Ask a membership manager which calls eat up the most time, and the list is usually the same: “When does my membership expire?”, “Can you update my address?”, “I want to move up to the family level,” and “I renewed online, why does my card still say the old date?” None of these need a staff member. They need the member to be able to see their own record and act on it.
That is what a membership portal is for. This page covers what members actually expect from one, what to think through before adding one to an Altru setup, and how Social Good’s Membership Portal approaches it.
What members expect to do on their own
Members compare you to every other account they log into. In practice, that means four things:
- See their status. Current level, who is on the membership, and the actual expiration date, not a guess based on when they last visited.
- Renew. Without hunting for the right form or calling during business hours.
- Upgrade. Adding a second adult or moving to a higher level is often a spur-of-the-moment decision. If it takes a phone call, many people never make it.
- Keep their profile current. New email, new address, new last name. If members can fix these themselves, your mailings and renewal notices reach the right place.
Anything beyond that is a bonus. Get these four right before worrying about extras.
Where Altru on its own leaves gaps
Altru is strong at the back office: membership programs, levels, terms, constituent records, households, and revenue all live there, and that is where your reporting comes from. Members can join and renew through Altru web forms.
The gap most organizations feel is on the member’s side of the screen. A web form is built to complete a transaction, not to show someone their existing membership and let them manage it. How much member self-service your Altru site supports depends on your configuration and what you have set up on your website, so if you are unsure what is available natively, check with Blackbaud support or test in a sandbox before buying anything. Don’t assume either way.
Questions to ask before choosing a portal
Whether you build something, use what you have, or buy an add-on, these are the questions that separate a portal members use from one they abandon.
Is it reading live data?
A portal that shows data from last night’s export will contradict the front desk. If a member renews at the admissions counter at 10 a.m., the portal should reflect it when they check at noon. Ask exactly where the data comes from and how current it is.
Where do changes land?
Renewals, upgrades, and profile edits should end up in Altru, on the right constituent and membership, without someone re-keying them. If changes go into a separate database that staff reconcile later, you have created a new cleanup job.
How do members find their record?
Many portals identify members by email address. That works well only if your constituent records have accurate, unique emails. Before launch, pull a query of active members missing an email, and another of emails shared across more than one constituent. Duplicates and household members sharing one address are the most common reason a member says “it can’t find me.”
Does it look like your site?
Members trust a page that carries your branding and lives on or near your website. A generic screen is where people get nervous and call instead.
Does it work on a phone?
Many members will open it from a renewal email on their phone. Test it there first.
Getting ready to launch
- Clean up member emails and duplicates. This is the single biggest factor in how smoothly logins go.
- Confirm your renewal and upgrade rules in Altru. A portal follows your membership program setup. If term dates or upgrade pricing behave in ways staff find surprising, members will find them surprising too. Fix the rules first.
- Decide what front-line staff say. “You can check that yourself at this link” only works if every staff member knows the link and has seen the page.
- Put the link where members already look. Renewal reminders, welcome emails, the membership page on your website, and the receipt.
- Watch your call volume. Note how many status and address calls you get before launch and compare a few months later. That is the honest measure of whether it is working.
How Social Good’s Membership Portal fits
Our Membership Portal is an add-on for organizations that run memberships in Altru and want to keep doing so. Members can view their status, renew, upgrade, and update their profile online, working against live Altru data. Altru remains where your memberships, constituents, and revenue are managed; the portal gives members a way to see and act on their own piece of it.
Quick answers
Do we have to move our membership data out of Altru?
No. The point of an add-on portal is that Altru keeps the membership records and the portal works against them.
What usually goes wrong at launch?
Login trouble from missing or duplicate email addresses. Cleaning those up beforehand prevents most of it.
Will a portal fix confusing renewal dates?
No. It shows members what Altru has. If the dates are wrong because of how your membership program is configured, fix the configuration; the portal will then show the right answer.
