Fixed date memeberships

Hi Jana

For San Francisco Opera’s young ticket buyers program (Bravo!) memberships are fixed with the start and end dates that reflect our fiscal year and cover one full season of performances. If a patron buys a Bravo! membership within the last three months of the fiscal year (in our case between May 1 and July 31) we extend that membership to the next fiscal year by giving them an active current membership in the year of purchase and a pending membership for the next fiscal year. These patrons basically end up with a 15 month membership instead of 12.

Our donor memberships also have fixed dates tied to the fiscal year. The way our membership structure is set up, when a donor makes a gift in the current fiscal year, a pending membership is set up for the following fiscal year. Donors are basically “pre-paying” for the following year’s benefits. For new and increased donors, we extend their benefits into the current fiscal year so they can begin enjoying them immediately. This ensures that our donors, regardless of the time of year they contribute, receive at least a full year’s worth of benefits. It is a bit confusing but I am happy to go into it further with you off-line if you are interested.

Hope this is helpful!

Jess Levy

San Francisco Opera

415-565-3283

We are starting to create memberships for our upcoming fiscal year and have decided that we would like our initiation date to be fixed.  It will be the first day of our fiscal year so all memberships will last from July to June no matter when a patron gives a qualifying contribution.  However, I'm trying to wrap my head around any unforeseen consequences this may cause.  I could see that it may encourage donors not to give end of fiscal year gifts since their membership would lapse soon after, though we could always push that membership to the new fiscal year.  I also fear that it may make renewal functionality obsolete.  Does anyone have any advice for things to keep in mind or tips and tricks when planning a membership campaign with a fixed initiation date?  I did a little searching in the documentation and in the forums but I didn't come up with much.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Best,

Jana

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