Institution-level feature — managed from your institution dashboard at
deandesk.com/dashboard. Memberships are scoped to your institution, not to individual schools. See Institutions & Schools for how these levels relate.What is a membership?
A Membership represents a person’s paid or manually-assigned membership in your institution. It is separate from — and sits alongside — the Identity and User account systems.How Membership, Identity, and User relate
| Concept | What it is | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| Identity | A login account for your institution. Holds credentials (username, email, password) and institution-level roles. | Institution-wide |
| User | A profile inside a specific school. Holds school-specific roles, course enrollments, grades, and billing. Created automatically when an Identity accesses a school. | Per school |
| Membership | A membership entitlement tied to an Identity. Tracks the membership plan, billing status, term dates, contact info, and custom metadata. | Institution-wide |
A person has one Identity per institution, one Membership per institution (at most), and one User per school they access. These are three separate records that work together.
Membership plans
Before you can add members, you need to create at least one membership plan.Creating a plan
Choose a tier type
DeanDesk supports two tier types:
You can create one plan per tier type.
| Tier | What it includes |
|---|---|
| Individual | A single-person membership |
| Family | A membership that covers a primary member plus spouse and children (configurable max size, default 5) |
Set pricing
Configure the pricing options you want to offer:
- Monthly price — recurring charge every month
- Annual price — recurring charge once per year
Add plan details
Fill in the plan name, description, and optionally:
- Features — a list of benefits shown to prospective members
- Terms — terms and conditions members must accept when subscribing
- Max family size — for family plans, the maximum number of members (default 5, max 20)
Membership term settings
Configure when your membership year starts and ends, and how to handle members who join mid-term.Set the annual term dates
Define the start and end of your membership year (e.g. January 1 through December 31, or September 1 through August 31).
Adding members
There are three ways to add members: self-service signup, manual creation, and bulk import.Self-service signup
Members can purchase a membership themselves from your institution portal.- The member visits your institution’s portal and clicks to join.
- They see the available plans with pricing (including prorated amounts if applicable).
- They select a plan and billing interval, enter payment details, and accept the terms.
- Stripe processes the payment and DeanDesk creates the membership automatically.
Manual creation
Admins can create memberships on behalf of individuals — useful for complimentary memberships, imported records, or members who pay offline.Select a plan and set dates
Choose the membership plan and set the start and end dates. Manual memberships are not billed through Stripe.
Fill in contact info and metadata (optional)
Add the member’s contact information and any custom metadata fields you’ve configured.
Bulk import
Import hundreds or thousands of members at once using the bulk import API.Prepare your member data
Organize your data as an array of member objects, each containing the member’s email or username, dates, contact information, and any custom metadata values.
Submit the import
Send the data to the bulk import endpoint (up to 1,000 members per batch). DeanDesk processes each record:
- If the Identity exists: creates the membership immediately
- If the Identity doesn’t exist yet: queues as a pending member
Pending members
When a membership is created for someone whose Identity doesn’t exist yet, it is saved as a pending member. Pending members are automatically linked when the person registers:- When a new Identity is created (via signup or invitation), DeanDesk checks for any pending records that match the email or username.
- If a match is found, the membership is created and linked to the new Identity automatically.
- You can also manually trigger a sync or link individual pending records from the Pending Members view in the institution dashboard.
Membership metadata
Custom metadata fields let you store institution-specific information on each membership — volunteer roles, committee assignments, t-shirt sizes, dietary restrictions, or anything else your organization needs to track.Configuring metadata fields
Add a field
Click Add Field and configure:
| Setting | What it controls |
|---|---|
| Field name | The unique identifier for the field (used in imports and APIs) |
| Field label | The display name shown to admins and in reports |
| Field type | The data type — see table below |
| Required | Whether the field must be filled in when creating or editing a membership |
| Options | For select and multiselect types, the list of allowed values |
| Default value | A default value pre-filled for new memberships |
| Description | Help text shown to admins |
Supported field types
| Type | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Text | Short text input | ”Board Member”, “Room 204” |
| Textarea | Long text input | Notes, special requests |
| Number | Numeric value | Years of membership, age |
| Date | Date picker | Join date, certification expiry |
| Boolean | Yes/No toggle | ”Volunteer?”, “Newsletter opt-in” |
| Select | Single choice from a list | ”Committee: Finance / Education / Events” |
| Multiselect | Multiple choices from a list | ”Interests: Sports, Arts, Technology” |
Where metadata appears
- Member list and detail views in the institution dashboard
- Bulk import — metadata values can be included in import data and are validated against the schema
- Reports — custom metadata columns are included when exporting membership reports as CSV
- Discount rules — metadata fields can be used as conditions in rule-based discounts (see Membership entitlements below)
Family memberships
When a member subscribes to the Family tier, DeanDesk creates a family group that the primary member can manage.Family roles
| Role | Who | How they’re added |
|---|---|---|
| Primary | The account holder who purchased the family membership | Automatically assigned |
| Spouse | The primary member’s partner | Invited by email — must accept the invite |
| Child (13+) | A child aged 13 or older | Invited by email — must accept the invite |
| Child (under 13) | A child under 13 | Listed by name only (no email/account required) |
Adding family members
The primary member (or an admin) can invite family members from the membership portal:- Click Invite Family Member and choose the role (spouse or child).
- For spouse and children 13+, enter their email. DeanDesk creates an Identity for them if one doesn’t exist and sends an invitation email.
- For children under 13, enter their name only — they are listed on the family group without an account.
- Invited members accept the invitation by signing in and confirming.
Membership entitlements
Membership status can be used to control access and pricing across your schools.Members-only products
When creating or editing a tuition product, you can set its access to Members Only. When a product is marked as members-only:- Only users with a valid, active membership at the institution level can select and purchase it.
- Users without a membership see the product but are blocked from enrolling with a message indicating a membership is required.
- Admins can always bypass this restriction.
tuitionAccess setting (set to members_only instead of all).
Membership-based discounts
The discount rule engine can evaluate a user’s membership status when deciding whether to apply a discount. Two membership-related fields are available as discount rule conditions:| Field | Type | What it checks |
|---|---|---|
| Has Active Membership | Boolean | Whether the user’s Identity has a valid, active membership at the institution |
| Membership Tier | Select (individual / family) | The tier type of the user’s active membership |
- “10% off all tuition for active members”
- “Family plan members get $50 off per child enrollment”
- “$25 discount for anyone with an active membership”
Membership history
DeanDesk maintains a historical record of all membership periods — both current DeanDesk-managed memberships and imported historical data.Historical profiles
Each person gets a history profile that tracks all their membership periods across time. This is useful for:- Tracking long-term membership tenure for members who joined before you started using DeanDesk
- Importing records from a previous membership system
- Maintaining a complete audit trail of membership activity
Importing historical data
Use the historical import to load past membership periods. Each imported record includes:- The member’s email (used to match or create a profile)
- The period’s start and end dates
- An import label (e.g. “2022-2023 Membership Year”)
- Plan name, tier type, and any metadata
Active membership sync
When a member subscribes or renews through Stripe, DeanDesk automatically adds a period to their history profile. This keeps the historical record up to date without manual intervention.Membership reports
Generate and export membership data from the institution dashboard.| Report | What it includes |
|---|---|
| Active Members | All currently valid memberships with contact info and metadata |
| Manual Memberships | Memberships created manually (not through Stripe) |
| DeanDesk Billing | Stripe-backed memberships with subscription details |
| Expiring Soon | Memberships approaching their end date |