Integral to any member management system are the various membership levels you want to offer to your users. In Higher Logic's system, this is achieved via Membership Types. With each Membership Type, you'll set its price, choose the renewal process and timing schedule, determine who is eligible to purchase it, and more.
In this article, you'll learn:
- Where to view your Membership Types
- How to create and configure them
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Access the Membership Types page
- In the Admin Toolbar, click Admin.
- Navigate to Membership > Membership Types.
Admin options
The following options are in the upper right of the Membership Types page.
- Edit - You can change various aspects of a Membership Type. Choose a type and click Edit; the options are the same as when creating a type and are described in the table below.
- Discount codes - You can offer "amount off" and "percent off" discounts to your members when they renew their memberships. Choose a type and click More > See Discount Codes to visit the Membership Discount Codes page.
See Member Management - Discount Codes for complete information on this feature.
- Archive - You can archive Membership Types that you no longer use. Choose a type and click More > Archive and at the prompt, click Archive.
- Membership renewal alerts - You can enable several types of membership-renewal alerts for your members. Click the gear icon at the top right.
See Member Management - Membership Renewals for information on membership-renewal alerts and the Auto-Renewal feature.
Create a Membership Type
On the Membership Types page:
- Click the (+) to the right of the page title.
- In the resulting dialog, configure the Membership Type. Refer to the table below for descriptions of each option.
- Click Save to create the Membership Type.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Membership Structure | Select the Membership Structure (individual or group) for this Membership Type.
NOTE: An organization can have one or both membership structures. However, a user can have a membership in only one membership structure (i.e., a user cannot have an individual membership and a group membership). |
| Name | Give the Membership Type a name that clearly denotes its purpose. |
| Description | This text displays below the name on the Membership Plans page. Be sure to include information about the core membership benefits and any other information that prospective and current members would benefit from knowing. |
| Restrict this Membership Type... | When checked, two things happen:
Restricted Membership Types are only available/visible to users who have that Restricted Membership Type assigned to them via the option above. This allows you to create "special" Membership Types that are only available to a specific segment of your userbase (e.g., a Partner Membership). NOTE: A user can have multiple Restricted Membership Types assigned to them, but they can only purchase/have one membership. |
| Limit the number of users... | For group memberships, you can decide whether or not the group has a limited number of "seats" available. Once that limit is reached, no one else can join the group, and the Membership Contact either has to remove people to add more or reach out to a Super Admin to switch Membership Types.
This option is often used to create a "tiered" structure of group memberships. For example, a Small Group up to 10 members costs $100, a Medium Group up to 50 members is $500, and a Large Group up to 200 members is $2000. NOTE: This option is only available with group memberships. |
| Legacy Key | This field is required if you plan to import your full list of users on the Admin > Users page. This key must be a unique value, and is what is used to assign imported users a specific Membership Type in the import spreadsheet. NOTE: Only Higher Logic can assign users memberships via import. Once imported, these users and their memberships are listed on the Admin > Membership > Members page. If you'd like to import a list of users and assign them memberships via a Membership Type's Legacy Key, create a case. |
| Pricing/Renewal Options | |
| Price | Enter the total cost of the membership.
NOTE: You can set up discount codes to offset this price. See Member Management - Discount Codes to learn how. |
| Renewal method | There are two ways to configure how membership renewals work:
NOTE: This renewal method includes an option to prorate the membership fee. We recommend checking this box to have the system automatically discount the membership fee depending on when someone purchases. For example, if the global renewal date is 5/1 and someone purchases membership on 3/1, the system will automatically discount the price accordingly.
|
| Duration (Months) | This is the length of the membership, typically 12 months. |
| Offer Auto-Renewal for this Membership Type | Check the box to enable the Auto-Renewal feature. The Enroll in Auto-Renewal check box displays on the registration page when users: first subscribe and when they renew their membership. To learn more, see Member Management - Membership Renewals. NOTE: This option is disabled for free Membership Types because it is not applicable. If Auto-Renewal is enabled, the Membership Type must have a grace period of at least five (5) days. |
| Number of days before the end when members can renew | This option lets you control when a member is eligible to renew, based on the number of days left until their membership expires. For example, if set to 30, members are only eligible to renew 30 days prior to expiration. The importance of this comes into play when thinking about membership pricing. In some member management systems, you cannot control when members can renew, leading to instances where you recently raised the price of a membership only to have members renew at the old rate because they renewed two years ago (i.e., back before you changed the price). The maximum threshold is 365. |
| Grace period | Specify the number of days after a membership has expired that the member can renew without losing their member benefits. For example, you've given your members a 30-day grace period. If Joe's membership expired on 3/1, he has until 3/31 to renew (and will retain his member benefits during that period). |
| Security Groups |
In the context of Member Management, Security Groups are how you control what benefits individuals receive upon purchasing this Membership Type. For example, purchasing membership could grant members access to a host of new content, like community events or training webinars. This, then, means associating specific Security Groups to each of your Membership Types is how you create "tiers" of access to your Higher Logic Thrive Community and its content. To learn more about Security Groups, check out these articles: |
Switching Membership Types
Members can switch to a different Membership Type during the renewal window only.
- If a member has enrolled in auto-renewal and switches to a different Membership Type, that enrollment is automatically canceled.
- The member has to enroll in auto-renewal for the new Membership Type, if the type offers auto-renewal.