How Drug Science Manages Supporter Memberships with Join It

Key takeaways

About Drug Science

Drug Science is an independent, science-led charity founded by Professor David Nutt to ensure that drug policy, public debate, and medical understanding are guided by evidence rather than political or commercial influence.

The organisation brings together leading scientists, clinicians, and researchers to investigate the harms and benefits of drugs, support evidence-based policy, and improve public understanding. Its work spans enhanced harm reduction, medical psychedelics, emerging medical services, research, consultancy, public education, events, and policy engagement in the UK and internationally.

At the core of Drug Science’s mission is a commitment to telling the truth about drugs, grounded in rigorous scientific evidence.

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The challenge

Drug Science relies on recurring supporter contributions to fund its work. While the organisation offers different membership tiers, many supporters join primarily to back the mission rather than to access specific member benefits.

Before using Join It, supporter management relied on a combination of spreadsheets, donation tools, and attempted membership CRM adoption. These approaches either required too much manual work or proved unnecessarily complex for a lean team managing multiple priorities.

Alongside this, Drug Science regularly runs events and webinars, creating a need for a clear way to organise supporters into tiers and connect memberships with existing event workflows, without adding friction to communications or community activity.

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Why Join It

Drug Science chose Join It for three main reasons:

• Integration with Eventbrite, where most events and webinars were hosted
• Clear tier-based membership management
• A platform that was intuitive to set up and easy for the team to use

Rather than forcing the organisation into a heavyweight CRM, Join It provided a practical middle ground. It replaced manual tracking while fitting naturally alongside existing tools and processes.

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How Drug Science uses Join It

Drug Science uses Join It as the central system for managing supporter memberships once people choose to support the organisation.

The platform is used to:

• Organise supporters into clearly defined membership tiers
• Manage recurring payments and renewals
• Receive automated notifications when memberships are due to expire or when payments fail
• Maintain a clear, reliable view of supporter status alongside Stripe

Join It underpins the administrative side of the membership programme, allowing the team to focus their time on research, communications, events, and community engagement, rather than manual membership tracking.

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The results

For Drug Science, the value of Join It has been primarily operational.

• Reduced administrative overhead
• A more efficient way to manage supporter tiers and renewals
• Confidence that memberships and payments are running smoothly
• Clear visibility of supporter status without manual checks

James Bunn, Chief Operations Officer at Drug Science, describes Join It as a system the organisation can rely on to operate consistently. With the membership foundation handled, the team can dedicate more attention to delivering research, engaging supporters, and contributing to public and policy conversations.

Support interactions have also been minimal by design. After initial setup and Zapier configuration, the platform has continued to operate reliably without the need for ongoing technical assistance.

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A platform that fits the organisation

Drug Science does not use Join It as a tool to attract new supporters. Instead, the organisation brings people in through its research, reputation, events, and public engagement. Once supporters join, they are managed through Drug Science’s member portal, where Join It provides the structure needed to organise memberships, track supporter status, and manage renewals effectively.

That flexibility has been key. Join It supports Drug Science’s existing engagement and communications approach, rather than dictating how supporters should interact with the organisation.

As new team members take on community and supporter-focused responsibilities, the platform remains straightforward to adopt and easy to work with.

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“Quite a lot of the benefit for us is that we can set it up with confidence and rely on it to run consistently. It doesn’t require day-to-day attention, which allows us to focus on our research, communications, and wider mission.” James Bunn, Chief Operations Officer, Drug Science

Looking ahead

With Join It in place, Drug Science, a science-led charity, has a dependable membership foundation that supports its work without adding unnecessary complexity. As the organisation continues to expand its research, events, and public engagement, Join It remains a trusted platform for managing supporter memberships in a way that complements, rather than competes with, its wider community efforts.

If you’re running a charity or community-led organisation and want a simpler way to manage supporter memberships, you can start a free trial or book a demo to see how Join It works in practice.