Free tool
How many volunteer hours your renewal season really takes
Put in your roster size, how many pay on the first notice and how you chase the rest, and see the hours your officers spend before dues are closed.
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What your chapter dues have to cover before anything reaches the programs
Enter your roster count, your dues figure and the money that leaves before you can spend a dollar, and see the surplus and the break-even member count.
Chapters usually set dues by looking at last year and adding a little, which works right up until insurance renews higher or the roster drops by fifteen. This calculator runs the arithmetic the other way around: from your fixed obligations, the per member share your national or regional body takes, and the processing that comes off every card payment.
The number worth watching is the break-even member count at the bottom. If it sits uncomfortably close to your current roster, one bad renewal season puts the chapter into its reserves, and that is the case to bring to the board before you argue about the dues increase itself.
Your result
Gross dues billed
$5,070
Everything invoiced before national and processing take their share.
Net dues reaching the chapter
$3,363
What actually lands in the chapter account from dues.
Surplus after fixed costs
$963
What is left for programs, scholarships and reserves before any fundraising.
Members needed to break even
56
Below this roster count your fixed costs are coming out of reserves.
These figures cover dues only, so add event and fundraising revenue separately when you build the full chapter budget.
Why the break-even count is the number to take to the board
Boards argue about the dues figure because it is the visible number. The one that decides whether the chapter is stable is how many paying members you need before fixed costs are covered. When that count is within ten of your current roster, you are one lapsed cohort away from spending reserves on insurance and filing fees.
Bring both figures to the meeting. Say what dues are now, say what the break-even count is, and say what your renewal rate was last year. That framing moves the conversation from does it feel like a lot to what happens if fifteen women do not renew.
Fixed costs chapters forget to include
The obvious ones are general liability insurance, the state charitable registration renewal, the annual report fee and any software the chapter pays for. The ones that get missed are the mailbox or registered agent, the storage unit holding thirty years of chapter records, the domain renewal nobody remembers buying, and the bank fees on a low balance account.
Add them in even when the amounts feel small. Four items at seventy five dollars each is another five members you need on the roster just to stand still, and that is the sort of drift that turns a comfortable chapter into a tight one over three years.
Questions about this calculator
Should life members be counted in the paying member figure?
No. Count only members who pay dues in the year you are modeling. Life members belong in your roster count for quorum and in your reserve planning, but they contribute nothing to this year's dues line, and including them will flatter the surplus.
What if our national body takes a percentage rather than a flat amount?
Convert it to a per member dollar figure first by applying the percentage to your dues amount, then enter that. If national takes a flat per capita and your chapter adds a local amount on top, the per member share you enter here is the per capita figure only.
Our members pay by check as well as by card. Does the processing rate still apply?
Only to the card payments, so blend it down. If roughly half your members pay by check, enter about half your processor rate. The result will be close enough for budgeting, and checks carry their own cost in the treasurer's time to deposit and match.
More free tools and working documents
Working document
The chapter treasurer handover checklist
Everything the outgoing treasurer of a chapter or alumnae association should close, assemble, transfer and verify so the next woman starts with a book that balances.
Turn that result into next year's dues cycle
The figure on this page is a planning number until the roster behind it holds a paid through date for every member. A demo shows what the same calculation looks like when renewals, reminders and lapsed members update themselves as dues arrive, and when the year end treasurer report is built from that ledger rather than assembled by hand in May. Bring the numbers you just produced and we will start from them.