How Frome Festival Made Its Friends Program Easier to Run With Join It

“It runs itself.” — Sarah, Frome Festival

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Frome Festival uses Join It to run its Friends membership program with a very small, part-time team. After replacing a Microsoft Access database and a chain of manual payment, email, and card-printing tasks, the charity can now automate sign-up, renewals, digital cards, and Mailchimp sync — giving staff a clear overview of membership and more time to deliver a 10-day cultural festival.

Frome Festival at a glance

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What is Frome Festival?

Frome Festival is a 10-day celebration of music, art, food, theater, talks, walks, comedy, and community activity in the Somerset town of Frome. Its program ranges from well-known performers and speakers to small workshops and local experiences, with around 300 events taking place across more than 50 venues.

Sarah described the festival as beginning 25 years ago as a regeneration project. Today, it is supported by a Friends program that gives local people a closer connection to the festival while helping the charity generate dependable income.

Friends receive benefits such as advance booking and discounts from independent local businesses. That means the membership program has two jobs: it needs to help sustain the festival financially, and it needs to make supporters feel part of Frome's cultural community.

What membership problem was Frome Festival trying to solve?

Short answer: Frome Festival had an outdated Microsoft Access database, several disconnected payment routes, manually updated mailing lists, and printed membership cards. With only a few part-time staff hours available each week, the charity needed membership management software for arts organizations that could reduce repetitive work and make growth manageable.

A legacy database created errors and delays

When Sarah joined Frome Festival, she inherited a Microsoft Access-based Friends system that was difficult to update and contained mistakes. New and renewing Friends could pay in different ways, including direct debit, PayPal, and website payments. Sarah then depended on a bookkeeper who worked half a day a week to confirm who had paid before records could be updated.

Each person also had to be added to the mailing list separately. With information moving between payments, the database, and Mailchimp, there were several opportunities for delays or errors.

Printed membership cards added another manual task

Friends received physical cards printed on special paper. Formatting was limited, the printer was not always reliable, and the finished cards did not provide the experience Sarah wanted for supporters of a creative organization. Once printed, the cards had to be mailed or hand-delivered to Friends' homes, adding delivery costs and taking time the small team could not spare.

The card process also consumed staff time without improving the quality of the membership program. A modern digital membership card could give Friends immediate access to their benefits without the printing, mailing, or hand-delivery work.

The team did not have capacity to grow

Frome Festival has three paid employees, all working limited hours, plus a volunteer board. Sarah was balancing membership administration with the wider work of delivering a festival across dozens of venues.

The charity needed more Friends and more recurring income, but the old process made each additional member another manual workload. As Sarah explained, the problem was not a lack of demand. It was the physical capacity to add, update, and communicate with more people accurately.

Why did Frome Festival choose Join It?

Sarah researched membership platforms and found Join It repeatedly matched the charity's needs. The organization was operating with a tight budget, so it successfully applied for council funding to cover the initial software cost and reduce the risk of changing systems.

The practical test came when Frome Festival began promoting its new Friends experience. Sarah said the early membership response was enough for the software to pay for itself. The charity could add new Friends automatically instead of making membership growth dependent on extra staff hours.

That is an important distinction. Join It did not create Frome Festival's audience or local reputation. It gave the team a workable system for turning supporter interest into an organized, renewable membership program.

How does Frome Festival use Join It day to day?

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Online joining and renewal emails reduce handoffs

Friends can now join through an online flow, while renewal emails help move people away from older direct debit arrangements over time. Sarah and the bookkeeper are copied into relevant notifications, so they know what is due and what action may be needed.

Some legacy direct debits remain, which means the transition is not completely automatic. Even so, the team now has a far clearer picture of the membership cycle and a structured way to guide Friends toward the newer process.

Digital cards turn membership into a local benefit network

Advance booking has long been a central benefit of becoming a Friend. Join It also made it easier for Frome Festival to expand the offer through digital cards that Friends can keep in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet.

Participating local businesses offer benefits including discounts on books, records, food, gin, and hair products. Businesses display a Friends sponsor sticker, and a member can show the card on their phone to verify eligibility. The model supports the festival, gives Friends a more visible reason to join, and directs attention toward independent businesses in Frome.

For arts organizations considering a similar approach, the useful question is not simply whether software can issue a card. It is whether the card connects current membership status to benefits people genuinely want. Join It's guide to digital membership card benefits offers a broader checklist.

Multiple membership types keep messages relevant

Frome Festival has three Friends options. Standard membership is £25 a year, Gold membership is £100, and a free membership recognizes people who have contributed significant time and effort to the festival. Gift memberships can also be purchased for someone else.

Join It lets the team tailor messages by membership type. That matters when, for example, a price-rise notice is relevant to paying Friends but not to people on a free recognition membership.

