What should your membership fee be? How a club sets its dues

For many clubs, dues are the biggest income, and yet they're often set by adding 50 kr. to last year's figure. That works until the hall rent goes up or a team grows, and then the treasurer has a deficit. Here's a method that takes an evening and can be explained at the AGM.

Start with costs, not last year's fee

Write down everything the club spends money on in a normal year. For a sports club, that's usually:

• Hall and pitch hire, often the biggest item.
• Federation, DIF or DGI: fees and licences.
• Insurance.
• Coaches and courses: fees, training, travel.
• Kit and equipment.
• Administration: member system, bank, payment provider, website.
• Events: end of season, Christmas, tournaments.

Use last year's accounts as the starting point, and change the lines you know will move.

Take off the other income

Dues only have to cover what doesn't come in some other way:

• Municipal grants, such as activity grants for members under 25 and grants towards premises.¹
• Sponsors.
• Events, the kiosk and tournaments.

Be careful with grants and sponsors you haven't been promised yet. A fee that only works if the sponsor stays is a fee that can leave you short.

Add a buffer

A year with an extra hall, an expensive repair or fewer members will come. A buffer of 5-10% of costs makes room for it, without an extra fee in the middle of the season.

Share it across your member groups

The total has to be shared between the people who pay. Most clubs have a few groups:

• Adults, the full fee.
• Children and young people, often less, because they bring grants and because parents pay for several.
• Families, one amount or a discount from the second child.
• Pensioners and students, a reduced rate.
• Passive members, a small rate that keeps them on the list.

A simple way is to give each group a share of the full fee: adults 100%, children 60%, passive members 20%. Then you can work backwards from the amount you need.

Example. A club spends 107,000 kr. a year and gets 20,000 kr. in grants and sponsorship. With a 10% buffer, dues have to bring in about 98,000 kr. With 80 adults and 60 children paying 60%, the full fee comes to about 840 kr. a year, and the children's to about 500 kr.

If you'd rather not work it out by hand, use our free fee calculator. It works out the fee for each group with a buffer, and can pass the numbers on to a budget template for the AGM.

Who decides the fee?

In many clubs the annual general meeting sets the fee for the coming year, as a fixed item on the agenda. Some statutes let the board set it. Check yours, and put the proposal forward with the budget, so members can see what the money is for.

Yearly, twice a year or rolling?

• Yearly is simplest for the treasurer: one collection, usually in January.
• Twice a year or per season suits clubs with a spring and an autumn season, or a summer break.
• Rolling (12 months from joining) suits clubs where people join all year round.

Pick what fits your year, not what the system finds easiest.

The mistakes that cost

• Copying the club next door. Their hall, coaches and grants aren't yours.
• Forgetting the yearly rises. Federation fees and hall rent can go up from year to year.
• No buffer. A deficit means an extraordinary general meeting or a sudden rise, and both cost members.
• Fees that aren't collected. The most expensive fee is the one nobody pays. Regular reminders and a payment reference on every request do more than a lower rate.

Once the fee is set

In Clubroom you set the fee per membership type, and members pay online or the way they always have, with a reference so bank transfers can be matched automatically. Reminders go out on your own schedule. See Collect membership fees.