Membership renewals - sample text for emails to members

Unless the Constitution of your non-profit registered society provides for a class of members known as Life Members, your members will be Ordinary Members. Ordinary Members pay a subscription fee upon joining, and their membership usually lapses in 1 year and needs to be renewed every subsequent year (by way of payment of a membership renewal fee).

If your non-profit organisation is small and wholly volunteer-run, one of the executive committee members/office bearers is likely to have the delightful task of tracking membership expiry and renewals :-).
The good news is, if your organisation is small, you probably won't have that many members and can  manage the process using a simple spreadsheet with a column showing when the Ordinary Members joined, and another showing when their membership will lapse.

To help small volunteer-run non profit organisations, I've provided some sample text that I've used before to facilitate the process of reminding members that their membership has lapsed/is lapsing and, to thank them for renewing.

Hope you find it helpful :-) Comments, questions or requests to cover particular topics, email me at spiral1701@gmail.com.

SAMPLE : INVITATION TO LAPSED/LAPSING MEMBER TO RENEW MEMBERSHIP

Dear [name of member]

Just to let you know that your ordinary membership of [organisation] has [recently expired]/[will be expiring on {date}]

We would be delighted to have you on board for another year and we do hope that you would like to renew your membership. 

The membership renewal fee is [RM xxx], and can be banked in to our registered society's bank account, details as follows:

a.    Bank in the funds via ATM and email a photo/scanned image of the bank-in slip to [email address]; or

b.    Bank in the funds via online banking, and email the online confirmation to [email address] 

Account Payee	[Name of organisation]
Bank	[Bank]
Account Number	[xxx-xxxx]

We very much look forward to your continued support of [organisation].

Regards,

[Name]

[Designation]

[Organisation]

SAMPLE : CONFIRMATION OF RENEWAL OF MEMBERSHIP

Dear [ name of member ],

Thank you for renewing your membership of [ organisation ].

We have received your [ATM/online transfer details].

We will issue an official receipt as soon as we receive our bank statement for the month.

Your membership has been renewed for a 1 year period beginning [date] and lapsing on [date].

Again, thank you very much for your support of [organisation].


Regards,

[Name]

[Designation]

[Organisation]

A Journey of 5 years...

So recently, one of the non profit organisations I'm involved in, celebrated 5 years in existence at its 5th Annual General Meeting. This happens to be an organisation I've been involved in right from the beginning, so I ve really had the opportunity to watch it start from nothing and gradually grow into the vibrant organisation that it is today. It started with just a group of like-minded friends, each with a different skill, who got together to form a community garden. Today, it has grown into quite a large undertaking, but we are still fully volunteer-run.

Behind the community garden stands a registered society under the Societies Act 1966, and all the compliance requirements that go along with it. Being a lawyer, I was brought on board to help the others with running the secretariat. On a voluntary basis, of course :-)

Suffice to say it has been a challenge, trying to pull this off while also being employed full-time in a high-intensity job. However, it has also been a totally enriching experience which has given me the opportunity to stretch to learn new time management and multi-tasking skills, as well as,  the chance to learn so much more than I knew before about sustainable environmental practies, greening urban spaces, edible gardens and container gardening.  

So reflecting back on 5 years, I thought I would share some of my thoughts with you on being one of the founding members a non-profit organisation. 

1. Always be sure of your "why". When you are crystal-clear about why you are doing something, you get fired up, energised and motivated - and every aspect of the job - including the difficult, behind-the-scenes hard work, or long hours spent planning events, working out logistics, dealing with people, etc, takes on a new meaning.

2. Think creatively. Always think about ways in which you can leverage your skills for greater impact, even if you are under-resourced (as most small non-profit organisations are). Accept that hard work is involved. Sure, it's a challenge. You're already so busy with your day job, and now you find you have additional work to do for your non-profit organisation. Accept that hard work behind the scenes, is part and parcel of doing something good for the community that your organisation serves. The best strategy to balance all your obligation, is to be creative, and invest time in designing systems to maximise efficiency and output.

3. Always learn new ways of doing things. Be open to new ideas, new technogies and new tools and apps out there. Keep track of regulatory developments in the non-profit arena in other parts of the world. Subscribe to free non-profit resources such as newsletters and updates.  

4. Always, always, always, hone your people skills/interpersonal skills. In the non-profit world, people skills are invaluable. When dealing with volunteers, committee members, statutory authorities, suppliers and service providers - remember, you are a leader. Take responsibility to invest in those relationships and make them work, even though it can be quite challenging sometimes :-)

I hope the above thoughts will help inspire and empower you to lead your non-profit organisation.


Comments, questions or requests to cover particular topics, email me at spiral1701@gmail.com.