Altru Auto-Renewals

Owned by
Shelby Lakins
Dec 21, 2023
6 min read

The auto-renewal option was enabled in Spring 2020, and automatic charges are run on the last day of every month. There are four major parts to the process: reminding auto-renewal enrollees of upcoming charges, processing the renewal batches created by Altru, creating the auto-renewal deposit report, and contacting any members whose cards are out-of-date/could not be processed by the Nightly Credit Card Process.


Note:  All renewal appeals are set to exclude auto-renewal enrollees.


Setting Up Batch and Rejection Notifications (For Processing)

If you are the person processing these, make sure you are receiving email alerts for batch assignments and charge rejections.

  1. In Altru, go to the Revenue tab
  2. Under Processing, click EFT
  3. Click Credit Card Processing
    1. Under Tasks, click Configure Email Alerts
    2. Enter your email address
    3. Make sure the “Send me an alert when credit cards are rejected” box is checked
    4. Click Save
    5. Then, to make sure the auto-renewal batches are assigned to you (the processor), click on Nightly Credit Card Processing for Automatic Membership Renewals
      1. Under Tasks, click Edit Process
      2. Using the Payment Batch Owner dropdown, select yourself as the owner
      3. Click Save
    6. Then, go back to the Revenue tab and click Batch Entry (under Transactions)
      1. Under tasks, click Configure Email Alerts
      2. Enter your email address
      3. Make sure the “Send me an alert when a batch has been assigned to me” box is checked
      4. Click Save
    7. Now, when a batch is run and committed or when there are rejections, you will receive an email alert and can begin processing


Upcoming Charge for Auto-Renewal Reminder Emails

On the first weekday of the month, email members enrolled in auto-renewal who will be charged at the end of the month.


Saving the Email List from Altru

  1. In Altru’s Information Library, go to the Gift Processing sub-folder for Membership
  2. Select the Upcoming Auto-Renewal Charges query [DO NOT EDIT] and download the results as an Excel file
  3. Open the file and delete all columns except for those containing the members’ last names, first names, and email addresses
  4. Change the header names to Last Name, First Name, and Email Address (this will make it easier for Mailchimp to sort later)
  5. Save the file and name it with the convention MMYY AutoRenewal Reminder

 

Loading the list and sending the email

 

IF SENDING VIA OUTLOOK

NOTE 1: Sending via Outlook rather than Mailchimp can help bypass spam and promotion filters, ensuring members actually see the email and respond before the charge has been process. It’s better to have someone cancel and upcoming charge than to process refunds because people missed the reminder email.

NOTE 2: After March 2024, you should be able to remove the text in the email about new member prices. By that point, the members you’re emailing should have already paid the post-March 2023 price at least once and will know the current levels.

  1. Create a new email under the member@blantonmuseum.org account
  2. Click BCC to bring up the BCC field
  3. From the Excel file, select all emails
  4. Copy and paste the emails into the BCC field
    1. NOTE: Make sure you BCC, as members should not see each other’s email address. This would be a violation of UT privacy practices.
  5. Copy and paste the subject line and email text from the template below (adapt as needed):



Subject: Your Blanton Membership renews automatically this month



Dear Blanton Member,

We hope you're enjoying your membership at the Blanton Museum of Art! This is a reminder that you're enrolled in the auto-renewal program, and your membership will renew this month.

Your credit card will be charged on the last day of the month, and soon after, your digital membership card will update. You do not need to take any action to renew your membership. If you have questions, please see our Auto-Renewal FAQ.

Please note: Blanton Membership prices changed on March 1, 2023, which affects your automatic payment amount. Visit our website to review current prices and benefits.

Membership payments are non-refundable. If you wish to cancel the upcoming charge before your membership renews, please contact us at member@blantonmuseum.org.

Thank you for being a Blanton Member!

Best,
The Blanton Membership Team



  1. Double check that all emails are BCC-ed and invisible to recipients
  2. Send!


 

IF SENDING VIA MAILCHIMP

  1. Load the email list
    1. Go to the Audiences tab in Mailchimp
    2. Under Manage Audience, click Import Contacts
    3. Select Upload File and click Continue to Upload
    4. Upload the CSV file you just created and click Continue to Organize
    5. Check the box Update Any Existing Contacts and click Continue to Tag
    6. Create a tag for these email addresses, using the naming convention MMYY AutoRenewal Reminder and click Continue to Match
    7. Confirm the column labels are correct and click Finalize Import
    8. Review and click Complete Import
  2. Update the draft and send the email
    1. Go to Campaigns and replicate the last auto-renewal reminder that was sent
    2. Edit the campaign name to match the current month
    3. Click Edit Recipients, select the tag you just created, and click Save
    4. Click Edit Design to review the email and confirm it is all up-to-date, then click Continue
    5. Either send right away or schedule the draft for later
    6. Done!

