Announcements
New releases are here! Check out our new features and enhancements.
Release: 8/26/19
Easily assign and activate administrative users in your group
A full-access administrative user can assign any number of admins and activate their accounts utilizing a more simplified process. After assigning a member of your group to an admin role, the new admin must activate the account. The admin who is assigning the role can send the activation email with a click of a button. The new admin simply needs to access the email and click the Claim Account button to be given access to the admin portal. Learn more about creating and assigning admin roles.
Bank verification enhancements
The bank verification process to collect funds on the platform has been updated to allow for less user errors and secure document upload. The admin user who is adding a new bank account will need to enter routing and account numbers twice to confirm the entry. A copy of a valid government-issued ID is required to complete banking verification. The document can be uploaded to the platform as a PNG, JPG, or PDF format. View documentation of the full process: How to Add and Verify Your Bank Account.
Release: 3/7/19
Display fundraisers who create a donation site in support of your campaign
Now there’s a great way to visualize a donation campaign’s fundraisers and how much they’ve contributed. Fundraisers, or supporters who create a donation site in support of a donation campaign, can be displayed in a pie chart on the main page. For those campaigns that leverage the spirit of competition, this front-and-center statistical graphic indicates those who are leading in donations. Users can also hover over the pie chart to see the fundraiser associated with each slice. Learn more: How to Add the Fundraisers Pie Chart.
New Text-to-Give feature provides another channel for donations
Take advantage of another channel to promote your donation campaign. Organizations that have a custom mobile number can now associate keywords with links to a donation campaign. When users SMS text a keyword associated with the campaign to your group’s custom mobile number, they will automatically receive a link to your associated donation campaign. Clicking the link will take a user directly to the mobile-friendly donation site, wherein they can donate online from any device. You can link multiple keywords in the instance that you’ve set up fundraiser or supporter pages. Anyone who misspells a keyword will still automatically receive a link to the main donation campaign. This feature is currently available to those on Pro, Premium, or Enterprise plans and requires setup by our in-house support team. Please email support@memberplanet.com for more information.
Profile update email history includes date of profile update
Admins can utilize the profile update request to email members to update their profiles – and members can make updates using a tokenized link in the email without having to log in. Admins can then check whether members updated their profile and further target or take action for those who did not. The email history includes how many people the profile update request was sent to, whether the email was delivered and opened, and whether or not the profile was updated from the link. If a member did update his or her profile, the date is included. Learn more about profile update requests.
Membership card link included in member’s renewal confirmation email
We’ve made the membership card available to access once a member renews membership. If your organization uses the membership card feature, once a member renews, the confirmation email will include a tokenized link to access the member card. Clicking the link will open a new page with the member card and another link to download as a PDF. Learn more about accessing membership cards.
Q4 2018 Year-end Tech Updates
We're starting off 2019 with a jam-packed list full of great new features. In response to your feedback and support throughout 2018, five new updates have been released to the platform to better meet the ever-changing needs of our beloved groups. Just like you, we're dynamic too.
Introducing...
The all-new All Payments report has an updated look and feel that makes it cleaner and more user friendly. The report provides administrators with a bird’s-eye view of their organization and more detailed way to manage transaction-level data. Admins can easily view and manipulate data – without having to export to Excel (which you can still do, of course). If your organization has child groups, such as chapters or clubs, you can also see and sort transactions from your child groups in the same report. This report and its features are available on all subscription plans.
Our most recent update to the member directory features a full library of your organization’s members, their profiles, and their personalized information. Each member’s data is only accessible by your group, and displayed information settings are controlled by individual privacy settings. Request that members showcase their education, career, member level, or group title on their profile, or alternatively allow them to maintain the mystery with as little disclosure possible.
Our new polls tool is useful to all organizations by allowing them to facilitate secure, professional voting for officer elections, awards, or other ballot and election-oriented tasks. We offer much more customization and useful features – such as the ability to include more than one question – than polls on social media. Administrators have the flexibility to customize who is qualified to take a poll, start and end times to access the poll, as well as the data displayed in real-time results.
The memberplanet participation tracker provides administrators a transparent and accountable way to record or award credit (or points, hours, or any other type of format) to members for their involvement in your activities, such as attending an event, completing study hours, or volunteering their time. This is an excellent tool to recognize and reward active members, monitor overall event attendance or track volunteer hours, and learn which activities are actively engaging your members.
