coverage, select how to cover transaction fees:

    • Blackbaud pays — Blackbaud pays the fees even if supporters don't contribute toward them.

    • Donor pays — donors are asked to cover the fees.

    • My organization pays — your organization takes responsibility for paying the fees.

  5. Select Next.

Form

From Form use a drag-and-drop canvas to arrange the sections and fields donors see. Some components can't be removed; others are optional and can be added, removed, or reordered to match your organization's needs.

Configure the Membership List

  1. On the Memberships component, select Click to edit.

  2. For each membership, update the display title and description as needed. You must select a Designation for each membership before you can save the form.

  3. Adjust dues amounts and the number of additional members allowed, if needed.

    Tip: If you override the default dues amount of a membership, you may want to edit the membership's display title to reflect the updated amount.

  4. Drag memberships to reorder how they appear to donors, or select Top to move a membership to the top of the list.

  5. Under Labels, edit the text for the membership selection button and the confirmation message donors see after selecting a membership.

  6. Select Done.

Customize Field Labels

You can rename the labels on primary member fields, additional gift fields, and billing information fields to match your organization's needs. Select Click to edit on a field or label, make the change, and select Done.

Add Optional Components

Drag field, content, and add-in components from the Form designer onto the form to capture additional information from supporters. You can also style components so they eflect your organization's branding.

  • To remove a component, select delete.

  • To reorder components, drag them to the preferred position.

Select Next when the form layout is complete.

Confirmations

From Confirmations you control what supporters see and receive after they submit the form.

Thank You Message

After a supporter submits the form, a thank you message appears to confirm their membership. Select one of the following options:

  • Use default content to display a default thank you message with transaction details.

  • Redirect donors to a webpage to send supporters to a URL you specify. Use this option to present custom content. Transaction details aren't included on the redirected page.

    Note: The redirect option is not available when the form includes an Add-in component.

Closed Form Message

If you want to automatically close the membership form on a specific date and time, select Automatically close form. Then select the date and time it will close. Add a message with a link to other programs on your website.

Thank You Email

The thank you email is sent to supporters after they submit the form. It confirms their membership and includes transaction details by default. To learn how to customize the email, see the Thank You Email tutorial.

Staff Notifications

To notify staff when a donation is made through the form, enter up to 10 email addresses under Donation notification.

To limit notifications to donations above a threshold, enter a minimum amount. For example, entering $100 sends notifications only for donations of $100 or more.

Save the Form

Select Save and close to save the form in its current state.

The form is saved in test mode and appears in the Membership forms list. You can return to edit the form at any time. When you're ready to accept real transactions, edit the form and go to Payment and fees. Select Start processing donations. After you select this option, you can no longer change the form back to test mode.

Test and Publish the Form

After you edit the form, your next steps are to test it before you start processing donations. Then, when you are ready you can publish the form.