Free memberships show up in more places than people expect: board members, volunteers who hit their hours, staff, a library pass partnership, a community access program for families on public assistance, a thank-you for a major donor. The question is rarely “can we give this away?” It’s “how do we record it in Altru so the membership works at the door, shows up correctly in reports, and doesn’t make our revenue numbers look strange?”
There are a few reasonable ways to do it. Which one fits depends on why the membership is free and what you need to report on later.
Start with the reporting question, not the setup
Before building anything, answer three things with whoever owns membership and finance reporting:
- Should these members count in your member totals? Some boards want community access members counted (it’s part of the mission story). Others want them reported separately so retention and revenue-per-member stay meaningful.
- Should they renew? A volunteer comp usually ends unless it’s re-earned. A board membership renews every year as long as the person serves. A partner program might run on a fixed term tied to the partnership agreement.
- Does finance need to see the value given away? If you want to track the full-price value of comped memberships (for in-kind reporting or partner reporting), that pushes you toward a discount approach rather than a zero-price level.
Write the answers down. They decide which of the options below you pick.
Option 1: A dedicated $0 membership level
The cleanest setup for an ongoing program is its own membership level (or its own membership program) priced at zero, named for what it is: “Community Access,” “Volunteer,” “Board,” and so on. Benefits, card printing, and admission rules follow the level, so the front desk sees exactly what the person is entitled to.
Advantages: these members are easy to isolate in queries and reports, you can give them their own benefits, and nobody has to remember a discount code. The drawback is that the record shows $0, so the “value given” isn’t captured unless you track it some other way.
Test this in a sandbox or a low-risk window first. Depending on how your organization’s Altru is configured, a zero-dollar sale may still need a payment method, and you’ll want to confirm how it lands in daily sales, batches, and any revenue reports finance relies on. If you’re unsure whether a zero price is accepted for a given level or sales channel, Blackbaud support can confirm for your version.
Option 2: A full-price level with a 100% discount
If the comped person should get exactly the same benefits as a paying member at a given level, sell them that level and apply a discount that takes it to zero. Confirm first that your discount setup can apply to memberships in the sales channel you’ll use. This keeps the membership identical to everyone else’s at that level, and the discount itself becomes your tracking tool: a query on the discount tells you how many comps were given and what they would have been worth.
The tradeoff is control. Discounts tend to get applied loosely at the desk unless you restrict who can use them. Give each comp reason its own discount (for example, “Board comp” versus “Volunteer comp”) so you’re not guessing later why a membership was free.
Option 3: Don’t use a membership at all
Sometimes the honest answer is that the person doesn’t need a membership record. If a volunteer only needs free admission, a constituent attribute that the desk checks, paired with a complimentary admission ticket, may be enough, and it keeps your membership numbers clean. Reach for a membership when you actually need the card, the expiration date, member pricing, or member-only access.
Details that trip people up
Renewal notices
Free members will land in your renewal queries unless you exclude them. Nothing undermines a volunteer program faster than a “Your membership is expiring, renew for $95” letter. Add a filter on the level or discount to every renewal and lapsed-member query, and decide how comps renew (staff re-issue it, or the program auto-renews in your process).
Retention and revenue reports
Zero-dollar members pull down average gift per member and can skew retention rates, especially for community access programs where renewal behavior is very different. Reporting them as a separate line, rather than mixing them in, usually makes the numbers easier to explain.
Households and add-ons
If the free membership covers a household, set the member count on the level the same way you would for a paid one. If you allow upgrades from a free level to a paid one, decide in advance whether the free term credits toward the new expiration date or the paid term starts fresh.
Who can issue them
Limit comp issuance to a few people, and require a note on the membership explaining the reason. A year from now, someone auditing the list will want to know why 40 people had free family memberships.
A simple way to choose
- Ongoing program with its own benefits (community access, volunteers, board): a dedicated $0 level.
- Occasional comps of an existing level (donor thank-yous, raffle prizes, staff perks): full-price level plus a reason-specific 100% discount.
- Just needs to get in the door: an attribute plus a comp ticket, not a membership.
Quick answers
Will a $0 membership print a card and scan at admission like a paid one?
It should behave according to the level’s settings, but test it end to end (sale, card, scan at the gate) before rolling it out to staff.
Can people sign up for a free membership online?
That depends on your web forms and whether they accept a zero-dollar total. Keeping free programs staff-issued is often simpler, partly because someone can verify eligibility. If you want online sign-up, confirm the behavior in a test before promoting it.
