You want every sale to capture the same few things: an email address, a ZIP code, maybe how the guest heard about you. Online, that sounds easy. At the front desk, with a line out the door, it’s the first thing to get skipped. And in Altru, the control you have over “required” is different depending on where the sale happens.
The short version: Altru gives you some say over which fields are required on its online forms, much less say at the point of sale, and no single switch that enforces the same rule everywhere. Most organizations end up with a mix of form settings, desk procedure, and a recurring query that catches what slipped through.
Start by deciding what “required” actually means
Before you touch any settings, write down the fields you care about and why. A list like this keeps the conversation honest:
- Email address, because eTickets, receipts, and renewal notices depend on it.
- Postal code, for visitor origin reporting and grant applications.
- Full name, so you aren’t creating anonymous or half-named constituents.
- Phone, only if you genuinely call people (many teams find they don’t).
Every required field is a small cost to the buyer and to your staff. If you can’t name the report or process that uses a field, it probably shouldn’t be mandatory. Fewer, better-enforced fields beat a long list nobody follows.
Online sales: what you can usually control
Altru’s web forms for tickets, memberships, and donations let you choose which fields appear, and for many of them you can mark a field as required. Some fields, such as name and email on a checkout, are typically required by default because the transaction depends on them.
What varies is how granular that control is. Depending on the form type and your Altru version, you may find that a field you want to enforce can be shown but not required, or that custom questions behave differently from standard contact fields. Rather than assume, test it:
- Open the web form in your configuration and review each field’s options for a required setting.
- Save, then place a test order on the live or sandbox form and try to submit with the field blank.
- Check the resulting constituent and transaction records to confirm the value landed where you expect.
If a field you need can’t be made required on a particular form, ask Blackbaud support whether that’s a limitation of the form type or a setting you’ve missed. It’s worth getting a clear answer before you build workarounds around it.
Front desk sales: mostly procedure, not enforcement
At the point of sale, Altru is built for speed. Staff can usually complete a daily sales transaction without attaching a constituent at all, and when they do add a new constituent, only a handful of core fields are mandatory. As far as we know, there isn’t a general setting that lets you make email or postal code mandatory on every desk transaction. If you believe your configuration allows it, confirm in a sandbox before training staff on it.
That means front desk “required” fields are really a training and workflow question. A few things help:
- Separate the transaction types. Anonymous walk-up admission doesn’t need a constituent. Memberships, donations, and advance sales do. Be explicit about which is which so staff aren’t guessing.
- Script the ask. “Can I get an email for your receipt?” gets a better response than “Do you want to give us your email?” Put the exact wording on a card at each register.
- Search before you add. Requiring a lookup by email or last name before creating a new constituent prevents duplicates and nudges staff to capture the email when it’s missing.
- Use a postal code prompt for walk-ups. If you only need ZIP codes for reporting, ask for it without creating a record. Talk to Blackbaud or your Altru consultant about the best place to store it in your setup.
Catch the gaps after the fact
Since you can’t fully prevent missing data at the desk, the reliable fix is to find it quickly. Build a few queries and run them on a schedule:
- Constituents created in the last 7 days with no email address.
- Membership transactions in the last 7 days where the primary member has no email or no address.
- Donations with no address, which will cause trouble at acknowledgment and year-end time.
Add the user who created the record or processed the sale as an output column. That turns the list from a cleanup chore into coaching: you can see which shifts or staff members need a refresher, and whether the trend improves after training.
For members and donors, a missing email can often be recovered with a short follow-up call or a mailed renewal that asks for it. For one-time ticket buyers, it’s usually gone, which is why the desk script matters.
Keep online and desk rules aligned
The quiet problem with having different rules in each channel is that your reports start disagreeing. If online buyers always have an email and desk buyers rarely do, email-based metrics will overstate online share and understate desk visitors. When you report on email capture or visitor origin, break it out by sales channel so nobody draws the wrong conclusion.
Review your required-field list once a year, ideally before membership season or a big exhibition. Drop fields nobody used, and add one only when there’s a clear reason.
Quick answers
Can I require a field on every Altru transaction, online and in person?
Not with one setting that we’re aware of. Online forms offer some control; front desk enforcement mostly comes from procedure and follow-up queries.
Will making a field required on a web form update existing records?
No. It only affects new submissions. Use a query to find older records missing the value.
Should email be required for walk-up admission?
Usually not as a hard rule. Ask every time, accept “no,” and measure your capture rate instead.
