👥Setting Up Memberships
Explore setting up and managing membership plans – a fantastic way to give your patrons easy access to shows and classes while creating steady, predictable revenue for your theatre.
Are you a student or ticketholder? Check out our Member's Guide to Memberships.
The following guide is for venue administrators and managers who need to create and configure memberships for their events.
What Are Memberships?
Think of memberships as your theatre's version of Netflix or Spotify - subscription plans that give your patrons awesome benefits, mainly free or discounted access to tagged shows and classes. This feature doesn't just help your bottom line - it transforms your whole business model:
Create predictable, recurring revenue (goodbye, feast-or-famine ticket sales!)
Build serious patron loyalty and community connection
Boost attendance at your events (even those typically harder-to-fill slots)
Make life easier for your regular attendees (no more "Do I want to pay for this show?" decisions)
Offer season passes, festival badges, or VIP access programs
🚀 Revenue Accelerator Feature!
Memberships is part of our special Booster Features collection - revenue-accelerating tools we've designed as crowd pleasers that your audience and your bottom line will love!
Completely optional - activate only what works for you
Easily managed right from your Dashboard
Built based on feedback from theatres like yours
Using this booster adds a 1% fee (aka 5¢ on a $5 ticket) to all transactions when active. This fee is applied following your existing fee settings (passed on to customers by default) and helps fund our ongoing development of powerful tools like these intended to grow your theatre and community.
Membership Booster Details
When you activate the Memberships booster:
A 1% fee applies to all transactions (not just membership-related ones)
You can turn it off anytime, but deactivation will terminate all active membership plans
Members would need to sign up again if you later reactivate the feature
Activating Memberships
To start offering memberships:
Navigate to the Memberships section in your Dashboard menu
Click the teal Activate Memberships button
Review the information in the popup
Confirm by clicking Activate Memberships
Creating Membership Tiers
After activating memberships, you'll need to create at least one membership tier:
Go to Memberships → Manage Tiers in your Dashboard
Click the + Create New Membership Tier button
Complete the membership tier form:
Membership Tier Form Fields
Name: What you want to call this membership level (e.g., "Monthly Access Pass," "Comedy Club Membership," "Season Pass")
Description: Details about what's included in the membership (supports rich text formatting)
Cadence: The billing frequency. Choose from:
Daily: Renews every day (great for festivals or short-term events)
Weekly: Renews every week
Monthly: Renews every month (most common)
Yearly: Renews every year (ideal for season passes)
Once: One-time charge with no recurring billing (perfect for season tickets, festival badges, or single-purchase access passes)
Price: The amount charged per billing period (can be set to $0.00 for free memberships)
Event Access: Select which shows or classes are included in this membership:
Begin typing to search for specific shows, classes, or tags
You can select individual events or entire tags to include
The more events you include, the more value your membership offers
Max Uses per Renewal (optional): Limit how many times the membership can be used per billing period (leave blank for unlimited access)
Password (optional): Set a password requirement to enroll in this membership tier (useful for VIP or exclusive memberships)
Click Save to create the membership tier
Membership Types & Use Cases
Recurring Memberships
Perfect for ongoing access to your regular programming:
Monthly Comedy Pass: $25/month for unlimited access to all comedy shows
Class Membership: $50/month for unlimited access to all classes
VIP Membership: $75/month for priority seating and member-only events
One-Time Memberships
Great for special situations where recurring billing doesn't make sense:
Season Pass: One-time $150 payment for access to entire 6-month season
Festival Badge: One-time $40 payment for weekend festival access
Workshop Series: One-time $200 payment for 8-week intensive course
Free Memberships
Useful for building community or offering special access:
Student Membership: Free tier for students (password protected)
Volunteer Access: Free membership for your volunteers
Patreon Supporter Access: Free tier for existing Patreon supporters
Limited-Use Memberships
Control access frequency while maintaining value:
Flex Pass: $30/month for up to 5 shows
Date Night Pass: $40/month for up to 2 shows
Premium Access: $60/month for up to 10 events plus priority booking
Understanding Membership Fees & Pricing
How Membership Fees Work
Unlike regular ticket sales, membership transactions do not follow your theatre's fee settings. Even if your fee settings are configured to pass fees on to customers, membership fees are always absorbed by the theatre rather than passed to the member.
