Recently there have been a number of membership platforms launching. Patreon has been around for a while, mainly aimed at artists who want to get paid for their content, rather than relying on large followings and advertising.

Facebook has also rumoured launching a paid online community, where people can pay to be a part of a community.

So much stuff is put out there for free, it’s getting harder to get people to part with their cash. But what if membership platforms could be used to shake up donations? What if, rather than just people giving you money and getting a thanks very much, they got something in return? Could you offer content (that you’re probably already creating) in return for donations, in a place where people are already active?

We use Patreon for our online community, It’s a place where people from all over the charity sector can get together to share ideas about impact and reporting, sharing ideas and giving advice. We have different tiers, so people can join for £5 a month and get access to the community, or join for £15 and get all of the above, but also get access to my weekly Q&A session.

How could you use a membership platform? Could you create a tier, for say £1 a month that gave people access to your usual updates (that you’d post on something like facebook anyway). Could £5 give them access to monthly stories from your service users? Could £15 give them access to all of the above, as well as a souvenir from your charity? The possibilities are endless. The truth is, you’re probably already producing a lot of the content already, you’d just need to package it up differently and advertise.

Take a look at this for more ideas on how you could start using memberships to get more donations!