A member of an organisation created with FairShares Model Articles of Association who by virtue of a Qualifying Contribution is offered user membership. In a FairShares Company or Co-operative, User members are allocated User and Investor Shares, which entitles them to a proportion of the User Share and Investor Share of surplus.

User Members in a FairShares Association or Partnership have the same rights as User Shareholders in terms of governance, but are not allocated User Shares. In these legal forms, User members control a proportion of surplus (the User Share Fraction) and can make social investments with it, but they are not paid dividends directly.