This design choice exists for several important reasons:
Subscription model psychology: Hidden fees on memberships feel deceptive to customers who expect one clear price
Competitive positioning: Most subscription services (Netflix, Spotify, gym memberships) show one all-inclusive price
Processing complexity: Recurring billing with variable fees creates reconciliation and accounting complications
Customer experience: It's much cleaner to say "membership is $30/month" rather than "$30/month + processing fees"
Pricing Strategy
When setting your membership prices, we recommend building processing fees into your tier pricing if necessary. For example, if you want to net $30 after fees, price your membership at $32-33 to account for the absorbed processing costs.
How Memberships Work
Key Features
One Free Ticket Per Date: By default, members can redeem one free ticket for each tagged event per date (for example, if a show has both a 7pm and 9pm performance on the same day, the membership allows entry to one of those performances, not both)
Usage Limits: Set maximum uses per renewal period to control access frequency
Password Protection: Restrict membership enrollment with passwords
Public Events: Memberships work with public events through tagging
Unlisted Events Option: For "members-only" events, create unlisted events and share links only with members
Member Login Requirement
Members must be logged in to their CrowdWork account when purchasing tickets for their membership benefits to apply automatically. When logged in, eligible events will show as $0 during checkout.
Billing & Renewal
Initial charge occurs immediately when a patron signs up
Recurring memberships: Renewals happen on the same calendar date each period (e.g., signup on the 5th = bill on the 5th of each month)
One-time memberships: No renewal charges - access continues based on event eligibility
Renewals are processed around 11am Central Time daily
Payment failures for recurring memberships trigger an automatic retry sequence:
First retry after 24 hours
Second retry after another 24 hours
Final retry after an additional 24 hours
Membership is deactivated if all attempts fail
Password-Protected Memberships
When you set a password for a membership tier:
A password field automatically appears on your public membership page
Only people with the password can enroll in that tier
Useful for exclusive access programs, student discounts, or VIP memberships
The password field only shows if you have at least one active password-protected tier
Discount Codes for Memberships
You can offer discount codes for membership tiers:
Create discount codes in your Discount Codes section
When selecting events to apply the discount to, your membership tiers will appear as options
Discount code fields automatically appear on your membership page when active codes exist
Great for promotional campaigns, existing supporters, or special offers
Season Ticket Considerations
For traditional season ticket programs where patrons expect one ticket per production (not per occurrence), the current system works best when combined with the Max Uses feature. For example, if you have a 5-show season, set Max Uses to 5. While this doesn't prevent a member from using all 5 tickets on one show that runs multiple weeks, it approximates traditional season ticket behavior for most use cases.
Managing Individual Memberships
To view and manage individual member subscriptions:
Navigate to Memberships → Members in your Dashboard
Search for specific members using the search field
Click on a member to view their details
From the member details page, you can:
Pause Membership: Temporarily suspends benefits and shifts renewal date forward (recurring memberships only)
Cancel Membership: Terminates membership at end of paid period
View Membership History: See past renewals and changes
Tracking Member Activity
Since members "purchase" tickets even when using their membership benefits, their activity appears in your regular dashboard sections:
Orders: All membership-based ticket purchases show here as $0 transactions
Tickets: Individual ticket records for shows
Registrations: Individual registration records for classes
This allows you to track member attendance and engagement using the same tools you use for regular ticket holders.
Pausing vs. Cancelling
Pause Functionality (Recurring memberships only):
Temporarily suspends access to benefits
Shifts renewal date forward by the same number of days paused
Member can still reactivate their membership
No immediate charges upon reactivation, follows normal billing cycle
Cancel Functionality:
Terminates membership at the end of the paid period
Access remains until end of current paid period (for recurring) or based on event dates (for one-time)
Cannot be reactivated (new signup required)
When members cancel themselves, they see this message: "If you cancel, your membership will remain active until the end of your current billing period. After that, you'll lose access to all member features. This action cannot be undone."