Mailchimp sync removes duplicate data entry

New Friends are automatically added to the appropriate Mailchimp audience through Join It. This membership integration removes one of the repeated steps in the old process and helps the festival keep its communication list aligned with its member records.

The team can also contact Friends for prize draws, invitations, and post-festival gatherings without searching through an unreliable database one record at a time.

Human support helps a small team make changes confidently

Sarah highlighted Join It's chat support as one of the most valuable parts of the service. The team helped format spreadsheets for bulk imports, answered workflow questions, and supported Frome Festival when it changed its standard annual price from £20 to £25.

“That level of customer support is absolutely excellent.” — Sarah

For an organization with limited staff time, responsive support is part of the product value. It shortens the distance between deciding to improve a process and putting the change into practice.

What results did Frome Festival see?

• The Friends program no longer depends on a slow, error-prone Access database.
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• Online joining reduces the amount of information staff enter manually.
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• Sarah and the bookkeeper have clearer visibility into payments and renewals.
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• Digital cards replace awkward printed cards, remove the need to mail or hand-deliver them to Friends' homes, and make local benefits easier to use.
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• Mailchimp sync removes a repeated mailing-list task.
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• Membership types support different prices, benefits, and messages.
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• Gift memberships add another way for supporters to participate.
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• Shared records and notes help the small team understand unusual or changing member circumstances.
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• Human support makes imports, price changes, and configuration easier to manage.
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• The team has more capacity to grow the Friends program and focus on the festival itself.

Sarah reported a clear membership increase after a campaign built around the expanded benefits, although exact growth figures were not available in the interview. She also said the move from £20 to £25 produced more membership income overall despite some cancellations.

This is not evidence that software alone drove growth. The festival's reputation, program, local partnerships, and promotional work created the reasons to join. Join It made the resulting membership activity easier to process and maintain.

“We just know what's going on now.” — Sarah

How does Join It fit alongside Frome Festival's ticketing system?

Frome Festival currently uses a specialist venue booking system for its main festival program. That is a sensible division of work for an event with around 300 listings, an in-person box office, public ticket buyers, and requirements that go beyond the Friends program.

Join It is the system for Friends membership: member records, payments, renewals, cards, benefits, and communication. Its event registration tools could be evaluated for smaller fundraisers or future workflows, but the case study does not depend on replacing the festival's main ticketing platform.

This is useful buying guidance for other cultural organizations. Membership software and festival ticketing software solve related but different problems. Choose the best tool for each workflow, then decide where an integration or shared process would add value.

What should an arts organization look for in membership software?

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For a broader evaluation framework, see how to choose membership management software and how membership management software works.

Is Join It right for a festival, theater, or cultural charity?

Join It is a strong fit for arts, theaters, and museums that need a membership database, online sign-up, payments, renewal reminders, multiple membership types, digital cards, member self-service, and integrations without a long implementation.

Join It starts under $29 a month. Organizations should compare plan features, payment and service fees, administrator access, digital card requirements, and integration needs against their actual workflow.

If the main requirement is reserved seating, venue inventory, an in-person box office, or high-volume public ticketing, specialist ticketing software may still be the right system for events. Join It can manage the membership relationship alongside it.

Frequently asked questions

What membership software does Frome Festival use?

Frome Festival uses Join It to manage its Friends program, including online sign-up, member records, renewal communication, digital cards, membership types, Mailchimp sync, and administrative access.

Can a small arts charity manage memberships without a full-time membership manager?

Yes. A focused membership platform can automate repeatable tasks such as sign-up, renewal emails, digital card delivery, and mailing-list sync. Staff still own the relationships and exceptions, but they do not have to recreate the same workflow for every member.

Can cultural organizations offer different membership levels?

Yes. Join It supports multiple membership types with different prices and messages. Frome Festival uses Standard, Gold, and free recognition memberships, as well as gift memberships.

Can digital membership cards be used for local discounts?

Yes. Frome Festival's Friends keep a digital card on their phone and show it at participating local businesses. The card gives supporters a convenient way to access benefits without carrying a printed card.

Does Join It connect with Mailchimp?

Yes. Join It can sync membership records with Mailchimp so new Friends are added to the relevant audience without separate manual entry. Organizations should confirm their list structure and segmentation rules during setup.

Does Join It replace festival ticketing software?

Not necessarily. Frome Festival uses specialist ticketing for its main public program and Join It for Friends membership. Cultural organizations can evaluate Join It event registration for smaller events while keeping a dedicated box-office platform where needed.

Give a small team more time for the festival

Frome Festival needed a Friends program that could support income and community without consuming the limited hours of a part-time team. Join It moved sign-up, renewals, cards, member records, and Mailchimp updates into a clearer system, while responsive support helped the charity make practical changes quickly.

The result is a membership program that is easier to understand, easier to promote, and far less dependent on manual work. If your cultural organization is outgrowing an old database or disconnected membership process, explore Join It's membership database, digital membership cards, and membership integrations.