Membership Queries

Queries in Altru are used to gather information from the database so you can create memberships, send emails, and so on. One that is useful for your organization is the automated welcome email query. Not only does it save time on sending emails to new members, but it also deliberates their digital membership card and sends a welcome message for first-time membership purchases.

You do not have to wait until the back-end batching processes are complete. With an automated welcome email, you can send your new members on their way with ease. In this tutorial, we will go over creating this automation query so your new members can receive these benefits immediately, and there’s one less thing you need to do every day.

Sample Automated welcome email query

Summary

This query is useful for sending emails that welcome new members and create membership cards for them automatically. To you, this provides greater ease of access in using SGS’s Email Designer and Altru. If you have any other questions about the query or other topics, feel free to contact us!

Below are compiled Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for digital membership cards that we prepared to serve as a reference for you.

FAQ for digital membership cards:

Why do we need to set the transaction date as “on or after yesterday?” 

• If the transaction date is set as “on or after yesterday”, it will accommodate for queries that are purchased late at night, such as those at 11:30 PM. Altru time might be different from your organization, so we need to account for everyone possible.

If the constituent email is blank, what do I do with the query?

• The query accounts for both constituents with a primary email and those whose email is blank. If you have any issues with grabbing the correct constituents, make sure you put the two email records in the “include” box in parentheses. Using “or” instead of “and” will ensure that any one of those records will pop up rather than nothing (since records generally have one or the other, not both).

Why is the Membership Level displayed twice?

• Use one of the “Membership Level” for displaying the level visually in the email, and the second is to enforce the membership level upon clicking on the link. If a constituent has multiple memberships connected to the name, this query will force the displayed membership to be this particular level you are writing the query for. 

• (Ex. Tom has two active memberships under his name; if the query is for Tier 1 and NOT Tier 2, Tom will click on the link and see his Tier 1 benefits.)

I cannot find a note type that says “Digital Membership Card – Individual Membership.” How can I add this note type?

• In Altru, go to Administration > Code Tables > Ticketing (found on “Category” drop menu) > Sales Order Note Type > Add

• After clicking on Add, name the new note as “Digital Membership Card – Individual Membership” for use in your query. You cannot set the note type field as this without creating the note type as shown.

What were the names and descriptions of the query shown in the video?

• Video Query Name: Automated Email – Digital Membership Card – Individual Membership

• Video Query Description: Please do not remove this query; it is used to send real-time emails for SGS to welcome new members using digital membership cards.

Where can a membership originate from?

• Online sales orders – Webforms through Altru via the web
• Daily sales orders
• Advance sales orders
• Auto recurring charge on credit card
• Manual sending of emails for constituent information update
• Back office manual entry
• Back office batch entry

What do you need to do when a membership originates?

• Verify the entered name, email, and level if it is correct.

What emails are sent by the sales order method?

• Online sales orders
  • Acknowledgment email – Via Altru
  • Digital membership card email – Via Social Good Software

• Daily sales orders
  • Digital membership card email – Via Social Good Software

• Auto recurring charge on credit card
  • Your credit card is about to get charge – Via Social Good Software
  • Your credit card has been charged – Via Social Good Software

• Advance sales orders
  • Digital membership card email – Via Social Good Software

• Back office manual entry
  • Digital membership card email – Via Social Good Software

• Back office batch entry
  • Digital membership card email – Via Social Good Software

Do I need to email the primary and secondary members separately?

• No, we recommend you combine the emails into on

I’ve updated the information on a constituent record and I want to let them know, how do I do it?

• You can manually tag them and this will trigger a new email to go out.

What happens when we merge records together?

• If the System Record ID changes, the link previously received will no longer work but will trigger a new email.

Is there a way to display the total number of members?

• With the membership card designer, you can display a number like 10, 15, 25.

Is there a way to display the number of child members?

• You can display a number of children – Fields you can display

If a child has the same email address as his/her parent, will that parent receive multiple emails?

• We typically just email the primary member not each member

If there’s an update made to a membership (member name, expiration date, etc.), do the digital membership cards automatically update?

• Yes, it will send it out to ios and android automatically

Can we incorporate decals for reciprocal members via the membership card designer?

• No, we need to do it at the design level for the image.