What's The Difference Between Supporters, Friends, and Members?

What's The Difference Between Supporters, Friends, and Members?

Within the Green Party of England and Wales you may hear different names for groups of Activists. When using the Digital Support Site, these Activist types will be referenced and so it's useful to understand how they are categorised.
Some local parties use their own labels, and so you may wish to clarify with your local group if these differ from the labels used by GPEW.

What Are The Different Kinds Of Activists?

  1. Activists: This is a catch-all term that we use to refer to anyone who exists within Action Network.
  2. Members: These are those who have paid to join the Green Party.
  3. Supporters: These are people who have signed up to receive email updates from us, but who haven't yet gone on to become a member.
  4. Friends: Friends of the Green Party are those that have donated to the party while having no current membership. This designation will usually be given to those with a regular monthly donation to the party, but can include those who've donated within the previous twelve months.
It's important to understand that people can move between these different categories. A Friend or Supporter may go on to become a Member, and a Member may cancel but remain as a Supporter. We tend to refer to the latter as former members rather than Supporters though.
It's also worth pointing out that somebody can be a Friend to one group, having donated to them, whilst a Supporter of another. For example, if an Activist is subscribed as a Supporter to Bristol Green Party, but has donated to South West Green Party they would be a Supporter of Bristol, but a Friend of SWGP. Admins of Bristol would not be able to see donations made to the regional party.

Quick Ways To Identify Different Activist Types

Activist Type

Member
These Activists will have a value of Yes in the Member Field, and a Membership_Status value of Current, Pending, or Grace.
Supporter
These Activists will have no values in the standard membership fields (Member, Membership_Status, Membership_Join_Date...etc), but will be subscribed to email.
Friend
These Activists will have tend to have no values in the standard membership fields, but will have a donation recorded in the Donation History section of their Activist Record (usually within the last twelve months). Friends could also have a Member value of No, but a donation made after the date in their Membership_End_Date field.
Supporter (Former Member)
These Activists will have a value of "No" in the Member field, and a Membership_Status value of Cancelled but are still subscribed to email.