Why We Switched to Recurly at YNPN-NYC—and How It’s Already Paying Off
Learn how migrating YNPN-NYC from a static one-time membership checkout to a recurring payment provider, gamified conversion, and created a foundation for long-term, sustainable revenue.
When I stepped into the role of Board Chair at YNPN-NYC earlier this month, one of my first priorities was upgrading our recurring membership payment system. We’d been using a mix of PayPal and SquareSpace purchases, and while functional, it lacked the modern tools needed to streamline operations and improve member experience.
My familiarity with Recurly actually goes back to 2015, when I was a customer of a SaaS platform that used it to manage their subscriptions. I had a good experience—especially with the added bonus of a discount—which left a lasting impression. That experience stuck with me when I started looking for a better solution for YNPN-NYC.
The Payment Patchwork We Inherited
Historically, YNPN-NYC managed recurring dues through PayPal. Then, after a website redesign, new memberships were processed through SquareSpace and synced with Mailchimp. That approach kept the process seamless on the front end but fragmented things behind the scenes. By the end of 2015, we had members split between PayPal and SquareSpace, with no central system to manage them.
Why Recurly?
I needed a solution that was:
Low-friction for users
Self-managing on the backend
Elegant and modern
Recurly’s ecommerce-like experience won me over: members check out once, and the system handles renewals annually. Simple, clean, and scalable.
One of the biggest wins? Recurly syncs active subscriptions to Mailchimp twice a day. No more manual exports. And if someone cancels, they’re automatically removed from the list. Even if that integration didn’t exist, I could have used Zapier—but luckily, I didn’t need to.
Implementation
I approached this rollout with a “day-one” mentality—something I’d recently done with a CRM overhaul at Stupid Cancer. I knew legacy members might be affected, but new signups wouldn’t feel a thing. The setup process for Recurly took less than 30 minutes, and once everything was configured, I pulled down the old form and waited for signups to begin.
January was the perfect time to launch—right in line with New Year’s resolutions—and the response was strong from day one.
After verifying that everything worked, I uploaded legacy members into the new Mailchimp list using their name, email, and membership anniversary date. That allowed me to begin mapping the past to the present.
Migrating Legacy Members
Recurly adds two private fields to Mailchimp. Since we only offer one plan, everyone has the same data in those fields. That made it easy to identify which 2016 members were new and which ones were legacy holdovers.
With Mailchimp’s segmentation tools, I created lists of legacy members based on their anniversary date. That allowed me to identify those who were expired but hadn’t yet been imported into the new system. I haven’t finalized how many reminders these members will get before being moved to the inactive list, but the goal is clear: win them back.
We’re experimenting with coupon codes and other incentives to reactivate lapsed members. Some may not even realize their membership expired. While we know we won’t win back 100%—life moves on for many—it’s worth the effort to retain who we can.
Why Members Love It
What makes Recurly so effective is how it puts the power back in the hands of members. Seven days before their renewal, they get an email reminder. They can cancel, update their billing, or do nothing and let it renew. If a payment fails, Recurly will attempt to fix it automatically (like updating an expired card) before notifying the member. It’s hands-off but thorough.
Looking Ahead
Migrating a membership base sounds like a heavy lift, but modern tools make it manageable—and worthwhile. Retaining a member is always cheaper than acquiring a new one. But more importantly, not spending time managing things that can be automated is a win for any organization.
The Results (So Far)
In the first 18 days of launching Recurly, we had over 75 new members sign up—strong validation that this was the right move.
Nonprofiteer of the Year 2013
In June, I found out I was a finalist for the Young Non-Profit Professionals Network of New York City's Nonprofiteer of the Year 2013 award. I was stoked to be nominated for my first professional award. As soon as I found out, I had several colleagues forward me the newsletter YNPN-NYC had sent out, along with the 4 other finalists. Quite an impressive list of people:
John Hellman (@JuanEstebanNYC) Director of Advocacy, Latino Commission on AIDS
John Moreno (@JohncitoMoreno) Founder, Latino Youth for Higher Education Program
Tara Pokras (@tpokras) Program Assistant, Project Sunshine
Mon Yuck Yu Chief of Staff, Academy of Medical & Public Health Services
The event was held in at the Center for Social Innovation on June 27th. It was a nice intimate gathering of like-minded individuals. The winner was named towards the end of the event after the 5 of us offered up some career advice. I was honored to have been selected and thankful to everyone who nominated me!