Cultural attraction membership coordinator job description
A membership coordinator signs up and renews the households that buy a year of visits to a zoo, garden, aquarium or museum. They process gate and online sales, send renewal mail, plan member nights, and keep records clean so the fundraising team can spot future donors.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
Median pay, museums, zoos and gardens · BLS, May 2025
Our Membership Coordinator keeps members joining, visiting, and renewing. You run renewal mailings and emails, process memberships sold at the gate and online, answer member questions, and plan member events. Members are often our first donors, so you keep their records clean and pass strong prospects to the Director of Development.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Run the renewal series: notices, emails, and calls before and after each membership expires.
Process new, renewed, upgraded, and gift memberships from the gate, phone, mail, and website.
Keep member records current in [your membership or donor database] and merge duplicates.
Send member cards, welcome packets, and details on the reciprocal admission programs you belong to.
Plan member previews, early-entry mornings, and member nights with the events and guest services teams.
Train admissions staff on membership levels, benefits, and how to offer an upgrade at the window.
Report on member counts, renewals, and lapsed members, and flag upper-level members for donor cultivation.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Answer member calls and emails about cards, guest passes, renewals, and benefits.
Process the day's membership sales and match them to the sales report.
Pull lists for renewal notices and win-back emails to lapsed members.
Review member scan data for problems at the gate, such as expired or shared cards.
Prepare member event invitations, RSVP lists, and check-in sheets.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Member renewal rate: [your target].
New member households: [your target].
Upgrades from day tickets to memberships: [your target].
Lapsed members won back: [your target].
Member inquiries answered on time: [your target].
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
[Bachelor's degree] or equivalent work experience.
[2+] years in membership, customer service, sales, or data entry.
Accurate data entry in a database such as [Altru, Tessitura, Raiser's Edge, or your system].
Clear writing for emails and letters.
Handles payment details and personal data with care.
6. Preferred Experience
Membership or annual fund experience at a nonprofit.
Experience with email marketing tools and mail merges.
Has sold memberships at a front gate or ticket window.
7. Physical Requirements
Desk and phone work for most of the day.
Set up member events and carry supplies up to [25] pounds.
With or without reasonable accommodation.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Full-time with regular weekday hours on site.
Evening and weekend member events [several times a year].
Busier before renewal deadlines, the holidays, and exhibit openings.
9. Compensation and Benefits
Pay: [range and hourly or salary basis].
Additional pay: [overtime, bonus or incentive terms, or none].
Benefits: [health, dental, vision, retirement, paid time off, and when they start].
10. Company Culture and Overview
[Two or three sentences on what your company does, the area you serve, and the support a new membership coordinator gets in the first 90 days.]
11. How to Apply
[Apply link or email]. Our process: [phone interview, in-person interview, and next steps]. Contact [hiring contact] if you need an accommodation during the application process.
Need help filling this role? HireBus posts the ad, Iris interviews every applicant by phone before you do, and you decide who to hire. Start hiring now
A gym sells memberships too. Here a member is a regular visitor, a likely donor and a small tax question, all in one record.
A membership is part gift, part ticket
Members get perks back, so how much they can deduct depends on the level. IRS Publication 1771 lets a charity ignore routine perks, such as free entry, parking and shop discounts, on lower-priced yearly memberships. Above that price, or when a level adds event tickets or gifts, the receipt may need to put a value on what the member got. The Director of Development sets the wording. The coordinator makes sure every receipt and renewal letter uses it. Source: IRS Publication 1771: Charitable contributions, substantiation and disclosure requirements.
Renewal letters have postal rules
Many sites mail renewals at nonprofit postage prices. The Postal Service has content rules for that mail. Under USPS Publication 417, benefit descriptions in a join or renewal letter don't count as advertising as long as they fill less than half of the letter. They belong in the letter itself, or on one benefits sheet when the letter only points to it. Describe them in a separate brochure and they count as advertising. Source: USPS Publication 417, 6-3.3.8: References to membership benefits.
Households change, so records must too
A family membership covers a household, and households change. Couples split, grandparents join, children grow out of the family level, and people move. The coordinator updates the existing record instead of starting a new one, so the renewal date, giving history and years of membership stay together. Skip that step and long-time members get welcome letters meant for strangers.
Card numbers pass through this desk
Renewals come in by phone, mail and the website. PCI DSS, the card industry's security standard, applies to anyone who stores, processes or transmits cardholder data. Key cards straight into the payment system, never into a notes field or spreadsheet, and follow your policy for shredding mail-in forms. Never read a full card number back over the phone or send one by email. Source: PCI Security Standards Council: PCI DSS.
Members are the first pool of donors
Long-time and upper-level members often give first when an annual appeal goes out. The coordinator flags new upgrades, members of many years, and anyone who asks about giving or volunteering. Those names go to the Director of Development. Clean giving history lets the team make a well-timed ask instead of a cold one.
