How to Create a Membership Campaign on Donorbox

Our new feature Memberships (Beta) is live. You can now create a stellar membership campaign with Donorbox! Membership programs have a number of benefits. Most importantly, it ensures a predictable revenue for your organization in exchange for services such as exclusive newsletters and updates, invitations to member-only events, and other special programs. Memberships gives you…

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How to Create a Membership Campaign on Donorbox

how to create a membership program

Our new feature Memberships (Beta) is live.

You can now create a stellar membership campaign with Donorbox!

Membership programs have a number of benefits. Most importantly, it ensures a predictable revenue for your organization in exchange for services such as exclusive newsletters and updates, invitations to member-only events, and other special programs.

Memberships gives you the opportunity to build upon the loyal support for your cause, nurture donor relationships more efficiently as you segment your donors with different membership tiers. Membership programs are also known to give you the tools so you can encourage advocacy for your cause and build a stronger campaign.

In this blog, we’ll discuss how to create a membership campaign on Donorbox.

  1. Memberships – How it Works!
  2. 6 Simple Steps to Creating a Membership Program on Donorbox
  3. Checking Member Records and Membership Payments on Donorbox
  4. New Features to Expect in 2022!
  5. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Memberships – How it Works!

how to create a membership program

Memberships (Beta) is free to start – no contracts or signup costs. There is a platform fee of 2.95%, plus payment processing fees of Stripe or PayPal.

Be rest assured this is the most affordable pricing structure for a membership program tool with all the necessary features out of the ones available in the market.

It’s very easy to start your membership campaign on Donorbox. All you need to do are signup with an org account, add monthly/yearly membership tiers on the dashboard, create and customize your membership campaign, and make it live. That too without any coding requirements!

That’s all – you’ll be all set to start your membership program and have your members pay to your campaign on a monthly/yearly basis as per the selected membership tier.

You will be able to track and manage your member’s records and membership payments information.


6 Simple Steps to Creating a Membership Program on Donorbox

The steps to creating a membership program on Donorbox are as follows –

  1. Create a Donorbox Org account
  2. Add monthly and yearly membership tiers
  3. Edit your membership campaign
  4. Create your membership program
  5. Continue editing your membership campaign
  6. Embed the campaign to your website, add the QR code

Step 1 – Create a Donorbox Org account

Sign up on Donorbox as an organization. This will only take a few minutes. If you already have a Donorbox account, log in and make sure to add your payment processor.


Step 2 – Add monthly and yearly membership tiers

Open the Donorbox dashboard and under “Accounts” you’ll find the “Memberships” section. Click on it and the “Memberships” page will open.

creating a membership program for nonprofit

Add as many membership tiers as you want for monthly and annual membership intervals. Add custom, unique names for your membership tiers and the membership amount with each tier.

creating a membership program for nonprofit

Save and click on “Create a Membership Campaign”.


Step 3 – Edit your membership campaign

Add the title for your membership campaign. Customize the color. Edit your membership tiers further if required. You have an option to disable or enable the custom amount field on the form. By default, it will be disabled.

creating a membership program for nonprofit

By enabling the custom amount, you donors will be able to give a custom amount and become members.

creating a membership program for nonprofit

In this case, the donor will be associated with the tier just below the next higher defined membership tier. For example, if your membership fees are $10 and $30 and the donor gives $29, this donation will be associated with the $10 tier.

Next, select the default interval – this interval will have a heart icon next to it.

Select the option for the donor to leave a comment.

how to create a membership form for nonprofit organizations for free


Step 4 – Create your membership campaign

Click on the “Create Campaign” button at the bottom of the page.

how to create a membership form for nonprofit organizations for free

You can preview your campaign or select “Continue Editing” to add other details.

how to create a membership form for nonprofit organizations for free


Step 5: Continue editing your membership campaign.

As you click on “Continue Editing”, you’ll be taken back to the page where you can manage your tiers, change the title, etc. as shown in step 3. If you have nothing more to change on this page, click “Next” and go to the “Amounts” page.

Toggle the “Multiple Currencies” switch below to add more than one currency option to your membership form.

how to create a membership form for nonprofit organizations for free

Scroll down and find other options to edit your form. You can select your payment methods here, select to show currency code next to the amounts, add a checkbox on the form to let your members cover the processing fee, and change the donate label to “Pay” (by default, it is checked).

how to create a membership form for nonprofit organizations for free

Scrolling further, you will see the Compliance and Disclaimer field where you can add information specific to your organization. Once done, click “Next” to continue editing the form.

how to create a membership form for nonprofit organizations for free

You’re now on the “Donor Information” page where you can select which information you want to collect from your members. Check the “address” and “phone” boxes, make them optional or don’t – that’s up to you!

You can also enable company donation from the “Employment Info” section. This can multiply your member’s payment amount to a certain percentage that their employer would like to match. Once done, click “Next” to move ahead.

how to create a membership form for nonprofit organizations for free

On the next page, you can type in a thank-you message to be shown to your members upon completion of the payment. You can also select to redirect them to your website – just paste the link on the “Redirection URL” box and you’re done.

how to create a membership form for nonprofit organizations for free

Click “Update” to finish editing your membership form.


Step 6: Embed the campaign to your website, add the QR code.

