How to Set Up Memberships for Variable Giving

Your organization can receive recurring donations through Memberships. Using variable pricing, donors can select the exact amount they’d like to donate.

In this article, we’ll help you understand, set up, sell and renew Memberships that have variable pricing. 

Before reading this article, make sure you’re familiar with:

• Setting Up and Editing Memberships
• Selling and Renewing Memberships

Why use Memberships for Variable Giving?

There are a few ways to receive donations in Spektrix: Donations, Ticket Donations, Pledges, Legacies and Memberships.

VIDEO: If you're new to Donations in Spektrix, take a look at our Donations in Spektrix concept video.

Memberships allow for recurring giving at both a Fixed Value and Variable Value.

Variable value Memberships allow for variable recurring giving. For example, your organization sets a price range from $100-249.99 per year and each donor chooses $125 when making the initial purchase and auto renew each year at the same price.

Variable Memberships let donors choose the amount to give regularly.

With multiple Variable Memberships, your organization can create a tiered giving structure, letting donors give at various levels with opportunities to increase giving within tiers.

Additionally, with auto renewal features, donors can be automatically charged at regular intervals and at the same value.

Considerations for using Memberships for Variable Giving

If you’re interested in using Memberships for variable giving, here are some things to consider. 

Variable Memberships:

• Must include a Donation.
   
• Are set with a Minimum Price (lowest available price) and a Maximum Price (highest available price). You can hide these values from customers in the online purchase path.
   
• Can include a Benefit or Goods and Services Amount. This value is set and will remain the same across all Memberships of that type, regardless of what price the Customer chooses. The value of the Donation will vary. This value can be set at 0 for a full Donation amount.
   
• Can be sold in the Sales or Opportunities Interfaces. Variable Memberships default to the Minimum Price, the custom amount is set using the Override feature.
   
• Can be made available on your website with API web integrations, web components or Spektrix Subsites. Variable Memberships are not available in the Memberships iframe.
   
• Do not have a Renewal Price. At the time of renewal, Customers who manually renew their Membership will purchase the Membership in the same ways their initial purchase, which will default to the Minimum Price.
   
• For customers who opt into auto renew, their Membership will automatically renew at the purchase price or the Minimum Price, whichever value is higher at the time of renewal. A Customer can opt in or out of auto renewing at any time.

If you’d like to begin setting up Variable Memberships, take a look at the steps in Setting Up a Variable Membership.

Setting up a Variable Membership

Follow the steps in Setting Up and Editing Memberships to set up a new Membership.

To enable variable pricing, complete the following settings: 

• Includes Donation: All Variable Memberships must have this box checked
• Variable: Check this box to enable variable pricing
• Min Price: Set the lowest or minimum price for the Membership
• Max Price: Set the highest or maximum price for the Membership

  TIP: When a Membership is variable, a Minimum Price and Maximum Price is always required. For an unlimited maximum, we recommend setting the amount to match your maximum credit card payment allowance.

Variable Memberships don’t have a Renewal Price. When the Variable box is checked, the Renewal Price field can’t be edited.

Since Variable Donations include a Donation, you’re also required to set the following:

• Benefits/Goods and Services Value: Add a fixed value for the portion of the Membership that is not a Donation. If you’d like to make the full value of your Membership 100% a Donation, enter 0.

  TIP: This value is set no matter the price of the Membership. The Donation value will vary based on the price. For example, if you set the benefit at $30 for $100-199.99 Membership, then the Donation portion could range from $70-169.99.

• Fund: You must select a Fund for the Donation.
   
• Default Campaign: If you use the Opportunities Interface, you can select a Campaign for the Membership.

  TIP: When selling in the Sales or Opportunities Interface, you can link an Opportunity with a different campaign, which will override the default campaign.

Changing a Fixed Membership to a Variable Membership

You can change Memberships that previously had fixed prices to have variable pricing. 

You’ll need to edit the Membership and check the Includes Donation and Variable checkboxes. Renewal Price will no longer be available, and you’ll be required to set a Minimum Price and a Maximum Price.

You’ll also need to set the Benefits/Goods and Services Value, Fund and Campaign (if using the Opportunities Interface).

Be aware that changing from fixed value Membership to a variable value will affect the price Memberships will renew at.

Manual Renewals

Manual renewal Memberships will default to the new Minimum Price. 

• For example:
  • A Membership’s original price was $250 with a Renewal Price of $250
  • A Customer purchases their Membership at $250
  • The Membership is changed to a variable price Membership
  • The price range is changed to a Minimum Price of $300 and a Maximum Price of $499.99
  • When the Customer renews, the Membership price will default to $300

Auto Renewals

For customers that opt into auto renewals, the Membership will automatically renew at the initial purchase price or the new Minimum Price, whichever is higher.

