Wild Apricot software is designed for associations, clubs, non-profits, and member-based organizations. This page provides an overview of how Wild Apricot can be used to manage your members and other contacts (such as newsletter subscribers, donors, event attendees, and volunteers).

What you need to know

• Everyone in your Wild Apricot database is a  contact . A contact can be a member, an event attendee, a donor, a newsletter subscriber, or any combination of these roles.
  
  
• Contacts can be added automatically through your website, added manually by an administrator, or imported in bulk. For more information, see  Adding a new contact manually .
  
  
• You don't have to set the passwords yourself when adding members in bulk from a spreadsheet. Instead, following the import, you can send the new members an email blast including the {Contact_Password_Reset_URL} macro, which will appear as a link they can click on to set their own passwords.
  
  
• Members are a special type of contact. They can have special access to member-only pages and events, and their contact records include membership-related fields such as renewal date and member status. 
  
  
• A contact becomes a member when they are assigned a membership level.
  
  
• Members can add themselves via a online membership application form, or be added manually by an administrator.
  
  
• You can create multiple  membership levels , each with different membership fees, subscription periods, renewals policies, and benefits.
  
  
• Information about each contact is stored in a separate  record , with each record storing different chunks of information in  fields  (e.g. first name, last name, email address).
  
  
• You can customize your contact database – and your forms – by adding, modifying, reordering, and deleting database fields.
  
  
• Wild Apricot database fields are divided into two classes:  common fields  – fields that apply to all records (e.g. first name, last name, email address) – and additional fields that only apply to membership applications, event registrations, or donations. 
  
  
• You can offer discounted group memberships to companies, team, or families by setting up membership bundle levels.
  
  
• You can organize members from different membership levels into member groups according to their interests or participation in committees.
  
  
• Members can be listed in a member directory, visible to everyone or just members.
  
  
• You can automate the  membership renewal process  with timed reminders and actions.
  
  
• To fully automate the renewal process, you can set up  recurring payments .
  
  
• Members can perform various self-service functions themselves from their member profile 
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Learn more

So that visitors to your site can donate to your organization, you can add a donation form that integrates with your payment system and contact database.

The donation form displays all the donation fields you have set up. One of your donation fields is the Amount field, a system field that cannot be renamed or deleted. If the visitor viewing the donation form is not logged in, common fields will appear on the form as well. For more information on setting up and using donation forms, see Donation forms.

To enable online donations, you need to set up online payments.

To track the success of your fundraising efforts, you can add a donation goal gadget to a page on your site. You can also embed a Wild Apricot donation form on another website using widgets.

For instructions on inserting, moving, and deleting gadgets, see Gadgets.

You cannot add a donation form gadget – or any other singular gadget – to a page template or system page, or to a page containing another singular gadget.

Learn more

You can adjust the discussion forum gadget settings to control the appearance of the page and the ability of visitors to read, respond to, and post forum topics.

Gadget settings appear in a setting panel on the left side of admin view (which can be hidden to maximize the page design area). To display the settings panel, you position your pointer over the gadget – while editing a site page – then click the gadget's Settings icon.
If you want to learn more about discussion forum settings, check our Discussion forums help topic.

We hear it all the time: “I didn’t know there was software to help us manage our membership!”

If you have members and have to deal with all the tasks that come with it – such as member renewals, membership directories, events, newsletters and more – there’s a membership management solution for that!

At many small membership organizations, the volunteers and staff are trying to do a lot with a little (e.g., limited resources and budgets). It’s good to know that there are technology solutions that can help get your entire team on the right track and reduce wasted time and frustration, so you can focus on growing your membership and meeting your mission.

We've created an in-depth look at membership management software – what it is, how it works, what it costs and how it can help you build a website, connect with your supporters and grow your membership, while saving you time and effort.