Gift Memberships

A Gift Membership allows one person to purchase a membership on behalf of another. The giver pays; the recipient receives the membership benefits and notifications.

How Gift Memberships Work

  1. The giver selects a Gift Membership Item on a Campaign form
  2. The giver enters the recipient’s contact information (name, email, address)
  3. At checkout, the giver can choose:
    • Make gift anonymous — the recipient will not see who purchased the gift (if enabled on the item)
    • Send membership notification to me — the giver receives a copy of the welcome email
    • Send renewal information to me — the giver is notified when renewal is due
    • Automatically renew — the giver’s payment method is charged at renewal time
  4. On completion:
    • A new Contact is created for the recipient (or matched to an existing contact)
    • A Membership Instance is created for the recipient
    • The Gift Membership Welcome email is sent to the recipient
    • The transaction is recorded under the giver’s contact record

Configuring Gift Membership Items

Gift Membership Items extend standard Membership Items with two additional settings:

Setting Description
Enable Anonymous Allow the giver to hide their identity from the recipient
Enable Control Email Allow the giver to specify the notification email address

All other settings (term, pricing, fund, renewal campaign, promotion codes) are inherited from the standard Membership Item configuration.

Renewal of Gift Memberships

When a gift membership approaches expiration:

  • If the giver opted for Send renewal information to me, the giver receives the renewal notification
  • If Auto-renew was selected, the giver’s payment method is charged
  • If neither, the renewal notification goes to the recipient (the member)