A member’s card expired in March. They come back in July and renew. In Altru, the new term often runs from the old expiration date, so their “one-year” membership expires next March. They paid for twelve months and got eight. That conversation usually ends up at the front desk.
Most membership teams expect a renewal to buy a full year from the day the member pays. When Altru dates the new term from the old expiration instead, the member feels shortchanged and staff end up fixing dates by hand. Here’s why it happens, what you can change in Altru today, and how to stop it from becoming a weekly cleanup job.
Why Altru dates the new term from the old expiration
Altru treats a renewal as a continuation of the existing membership. That’s the right behavior when someone renews early: if a member renews two weeks before their card expires, you don’t want them to lose those two weeks, so the new term picks up where the old one ends.
The problem is late renewals. Once a membership has lapsed, many organizations want the new term to start on the day of payment, because that’s what the member thinks they bought. Whether Altru treats a late payment as a renew (term continues from the old expiration) or a rejoin (new term starts now) depends on how your membership program’s renewal and lapse rules are configured. Most of the confusion comes from that setting, not from the cashier.
What to check first
- Your membership program’s renewal window and lapse rules. Look at how many days or months after expiration a payment is still treated as a renewal. If that window is long (for example, a full year), almost every late payment is processed as a renewal and inherits the old dates.
- Which transaction type staff are choosing. At the front desk, “Renew” and “Rejoin” can look interchangeable to seasonal staff. Write down which one to use for a lapsed member, and put it next to the register.
- Your online renewal form. Web renewals follow the program rules. If your web form is the main way people renew, the program setting matters far more than desk training.
- A quick audit query. Build a membership query for transactions in the last 90 days where the new expiration date is less than 12 months after the transaction date. That list tells you how often this is actually happening, and which members you may want to fix by hand.
Fixing records that are already wrong
For individual members you can edit the expiration date on the membership record. Add a note explaining why, so the next person who sees an odd date knows it was intentional. If the audit query turns up dozens of records, fix them in a batch rather than one by one, and decide on a policy first: do you extend everyone to twelve months from payment, or only members who complain? Pick one, so desk staff aren’t making it up per guest.
Write the policy down
Most organizations land on something like this:
- Renew before expiration: the new term continues from the old expiration date (the member keeps their remaining time).
- Renew within a short grace period after expiration (often 30–60 days): still treated as a renewal, so continuous membership history is preserved for recognition and benefits.
- Pay after the grace period: treated as a rejoin, and a full term starts from the payment date.
Once you’ve chosen, set the program rules to match and make sure your renewal emails say the same thing. “Your membership runs 12 months from the day you renew” is a promise members remember.
Where Social Good fits
Most of this is an Altru configuration and policy question, and the steps above don’t need any extra software. Where we help is in the moment of renewal: Membership Portal lets members see their actual status and expiration date before they pay and renew online against live Altru data. That cuts down on “I thought I was still a member” calls, and Email Designer can send renewal reminders that state the real new expiration date instead of a generic “renew today.”
Quick answers
Can Altru start every renewal from the payment date?
Not as a blanket switch. The renewal window and lapse settings on the membership program decide whether a late payment counts as a renewal or a rejoin. Shortening the renewal window is the closest you can get.
Will changing the rules affect members who already renewed?
No. Program settings apply to new transactions. Existing records keep their dates until you edit them.
Does a rejoin break membership history?
It can show as a gap in continuous membership. If your recognition or benefits depend on “member since” dates, keep a grace period so short lapses still count as renewals.
