CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

Just starting to get into CiviMember and had a question just for clarification purposes.  Are individuals who contribute via a CiviContribute Contribution Page (just a normal, plain jane contribution page) automatically assigned to a Membership level if their contribution meets the minimum amount for the corresponding level?  Or, do individuals only become 'members' via a membership page or manually by an admin?

Thank you for your quick response!  I have a follow up question that is somewhat related to the concept of 'membership'.  I am trying to figure out a way to group individuals based on their total giving over a specific time period... internally we sort of think of them as members, though we don't have a membership per se.  Could we create a smart group based on the custom aggregate search (specifies a donation range amount and time frame) in which contacts automatically enter and exit the smart group if the sum of their contributions falls within or increases beyond the amounts specified in the search? And, if this is possible, can we still assign an individual to a smart group manually?