The Dons Trust AFC Wimbledon Club Owners2020/21 Dons Trust Membership Renewals

We’re approaching annual Dons Trust membership renewals. All current Dons Trust members will be receiving correspondence, either by email or post, with further details about how to renew.

In the meantime, following the recent news from the Club outlining more information about our return home, this is more information about some of the changes to your Dons Trust membership and how it will affect this year’s renewal process.

If you have any questions, please contact the Membership Secretary via membership@thedonstrust.org.

What’s changing?

One thing remains ever-constant. The Dons Trust remains in control of AFC Wimbledon. Joining the Trust makes you a part-owner of AFC Wimbledon, with the same stake in the club as all other Trust members. Dons Trust membership continues to mean that you have voting rights, regardless of which category of membership you have, so long as you are 16 or above. You can vote in board elections and stand for election yourself (if you are 18 or above).

It is still possible to buy your membership as usual.

What’s changing is that this year the club is introducing an additional membership – Dons Trust Plus. This will allow you to mix the benefits of the AFC Wimbledon Stadium Card as well as be able to retain your voting rights.

The AFC Wimbledon Stadium Card provides specific benefits for fans who aren’t Trust members and can’t commit to a season ticket but still want to take advantage of great ticket prices and flexibility.

You will be receiving more information about buying debentures, season tickets and the Stadium Card in due course.

Changes to the concessions and Junior Dons age ranges

To bring Dons Trust membership age range in line with the Club, we are moving the age range for senior members from 60+ to 65+.

For Junior Dons we are extending the age range to include 16 and 17-year olds (this brings it in line with the Club and with wider Government policy for up to 18-year olds being full time education).

We currently do not have a record of the date of birth for all adult/concession members. We will be contacting members for whom we do not have a date of birth to confirm.

You can directly compare the changes in grouping and prices in the detailed table below.

Improvements in the Junior Dons offer

The Junior Dons membership has been enhanced. Along with the package of benefits that JDs used to receive, the new stadium gives the opportunity to increase the benefits offered. You can find out more about the Junior Dons benefits from page 11 of this overview of the 2020/21 ticket pricing.

Junior Dons will now cover the age range from 0 to 17-year olds.

16 and 17-year olds will have full Dons Trust membership rights including voting rights.

Dons Trust membership renewal process for 2020/21

For this year only, we are continuing the renewal process as usual, adding on the possibility to purchase Dons Trust Plus membership through the Dons Trust website if you wish.

Once the club’s new ticket purchasing system is fully up and running, we will then transition to sharing a common system with the club for managing Dons Trust membership subscriptions and renewals. You will then be able to purchase your Dons Trust membership through the same system you purchase your season/matchday tickets via the club website.

There will be a link and further information about how to do this on the Dons Trust website in due course.

Direct Debits

If you have a Direct Debit set up already, you don’t need to do anything unless you choose to upgrade to Dons Trust Plus.

Given that the amount we will take using Direct Debit depends on your renewal choice (e.g. upgrading your Dons Trust membership to Dons Trust Plus), we will be taking debits on 11 September this year (instead of 11 August). This is to allow us time to get your response and set up the appropriate payment according to your choice.

Membership cards

We will produce the usual membership cards this year but are looking to move to combining your Dons Trust membership details with your season ticket in the future.

This does not mean all season ticket holders are automatically Dons Trust members.

Season ticket holders will have the option to ‘bolt-on’ Dons Trust membership to their season ticket at the point of purchase.

Life members

Life members remain life members but have the option to buy Dons Trust Plus membership, renewable on a yearly basis.

If there is significant interest, we may consider Dons Trust Plus life membership in the future.

New Dons Trust members who joined after end Jan 2020

If you joined the Trust from 1 February 2020, your membership will be automatically extended to August 2021.

You will still be able to upgrade your membership to Dons Trust Plus for an additional payment of £20 (standard members) or £15 for Young Adults and concessions. Please note that if you plan to buy a season ticket, there would be no additional benefit in upgrading.

New members who have joined the Dons Trust after 1 July 2020 will not be included in the priority list for debenture sales.

Data sharing

The Dons Trust Membership database will be merged with the AFC Wimbledon contact database for operational purposes. The club will contact you via email when your ticketing account is set up in order to allow you to reset your password and so that you can log in to our new ticketing and memberships system to buy season tickets.

If you have opted-out of third-party marketing communications, that request will continue to be honoured.

As noted above, you will be receiving further correspondence about renewing your Dons Trust membership.

In the meantime, please either contact the Membership Secretary (membership@thedonstrust.org) or Dons Trust Board Member, Hannah Kitcher (hannah.kitcher@thedonstrust.org) if you have any questions.