Marketing wants a spring offer: 20% off Family memberships, new members only, online only, through May. It’s a reasonable ask. Whether Altru’s membership promotions can do all of it, some of it, or none of it depends on how specific the offer is, and it’s much better to find that out in planning than after the email goes out.
This guide covers what membership promotions are designed for, where they tend to fall short, and the workarounds Altru administrators commonly use when an offer doesn’t fit neatly.
What a membership promotion is designed to do
At its core, a membership promotion in Altru is a discount on the membership price, applied during a sale. Typically you define the discount and the dates it is valid, and decide whether it applies on its own or only when someone enters a promotion code (check which of these options your version offers). Because it lives inside Altru, the discounted transaction posts to revenue like any other membership sale, and you can find it later through queries and reports.
For broad offers this works well:
- A member appreciation week with a flat discount on joins and renewals
- A code shared with a partner organization or in a newsletter
- A time-limited holiday or giving-season offer
Field names and options vary between Altru updates, so open an existing promotion in your own database (or create a test one) to see exactly which settings you have before planning a campaign around them.
Where promotions run out of room
The friction usually shows up when an offer has more than one condition. These are the areas administrators most often bump into. Confirm each against your own configuration, because behavior can depend on version and setup.
Targeting specific programs and levels
The most common frustration is scope. Offers are usually written in terms of a specific level (“$15 off Dual and Family, not Individual”), and the targeting in promotions may not be as granular as your marketing plan. If you can’t limit a promotion to the exact levels you want, it either applies more broadly than intended or doesn’t apply at all.
New members versus renewals
“New members only” and “lapsed members only” are popular conditions. Whether a promotion can tell a join from a renewal or a rejoin is worth testing before you promise it publicly. If it can’t, a renewing member with the code gets the same discount as a first-time buyer.
Channel-specific offers
An offer meant for the website may also work at the front desk, or the other way around. Make sure desk staff know whether to honor online-only codes, and decide that in advance.
Stacking, limits, and benefits
Questions like “can this combine with a gift membership discount,” “can each code be used only once,” or “can the promotion add a benefit instead of reducing the price” are where a plain discount tool often comes up short. If your offer depends on any of these, test it in a non-production environment or ask Blackbaud support before launch rather than assuming.
Workarounds that hold up
When a promotion can’t express the offer, the fix is usually to move the logic somewhere Altru handles more precisely.
- A temporary price on the level. If the offer applies to one or two levels for a fixed window, adjusting those levels’ prices (or adding a dated alternate price, if your setup supports it) may be cleaner than a promotion. Put a calendar reminder on the end date so the change doesn’t outlive the campaign.
- A dedicated promotional level. Some organizations create a separate level, such as “Family – Spring Offer,” with the discounted price and the same benefits and term as the standard level. It’s precise and easy to report on. The trade-off is clutter, so retire it when the campaign ends and decide how those members should renew next year.
- Separate codes for separate audiences. If you can’t target by level inside one promotion, several narrower promotions with distinct codes can get you close, and they make reporting easier as well.
- Control who sees the code. When the system can’t enforce “new members only,” distribution can. Send the code only to a prospect or lapsed-member list built from a query, and don’t publish it openly.
- Manual adjustments at the desk, with rules. For rare cases, a supervisor-approved discount is fine. Write down who can approve it and how it should be noted on the transaction so it doesn’t turn into a habit.
Before you launch any offer
- Write the offer in one sentence, listing every condition: levels, audience, channel, dates, and whether it stacks.
- Mark each condition as something Altru enforces or something you’ll handle with process.
- Run a test sale for each level and channel, including one that shouldn’t get the discount.
- Check that the test transactions appear the way finance expects in revenue and batches.
- Give desk staff a short note: what the offer is, what to do when someone asks for it in person, and when it ends.
Measuring the result
Set up the query before the campaign starts. Pull membership transactions in the offer window, include the promotion or level used, and split joins from renewals. Afterward, compare against the same period last year. The question to answer is whether the offer brought in members you wouldn’t have gotten anyway, or mostly discounted renewals that would have happened at full price.
Quick answers
Can one promotion cover some levels and exclude others?
Don’t count on it. Test in your own database. If it can’t, use separate promotions or a dedicated promotional level.
Do promotions affect existing members’ expiration dates?
Generally a promotion is about price, and the term follows your membership program’s rules. If the offer involves timing, confirm how terms are calculated in a test sale rather than assuming.
Is a promotion or a price change better for a one-month sale?
If everyone buying that level should get the price, change the price. If only people with the code should get it, use a promotion.