How much cultural attraction membership coordinators make
The closest BLS group for cultural attraction membership coordinators is fundraisers. Fundraisers who work for museums, zoos, gardens, and historic sites earned a median of $62,660 a year ($30.13 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s below the $72,550 median for fundraisers in all industries. About 3,190 of the 111,040 fundraisers in that survey work for museums, zoos and gardens.
Often hourly, sometimes salaried, usually without commission on memberships sold. BLS doesn't track membership staff on their own, so the figures shown cover all fundraisers, including senior gift officers; coordinator pay often starts lower.
Museums, zoos and gardens
$62,660$62,660 median Middle half $51,040–$79,750 10th–90th $44,150–$99,220
All industries
$72,550$72,550 median Middle half $57,480–$92,180 10th–90th $46,630–$115,820
$25k$50k$75k$100k$125k$150k
10th–90th percentileMiddle halfMedianAnnual pay, May 2025. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.
Annual pay by percentile
Group
10th
25th
Median
75th
90th
Museums, zoos and gardens
$44,150
$51,040
$62,660
$79,750
$99,220
All industries
$46,630
$57,480
$72,550
$92,180
$115,820
BLS groups museums, zoos, botanical gardens and historic sites together. Post a real range for your market in the ad.
Skills to hire for, and what you can teach
Hire for these
Careful data entry, with an eye for duplicate households and misspelled names
A friendly phone and email manner with members who have a card or guest-pass problem
Warm, clear writing for renewal letters, emails and welcome packets
Discretion with payment details and personal data
Comfort pulling lists and simple reports from a database
Teach these on the job
Your membership levels, benefits and upgrade rules
Your membership or donor database, such as Altru, Tessitura or Raiser's Edge
The receipt wording your development office uses
How to train the ticket window on levels and upgrades
The renewal series calendar, mail merges and your email tool
The reciprocal programs you belong to and what each one covers
Membership runs in a ticketing or donor database such as Altru, Tessitura or Raiser's Edge, linked to the point-of-sale system at the gate, plus an email tool and mail merge. Ask applicants which donor databases they have used, then test them on a few sample records in yours.
Cultural attraction membership coordinator interview questions
They have their own page: 6 questions that test this job, what strong and weak answers sound like, and a work exercise to run with your finalists.
Start each target from last year's member counts, and pull the numbers monthly. Read renewals by expiration month, since a holiday rush of gift memberships comes due a year later.
Member renewal rate
Members who renewed within your grace period, divided by members whose membership expired that month. Break it out by level and by how they first joined: gate, online or gift.
New member households
Households joining for the first time each month, counted once no matter how many cards they hold. Track gift memberships and window sales separately to see which source renews best.
Upgrades from day tickets to memberships
Day-ticket buyers who join on the same visit or within your credit window, from the point-of-sale report. Compare by cashier and by day to see where the training is working.
Lapsed members won back
Former members who rejoin from the win-back list you pulled. Note which letter, email or offer brought each one back.
Member inquiries answered on time
Calls and emails answered within the response time you set, from the shared inbox or phone log. Review the slow ones weekly to find repeat card or guest-pass problems.
Is a membership coordinator a fundraising job or a customer service job?
Both. Most of the day is service: cards, guest passes, renewals and data entry. The role usually sits in development because part of each membership payment is a gift, and the records feed the donor database. Hire for accuracy and a service manner, and teach the fundraising side.
How much does a cultural attraction membership coordinator make?
Fundraisers who work for museums, zoos, gardens, and historic sites earned a median of $62,660 a year ($30.13 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $51,040 and $79,750 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and bonus terms.
How is a membership coordinator different from a development associate?
A membership coordinator handles the many smaller yearly payments: levels, renewals, cards and member events. A development associate usually helps with larger gifts, grants and donor records for the Director of Development. Small development teams often merge the two, so list which mailings and events belong to this job.
What should happen when a membership lapses?
Start a short win-back series a few weeks after the expiration date: a letter or email with what's new, then a reminder with a clear deadline. Check the record before it goes out. Some lapsed members have moved, renewed under a new address, or died, and a wrong letter loses more goodwill than it wins.
How many renewal notices should we send?
Plan a series, not one notice: a letter or email before the expiration month, a reminder near the date, a last call after it, and a phone call to upper-level members. Stop the series the day someone renews. That only works if gate and website sales post to the member record the same day.
Does a membership coordinator work weekends?
Not every weekend. The job is mostly weekday desk work, but previews, early-entry mornings and member nights fall on evenings and weekends several times a year. Put the rough count in the ad. Some sites also ask the coordinator to staff a membership table on the busiest summer days.
