As an organizer, you can collect member dues for your group. Collecting dues can offset costs associated with leading a group like your organizer subscription, venue rentals, supplies, or refreshments.
Turning on member dues
Before you turn on member dues, you must set up a Stripe account.
After verifying your Stripe account, follow these steps to turn on member dues:
Desktop / Mobile web
- On your Meetup group’s homepage, click Manage group then select Edit group settings.
- Click Member dues.
- Click Get Started.
- Set the amount and free trial length, then confirm with Save.
For more, watch our Meetup Live event, where organizers will walk you through how to maximize the impact of your monetization strategies:
Updating member dues
You can change the price of your members dues at any time. Any changes you make to the price will only affect new members. Existing members will continue to pay the original price, unless you turn off dues entirely and turn them back on, or they leave and rejoin the group.
Dues can be turned off at any time from your group settings. Turning off your member dues automatically cancels existing dues for all members. If you decide to enable dues again later, your group members will be affected as follows:
- Members who have not paid dues before will be enrolled into the trial.
- Members who have paid before, but whose dues paid period ended before the date you re-enable dues will be enrolled in the trial.
- Members who have paid before, and whose dues paid period extends after the date you re-enable dues will not be charged until their paid period ends.
- Past due members will be charged immediately.
Transaction fees
A transaction fee of 7.5% + $0.50 is taken from the total amount an organizer charges.
How members pay their dues
Here’s what happens after you turn on member dues.
Free trial periods
A trial period gives new members a chance to attend events before paying their member dues. Here are three things to know about setting up a trial period:
- If you’re turning on member dues for the first time, all of your existing members will be placed on the trial period that you set.
- Trial periods for existing members cannot be changed. If you change your trial period, the change will only affect new members.
- Members are sent reminders to pay seven days and one day before their trial expires.
- Members cannot pay dues before their trial ends.
What happens to members who don’t pay their dues?
You can track which members have paid their dues in your Members list.
Members who haven’t paid by the end of their free trial will be automatically removed from your group. If you’ve set up organizer approval for new members, those who haven’t paid their dues will appear in the Pending tab of the Members list.
It's also possible that a member's first payment attempts failed and caused Stripe to retry a few times. During this period, members are still allowed to stay in your group, as their payments are being processed, and their status is marked as Grace so you can recognize who has been having troubles with their payments before you take any actions. The Grace status can last for up to two weeks.
Removed members who haven’t paid their dues will be prompted to pay before rejoining.
Refunding member dues
Learn more about our refund policy for member-to-organizer payments.