A new hire is adding a constituent and opens a dropdown of forty interest codes, sorted in the order someone typed them in 2017. They scroll past it twice, give up, and pick “Other.” Six months later your reports have a bucket called “Other” that nobody can explain.
Dropdown order sounds cosmetic, but it decides how clean your data is. The short version: some Altru dropdowns can be put in alphabetical order by an administrator, some follow an order you control in their setup, and some you simply cannot change. The useful work is figuring out which kind you’re looking at.
First, find out where the list comes from
Altru dropdowns are filled from a few different places, and each one behaves differently.
- Code tables. Simple lookup lists such as titles, suffixes, relationship types, interest or source codes, and many of the “type” fields on constituent records. These are the lists you have the most control over.
- Configured records. Things like membership programs and levels, programs and events, price types, and fund or designation lists. These are records in their own right, built in their own setup areas, and the dropdown shows whatever exists.
- System lists. Values Blackbaud ships and maintains, such as certain status fields or list choices inside query and report tools. Administrators generally can’t reorder these.
A quick way to tell: if you can find the list’s entries in your administration area as a code table you can add to, you’re in the first group. If the values only appear because someone created a program, level, or fund, you’re in the second.
Code tables: usually the easy win
Code tables in Altru generally let an administrator choose how entries are sorted, either alphabetically or in a custom order you set by moving entries up and down. If a code table dropdown is in a strange order, it’s often because it was set to a custom order years ago, or because entries were added at the bottom over time.
Before you flip a list to alphabetical, ask whether custom order was deliberate. A “how did you hear about us” list might put the most common answers first on purpose, and alphabetizing it could slow the desk down. For long lists with no obvious “most common” values, alphabetical is almost always better.
The exact screen for this setting can vary by version and permissions, so if you don’t see a sort option, check with whoever holds full admin rights or ask Blackbaud support to confirm what’s available in your environment.
Configured records: control the names, not the sort
For lists built from programs, levels, price types, and similar records, you may not get a sort setting at all. Some of these setup areas let you set a display order; others appear to follow creation order or the system’s own rules. If you’re unsure, test it: create two dummy entries in a sandbox or test record, name them so they’d sort oddly, and see where they land.
When you can’t change the sort, change what’s being sorted:
- Use consistent name prefixes. “Membership – Family,” “Membership – Individual,” “Membership – Patron” will group together and read in a sensible order, where “Family Plus” and “Dual Senior” scatter.
- Number the ones that need a fixed order. If staff should see levels from lowest to highest, a leading “01,” “02,” “03” keeps them that way. It looks a little mechanical, but it works anywhere the list is alphabetical by name.
- Put the distinguishing word first. “Adult – General Admission” sorts better next to “Child – General Admission” than the reverse, depending on which word staff are scanning for.
Be careful renaming anything that appears to the public. Price types and program names may show on web forms, receipts, or emails, so a “02 – Adult” label could end up in front of visitors. Check where a name is displayed before you add numbers to it.
Shrink the list before you sort it
An alphabetized list of sixty entries is still a list of sixty entries. Before sorting anything, look for:
- Duplicates and near-duplicates, such as “Newsletter” and “E-newsletter” meaning the same thing.
- Retired values from old campaigns, past exhibitions, or programs you no longer run. Where Altru lets you mark an entry inactive, do that instead of deleting, so historical records keep their values.
- Entries nobody uses. A simple query counting records per value will show which ones haven’t been selected in years.
Retiring a third of a list often fixes the scrolling problem better than any sort order.
When there’s no fix
Some dropdowns will stay in an order you don’t like, especially inside query, report, and other system tools. For those, a one-page cheat sheet at the desk or in your staff guide, listing the values people actually need, is honestly the most reliable workaround. If a particular list causes real data problems, report it to Blackbaud support with a clear example of the mistake it leads to; specifics get further than a general complaint.
Quick answers
Will alphabetizing a code table change existing records?
No. Sort order only affects how the list is displayed. Records keep whatever value was saved.
Can individual users choose their own sort order?
Not that we’re aware of for code tables; the setting applies to everyone. Confirm in a test environment if this matters to you.
