At times, our organization receives membership renewals months in advanced from a member's expiration date, which is great if the member is remaining at the same level.
In some cases, a member will choose to downgrade their membership level when renewing. When we process the downgrade, Altru automatically overrides their existing high level membership and automatically brings their membership down to a lower level before the expiration date of their existing high level membership.
If there was some way to create a start date on membership renewals like these, that would be very beneficial. For example we had a member in June (who was at a high membership level that expired in November) who renewed in June at our lowest membership level. However, since his high level membership did not expire until November, I had to call him to see what he wanted to do with his money because there was no way to easily renew him in June for November, and I had to see if it was okay to downgrade him now, since he sent it in so early.
He did everything fine by sending in a renewal, and we did everything fine by checking what his intentions were with his money. However, if we could have started his lower level membership when his membership expires in November, I would not have had to call and confuse him about what to do with his membership. We shouldn't confuse and punish our members for renewing early, and without a feature like a renewal start date, we do end up punishing our members for renewing early and choosing different membership levels.
Comments below are 100% accurate. Early Renewal is an easy way to ensure $$ is coming in but having to glean out which level should apply is both a disservice to us and the member/constituent. Nothing new to add as the issue, and resolution in my opinion, is very straight forward
yes, this is great. if someone renews, then sees a promotion for membership (maybe at a lower level) and goes for it...when we redeem it, it should only start when the higher level ends...sigh
This is a real problem in my organization. Renewals, whether downgrade or upgrade, should start at the end of their current term since it's already paid in full. I can't understand why it would apply before the end of the current membership term. Hoping this gets resolved soon so we can stop punishing members for renewing early.
I am so glad you mentioned something about this!
We encounter the same issue and it is unfair that people pay in advance for a full year's worth of benefits but when they downgrade early, suddenly we're taking away something they've already paid for.
Thank you! I hope this gets resolved!