The exact price at which a Customer’s Membership automatically renews is determined when the changes take place and if the individual Membership has entered the Renewal Period or if an auto renewal notification has been sent:

• If the Membership doesn’t have notifications set, the exact price at which the Membership renews is locked in when they enter the Renewal Period
   
• If the Membership has notifications set, the exact price at which the Membership renews is locked in when the first auto renewal notification is sent

WARNING: If a Membership has already entered the Renewal Period or if a notification has been sent for an Auto Renewable Membership before your organization changes the Minimum Price, no changes take into effect.

For more information on auto renewals, read Auto Renewable Memberships.

• When the price at which the Membership renews is locked in after the change:

  • A Membership’s original price was $25 with a Renewal Price of $25
  • A Customer purchases their Membership at $25 and opts into auto renewal with notifications
  • The Membership is changed to a variable price Membership
  • The price range is changed to a Minimum Price of $50 and a Maximum Price of $99.99
  • The Customer’s Membership enters the Renewal Period
  • The Customer is sent a notification about auto renewing at $50
  • When the Customer’s Membership is auto renewed, the Membership price charges at $50

   

  When the price at which the Membership renews is locked in before the change:

  • A Membership’s original price was $25 with a Renewal Price of $25
  • A Customer purchases their Membership at $25 and opts into auto renewal without notifications
  • The Customer’s Membership enters the Renewal Period
  • The Membership is changed to a variable price Membership
  • The price range is changed to a Minimum Price of $50 and a Maximum Price of $99.99
  • When the Customer’s Membership is auto renewed, the Membership price charges at $25

Editing Existing Variable Memberships

If you need to make changes to an existing Variable Membership, follow the steps in Editing Existing Memberships. 

Editing existing Memberships can affect Memberships that are currently held by customers. For example, changing the Minimum Price for a Variable Membership can impact future renewals.

• Manual renewal will default to the new Minimum Price. 

  For example:

  • A Membership’s original price range was $100-199.99
  • A Customer purchases their Membership at $105
  • The Membership’s price range is changed to $120-199.99
  • When the Customer renews, the Membership price will default to $120

• If a customer has opted into auto renew, the Membership will automatically renew at the initial purchase price or the new Minimum Price, whichever is higher.

  The exact price at which a Customer’s Membership automatically renews is also determined by when the change takes place and if the individual Membership has entered the Renewal Period or if an auto renewal notification has been sent before or after that time.

  • If the Membership doesn’t have notifications set, the price of the renewal is set when it enters the Renewal Period.
     
  • If the Membership has notifications set, the price of the renewal is set when the first auto renewal notification is sent.

  WARNING: If a Membership has already entered the Renewal Period or if a notification has been sent for an Auto Renewable Membership before your organization changes the Minimum Price, there will be new change during this renewal.

  For more information on auto renewals, read Auto Renewable Memberships.

  When the Membership price changes and a Customer’s Membership enters the Renewal Period after:

  • A Membership’s original price range was $100-199.99
  • A Customer purchases their Membership at $105 and opts into auto renewal without notifications
  • The Membership’s price range is changed to $120-199.99
  • The Customer’s Membership enters the Renewal Period
  • When the Customer’s Membership is auto renewed, the Membership price charges at $120

   

  When the Customer’s Membership enters the Renewal Period before the Membership price changes:

  • A Membership’s original price range was $100-199.99
  • A Customer purchases their Membership at $105 and opts into auto renewal with notifications
  • The Customer’s Membership enters the Renewal Period
  • The Customer is sent a notification about auto renewing at $105
  • The Membership’s price range is changed to $120-199.99
  • When the Customer’s Membership is auto renewed, the Membership price charges at $105

Selling Variable Memberships

You can sell Variable Memberships:

• In the Sales and Opportunities Interfaces
• Online using API web integrations, web components or Spektrix Subsites

Variable Memberships in the Sales or Opportunities Interface

When selling a Membership in the Sales or Opportunities Interface, we recommend adding the Customer to the Basket/Cart first before the Membership This lets Spektrix look at the Customer’s Record to see if they already have an existing Membership and if it is available for renewal.

Navigate to Memberships:

• In the Sales Interface > Subscriptions > Memberships
• In the Opportunities Interface > Donations and Memberships > Memberships

When viewing Memberships, the Min Price and Max Price will be displayed for Variable Memberships:
 

1. Click the blue Basket icon button to add the Membership to the Basket/Cart. 
2. In the Basket/Cart, under Items, check the box next to the Membership.

3. Click the dropdown arrow next to the Reserve button and select Override:
    

   

    

4. To set the exact value to sell the Membership, check the box for Price and enter the Customer’s preferred value. The minimum and maximum prices are listed as Default Price. Click Ok to set the price and return to the Basket/Cart:
    

   

   
    

5. If preferred, set the Membership to auto renew by checking the box and selecting a stored card for future payments.
    
6. Complete and confirm the transaction.

For more information, read Selling and Renewing Memberships.

