Verdant Trust — Member Portal & Events Platform

The Challenge

Verdant Trust had grown from a small local group to a national charity with 2,400 members across five membership tiers. But their operations hadn't kept pace. Their membership database lived in an ageing spreadsheet. Events were managed in Eventbrite, which charged per ticket and gave no visibility into whether attendees were current members. Members received documents via a shared Google Drive folder with a password emailed to them periodically. Renewals were handled manually by two staff members who spent roughly 20 hours per week on membership admin alone.

The real cost wasn't just time. Lapsed members were still receiving member-only communications months after their renewal lapsed. Event registrations had no way to offer member pricing automatically. The board had no way to see at a glance how many active members they had, which tiers were growing, or which events were driving renewals.

"We had data in four places and a full-time job just keeping them vaguely in sync. We knew there had to be a better way — we just didn't know what it looked like." — Operations Director, Verdant Trust

What We Built

We delivered a single integrated platform with three distinct interfaces: a public-facing site for prospective members, a member portal for logged-in members, and a staff admin panel.

Tiered Membership Management

Verdant Trust has five tiers: Supporter (free), Friend (£25/year), Member (£60/year), Patron (£150/year), and Corporate (£500/year). Each tier carries different access rights — to events, resources, directories, and communications. The platform manages all of this automatically.

• Online join flow with card payment (Stripe) or annual Direct Debit (GoCardless) — the charity's preferred option as it dramatically improves renewal rates
• Automatic tier-based access control across the entire platform — no manual intervention needed when a member joins, upgrades, or lapses
• Lapse handling: members receive renewal reminders at 30, 14, and 3 days before expiry; access downgrades automatically the day after expiry rather than abruptly cutting off
• Gift Aid declaration captured at point of join for eligible UK taxpayers, with a downloadable Gift Aid schedule for the finance team
• Bulk import tool for migrating 2,400 existing members from the legacy spreadsheet, with a one-time "claim your account" email flow

Member Dashboard

Each member logs in to a personalised dashboard showing everything relevant to them in one place.

• Upcoming events they're registered for, with calendar export (iCal / Google Calendar)
• Their current membership tier, renewal date, and payment history
• Recommended events and resources based on their engagement history
• A resource library filtered to their access tier — they only see what they can access
• Profile management: update contact details, communication preferences, and opt into or out of the member directory
• A digital membership card with their tier badge, usable at in-person events for quick check-in via QR code

Event Registration Platform

Events are at the heart of Verdant Trust's member engagement. The events system was built to handle the complexity of a real membership organisation rather than the simplicity of a general ticketing tool.

• Events can be public, members-only, or tiered (e.g. Patron and above only) — visibility and registration access is gated automatically
• Automatic member/non-member pricing: logged-in members see their discounted rate without any manual code entry
• Capacity management with waitlists: when an event fills, registrants are automatically added to a waitlist and notified if a space opens
• Multiple ticket types per event (e.g. individual, group, volunteer) with independent capacity limits
• Custom registration questions per event (e.g. dietary requirements, accessibility needs, workshop preferences)
• Automated pre-event emails with joining instructions, location details, and a QR code for on-the-day check-in
• Post-event attendance capture via QR scan or manual staff check-in on a tablet — feeds back to the member's engagement history
• Event attendance report downloadable as CSV, showing registrations vs actual attendance, member vs non-member split

Gated Resource Library

Verdant Trust publishes policy documents, research papers, training videos, and archived newsletters — some public, most for members only, some for higher tiers only.

• File upload and categorisation from the admin panel — PDFs, Word docs, videos (hosted externally via Vimeo), and external links all supported
• Each resource is assigned a minimum access tier; the library automatically shows or hides content based on the logged-in member's tier
• Non-members browsing the library see previews with a "Join to access" prompt for gated content — a conversion tool as well as a resource hub
• Search and filter across the library, with download tracking so staff can see which resources are most used

Volunteer & Committee Management

Around 120 of Verdant Trust's members are also active volunteers or sit on regional committees. These users needed a role above "member" but below "staff admin".

• Volunteer role type with ability to view and edit events they're assigned to help run
• Committee role with access to a private committee document area and discussion board
• Volunteer hours logging with an annual summary report for the charity's annual review

Staff Admin Panel

The admin panel is where the operations team runs the organisation. It was designed to replace four tools, so it had to be comprehensive.

• Full member database: search, filter by tier/status/join date/location, export to Excel at any time
• Member profile view with full activity history: events attended, resources downloaded, communications received, payment history
• Manual membership actions: upgrade/downgrade a member's tier, extend expiry, issue a complimentary membership, process a refund
• Bulk communications: send targeted emails to filtered member segments directly from the admin panel (e.g. "all Patron members in the North West")
• Real-time membership dashboard: active members by tier, renewal forecast for next 90 days, new joins vs lapses chart, revenue this month vs same period last year
• Event management: create and edit events, manage waitlists, download attendee lists, send event-specific communications

Technical Approach

The platform is built on a Next.js frontend with a PostgreSQL database and a Node.js API layer. Authentication is handled via a custom session system with role-based access control across seven distinct permission levels (public, supporter, friend, member, patron, corporate, volunteer, committee, admin).

Payment processing uses Stripe for card payments and GoCardless for Direct Debit subscriptions, with a unified payment history view in the admin panel regardless of payment method. Automated renewal logic runs via a nightly cron job that identifies expiring memberships, sends staged reminder emails via SendGrid, and downgrades access on the correct date.

The platform is hosted on a UK-based server, with all data stored and processed within the UK to satisfy the charity's data governance requirements. A full GDPR Data Processing Agreement was provided.

The Results

The shift to Direct Debit for renewals — made possible because the platform owns the renewal flow end-to-end — was the single biggest factor in the improvement in renewal rate. Members no longer had to actively remember to renew; the payment happened automatically unless they cancelled.

The staff team went from spending 20 hours per week on membership admin to approximately 4 hours. The remaining time is genuinely irreducible — calls with new corporate members, responding to specific queries — not spreadsheet work.

"The platform paid for itself within 18 months just from the improvement in renewal rates and the Eventbrite fees we stopped paying. The time saving is almost secondary at this point." — Chief Executive, Verdant Trust