Membership can be managed by your WordPress website, using a plugin called ‘Simple WordPress Membership’. Simple WordPress Membership is a good option for clubs, community groups and U3A groups because it is a low cost option that should look after itself once it has been set up correctly. Alternatively, the Woocommerce Memberships plugin has now improved and may be a good option for clubs and U3A groups. Read on to find out how the membership software works, and the costs of getting help to set it up.
Why use Simple WordPress Membership for your Club or Community Group?
There are several commercial membership systems on the market. Most of them charge a monthly fee, which translates to a high annual cost. The software described on this page is either free or very low cost. If you need help setting it up, there will be an initial fee. Once the software is in place, you may require occasional support. However, the ongoing costs will be minimal. This solution will work out far cheaper for your club or group over time. The software may not be quite as user friendly as the commercial software, but it is very much cheaper, and it can handle your memberships automatically, with minimal intervention.
Simple WordPress Membership Plugin
Simple WordPress Membership has the following features:
- New members can register and pay online
- Renewing members will log into the website and click the Renewal button to pay.
- Online payments can be made via Paypal or Stripe. (Your club or group will need either a Paypal account or a Stripe account to accept online payments. Stripe is easier to set up.)
- Members can log into the website and edit their membership profile to update their contact details.
- Existing members can be imported (from a .csv file)
- Expired members remain in the membership system. Their Account State is marked ‘Expired’.
- The membership system can sync with a Mailchimp mailing list, so that you can easily email your members.
- Pages can be protected so that only members can see them.
- The membership system can be integrated with event/course management and bookings, via the website.
- The Simple WordPress Membership plugin is free.
- The following require addons to the Simple WordPress Membership plugin, for a small annual fee:
- Extra fields on the registration form and profile editing page
- Exporting membership information to a file (for printing or mail merge)
- Automatic emails when a membership expires
Membership Setup Types
Largely, there are three membership setup options:
These options are described below.
Annual Fixed Date Renewals
The Simple WordPress Membership plugin can handle annual fixed date renewals. However, each year, the membership expiry date will need to be changed within the membership system before members renew. (Note that changing the membership expiry date does not change the expiry dates of individual members.)
Any failure to update the annual expiry date at the appropriate time will cause confusion. For this reason, rolling memberships (below) are the preferred option.
Rolling Memberships
With rolling memberships, members may join online at any time of year. For a small annual fee, the software can be set up to send renewal reminders before membership expires.
Rolling memberships work better than annual fixed date renewals, because there is less room for error.
Note that, if you plan to switch from annual memberships to rolling memberships, you may need to alter and re-lodge your constitution with your state registration authority, for example, NSW Fair Trading.
Join Once
Some clubs and groups require people to join, and then charge for events or courses. There are no annual membership fees. An attendee becomes a member of the group when they make their first booking, and remains a member.
In this case, Simple WordPress Membership can be combined with Events Manager Pro, which allows you to take online payment for events and courses. Members can then log in to see their bookings.
In this case, Simple WordPress Membership maintains a record of members’ contact details.
Setting up Your Membership Software
If you have technically-minded volunteers, you can set up the membership software yourself. You will need to activate the plugin and check the settings.
Alternatively, you may seek help from Webhive.
If you want to add extra fields to the membership registration form, export members to a file, or send emails to remind members to renew their annual membership, you will need to purchase addons. Webhive can help you with this.
Membership software notes
Membership information
The membership system includes a default set of fields – Username, First Name, Last Name, Email, Membership Level, Access Starts, Account State (Active, Expired etc), Gender, Phone, Street, City, Zipcode, Country, Member Since, Subscriber ID/Reference, Expiry Date. If you want more fields, this can be arranged (see below).
Bank Transfers
When members pay by bank transfer, a committee member will need to update their membership expiry date on the website. It is advisable to charge a processing fee for this.
Family Memberships
Avoid family memberships. Each member should hold their own membership.
Joining Fees
Avoid joining fees – these complicate the system. Each member will join and pay online by credit card. Therefore, there should be no overhead for joining members. There is one exception – I suggest charging a processing fee for members who refuse to pay online by credit card.
Offline Renewals
Online membership systems are designed to take online payments. If a member refuses to pay online, it is best that they ask a friend to help them. Clubs that continue to accept offline payments will find that they are complicating the process and generating confusion.
Changing the way Simple WordPress Membership works
Please bear in mind that every time you make a change to the system’s setup, fees may be incurred for Webhive’s support. It may be necessary to run through the entire system to adjust the way it works. So, it’s best to decide how you’d like the membership system to work from the start.
Membership Software Cost
The core membership software is free.
Initial Setup
From $599
With standard customisations.
Member Import
$150 – $599
Depending on the number of members and how well formatted the spreadsheet is. Note that members with missing entries in mandatory fields will not be imported. Please fill in missing phone numbers with 000 000 000, missing email addresses with [email protected], [email protected] etc, and missing address fields with ‘address 1’, ‘suburb’, ‘NSW’, ‘0000’
Further customisations
$99 per hour.
If required.
Estimate can be provided.
Optional Extras
Adding extra fields to membership form
$99 per year for extra software. Plus $40 per field for initial setup (one-time fee).
Sending members automatic emails before expiry
$99 per year for extra software plus $99 initial setup if email text is provided upfront and no changes are made.
Member export
$99 per year plus $49 initial setup.