Create a membership campaign & form for entities

Before starting

Some organizations have legal entities as members. For example, this might be the case for professional organizations where companies -and not individuals- are the basis of their membership.

For these organizations, the Entities feature is particularly useful. It opens the door to memberships for legal entities.

What we'll cover in this article:

• Reminder on how membership forms work
• Create a membership form dedicated to entities
• Adding an entity manually to the membership campaign

Reminder on how membership forms work

The membership form for structures works exactly the same way as the one for individuals. 

It enables you to: 

• Allow online memberships (by the structures themselves) and/or add structures manually as an administrator.
• Collect information that will be saved in your Community, in the Entities tab.
• Propose different membership rates and payment methods.
• Automatically register memberships in Accounting.

Create a membership form dedicated to entities

Setting up a membership form for organizations is similar to that of individuals.

Just go to the Membership feature (from the left side menu), then click on "Create a new form".

Then choose "Structures" in the question "Who are your members?" :

If you are not given this option, ensure that the Entities feature is activated.

Once you have made this choice, you will be taken to the configuration page of your form dedicated to the Entities' membership. Follow the different steps proposed and choose:

• A title, a description, and a photo to make your membership form look appealing.
• Membership fees, and available additional options.
• The information you need to collect  - it will be recorded in the profile of each entity.
• The accepted payment methods.

If you choose to allow online enrollment - our recommendation to ease your workload - don't forget to publish your enrollment form online. You can change it at any time.

For more information on how to create a membership form, check out this article.

Adding an entity manually to the membership campaign

As with a Contact membership form, you can add an Entity as a member via a Membership form. Below are the steps:

Go to Forms & Campaigns > Memberships > Manage your membership campaign: 

Add a member

In the list of Members, click the button +Add a member

Choose the membership plan

Input the information related to the entity

At this stage, you can edit the contact form of the entity. However, you cannot add information about the people related to it.

Add payment information

• Case 1: You have already received payment for the membership

If you have received offline payment from the structure for its membership, this is the time to record it. Fill in the information about the payment method (check, transfer, etc.), the amount, and the bank account associated. Do not forget to save.

The corresponding accounting entries will be generated automatically.

• Case 2: You have not yet received payment for the membership

If you have not yet received payment for the membership, simply check "Payment later" and save.

When you receive the payment, return to your membership campaign:

• In the list of members, identify the facility that sent you its payment (if necessary, use the "No payment" or "Partial payment" filter)
• Click on the eye on the right of the corresponding line
• Click on "New" in the "Payment" line and fill in the information.

Note: Once the structure is registered as a member, it appears in your Community as such, with an active yellow band. This is true whether the structure has paid its membership or not.