OccamWhether a membership renews depends on its tier's Duration. Monthly tiers are charged every month until they're cancelled. Every longer tier is a single payment that runs out.
Monthly tiers renew automatically
A tier with the duration Monthly (1 month) is a subscription. Stripe charges the member's card once a month, and each payment:
- moves the membership's end date, shown in the Expires column on the Memberships page, on by a month, and keeps it ACTIVE
- is recorded as a gift to a campaign called Memberships, so dues show up in your reports.
Occam doesn't email the member when a monthly payment goes through, or when one fails. After a failed payment, Stripe tries again. The membership shows EXPIRED once its end date passes, and goes back to ACTIVE if a later attempt succeeds. If the subscription is cancelled in Stripe, the membership shows CANCELLED.
Longer tiers don't renew
Quarterly (3 months), Semi-annual (6 months), Annual (12 months) and 2 years are paid once. The membership ends the same number of months after the day the member joined, and nothing is charged again.
- Occam sends no reminder before a membership ends, and no email when it does. The Membership expiring in 30 days and Membership expired automation triggers don't send anything either.
- To renew, the member joins again on your join page and pays again. The new membership starts that day, not when the old one ends, so renewing early doesn't add the time that was left.
To remind members yourself, build a segment using Membership expires within (days) and Membership tier, then send it an email. See Build a segment and Send an email.
When a membership expires
Once a day, overnight (US time), Occam changes every ACTIVE membership whose end date has passed to EXPIRED. To see who has lapsed, go to Memberships in the sidebar and select the EXPIRED filter.
Setting an expired membership back to ACTIVE doesn't last. There's no way to change its end date, so the overnight check sets it back to EXPIRED. Have the member join again instead, or an owner or admin can add them with Add member.
What members see in the donor portal
Under Your membership, the portal lists each active membership. It shows Active and "Active until" the end date. In the last 30 days before the end date, it shows Renews soon and "Renews" with the date instead. That happens on every tier, including the ones that won't renew, and monthly memberships show Renews soon nearly all the time. Once a membership expires, it no longer appears.
Good to know
- A new member gets a receipt by email when they first pay. Renewal payments don't send one.
- Changing a monthly membership's status doesn't stop its billing, and its next payment sets it back to ACTIVE. To stop the billing, cancel the subscription in your Stripe dashboard. Occam then marks the membership CANCELLED.