How to Verify Your Domain for Facebook When You Use Altru

Facebook domain verification trips up Altru organizations for one simple reason: there are usually two websites involved. One is your own site, the one you control, where people read about exhibits and hours. The other is wherever your Altru web forms live, which is hosted by Blackbaud. Meta only lets you verify a domain you can prove you own, so the first job is figuring out which of those two addresses Meta actually cares about.

Start by listing your domains

Open your website and click through to buy a ticket, join, and donate. Write down the address in the browser bar at each step. You’ll typically see something like this:

• Your main site, such as yourmuseum.org or www.yourmuseum.org.
• Any subdomains you run, such as shop.yourmuseum.org or tickets.yourmuseum.org.
• The Altru web form address, which is usually on a Blackbaud-hosted domain rather than yours.

The domain you verify with Meta is your own root domain. You cannot verify Blackbaud’s domain, and you shouldn’t try. Verification proves ownership, and you don’t own it.

Verify your root domain with a DNS record

Meta generally offers a few verification methods: adding a DNS TXT record, adding a meta tag to your homepage, or uploading an HTML file to your web server. For most museums, gardens, and zoos, the DNS TXT record is the best choice, for three reasons:

1. It verifies the root domain, which typically covers your subdomains too, so you don’t have to repeat the process for every something.yourmuseum.org.
2. It survives website redesigns. A meta tag in your homepage template can quietly disappear when a new theme or agency takes over.
3. It doesn’t depend on your web platform letting you edit the page head or upload files to the root folder.

The general process looks like this:

1. In Meta Business Manager (Business Settings, under the brand safety or domains area), add your root domain without www or https://.
2. Choose the DNS TXT option and copy the value Meta gives you.
3. Log in to wherever your DNS is managed. That’s often your domain registrar, but it may be your hosting company, Cloudflare, or your IT department. Add a new TXT record on the root of the domain with that value.
4. Wait. DNS changes can take anywhere from minutes to a day or so to be visible.
5. Go back to Meta and click verify.

Meta rearranges its menus fairly often, so if the labels don’t match exactly, search Meta’s help center for “domain verification” and follow the current wording. The DNS step itself rarely changes.

Common snags

• Nobody knows who manages DNS. Look up your domain in a public WHOIS tool to see the registrar and the nameservers. The nameservers tell you where the records actually live.
• An existing TXT record already exists. That’s fine. Domains can have several TXT records (email authentication uses them too). Add a new one; don’t overwrite the others.
• Verification fails right away. Usually it just hasn’t propagated yet. Leave the TXT record in place permanently. Removing it later can un-verify the domain.

What verification does and doesn’t do for your Altru pages

Verifying your domain gives your business account recognized ownership of that domain in Meta. That matters for things like controlling how links to your site appear when shared, and for configuring how Meta handles conversion events from your site.

It does not extend to your Altru checkout pages if they sit on a Blackbaud-hosted address. This is the part that surprises people. If you want to track ticket purchases, memberships, or donations as conversions in Meta, the events need to happen on pages where your pixel can run, and ideally on a domain you’ve verified.

Whether you can place a Meta pixel or other tracking code on Altru-hosted web forms, and how much control you have over those pages, is something to confirm directly rather than assume. Check with Blackbaud support about what customization your Altru web forms allow, and test any change in a non-production form first. Some organizations find they can only track up to the moment a visitor leaves their own site, which still gives useful “started checkout” data even if the final purchase isn’t captured.

A sensible order of operations

1. Verify the root domain by DNS TXT record and leave the record in place.
2. Install the Meta pixel on your main site and confirm it fires on your key pages (exhibits, plan your visit, membership, donate).
3. Map out exactly where a visitor leaves your domain for an Altru page. That handoff is the edge of your tracking.
4. Ask Blackbaud what tracking is possible on the Altru side, and decide whether partial tracking is good enough for your marketing goals.
5. Reconcile against Altru. Your revenue and sales reports are the real numbers. Treat Meta’s conversion counts as directional, especially if the final purchase happens off your domain.

Quick answers

Do I need to verify www and the root separately?
Generally no. Verify the root domain, and subdomains like www fall under it. If Meta asks for something different in your account, follow its prompt.

Can I verify the domain my Altru forms are on?
Not if it’s a Blackbaud-hosted domain. Only the domain owner can add the DNS record or file Meta checks for.

Will domain verification change anything in Altru?
No. It’s entirely between your DNS provider and Meta. Altru records, queries, and web forms are untouched.