Our museum is interested in tracking what method our constituents are using to renew their memberships. For example: their first membership came in through the general brochure, they renewed through a direct mailing, and then renewed the second year through the web site. We are currently tracking this on the membership tab. In the current membership there is an attribute. You can create what ever category and description you want. So we have a category that says "general brochure" and a category that says "web site." The problem is that the system only lets you use a category once. You can't use the same category twice. How are other organizations tracking the method used to renew? Thanks!

Since each membership renewal is linked to a gift. You could use an Appeal to track how the gift was renewed.

An appeal for: general brochure
Another appeal for: direct mailing, etc.

Becky Creamer
Eisenhower Medical Center
[Email Removed]

This is what most places use APPEAL for. Besides apeal codes and packages for your renewal notice mailings or aquisition mailings... you can also have appeals titled Membership Brochure or Onsite...etc. Maryann Snyder

Hi! There are probably a number of ways to do this. We track our renewal methods via appeal. Every member gift (new, renew, rejoin) has an appeal. I've considered doing this via package, but for now appeal has worked for this fiscal year - we've only had RE for all membership for a year now. You can do a summary of the appeal but linking it to the member history...maybe trickier. Regina M. Holten Membership Manager Maryland Science Center [Email Removed]

If you have appeals specifically for your membership renewals...these will be stored in the Renewal History button in the membership tab. Example..if you generally send out 4 notices...but your member has renewed say on the third notice...these 3 renewal notices will show up in the renewal history button as..for example.. Renew 1 6-1-07 Renew 2 7-1-07 Renew 3 8-1-07 As for appeals...we use them to track which number of notice has gone out...not whether it's new , renew or join...we use them to track if it's the first, second or third notice. example...a member expires August 31, 2007 so, First notice sent 6-1-07 Second notice sent 7-1-07 Thirst notice sent 8-1-07 Our appeal for renewal notices is R07 (next year R08) The package further defines the appeal by defining which notice it is..so the package for the first notice would be R070801 meaning Renewal 2007, 08 means the month of expiration, 01 means the first notice. The second notice appeal/package would read: R07 (appeal) R070802...meaning Renewal 2007, 08 is month of expiration and 02 is the 2nd notice. I wouldnt necessarily track whether a membership is new, renew, or rejoin through the package as there are reports that do that. Maryann Snyder

I agree that the renewal method should be tracked in the Gift Appeal. But tracking renewal method through Gift Appeal will only work if all of your membership renewals are attached to gifts AND it assumes you are able to build some pretty complex Exports for reporting, since it IS a little tricky. (We fought quite a bit with the reporting aspect at first, but we have since been able to secure a consistent reporting approach.) If the Gift Appeal is not an option for you, you might want to consider the Membership Subcategory field to track your renewal method. (We use the Membership Subcategory to track complimentary memberships, special 2-year memberships, and discounted memberships.) Julie D. Hiland Senior Manager of Donor Relations Atlanta History Center (404) 814-4109 [Email Removed]

Hi Nancy,

 Maybe this is too simple an answer, but in Configuration>Attributes>Membership are your attributes set to "allow only 1 per record?"