Overriding Variable Memberships

You can also use the override feature to change the price or the Benefit/Goods and Services amount of a Variable Membership.

If you choose to override the Price outside of the price range, consider the following:

• If you’ve overridden to a price lower than the Minimum Price, at the next renewal, the Membership will default to the Minimum Price.
   
• If you’ve override to a price higher than the Maximum Price, at the next renewal, the Membership will renew at the overridden price. This, however, only applies to customers who’ve opted into auto renew.

If you choose to override the Benefit/Goods and Services amount, consider the following:

• The overall purchase price of the Membership won’t change if you adjust the Benefits/Goods and Services
   
• The Donation amount will always be the difference between the purchase price and the Benefits/Goods and Services amount
   
• At the next renewal, the Benefits/Goods and Services amount will reset to the amount set in the Admin Interface

• For example:
  • A Variable Membership has a price range of $100-199.99 with a $20 Goods and Services amount
     
  • A user sells the Membership for $150 on the Opportunities Interface and opts the Customer into auto renewal
     
  • The user overrides the Goods and Services amount to $40 
     
  • The Customer’s Membership is $40 in Goods and Services and $110 in Donations 
     
  • At notification date, the Minimum Price hasn’t changed, so auto renewal price is set to the purchase price $150, as it is higher than the Minimum Price
     
  • When the auto renew is processed, the Customer is charged $150 with $20 in Goods and Services and $130 in Donations 

Viewing Variable Memberships in the Customer Record

Once a Membership is sold, it can be viewed in the Subscriptions tab of the Customer Record. You can also renew Memberships directly from the Customer Record.

Here you can:

• View Membership Details: You can view the name of the Membership, start date, end date and start date of the renewal period. You can also see if auto renewal is turned on and what card is used for the auto renewal.
   
• View Expired Memberships: Check the View Expired box to see a list of Expired Memberships and their details.
   
• Auto renew: You can change a Membership to automatically renew by checking the Auto renew box. Uncheck the box to opt out of auto renewal.
   
• View Order: Click the View Order button to view the Order that contains the Membership purchase in the Orders tab.
   
• Info: Click the Info button to view the Price Range of the Membership, period, renewal price and renewal period.
   
• Renew: If a Membership is in the Renewal Period, you can click the Renew button to begin the renewal process. This will start a new transaction and add the Customer and Membership to the Basket/Cart. The Price of the Membership in the Basket/Cart will default to the Minimum Price.
   

Variable Memberships Online

Variable Memberships can be sold online only through API web integrations, web components or Spektrix Subsites.

In this article, we’ll take a look at how Variable Memberships can be sold through Spektrix Subsites.

Spektrix Subsites can display all Fixed Price and Variable Memberships. For Variable Memberships, there are a few ways you can display each Membership.

For information on setting up Memberships on Subsites, read How to Set Up a Membership Page in Spektrix Subsites.

Each Variable Membership display includes:

• Membership Name
• Period
• Website Content (Wiki text only, no images)
• Image and alt text
• Auto Renew checkbox, if available
• Gift Membership button, if available

  TIP: This will redirect to a Subsites Gift Voucher page where the purchaser can select their voucher/ gift membership. You must set up a Gift Voucher Subsites page. Variable Gift Memberships will always be sold at the Minimum Price.

• Min and Max Price (can also be hidden)

There are three ways to display Variable Memberships:

• Single Membership Slider: You can display a single Variable Membership with a slider that can be moved between the Minimum and Maximum Price before adding it to the Basket/Cart:
   

  



• Text Entry: Online Customers can manually input their preferred value:
   

  



• Multi Membership Slider: If you have multiple Variable Memberships, you can choose to use a Multi Membership Slider. As the slider moves to increase or decrease the Price, the corresponding Membership Name and information will display:
   

  

Viewing Variable Memberships on MyAccount Page

Customers can see their current Memberships on their MyAccount Page:

Their Memberships will display:

• Membership Name
• Start Date
• Expiry/Expiration Date
• Automatically Renew checkbox (if enabled)
• Renew using [selected card] (if auto renew enabled)

From the Memberships tab on the MyAccount page:

• Customers can choose to opt in or opt out of auto renewals and can select or choose a new stored card from their Wallet.
   
• For Memberships without auto renewal turned on, a renew button will appear at the time of renewal. This can be linked out to a page with the Membership to renew rather than the Membership page with all Memberships. Here they can proceed with selecting the same or a new value.
  
  For Variable Memberships, the single membership renewal page will default to a single membership slider with minimum and maximum amounts displayed. For more information, read Setting the Renew URL in the How to Set Up a Membership Page in Spektrix Subsites.