Does anyone currently track memberships without using the membership module and if so can you tell me the process or procedure you are using?
@Potique Johnson Our athletic ‘booster’ club has annual memberships. I found these were previously entered as gifts which they definitely are not as person received all kinds of perks and preferential seating.
So that they do have a record in RE, my solution was to create an event. It's in our system, can pull list if needed, receipt amount is $0 so doesn't pull in lifetime (which we did not want).
That is our workaround. Does work as memberships are annual. Would not work well for monthly/expiring memberships.
@Potique Johnson As @JoAnn Strommen mentioned, I've seen Events and since they can be linked to gifts, I think that's likely the best workaround. That said, if you are doing true memberships and need reporting for upgrades, renewals, downgrades, lapses, etc., then I would absolutely recommend considering the Membership module. Nothing else will give you all the same functionality.
@Potique Johnson, I asked a similar question a couple of years ago. It obviously depends on the types of memberships and how those memberships are defined. For my example, we were looking for giving level memberships. @JoAnn Strommen's workaround wouldn't work as it would just get lost in the large number of events we already have.
For the record, I'm still looking for a better way or any alternative.
@Potique Johnson it does depend on what you mean by “membership”. For example, we had a “simple” situation where young leaders are given an opportunity to “purchase” a membership early in the year, and if they did, they will receive discount for all YL event of the year (10% i think). The way we have done it (prior to having Membership module, and even after, didn't really changed it) is via Appeal. We have a specific appeal for this membership, and a purchase (which is going to result in a gift record in RE) will be recorded with the Appeal. Our YL fundraiser can easily run a gift report on the Appeal to know who the members are for sending discount, communication, and to solicit them again next year.
@Dariel DixonFor a dynamic/giving-based membership, like a donor category/giving society, RE doesn't really offer much there, as it is resource intensive to “link” every gifts to membership. This is where SKY API/SKY Addins custom will shrine so much brighter, which you already read about in this post:
putting here for Potique to ponder on.
@Dariel DixonSo, Since I'm not yet familiar with SKY API and Power Platform.
We came up with a new procedure utilizing constituent codes. It gives us what we need:
Procedure for set up Tracking of Auxiliary Membership Dues
This will work for now.