Calculating Membership Renewal Rates

Nicole Joanlanne
Nicole Joanlanne
First Anniversary Name Dropper Facilitator 1
in Blackbaud Altru® General Discussions

Hi everyone!

I’m curious how others are measuring and calculating membership renewal and retention rates in Altru. We’ve been working through this and have found that the biggest challenge is identifying the best timeline and action/date fields to use when querying, especially when accounting for renewals that don’t happen immediately at expiration.

We’ve experimented with a few approaches, but I’d love to hear what’s worked well for others - whether that’s specific query logic, reporting methods, or general best practices you’ve landed on after some trial and error.

If you’re comfortable sharing:

  • How do you define your renewal window?
  • Which fields/actions have you found most reliable?
  • Do you calculate renewal and retention differently?

Appreciate any insights or lessons learned - thanks in advance!

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Answers

  • Crystal Bruce
    Crystal Bruce admin
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 5 February 2026 Monthly Challenge First Reply

    Hi @Nicole Joanlanne - I'm checking with my team on this!

  • Rosita Bradham
    Rosita Bradham Blackbaud Employee
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 2 Name Dropper Participant

    Hi there — great question, and you’re definitely not alone in wrestling with this. Renewal and retention metrics can get tricky in Altru, especially once you move beyond a simple “expired vs. renewed” view and start accounting for late renewals and rejoin behavior.

    A few approaches that tend to work well across organizations:

    Renewal window -
    Most teams I work with define a renewal window rather than relying strictly on the expiration date alone. A common practice is:

    • A grace period of 30–90 days post-expiration to count late renewals, and
    • A longer lookback (often up to 12 months) to separately identify rejoins versus true renewals.

    The key is consistency — whatever window you choose, apply it the same way year over year so trends are meaningful.

    Fields and actions to rely on -
    Instead of using just the membership expiration date, many organizations lean on:

    • Membership transaction date for the actual renewal action
    • Membership status and action (renewed vs. joined) to distinguish renewals from reactivations
    • Prior expiration date when building queries to tie the renewal back to the correct term

    This helps avoid inflating renewal rates by accidentally counting rejoins or upgrades as on-time renewals.

    Renewal vs. retention
    Yes — most teams do calculate these differently:

    • Renewal rate typically looks at expiring members who renewed within the defined window
    • Retention rate is usually broader and answers: “Of the members we had at the start of the period, how many are still members at the end?” (regardless of when they renewed)

    That distinction becomes especially important when reporting to leadership or comparing membership health year over year.

    If you’re interested in going deeper, in 2025, Blackbaud did a session on Membership by the Numbers: Unlocking the Power of Membership Metrics. This session walks through these definitions, sample frameworks, and common pitfalls we see when measuring renewal and retention in Altru, along with ways to align metrics to your membership strategy.

    You’re on the right track by testing multiple approaches — that trial-and-error phase is very normal. I’m excited to see what others in the community share as well, since there’s often more than one “right” answer depending on your programs and audience.

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