The Goal: Retire an outdated membership type by migrating current members to a new type and then deactivating the old one, so your records, reporting and invoicing stay intact.
Before You Begin:
- You need staff permissions to manage membership types and to perform upgrades and downgrades.
- Decide on the new membership type, and its fee item, that current members will move to.
- Never delete a membership type. Deleting removes all history, which breaks your data, reporting and invoicing. Deactivate instead. Migrating members first keeps the Retention report clean, keeps open invoices connected to the customer, and keeps revenue correct for reporting.
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Set up the replacement. See Set up fee items and Add a New Membership Type.
- Tell your members the change is coming, and why. The membership type name is what they see when they view their membership in the Info Hub, so the name will change for them.
- Move current members onto the new type, using one of these three routes. Each one writes a note on the contact record. (A note is an internal label marking activity in the database, not an email to the customer.)
- Change them one at a time through an upgrade or downgrade. See Manage Membership Change.
- Change them in bulk with the level conversion tool. This only works if the new membership type has levels. See Membership Level Conversion Tool.
- Contact Support for help.
- Once every member has moved, deactivate the old type. Go to Memberships, click Settings and select Membership Types. Click the name of the old type, clear the Is Active check box, and click Done. Do not delete it.
A deactivated type stays on the Membership Types page, shown with a line through its name, so its history remains available for reporting.
Common Pitfalls
- Deleting instead of deactivating: Deleting a membership type removes all history and breaks reporting and invoicing. Always deactivate the retired type once members have moved.
- Deactivating before migrating members: Move every current member to the new type first. Otherwise you strand members on a type that is no longer active.