Setting-Up Membership Purchasing Flows

As different organisations handle membership in different ways, we have not yet created a dedicated membership module. However there are two primary approaches you can use to  manage membership purchases through existing modules in the platform, each has its own pros and cons.

Deciding which flow to use

Do you want/need to take regular recurring payments for Memberships?
Yes - use ‘Approach 1: Appeals’
No - use ‘Approach 2: Shop’

Can you claim Gift Aid on your Memberships? (see rules on this here)
Yes - use ‘Approach 1: Appeals’
No - use ‘Approach 2: Shop’

Want to collect more info?

Both approaches will collect the same information from the user (Title, Name & Email); if you would like to capture more information then create a Form (see ‘Info Form’ below) that redirects the user to either Approach 1 or 2 upon submission.

Approach 1: Appeals

If your Memberships are Gift Aid-able and it is important that you can claim Gift Aid on Memberships purchases or if you want to take regular recurring payments, then Appeals is the best option. In this route, the Membership purchase would be treated as a donation and therefore would offer the option to Gift Aid it.

Users would also be able to opt to set their Membership up as an annual direct debit, meaning it would automatically renew each year, without the need to manually renew.

» For instructions to build this flow see our Knowledge Base (you will be given access to this once you complete our Beginner’s Webinar after completing Headstart)

Considerations:

• Action Button will say "donate"
• “Other” will display as an option for payment, as well as the option to make the payment one off or regular
• If you change the pricing for the Membership and you want the pricing to change for existing Members, then when people who are registered on the old pricing come to renew, you will need to cancel their previous direct debit and they will need to re-register on the new pricing
• Users can only buy one membership at a time
• The description amount and payment frequency could give conflicting messages - the user could select "Membership - £50 paid annually" but then chose to pay £50 monthly/quarterly so the wording used may need some thought - and there would need to be a degree of common sense on the user's part to select the appropriate options(s)
• The information you can collect on the purchaser is standardised (i.e. you would be collecting Title, First Name, Second Name and email). To collect more info see ‘Info Form’ below.

Approach 2: Shop

Alternatively a simpler solution would be to sell membership as a "product" in the shop.

This approach would also allow the action button to say “Buy” rather than “Donate” and for you to cross sell Membership along with other Shop products. Users also have the option to add a donation along with their Membership purchase.

» For instructions to build this flow see our Knowledge Base (you will be given access to this once you complete our Beginner’s Webinar after completing Headstart)

Considerations:

• No direct debits, the membership purchase will be a one-off payment that will need to be renewed each year through a separate transaction
• The information you can collect on the purchaser is standardised (i.e. you would be collecting Title, First Name, Second Name and email). To collect more info see ‘Info Form’ below.
• Gift Aid eligibility would not be collected within the "gift aid report". If you want to record this eligibility then either use ‘Approach 1: Appeals’ or see ‘Info Form’ below

Using a form to capture more information

If you would like to capture more information during the flow then create a Form that redirects the user to either the relevant “Membership” shop product or “Membership” Appeal upon submission.

If using a form to capture additional details, you would need to export the Form data as well as the data from the Shop/Appeal and use a field (such as email address) as a unique identifier to match the reports up.

» For instructions to build this flow see our Knowledge Base (you will be given access to this once you complete our Beginner’s Webinar after completing Headstart)