Events Check-in and RSVP Updates
Get a headcount ahead of time, generate event buzz by letting guests see who else has RSVP’d, and send tailored messages targeting people on your guest list based on their RSVP response. It’s a great way to promote online event registration and increase operational visibility on the days leading up to your event. Our recent fix includes an option to verify whether the person’s name matches the name on the invite. If it doesn’t, they can log in with their own credentials and continue to RSVP.
2018 was a year full of growth for us; we'll be helping you do the same all 2019. Tell us what you think of our platform, how we can improve our features, or simply say hello at support@memberplanet.com. Let's grow together this year.
Release: 11/15/18
Facilitate secure voting for your organization with the new polls feature
Our new polls tool is useful to all organizations by allowing them to facilitate secure, professional voting for officer elections, awards, or other ballot and election-oriented tasks. We offer much more customization and useful features – such as the ability to include more than one question – than polls on social media. Administrators have the flexibility to customize who is qualified to take a poll, start and end times to access the poll, as well as the data displayed in real-time results. Learn more and view the full polls documentation.
All Payments report automatically saves the column selections and order
An All Payments report enhancement automatically saves column settings for easier viewing. When viewing all payments, your selection of columns and column order adjustments will be saved. After selecting/deselecting columns or re-ordering columns, a message will briefly appear at the bottom of your browser as a confirmation that your settings have been saved. The next time you view the All Payments report, your saved column settings will apply. Learn more about the All Payments report.
Release: 9/27/18
Record and track member involvement with the new participation tracker feature
Participation tracker provides administrators a transparent and accountable way to record or award credit (or points, hours, or any other type of format) to members for their involvement in your organization’s activities, such as attending an event, completing study hours, or volunteering their time. Data is securely recorded by date and time in a customizable reporting format. You’ll be able to see who received credits and which admin awarded participation, as well as make any edits without navigating away from the report. Learn more and view the full participation tracker documentation.
New event check-in feature records accurate attendance
Administrators can enable event check-in to record attendance on the actual day of an event or activity, such as a community outreach, weekly membership meeting, or a study session. Admins can record a check-in by requiring members to use a system-generated passcode or manually checking in attendees. Admins can also customize the start and end times of the check-in window and edit the check-in status of a member. When linked to a participation tracker, admins can award members credits (or points, hours, or any other type of unit) for their check-in. Learn more: How to Enable the Event Check-in Feature.
Event RSVP enhancement allows members to share their invites
Sometimes guests forward their personalized event invite to their friends. To avoid confusion in reporting when someone RSVPs, an option was added to verify whether the person’s name on the invite matches the person who’s RSVPing. If it doesn’t, the user can log in with their own credentials and continue to RSVP. Learn more about enabling and sharing RSVPs.
Payment option to pay with bank account now available to users
Our integration with Plaid, a financial technology company, gives users an additional option to easily and securely link a bank account to make a payment. From any type of payment form on memberplanet, when the Pay with Bank option is selected, the user can search for their bank or add their bank manually by following on-screen prompts for a seamless consumer experience.
Release: 7/26/18
View and manage all transaction-level data with All Payments report
The improved All Payments report has the following upgrades:
- Powerful search options to search every field displayed
- Accounting summaries and filtering by payment type
- Pop-out screens to show status, payment details, schedule, or issue a refund
- Calculated totals for transaction data for date range selected
- Improved date range search with default to any time (all-time range from start of collecting funds on memberplanet) setting
- Quick filters to display payment activity by type of payment (installment or recurring) or memberplanet service, such as events, donations, membership and more
- Configurable view to lock columns when scrolling horizontally, hide columns, and sort by column data
- Access to transaction data from child groups
- Separate view of transaction data for your organization (at national or headquarters level)
Learn more about viewing your organization’s transaction reports.
Advanced search options let members search every field in the directory
The new Smart Search feature enhances the member directory and makes it easier for members to find other members by searching any field of data your organization collects. Through the interactive directory, you can give your members networking and mentorship opportunities, foster an online community, and improve engagement. Robust search functionality include returning partial and exact matches, as well as the ability to search custom field data, such as similar interests. Learn more about using Smart Search in the directory.
Release: 4/16/18
Toggle on/off missed payment collections for lapsed group members
Members may come and go within your group, and one way to encourage those looking to re-join is to not charge them for the payment cycles that passed while they were in lapsed status. Admins can now toggle this collection function on and off, so they have absolute control of the amount a returning member owes. Admins can waive those passed payments or decide to collect every payment from the date they left up to their return date. The choice is yours. Collect wisely. Learn how to enable or disable missed payment collection.
