You build an appeal mailing in Altru, run the export, open the file in Word to start the merge, and the column you actually need isn’t there. Maybe it’s the last gift amount, a membership level, a spouse name, or a custom ask. The columns you do get are the ones that came with the mailing, and there’s no obvious place to change them.
That’s normal. In most Altru setups, the field list that ships with an appeal mailing is a system-supplied layout. You generally don’t edit that layout itself. You build your own output alongside it and use that instead. Below is how to think about it, the options that actually work, and how to test your changes before a letter goes to print.
What “default merge fields” really means here
An appeal mailing in Altru pulls together three things:
- Who gets it: the selection (or selections) behind the mailing, usually built from a query.
- How names and addresses read: the addressee and salutation formats, plus the address processing rules your organization has set up.
- What columns come out: the export layout that turns each recipient into a row in a file you merge in Word or send to a mail house.
When people say they want to “edit the default merge fields,” they almost always mean the third item. The first two matter too, though, because a surprising number of merge problems turn out to be a salutation format or a selection issue rather than a missing column.
Why you usually can’t change the built-in layout
System-supplied layouts in Altru tend to be locked so that an upgrade or a well-meaning edit doesn’t break every mailing that relies on them. That’s the honest reason the default column list feels fixed. If you aren’t sure whether your version allows edits to the shipped layout, check two ways: look for an edit option on it in your own environment, and confirm with Blackbaud support before you plan around it. Don’t assume either way based on a forum post from years ago.
The good news is that you rarely need to touch the default. The practical answer is to create your own export layout with the columns you want and point your mailings at it.
Option 1: Build your own export layout
This is the cleanest fix and the one most administrators end up with. The general approach:
- Start from what your letter needs. Open last year’s appeal letter and list every merge field in it: addressee, salutation, address block, last gift amount and date, ask amount, membership level, constituent ID for the reply slip, and anything else.
- Create a new export layout for mailings and add those fields. Keep the column names short and readable, since those names become your Word merge field names.
- Name it clearly. Something like “Appeal letter, standard” beats “Export copy 2.” Six months from now someone else will be choosing it from a list.
- Attach it to the mailing instead of the default, then run a test export.
Once this exists, every future appeal can reuse it. If you have two letter styles (say, donors versus lapsed members), make two layouts rather than one sprawling one with forty columns.
Option 2: Use smart fields for calculated values
Some values you want in a letter aren’t stored as a plain field on the constituent record. Lifetime giving, largest gift, last gift in a specific fund, or years as a member are calculated. Smart fields are the usual way Altru handles that. Once a smart field has been set up and processed, it can generally be added to queries and exports like any other field.
Two cautions. Smart fields only stay current if their processes run on a schedule, so check when yours last ran before you export. And if the number in a letter looks wrong, check the smart field’s definition before blaming the mailing.
Option 3: Fix names and salutations at the source
If the problem is that “Dear Mr. and Mrs. Smith” should read “Dear Pat and Sam,” you don’t need a new column. You need a different addressee or salutation format, or a corrected name format on the household or constituent record. Changing the format used by the mailing will flow through to whatever export you run. Fixing it in the spreadsheet after export works once, but you’ll be doing it again next appeal.
Option 4: Merge in a second file
When you need one or two extra columns right now and don’t have time to build a layout, export the mailing as-is, run a separate query with constituent ID plus the missing fields, and join the two in a spreadsheet on constituent ID. It’s a stopgap. It works, but it’s easy to get wrong under deadline, so turn it into a proper export layout once the appeal is out the door.
Test before anything prints
- Run the export against a small selection that includes a household, an organization, someone with no recent gift, and someone with a long name.
- Merge into the real letter template and read every one of those test letters on screen.
- Look for blank fields, odd currency formatting, and dates that came through as raw numbers.
- Confirm the record count in the file matches the count on the mailing.
- Save a copy of the final export with the appeal so you can answer “what did we send this person?” later.
Quick answers
Will a new export layout change mailings we already sent?
It shouldn’t. Exports are files produced at a point in time. Changing which layout a mailing uses affects the next export, not past ones.
Can I set my custom layout as the default for every new appeal?
That depends on your Altru version and configuration. Check whether your mailing setup offers a default output option, and if it isn’t clear, ask Blackbaud support. Otherwise, add “choose the right export layout” to your appeal checklist.
Why are my Word merge field names different from the export columns?
Word sometimes changes column headers with spaces or special characters when it builds merge fields. Simple names without punctuation avoid most of that.
