The board approved a membership price increase, and it takes effect in June, not January. The first question from the membership coordinator is almost always the same: what happens to the people who already joined at the old price? The short version is that a price change in Altru is mostly forward-looking. The longer version has a few edges worth checking before you flip the number.
What a price change does not touch
A membership that has already been sold is a completed transaction. The revenue record holds the amount the member actually paid, and the membership record holds their level and expiration date. Changing the price on a level in your membership program does not go back and rewrite those records, and it does not create a balance due for anyone who paid the old rate.
In practice that means:
- Current members keep their term and benefits. Someone who joined in March at the old price is a full member until their expiration date, no adjustment needed.
- Historical revenue stays accurate. Reports and queries on past revenue show what was collected, so year-over-year comparisons still reflect real dollars.
- Nobody gets “charged the difference.” If you want to ask existing members for more, that is a separate appeal or upgrade conversation, not something the system does on its own.
Where current members do feel it
The new price reaches existing members at their next transaction. That is where most of the surprises happen.
Renewals
When a member renews after the change, the renewal is priced from the level as it is set up at that moment. A member who paid $85 last year and sees $100 on the renewal form will notice. If your renewal notices for the next few months were already printed or scheduled with the old amount, decide now whether you will honor that number. Mailing $85 and charging $100 is the fastest way to generate phone calls.
Upgrades
Upgrades usually look at the price of the new level, sometimes with credit for what was already paid, depending on how your program handles upgrade pricing. If you raise one level and not the one above it, the gap between them shrinks or grows, and upgrade math that made sense in spring may look odd in summer. Run a few test upgrades before the change goes live.
Installments and recurring payments
This is the area to confirm rather than assume. If you sell memberships on payment plans, or members have recurring arrangements, find out whether already-scheduled amounts stay fixed or pick up the new price. Behavior can depend on how the plan was set up, so test it in a sandbox or ask Blackbaud support with a specific example before the effective date. Do not learn the answer from a member’s card statement.
Gift memberships
A gift membership bought at the old price but not activated until after the change is a common gray area. Write down your rule: the gift is honored at full value, no top-up required. Then make sure the desk knows it.
Edit the price, or create a new level?
There are two common approaches, and each has a cost.
Editing the existing level’s price keeps your level names and reporting clean. Everyone is still “Family” or “Dual,” and counts by level stay continuous. The tradeoff is that the level itself does not tell you who joined at which price; you would need to look at revenue amounts and dates to separate them.
Creating a new level (for example, a renamed or dated version of the level) makes the split obvious in queries, and can help if you want to grandfather a group at the old rate for a while. The tradeoff is clutter: more levels on forms, more choices for staff, and reports that need to combine old and new levels to tell the full story. If you go this route, plan when the old level gets retired from sales.
For most organizations a straight price edit, combined with a clear communications plan, is simpler. A new level makes sense when you genuinely need to sell both prices at once.
A checklist for the effective date
- Pick the date and stick to it. Make the change after close on the last day of the old price, not mid-shift.
- Update every place the price appears. The membership program, any online web forms, printed rate cards at the desk, your website, and renewal email or letter templates.
- Check discounts and promotions. Percentage discounts recalculate from the new base; fixed-dollar discounts do not, so a “$10 off” promotion becomes a smaller relative discount.
- Decide on grandfathering. If notices already went out at the old price, set a cutoff for honoring it and give staff a way to apply it consistently.
- Brief front-line staff. Give them one sentence for members who ask: their current membership is unchanged, and the new rate applies at renewal.
- Build a query to watch the first month. Pull membership transactions since the effective date with the amount paid by level. Anything still showing the old price tells you a form, template, or desk habit was missed.
Tell members before the renewal form does
Most member frustration around price changes is about surprise, not the dollar amount. A short note to current members explaining the new rate, when it starts, and that their current membership is not affected tends to head off the complaints. If you can, mention that renewing before the effective date locks in the current price for one more term. Some members will take you up on it, which also gives you an early bump in renewals.
Quick answers
Will existing members be billed more after a price increase?
Not for the membership they already hold. The new price applies when they next renew, upgrade, or otherwise buy a membership.
Can a member renew early at the old price?
Generally yes, if they complete the renewal before you change the price. Confirm how your renewal rules date the new term so early renewers do not lose time.
Does changing the price change past revenue reports?
No. Past revenue records keep the amount actually paid.
