A donor writes a generous check and adds one line: “Please don’t list my name.” Another gives online through your year-end appeal and leaves you a note asking for the same thing. Both are simple requests. Neither is simple to honor reliably in Altru, because “anonymous” can mean two different things and Altru handles them differently.
This article covers the difference between an anonymous donor and an anonymous gift, where each lives in Altru, how to capture anonymity on online donations, and how to make sure your annual report and donor wall actually respect it.
First, decide what “anonymous” means at your organization
Before touching any records, settle this with your development director:
- Donor-level anonymity: this person never wants to be publicly recognized, for any gift.
- Gift-level anonymity: this one gift should be listed as “Anonymous,” but the donor is happy to be named for other gifts (their membership, a different campaign, a tribute gift).
Plenty of organizations only need the first. Others regularly get donors who want a single large gift kept quiet while their annual giving stays public. Your answer determines where the flag goes and how your recognition queries are built.
Marking a donor as anonymous
The constituent record is the natural home for donor-level anonymity. Altru, like other Blackbaud CRM-family products, has a constituent-level option indicating the person gives anonymously. Find it when editing the constituent’s profile information, check it, and save.
A few practical notes:
- Households. If you recognize gifts at the household level, decide whether anonymity on one member applies to the household. Many organizations flag both spouses so a recognition query pulling household names doesn’t slip one through.
- Add a note. Record when and how the donor asked, and who took the request. When someone questions the flag two years from now, that context matters.
- It doesn’t hide anything internally. The flag is a marker for reporting. Staff can still see the donor’s name and giving history, which is what you want.
Marking a single gift as anonymous
This is where teams get stuck. Whether your version of Altru offers a native anonymous option on an individual revenue record is something you should confirm directly rather than assume. Open a donation in your sandbox (or a test record in production) and look through the edit options for the revenue. If you don’t see one, ask Blackbaud support whether it exists in your release.
If there is no gift-level flag, the common and dependable workaround is a revenue attribute:
- Create an attribute category that applies to revenue, such as “Recognition: Anonymous,” with a Yes/No data type.
- Train gift entry staff to add it whenever a donor asks for a specific gift to be anonymous.
- Include the attribute in your recognition queries (more on that below).
Some organizations also use a dedicated recognition name. Instead of “Pat and Jordan Lee,” the gift is credited as “Anonymous” or “A Friend of the Garden.” If your recognition process pulls a recognition or acknowledgment name rather than the constituent’s formal name, that approach can work, but it depends on how your reports are built. Test it before relying on it.
Online gifts: capturing the request at checkout
Online donations are where anonymity requests most often get lost. If your donation web form has no anonymous checkbox, donors put the request in a comments or tribute field, or they email you afterward, and nobody connects the email to the gift.
Options, roughly from best to most manual:
- Add a question to the form. Check whether your Altru donation form lets you add a custom question or checkbox such as “Please list my gift as anonymous.” Where the answer ends up on the revenue record varies, so run a test donation and look at exactly where it lands.
- Review comments during batch processing. If the form only allows a free-text comment, make reading those comments part of your routine for reviewing online gifts. When you see an anonymity request, apply the revenue attribute or constituent flag right then.
- Build a catch-all query. A query of recent online revenue with comments that contain words like “anonymous” or “don’t list” will catch requests that slipped through.
Whichever route you choose, write down who is responsible for checking. Anonymity breaks down when everyone assumes someone else handles it.
Make your recognition lists honor the flags
The flag only matters if your outputs check for it. Before your next annual report, donor wall update, or event program goes out:
- Build the recognition list from a query, not a hand-built spreadsheet. Add filters or output fields for both the constituent-level anonymous flag and your revenue attribute.
- Decide how to display anonymous gifts. Usually they’re listed as “Anonymous” at the correct giving level instead of being dropped, so the totals still make sense.
- Watch exports. If a designer or printer receives a spreadsheet, replace anonymous names before it leaves your hands. Don’t count on someone outside your team to filter a column.
- Do a second-person check. Have someone compare the final list against the anonymous query results. It takes ten minutes and keeps you from having to apologize to a donor.
Don’t forget acknowledgments
An anonymous gift still gets a thank-you and a tax receipt. Anonymity is about public recognition, not about the donor hearing from you. Make sure the flag doesn’t accidentally pull donors out of your acknowledgment process. And if a donor asks you not to send mail at all, record that as a separate solicit code or communication preference instead of stretching the anonymous flag to cover it.
Quick answers
Can I make a donor anonymous retroactively?
Yes. Setting the constituent flag affects any report or query that checks it from now on. Lists that have already been printed or published won’t change, so tell the donor what you can and can’t fix.
Should a membership purchase ever be anonymous?
Some organizations list members by level in printed materials. If you do, apply the same constituent flag and make sure your member recognition query checks it, just like your donor lists.