Refunds
By default, there are no prorated refunds when memberships are cancelled
If you want to issue a refund as a theatre admin, find the transaction and click the refund button
For detailed refund procedures, see the Issuing Refunds guide
Tracking Membership Revenue
Membership revenue appears in your Square Dashboard alongside other sales. You can identify membership transactions by:
Logging into your Square Dashboard
Navigating to the Sales section
Looking for transactions labeled as "Membership"
Best Practices for Memberships
Pricing Strategy
Recurring Value Calculation: Price recurring memberships so they feel like a steal! If tickets are $15 and members might attend 2 shows per month, price around $25-30. They save money, you get reliable income - win-win!
One-Time Value: For season passes or festival badges, price at 60-70% of what individual tickets would cost
Free Tier Benefits: Use free memberships to build community and convert casual attendees into regular supporters
Psychological Pricing: Set price points where members feel they "break even" after 2-3 events. Once they've hit that point, every additional show feels completely free, which encourages more attendance
Account for Fees: Remember to build processing fees into your membership pricing since they're absorbed by the theatre
Membership Program Design
Limited Use Strategy: Offer tiers with usage limits (like "5 shows per month") to create urgency and encourage regular attendance
Password Protection: Use passwords for exclusive tiers, student discounts, or special promotions
Mixed Offerings: Consider offering both unlimited and limited memberships to appeal to different patron types
Tag Management
Create specific tags for membership-eligible events
Consider creating different tags for different membership tiers
Use descriptive tag names to help you identify membership content
Communication
Clearly explain membership benefits on your Public page
Send welcome emails to new members explaining how to use their membership
Remind members of upcoming events that are included in their membership
For limited-use memberships, let members know how many uses they have remaining
Remind members to log in when purchasing tickets to receive their benefits
FAQs for Theatre Administrators
Q: Can members book multiple tickets for the same show? A: No, members can only redeem one free ticket per date for tagged events. If a show has multiple performances on the same day, they can only get free entry to one of those performances, not both.
Q: How do members redeem their free tickets? A: Members must be logged in to their CrowdWork account and still "purchase" tickets through the normal checkout process, but their price shows as $0 for eligible events.
Q: Can we limit how many shows a member can attend per month? A: Yes! Use the "Max Uses per Renewal" field when creating a membership tier. Leave it blank for unlimited access, or set a specific number (like "5") to limit usage.
Q: Can we offer free memberships? A: Absolutely! Set the price to $0.00 when creating a membership tier. This is great for student memberships, volunteer access, or building community engagement.
Q: How do one-time memberships work? A: Select "Once" as the cadence when creating the tier. Members pay once and get access based on your event selection until their access expires or you modify the tier.
Q: Do we need to set up special shows for members? A: No special setup is needed beyond tagging events correctly. For members-only events, you can use unlisted events and share links only with members.
Q: What happens if we deactivate the Memberships feature? A: All existing memberships will be immediately terminated (not paused), and members will need to sign up again if you reactivate the feature.
Q: Can members switch between different membership tiers? A: There's no switching needed! Your patrons can subscribe to as many different membership types as they want. If they want to move from one tier to another, they can simply cancel the current one and sign up for a different tier. Or they might want multiple memberships simultaneously - our system is designed for flexibility, allowing you to create exactly the program that works for your community.
Q: How do password-protected memberships work? A: Set a password when creating the tier. The password field automatically appears on your public membership page only when you have active password-protected tiers. Anyone with the password can enroll in that specific tier.
Q: Can we offer discounts on memberships? A: Yes! Create discount codes in your Discount Codes section and select your membership tiers when choosing what the discount applies to. The discount code field appears on your membership page when active codes exist.
Q: Why don't membership fees follow our theatre's fee settings? A: Membership transactions always absorb fees rather than passing them to customers. This creates a cleaner subscription experience and matches how most subscription services work. Build any necessary fee costs into your membership pricing.
Need help setting up your membership program?
Contact our support team for assistance customizing your membership offerings.
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