Crashielab

Web developer for small businesses

Start a project

How to manage memberships and renewals for a small association

A practical way to run members, payments and renewals for a small association, from choosing a renewal model to reminders, grace periods and admin.

The short answer

Keep members, payments and renewals in one system instead of a spreadsheet, payment links and an inbox. Choose a renewal model, send reminders automatically, let members renew and pay online, and give your team one screen that shows who is paid up.

Signs you have outgrown the spreadsheet

  • Someone checks bank statements by hand to see who has paid
  • Renewal reminders go out late, or not at all
  • Members ask you when their membership ends
  • Newsletter lists and member lists don’t match
  • Only one volunteer knows how it all works

Choose a renewal model

There are two common ways to set renewal dates:

A fixed date. Everyone renews on the same day each year, such as 1 January or the start of your season. It is easy to explain and to report on, and it suits associations with a yearly programme. Decide what people pay if they join part-way through the year.

An anniversary. Each membership runs for twelve months from the day the member joined. Payments and reminders spread across the year, and nobody pays for months they didn’t get.

Set up membership categories

Most associations need more than one kind of member, for example individual, student, organisation and honorary. For each category, decide:

  • What it costs, and whether it renews automatically
  • What members get, such as resources, events or voting rights
  • Whether new members are approved by someone before they join

Reminders and grace periods

Renewal reminders are what keep members, so make them automatic. A common pattern is a reminder a month before, a week before, on the day and a week after. The guide to renewal reminder emails has wording you can copy.

A short grace period after the renewal date gives people time to pay before they lose access. Decide how long it is, and say so in the reminders.

Payments

Taking card payments online, through a provider such as Stripe, removes most of the manual work. Members can choose to renew automatically, receipts are sent for you, and failed payments trigger a reminder instead of a silent lapse.

Keep a simple way to record payments made another way, such as bank transfer, so every member’s status stays in one place.

What members should see

When members sign in, they should find at a glance:

  • Their membership category and the date it ends
  • A button to renew or update their payment card
  • Their receipts
  • The resources, events and news that come with membership

What your team should see

Your team needs one list of members that can be filtered by status, such as active, due soon or lapsed, and exported when needed. From there, they should be able to change someone’s category or status, approve new members and record payments without asking a developer.

Messages about someone’s membership, such as receipts and renewal reminders, are part of running it. Newsletters and other news are different: in the UK and the EU, people usually need to opt in to them. Let members choose which lists they join, and keep a record of when they did.

Software, plugin or custom build

There are three ways to run memberships online. Each suits a different kind of association, so start from how you work, not from a feature list.

Hosted membership software

An all-in-one service you sign up to and run from its own dashboard.

  • Choose this if your categories, renewals and events fit what the software already offers, and you want to start this month.
  • Running costs: a monthly or yearly subscription, often priced by the number of members or contacts, plus card processing fees.
  • Watch for: your member data and pages living on someone else’s platform, and price rises as you grow.

A WordPress membership plugin

Membership features added to your own WordPress website.

  • Choose this if your rules are straightforward, such as a few categories with a yearly fee, and you want members, content and payments on your own site.
  • Running costs: the plugin licence, hosting, card processing fees and someone to keep WordPress and its plugins up to date.
  • Watch for: stacking several plugins to cover events, approvals and newsletters, which gets fragile.

A custom membership website

A membership system built around your own rules.

  • Choose this if your rules don’t fit software or plugins: new members approved by a committee, several fee levels, events open to both members and the public, or programmes that change each year.
  • Running costs: a larger first build, then hosting, card processing fees and occasional changes. There are no per-member fees.
  • Watch for: the time it takes to agree how everything should work. Writing your rules down first, as in the sections above, makes the build faster and cheaper.

If you aren’t sure, list the rules your association actually follows today. If software or a plugin covers all of them, start there.

How Crashielab can help

The Cultural Leadership Council case study is an example of the custom route: a membership web app for an association of arts, culture and heritage practitioners. It brings annual memberships and renewals, a members’ area with private resources, opt-in newsletters and event registration into one place.

If your association has outgrown its spreadsheet, a membership website can be built around how you already work.

Questions

Should every member renew on the same date?
A fixed renewal date is simpler to run and suits associations with a yearly programme. Renewing on each member’s joining anniversary spreads the work and payments across the year. Pick the one that matches how your year runs.
How many renewal reminders should we send?
Usually three or four, starting about a month before the renewal date and ending shortly after it. Stop as soon as the member renews.
Can renewals be automatic?
Yes. Members can choose to renew automatically by card, with a reminder before each payment. Others can renew by hand when they get a reminder.
Is a spreadsheet enough to manage members?
For a handful of members, it can be. Once renewals, payments and newsletters are tracked in different places, mistakes and missed renewals become common, and a membership system saves a lot of time.

Related services

  • Membership websites: A custom membership website for associations, clubs and communities, with sign-up, renewals, members-only content and events in one place.

Have a project in mind?Start a project