Wild Apricot allows you to create as many membership and contact categories as needed (we call them membership levels). And you can set the renewal policy separately for each one.

For example: You might have lifetime memberships which are never renewed, monthly paid memberships, annual memberships, special premium membership levels and so on.

For each membership level you are able to setup renewal duration:

• Monthly,quarterly,semi-annually,annually
• Membership fees
• Automated reminders
• Actions.

Each contact record in your system is linked to the appropriate membership level - whether it has been created via an online membership application, imported from an Excel file or added by hand. If needed, adjust the renewal date for any individual member record by hand - handy in some special cases which somehow always turn up!

See more: Online Help - Member levels and Online Help - Member Renewals Automation

Wild Apricot allows you to charge membership dues on a regular schedule automatically.

This is especially handy for monthly memberships - it's hard to afford generating invoices every month by hand, sending them out and tracking down the payment.

Now you can use Wild Apricot's automatic recurring payments feature. Monthly, Quarterly, Semi-Annual and Annual subscription periods. When the first transaction is processed, new member will also authorize automatic subsequent payments.

Invoices, credit card charges and confirmations are all generated automatically, no manual work is required on your part. Both you and your member can look up the recurring subscription detail at any moment (and cancel it if necessary).

Once the recurring charge is processed, Wild Apricot will automatically update the renewal date in your membership database. If the payment fails, a member will be notified and can adjust his credit card data or other payment details as necessary. If a recurring payment does not complete, you the administrator will be notified and can take the appropriate action.

See more: Online Help - Automatic Recurring Payments

Processing renewals takes a lot of time:

• Reminding people to upgrade
• Tracking down individual procrastinators
• Updating member records.

No wonder that a typical membership database has up to one quarter of records out of date! This can mean lost income - and hours of work to reconcile. Wild Apricot will automate the process of sending e-mail renewal reminders (or even recurring payments - see above). You can setup these emails for each membership level separately.

For example: If you have an annual renewal policy for a particular member category

• You can setup the first reminder to be sent 30 days before the renewal date
• You can customize the text with the member's name and other personal information and remind them of all the membership benefits you have provided throughout the year
• Maybe give them a sneak peak at your plans for the next year
• Then you can setup another reminder, say, 10 days in advance
• Finally you can have the system send a reminder exactly on the renewal date - and have it sent to both the member and administrator so that you can personally follow-up if needed

See more: Online Help - Member Renewals Automation

Put an end to avalanche of faxes, letters and emails.

With Wild Apricot each member can:

• Securely login into your website to access online member services.
• Review own membership record and process the membership renewal - when and where convenient.
• Pay online with a credit card and have the system automatically update the renewal date.
• Access private website section, blog and forums

This online process has been designed for busy lifestyles or total computer novices so your members can use it without lengthy instructions or hand-holding.

See more: Online Help - Member Renew and Upgrade Self-Service

It is much easier to keep existing members than attract new ones.

Throughout the year you are busy providing your members with valuable information and services. But even if you do everything perfectly, you will find that some members are well-meaning but less than perfectly organized. You will have to deal with overdue membership renewals. As described above, Wild Apricot can help with gentle and automated advance reminders. And then there are some additional ways our software can be of help.

These options can be setup separately for each membership level - as you might want to deal differently with long-term annual subscribers vs. someone who has joined on a month-to-month basis.

Once the membership is overdue, the system can send some additional email notices (directly to each member and/or to the administrator if desired). As the last resort you can have the system automatically archive lapsed member records.

There are many ways you can deal with overdue memberships, for example you can setup the following options:

• Change member status to Lapsed, inform them about it but do not do anything else. (Lapsed members do not have access to Members-only private website section) OR
• Change membership level to leave it in your database but not have to member-only content and delist from your member directory OR
• Archive lapsed record (Archived members do not count into your plan total and can not log in)

See more: Online Help - Member Renewals Automation