Release: 3/15/18
Added new admin role permission for membership feature set, which allows admins assigned with this permission to assign member levels and record offline payments. Learn more: Create and Assign Admin Roles
Updated the membership level history report to display actual payment date and time whenever a status was changed by either an admin or a member. Learn more: View Member Level History
Enhanced search for member database to apply and change multiple filters. Removed "search by" field and combined the toggle for the "Name & Email" and "Type & Status" pages. Learn more: Access Member Database
Updated member level reminder emails to send a tailored message, button, and button link when member's status is "Invited." Users are now directed to "Activate" or "Create" account based on their activation status (joined or invited). Learn more: Create and Customize a Paid Membership Level
Release: 2/10/18
Automatically sort members into a distribution list based on member level
Once initially set up, this admin feature allows you to automate the process of sorting new and renewing members into a distribution list for each member level in your group. Learn how to automatically sort members into a distribution list based on levels
New report to track installment payments
The increased flexibility of installment plans for members is a feature that helps groups grow and retain membership. The ability for admins to accurately track and monitor the progress of installment plans as it relates to fundraising goals or membership dues will help you keep your group on target. Learn how to view all your group’s transaction reports, including installment.
Q1 2018 Tech Updates
We’ve kicked off the new year with some fresh tech updates to help make managing your members and growing your group even easier. All through the holidays, we’ve kept busy to enhance event management, improve our member database, and more. You gave us suggestions on how to update the user experience, and we’ve been listening! Check out what’s new and improved.
Improved member database download
New variable pricing for event tickets based on member levels
Simplified process to add payment method
Easier access to membership cards
New auto-populating member distribution list
Improved member database download
Admins of groups of any size, even those with more than 100,000 members, can now easily download their entire member database. The whole process runs behind the scenes, allowing admins to continue working on the platform without having to pause so the database can download. A notification email is sent to the admin when the download is complete. Learn how to download your member database.
New variable pricing for event tickets based on member levels
Admins can now assign special pricing for tickets based on member levels rather than a flat price. For example, the price of an event ticket can be different for each membership level in your group, allowing you to give discounts and create added value for long-standing members. Here’s how to create event ticket prices based on member levels:
- After you create an event, click Tickets & Payment Items in the RSVPs & Tickets section
- On the Basics tab, fill out the information fields to create a ticket for the event, and click Save
- Select the Special Pricing tab
- Click the Edit button for the event ticket you wish to create special pricing for
- Select Set Custom Pricing
- To set separate prices for each member level, click Customize by Member Level. A field will appear for each of your membership levels. Fill in the dollar amount for each level, as well as pricing for non-members.
OR
- To set separate prices for members and non-members, fill in the dollar amounts.
- Click Save
Simplified process to add payment method
We’ve made it even easier for your members or donors to make online payments. When users add a new payment method, they now have the option to add this payment method to any already active recurring payment schedules. This improves the user experience by limiting re-entry of information (because no one wants to update payment info twice), as well as making sure they don’t accidentally miss a payment.
Easier access to membership cards
We’ve cut down on the number of clicks it takes to download a member’s card from desktop, and membership cards are even easier to access from the mobile app. The next time Jim and Pam show up to an event or meeting without their member cards, simply have them pull up their cards from their smartphone. Learn how to access and download membership cards.
New auto-populating member distribution list
Sending a customized message to members who’ve renewed their paid membership just got easier. (And you should absolutely do that to make your renewing members feel valued and special!) Admins can modify settings in paid membership levels to automatically sort those who join or renewed their membership into a distribution list. It’s a great way (and best practice) to connect with members by tailoring your message to specific recipients. For example, if you have monthly announcements for those on your top membership level, you can email them without manually updating a distribution list before every send. This feature works like our Smart Lists, and best of all, it’s free! (Before you start, make sure you’ve already created the distribution list you wish to auto-populate.)
- Click Membership on the left navigation bar
- Select Membership Levels, Sign-up and Renewal in the Joining our Group section
- Click the gear icon on the member level you wish to edit
- Scroll down and click Edit on the Sign-up and Renewal section
- Select the Add Member to a Distribution List checkbox
- Select the distribution list you wish automatically add members to
- Save and Close
We exist to simplify membership management, and for you and your admins, that means simplifying life as a leader. Share your thoughts with us on how we can further improve the customer experience by emailing suggestions@memberplanet.com.