 

Processing Auto-Renewed Memberships

Processing the Memberships

When a batch is run successfully and committed, you’ll receive an alert that a batch has been assigned.

  1. Follow the link in the email
  2. Go to the Committed Batches Tab and select the batch
  3. Click Open Batch to review
    1. Make a note of the batch number for step 5
    2. If everything looks right (no error messages), you can close out and continue to the next step
  4. Now go to the Information Library and find the Revenue Entered in a Specific Batch Number query
    1. Note: These renewals will also appear in the Membership Cards–>Back Office queries
  5. Edit the query to pull for the auto-renewal batch you want to review
    1. Process the memberships as you normally would, checking that contact information and expiration dates are up to date
    2. Since you will not receive an Altru notification for these individual transactions, print or download the Revenue Transaction Pages to use as payment documentation (for gift reporting)


Depositing Auto-Renewal Payments

Because of the way these come in (via Back Office channels), auto-renewal payments will not show up on either the Daily Sales or Online Sales deposits. You will need to deposit them separately.

  1. After you’ve finished the Online Sales deposit, go to the Information Library and run the Undeposited CC Sales query
  2. Check the results
    1. If any of the records don’t show an Authorization Number, these were CC payments that were not processed via Altru but were entered with the incorrect payment method
    2. Go to the incorrect payment records and change the payment method to Other and the other payment method type to Other
  3. Run and check the results again
  4. If all is well, go to Sales and click Create Deposit
    1. Select the Back Office Credit Card template
    2. Run and process the deposit (see and adapt: instruction for processing the Online Deposit)


Reporting the Auto-Renewal Payments to Texas Gift Operations

You can either have these gifts entered in VIP separately or manually add them to the next Membership gift upload/sync. (Auto-renewal payments are CRV-No.)


Contacting Members for Rejected Charges

If there are rejections in a batch, you will receive an email. From there, you will need to notify the member that the charge did not clear. Altru will continue trying to charge the rejected cards until the payment goes through or you cancel the associated member’s auto-renewal enrollment. After the initial attempt, allow Altru to attempt the charges one more time before contacting members – sometimes it will go through on the second attempt. If the second attempt also results in a rejection, it’s time to reach out.

  1. Follow the link in the alert email to view rejections (this will take you to Altru’s Nightly Credit Card Processing for Automatic Membership Renewals page)
  2. Under the Recent Status tab, click Download Rejection File and select the file type as Excel
  3. Open the downloaded file and review the reasons for rejection (under the Messages header)
  4. Go to the individuals’ Member Records in Altru
    1. Under Other Tasks, select Edit Membership Details
    2. Uncheck the “Renew automatically by credit card” box and click Save
  5. Now that Altru will no longer try to charge this person, use the Altru Auto-Renewal Rejection Email Follow-Up template below to email them, inserting the appropriate offer code for the month in which you are writing
    1. Feel free to edit the draft as appropriate for this member and/or the rejection reason


Altru Auto-Renewal Rejection Email Follow-Up

NOTE: When you copy and paste, customize the level name to match the member’s current level and enter the AUTOMMYY promotion code for the current month.


Subject: Important message about your Blanton Membership


Hello [insert member name(s)],


As you may recall, you are enrolled in the Blanton Museum’s auto-renewal program for membership. Your [LEVEL NAME] level membership recently came up for renewal, but unfortunately, the transaction was declined. We have attempted to re-run the renewal without success, so it appears the best option will be for you to renew online once again and re-select auto-renewal, so that it will charge automatically next year. 

 

We apologize for the inconvenience, and to make it up to you, we would like to offer you 2 additional months of membership with this renewal (that’s 14 months of membership for the price of 12). When you renew online, please enter the offer code AUTO423 to redeem this offer. 

 

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to let us know. And thank you for being a Blanton Member! 


Best,

[your name]

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