Activating, renewing and expiring
The four statuses, the reminders that go out on their own, and what happens when a membership lapses.
Quick answers
6 questions · click to openWhat are the membership statuses?
Pending, active, expired and cancelled. A membership is only counted as active while its status is active and its expiry date is still in the future — the date does the work, not just the status.
When does a membership count as expiring soon?
Within 30 days of its expiry date. That’s the window the renewal emails and the dashboard both work from.
Do reminders send themselves?
Yes, once you’ve set them up. Each reminder has a timing relative to the expiry date, so you can have one go out before expiry and another after it.
How long can someone renew after expiry?
For as long as your grace period allows — thirty days by default. After that the online renewal link stops working and it becomes a conversation.
Does an expired member lose their history?
No. The person, their donations and their past memberships all stay. Expiry changes their membership status, not their record.
What if someone pays by recurring subscription?
Their membership carries a subscription status from Stripe as well — active, past due, canceled, unpaid, incomplete, trialing or paused. Past due is the one worth watching, because the member usually doesn’t know.
Membership renewal mostly runs itself once it’s set up — reminders go out, tasks appear, and nobody has to keep a spreadsheet of expiry dates. This page is about what those automatic parts actually do, so you can tell whether they’re working.
The four statuses
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Pending | Created but not yet active — usually waiting on a first payment. |
| Active | Current. Requires both the active status and an expiry date in the future. |
| Expired | Past its expiry date, or explicitly marked expired. |
| Cancelled | Ended deliberately rather than by lapsing. Cancelled is never treated as expired. |
The distinction between active and expired is a date comparison, not a flag someone remembers to set. A membership whose expiry date has passed counts as expired even if nobody has touched it.
The 30 day window
A membership counts as expiring soon once it’s within 30 days of its expiry date. That window is what the reminders and tasks are timed against, and it’s what the dashboard uses when it shows you who needs chasing.
Setting up renewals
Renewal rules live under Settings → Memberships, alongside your membership types and the renewal email itself.
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Set the grace period
Grace period (days) is how long after expiry a member can still renew online. Thirty days is a sensible default — it covers the member who opens your email a fortnight late, which is most of them.
Renewal rules, under Settings → Memberships. -
Set how long a renewal link lasts
Renewal link expiry (days) controls how long the personal link in a renewal email keeps working. The default is 90 days. See self-service renewals.
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Write both versions of the renewal email
There are two: If membership is expiring soon and If membership has already expired. Write them differently — the first is a nudge to somebody who is still a member, the second is a person who has already lapsed and needs a reason to come back.
The renewal email as the member receives it. -
Save
Save renewal rules keeps both the timings and the email wording. Editing the email without saving the rules loses the change.
Recurring subscriptions
A membership paid by card subscription also carries the status Stripe reports: active, past due, canceled, unpaid, incomplete, trialing or paused.
Past due is the one to watch. It usually means an expired or replaced card, and the member almost never knows. A past due subscription is worth a phone call rather than another automated email.
| Symptom | Cause and fix |
|---|---|
| Reminders aren’t going out | Check the reminder is active — reminders can be switched off individually and stay configured. Also check your sending domain is verified, since an unverified domain blocks all outbound email. |
| A member says they renewed but still shows as expired | Check the expiry date rather than the status. Active requires a future expiry date, so a renewal that didn’t move the date leaves them expired. |
| A subscription member lapsed without warning | Their subscription probably went past due and then unpaid. Watch the past due list rather than waiting for expiry. |