A family of four buys timed-entry tickets online, and somewhere between choosing a time and entering a card number, they see a line asking if they’d like to add a gift. Whether they say yes depends a lot on what that line says, what amounts it suggests, and where the money goes. In Altru online sales, that donation prompt is often left on its default wording because nobody is sure how much of it can be changed.
This guide covers what’s worth customizing, what you can usually control from Altru’s web form setup, where the limits tend to be, and how to work around them without rebuilding your online store.
Decide what the ask is for before touching the form
The most common reason a checkout donation underperforms isn’t the button. It’s that the ask is vague. “Would you like to make a donation?” gives a ticket buyer nothing to react to. Before you change any settings, settle three things with your development team:
- The purpose. One concrete use of the money: animal care, school field-trip scholarships, garden conservation, keeping a historic house open. Ticket buyers respond to something they’re about to see.
- The designation. Which fund or designation in Altru the gift should land in. If the ask says “field trips” but the revenue posts to general operating, your gift officers and finance team will both notice eventually.
- The amounts. Small, round numbers that make sense next to a ticket total. Asking a guest who spent $40 on admission for $100 tends to get skipped. Something in the range of a single ticket price is easier to say yes to.
Write the one or two sentences you want buyers to read. Then go see how much of that the form will let you use.
What you can usually adjust in Altru
Altru’s online sales web forms are configured, not coded, so customization means working within the settings the form exposes. Depending on your version and how your forms were set up, areas to review include:
- Whether a donation option appears at all on the ticket purchase form, and at which step.
- The text around the ask, such as a heading or short description. Replace generic copy with your purpose sentence.
- The designation the online gift is tied to. Confirm it matches what the ask promises.
- Suggested amounts or a free-entry field, if your form supports them.
- Acknowledgment and confirmation content, so the receipt thanks the buyer for the gift and not only for the tickets.
Be honest with yourself about which of these your current setup actually supports. Altru’s options here have changed over time, and some organizations have forms built years ago by someone no longer on staff. The reliable way to find out is to make the change on a test form or in a sandbox environment, run a test purchase all the way through, and check the resulting revenue record. If a setting you expect isn’t there, ask Blackbaud support directly whether it’s available for your online sales form rather than assuming it is or isn’t.
Where the native options tend to run short
Admins often hit the same walls:
- Limited control over layout. You may be able to change words but not move the ask to a different point in the flow, or make it more or less prominent.
- One ask for every buyer. The same prompt shows whether someone is buying a single adult ticket or a school group order. Tailoring the amount to the cart size usually isn’t something the form does on its own.
- Styling. The donation section inherits the form’s look, which may not match the rest of your website.
- Testing variations. Trying two versions of the ask side by side is hard when there’s only one live form.
None of these mean the ask is broken. They mean the checkout is only one of several places to make it.
Workarounds that don’t involve rebuilding the store
Set the ask up before the form loads
The page on your website that links to the ticket form is fully under your control. A sentence near the “Buy tickets” button, such as “Add a gift at checkout to help send a classroom on a free visit,” primes the buyer before they reach the donation field. Keep it short and use the same purpose language the form uses.
Use the confirmation email
People reread their ticket confirmation the morning of their visit. A short, specific line there, with a link to your donation form, reaches buyers who skipped the ask in the moment. If your eTicket and confirmation messages come from Altru, review that content alongside the form text so the two agree.
Follow up after the visit
A post-visit thank-you with a gentle ask often outperforms the checkout prompt, because the guest now has a memory attached to your organization. Build a query of recent online ticket buyers who didn’t give, and use it for a follow-up message a day or two after their visit date.
Track it so you know what changed
Before you edit anything, pull a baseline: how many online ticket orders included a gift over the last few months, and the average gift. A revenue query filtered to your online channel and the donation designation will get you there. Re-run it a month after each change. Change one thing at a time, wording first, then amounts, so you know which edit mattered.
When you want more control over the cart
If the form’s native settings can’t present the ask the way you need, Social Good’s Upsells works inside our branded Checkouts, which handle tickets, memberships, and donations alongside Altru and write the data back to it. Upsells lets you offer membership and add-ons in the checkout cart, and buyers can also choose to cover the credit card fee. Altru remains where the revenue and constituent records live.
Quick answers
Will changing the donation text affect past transactions?
No. Form edits change what future buyers see. Existing revenue records keep their original designation and details.
Should the donation be pre-selected?
Many organizations avoid pre-checked gifts because buyers who didn’t notice them ask for refunds, which costs staff time and goodwill. An opt-in ask with clear amounts is the safer default.
