Hello everyone,
We are investigating instituting auto-renewals for our membership program at the Science Museum of Minnesota. In reading through the documentation of this process, my colleague Jenny and I have hit the wall. As far as we can tell, the only way that the functionality can identify someone as wanting to auto-renew is if their previous membership was set up as a pledge with the appropriate billing type.
The problem is, how do you let people opt in or out of an auto-renewal program if everything is based on the previous gift's setup? Per the Tessitura documentation, contributions should be processed as gifts if they are being paid immediately; thus all our membership payments are set up as gifts, not as pledges. According to what we have found, the functionality would require that the pre-existing membership had been sold as a pledge, in order for that customer to pull in to the auto-renewal utility. That would prevent anyone who wants auto-renewal from signing up online or via our frontline staff (75% of our gifts), as the ticketing module cannot take pledges. In addition, we need to allow people to opt in during the course of their existing membership, which we can't do if everything is based on the gift that's already been processed. I also cannot figure out how someone would be able to opt OUT of auto-renewing; if their previous membership was purchased via a pledge, which is how the auto-renew utilities work, we can't go back later and change that billing type, so there would be no way to prevent them from being pulled into the auto-ren utility for the next year once they told us they wanted to opt out.
Are we just missing something here? Has anyone found workarounds for these issues? Or would we have to do custom work to allow for smooth opt-in and opt-out functionality?
Thanks,
Beth (and Jenny)
Hi Beth,
We set up auto-billing for a membership type product through Tess. You're right that it does require a pledge to be set up. I could see asking members to check a box to do auto billing, which would allow you to set up a pledge in their account from this point forward (or from their next renewal date forward). If at some point they wanted to opt-out, you would have to manually adjust the remainder of the bill.
Our box office manager is actually the one who set up and handles this functionality. Email me at elakin@ybca.org and I'll connect you!
Hi Beth!
Thanks for the nudge. I never personally got around to finishing this before i left...but it looks like the guys got the job done!
http://fairfieldtheatre.org/membership
And i agree with Emily, as also shown in this example. a checkbox is used for auto-renew option...but curiously, the membership level has "auto renew" in the name...so maybe that is part of their workflow (instead of storing the checkbox, they have the member stay in that memb_level).
I think it really all comes down to workflow and a little web customization. You need a custom way to manage the opt-in/out of auto renew --The checkbox. Then you need a customized workflow for actually processing the auto-renewals --pledges. There is no pledge support in the API last i checked. So again, finding your workflow IS the workaround. But that is very specific to each org. FTC has rolling memberships at multiple levels, some have fixed date/year, etc.
As to the pre-existing question.... that's' tricky. Particularly, you would have to choose for them, what billing method to use, AND you'd be opting them in -on their behalf.... Perhaps, you gave them a period to opt out and a notice of a change in terms...
My guess is that you would only pledge 1 term, and running auto-renewal would update/extend that pledge one term IF the user hadn't opted out yet. With FTCs rolling membership, we discussed doing this on a daily / weekly basis.
I'll put you in touch with the right guys over there and i'm sure they can provide much more feedback.
Hope that helps!
James
I wanted to clarify that you can edit the billing type on a contribution to opt someone out. To edit the billing type you need to open the contribution details from the constituent record. Another option for managing opt ins and opt outs could be by always using the lists parameter. You could then use an attribute or a custom contribution field to build a list of people that should be auto-renewed.
Kevin Sheehan
Senior Technical Writer & Consultant
Tessitura Network
+1 888 643 5778 x 329
ksheehan@tessituranetwork.com
Beth- We are facing the same situation. I know this is an old post but I'm curious to see where you ended up with this. Did you find a good solution?
Megan
From: "Megan Martin" <bounce-meganmartin1175@tessituranetwork.com>To: evarro@smm.orgSent: Wednesday, September 14, 2016 12:32:45 PMSubject: Re: [Tessitura Technical Forum] Auto-Renewal Functionality Question
Beth- We are facing the same situation. I know this is an old post but I'm curious to see where you ended up with this. Did you find a good solution? Thanks, Megan From: Beth Varro <bounce-elizabethvarro6946@tessituranetwork.com>Sent: 5/2/2013 3:05:25 PMHello everyone, We are investigating instituting auto-renewals for our membership program at the Science Museum of Minnesota. In reading through the documentation of this process, my colleague Jenny and I have hit the wall. As far as we can tell, the only way that the functionality can identify someone as wanting to auto-renew is if their previous membership was set up as a pledge with the appropriate billing type. The problem is, how do you let people opt in or out of an auto-renewal program if everything is based on the previous gift's setup? Per the Tessitura documentation, contributions should be processed as gifts if they are being paid immediately; thus all our membership payments are set up as gifts, not as pledges. According to what we have found, the functionality would require that the pre-existing membership had been sold as a pledge, in order for that customer to pull in to the auto-renewal utility. That would prevent anyone who wants auto-renewal from signing up online or via our frontline staff (75% of our gifts), as the ticketing module cannot take pledges. In addition, we need to allow people to opt in during the course of their existing membership, which we can't do if everything is based on the gift that's already been processed. I also cannot figure out how someone would be able to opt OUT of auto-renewing; if their previous membership was purchased via a pledge, which is how the auto-renew utilities work, we can't go back later and change that billing type, so there would be no way to prevent them from being pulled into the auto-ren utility for the next year once they told us they wanted to opt out. Are we just missing something here? Has anyone found workarounds for these issues? Or would we have to do custom work to allow for smooth opt-in and opt-out functionality? Thanks, Beth (and Jenny)This message was sent automatically to you by www.tessituranetwork.com because you subscribed to the Tessitura Technical Forum. You may reply to this message to post to the Technical forum or visit the site to search, read and post to the forums. In the interest of keeping the forum posts from becoming cluttered, we encourage you to delete previous message text from your reply before sending. Thank you! Spam Not spam Forget previous vote
From: Beth Varro <bounce-elizabethvarro6946@tessituranetwork.com>Sent: 5/2/2013 3:05:25 PM