You can now embed the updated membership form on your website. To do that, find your Membership campaign on the Donorbox dashboard under “Campaigns” and click the “<>Embed codes” button on it.

how to create a membership form for nonprofit organizations for free

Copy the code (as highlighted in the image below) and paste it into your website where you’d want it to appear.

how to create a membership form for nonprofit organizations for free

The below membership form will then be embedded onto your website and you can start accepting memberships through it.

how to create a membership form for nonprofit organizations for free

If you want to use the Donorbox-hosted Memberships campaign page instead, you can easily customize and start using it at no extra cost.

Under “Campaigns”, find your membership campaign and click the top edit icon as shown below.

how to create a membership program checklist

Under “Fundraising Page & Crowdfunding”, click the top edit icon to customize your free Donorbox-hosted Memberships campaign page.

how to create a membership program checklist

After you’ve added a background image, a description, enabled a donor wall, and other options, and finally clicked the “update” button, here’s how your customized Memberships campaign page will look like –

how to create a membership program checklist

You can also use the free QR code generated for your Memberships campaign on Donorbox. To do that, go back to the “Campaigns” page, locate your membership campaign, and as shown in the below screenshot, use the “QR Code” dropdown to download the image file.

Embed it on your website, your marketing materials, or emails to help potential members easily navigate to your membership form.

how to create a membership program checklist


Checking Member Records and Membership Payments on Donorbox

Now that you’ve your membership campaign ready and live, you’ll soon start receiving membership payments and members will be added to your tiers. On Donorbox, you can check member records and membership payments in the same way that you otherwise check donor records and donations.

To find your members, you can select “Donors” from the navigation menu and open a donor record to check their membership information. Their membership tier, signup date, expiration date, and membership status will show here.

how to create a membership program checklist

To check membership payments, you can select “Donations” from the navigation menu and your membership payments will show a “Membership” label under the “Type” column.

how to create a membership program checklist

You also have membership-specific filters on the “Donors” and “Donations” lists. You can use them to segment your donors’ list into donors and members and your donations list into donations and membership payments.

Donors’ list filter –

how to create a membership program checklist

Donations’ list filter –

how to create a membership program checklist


New Features to Expect in 2022!

creating a membership program for nonprofit

With the release of Memberships (Beta), we’re in the process of researching and implementing some more features requested by you. Here’s a list of new features you can expect to see in 2022 –

  • Modifying receipts for each membership campaign
  • The ability to upgrade to the next membership tier
  • Group memberships
  • A way to handle membership benefits
  • Segmenting donors and donations based on membership tiers
  • Automatic reminder emails to members a week prior to the renewal date

…and more! Stay tuned for updates from Donorbox!


Conclusion

how to create a membership program

It takes only a 6-step simple process to get started with Donorbox Memberships (Beta). You not only get to use a simple and robust membership form but also a Donorbox-hosted free membership campaign page that you can customize to your liking. Plus, you can easily manage member and payment records on the backend.

Only minutes from now, you can have a membership program for your nonprofit that you can use to attract the most loyal supporters and turn them into your long-lasting advocates. You can incentivize them and also gather funds for your organization.

Donorbox is also a powerful fundraising tool that helps nonprofits with advanced features such as crowdfunding, peer-to-peer fundraising, text-to-give, recurring donation forms, campaign pages, and more. To learn more about us, check out our website.

You can also find useful tips and insights on fundraising and nonprofit management on our nonprofit blog here. Do remember to subscribe to our newsletter to fuel your fundraising efforts.


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on Donorbox Memberships (Beta)

how to create a membership program

In this section, we’ll answer some common questions regarding Donorbox Memberships (Beta).


1. How much does Donorbox Memberships (Beta) cost?

Donorbox Memberships (Beta) is free to start. We charge no cost for you to sign up on Donorbox and start a membership program campaign. There’s a nominal 2.95% platform fee for using the feature, alongside the processing fees of Stripe or PayPal (2.2% +30c).


2. You call it Memberships (Beta). Does it mean it’s for testing purposes only?

The feature is live on Donorbox and is available for all nonprofit organizations to use. We’re calling it the Beta version since it has only been launched and we are constantly looking for feedback and comments from our users to make the experience even better.


3. How is a membership campaign on Donorbox different from the generic recurring campaigns?

With Donorbox Memberships (Beta), we’re offering nonprofits a dedicated membership form with monthly and yearly subscription options and membership tiers. We are also letting them manage the membership and payments information at the backend with improved filters. This will come in handy for reporting and tracking purposes. Finally, with a dedicated membership campaign, nonprofits can better manage their membership programs, offer perks to their members, and improve donor retention efforts.


4. What all payment options will members be having for their monthly/yearly payments?

Your members can pay using debit and credit cards, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH, and SEPA bank transfer.


5. Will members be given their own membership accounts to manage their membership subscriptions?

As soon as your members give to your membership campaign, they’ll receive their member login details from Donorbox. From there, they can log in with their credentials and manage their membership and payments.


6. Can monthly subscriptions be upgraded to annual subscriptions?

Currently, you cannot. But we’re noting down all suggestions and feedback from nonprofits and our existing users to implement new features in the future. Feel free to connect with our support team here or email us at and leave any additional suggestions for our product team at Donorbox.

Charles Z is the Founder and CEO of Donorbox. He has been starting companies and numerous web applications since college. Nowadays he is immersed and wildly excited about the the future of the social impact sector.

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