Twenty seats for a board member’s guests. A block of timed-entry slots for a school that hasn’t confirmed its headcount. Ten tickets for a sponsor who will “let you know by Friday.” Every ticketing team gets asked to set inventory aside, and the ask is always the same: keep these off public sale, but don’t charge anyone yet.
Altru doesn’t have a single, obvious “hold” button for this. As far as we know there is no native ticket allocation feature that reserves part of an event’s capacity for a named person without some kind of transaction behind it. If you’re not sure whether your version or configuration offers something closer, confirm with Blackbaud support or test in a sandbox before you train staff on it. In practice, administrators use one of a few workarounds, and each one has trade-offs worth understanding before you pick.
Option 1: Book it as a group sales reservation
For anything resembling a group (a school, a tour operator, a corporate outing), a group sales reservation is usually the cleanest way to set tickets aside. A reservation takes capacity from the event as soon as it’s saved, it’s attached to a constituent record, and it doesn’t require payment up front. That’s essentially a hold with a paper trail.
- Good for: groups with a contact person, deposits, and headcounts that may change.
- Watch for: reservations that never get confirmed or cancelled. Unpaid reservations keep the capacity tied up until someone releases them, so you need a routine for reviewing them.
- Tip: agree on a “release by” date when you book it and put it in the reservation notes. Without a deadline, a hold quietly becomes permanent.
Option 2: Temporarily reduce the event’s capacity
If the seats aren’t tied to a specific buyer yet (say, you want to keep 15 slots back for walk-ups or for VIPs who might call), the bluntest tool is lowering capacity on the event itself. The held seats simply aren’t for sale online or at the desk. When you’re ready to release them, you raise the capacity again.
- Good for: unassigned buffers, walk-up reserves, and staff-only slots.
- Watch for: nothing in Altru records why capacity is lower. Six weeks later, someone will wonder why Saturday at 11:00 sells out at 85. Keep a shared log (even a simple spreadsheet) of every capacity change, who made it, and when it should be reversed.
- Also check: if you schedule events in bulk, make sure a later edit or re-scheduling doesn’t overwrite the reduced number.
Option 3: Issue the tickets as a comp or zero-dollar order
Some teams create the tickets outright under a complimentary or $0 price type, assigned to the person they’re holding for. The inventory is gone from public sale, the guest’s name is on the order, and the tickets can be printed or emailed ahead of time.
- Good for: sponsor and board allocations, press, and partners who won’t be paying anyway.
- Watch for: this is a real sale, not a hold. It shows up in attendance and revenue reporting at $0, and if the person never comes, you’ll need to refund or void it to put the seats back. If the guest later decides to pay, you’re now exchanging or editing an order instead of simply selling one.
- Tip: use a distinct price type (for example, “Sponsor Hold”) rather than your general comp type, so you can filter these out of reports and find them later.
Option 4: Create a separate event or time slot for held inventory
For recurring needs, such as a block of seats you set aside for members every week, some organizations create a parallel event or program that isn’t published to the web, with its own capacity. Staff sell from it at the desk or by phone when someone qualifies.
This keeps the held inventory visible and reportable, but it doubles your scheduling work and can confuse staff choosing between two nearly identical events. It’s worth it only if the pattern repeats often enough to justify the setup.
Picking the right approach
A quick way to decide:
- Is there a named buyer who will probably pay? Use a group sales reservation.
- Is there a named guest who won’t pay? Use a comp order with a dedicated price type.
- Is it an unassigned buffer? Reduce capacity, and log the change.
- Does the same hold repeat every week or month? Consider a separate, unpublished event.
Releasing holds on time
The hold itself is the easy part. Unreleased holds are what cost you sales, especially on high-demand dates where a sold-out message goes up while 20 seats sit unused behind a reservation nobody followed up on.
- Assign one person to own holds for each event type, so “someone should release those” has a name attached.
- Build a query of unpaid or unconfirmed group reservations for the next 14 days, and review it on a set day each week.
- For capacity reductions, put the release date on a shared calendar the moment you make the change.
- Decide in advance what happens at the deadline: release automatically, or call the contact first. Write that down so desk staff aren’t making it up per request.
Quick answers
Can I hold tickets without a constituent record?
A capacity reduction doesn’t need one. Reservations and comp orders do, so you may need a placeholder record for unnamed holds. Keep it clearly labeled so it doesn’t end up in your mailing lists.
Do held tickets show as sold online?
Whatever reduces available capacity in Altru will generally make those slots unavailable on your website too. Test with one event first and check what the public sees before relying on it.
