Glossary
Membership software, defined.
Plain-language definitions of the terms that come up when you run a membership organization. From AMS to SYBUNT.
- AMS (Association Management System) An AMS is a software platform purpose-built for membership-based organizations to manage members, dues, events, commit...
- CRM (Customer Relationship Management) A CRM is a software platform for tracking interactions with contacts across a sales or relationship pipeline. In membe...
- Member record A member record is the primary database entry for a member of an organization. It contains profile information, contac...
- Household (membership) A household is a group of related individuals treated as a single membership unit. Common patterns: family memberships...
- Family membership A family membership is a membership level that covers multiple members from the same household under one dues payment....
- Membership tier A membership tier (or level) is a category of membership with specific price, benefits, and optional member type. Orga...
- Dues Dues are the periodic payments members make to maintain active membership in an organization. Most commonly annual, bu...
- Recurring dues Recurring dues are membership payments that bill automatically on a set interval (annual, quarterly, or monthly) via s...
- Auto-renewal Auto-renewal is a membership feature that automatically charges the member's stored payment method at the renewal date...
- Renewal rate Renewal rate is the percentage of members who renew their membership at the end of a billing cycle. Healthy renewal ra...
- Churn rate Churn rate is the percentage of members who do not renew or actively cancel in a given period, expressed annually. The...
- LYBUNT LYBUNT stands for "Last Year But Unfortunately Not This Year." A fundraising segment term for donors who gave last fis...
- SYBUNT SYBUNT stands for "Some Year But Unfortunately Not This Year." A fundraising segment term for donors who have given in...
- Annual fund An annual fund is an annual fundraising campaign soliciting donations from members or supporters. Common in nonprofits...
- Cents per member A pricing model in which a membership platform charges a small per-member fee (e.g. $0.40/member/month) in addition to...
- Contact-based pricing A pricing model in which a membership platform charges based on the number of contacts in the database rather than act...
- Flat-fee pricing A pricing model in which a membership platform charges a fixed monthly or annual fee regardless of member count, up to...
- Chapter A chapter is a regional or affinity-based sub-unit of a larger organization. Chapters typically have their own officer...
- Per-capita remittance Per-capita remittance is a dues arrangement in which chapters forward a fixed per-member amount to a national or paren...
- Scoped admin access Scoped admin access allows chapter officers, committee chairs, or regional leads to administer only their subset of an...
- Role-based access control (RBAC) RBAC is a permissions model in which access rights are assigned to roles (admin, treasurer, member, board) rather than...
- CEU (Continuing Education Unit) A CEU is a unit of measurement for continuing professional education. One CEU typically represents 10 contact hours of...
- CLE (Continuing Legal Education) CLE is the legal profession's continuing education requirement. Most state bars require annual CLE hours for license r...
- CME (Continuing Medical Education) CME is the medical profession's continuing education requirement. Physicians track CME credits for licensure and board...
- CPE (Continuing Professional Education) CPE is the accounting profession's continuing education requirement (also used in IT certifications). Tracked in hours...
- 501(c)(3) 501(c)(3) is the Internal Revenue Code section that defines tax-exempt charitable organizations in the United States. ...
- 501(c)(6) 501(c)(6) is the Internal Revenue Code section for business leagues, chambers of commerce, trade associations, and pro...
- Tax-deductible donation A tax-deductible donation is a contribution to a qualified 501(c)(3) organization that the donor can deduct from their...
- Year-end giving statement A year-end giving statement is a summary document sent to donors in January listing all tax-deductible contributions f...
- NAICS code NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) is the standard classification of business establishments by ind...
- Business directory (chamber) A business directory is a public-facing list of member businesses published by a chamber of commerce or trade associat...