A member walks up to the admissions desk, forgot their card, and reads a number off an old renewal email. The cashier types it into Altru’s search and gets nothing. Then they try the last name, which turns up six households with the same surname. The line backs up while staff scroll through addresses.
Searching by membership ID sounds like it should be the simplest lookup in the system. In practice it depends on which number the member actually has, which search screen staff are using, and how your organization set up IDs in the first place. This article sorts out those three things and covers workarounds that hold up at the desk.
First, figure out which number you’re dealing with
Altru tracks more than one identifier, and members rarely know the difference. The two that cause the most confusion:
- The constituent lookup ID. This belongs to the person (or household) record. It exists whether or not they’ve ever bought a membership.
- The membership or card number. This belongs to the membership itself, and it’s often what gets printed on the physical card or included in renewal and welcome letters.
Depending on how your organization configured things, these may be the same number, similar-looking numbers, or completely unrelated. Before you train anyone, pull up a few real member records and compare what’s printed on their card with what’s on the constituent record. That five-minute check explains most “the ID doesn’t work” complaints.
Check what your search screens actually accept
Altru has more than one place to look someone up: the general constituent search, the search used inside daily sales and advance sales, and the search inside the memberships area. They don’t all offer the same fields. Lookup ID is a common search field on constituent searches; whether a membership or card number is searchable from the sales screens is less certain, and it can vary by version and by how your database was set up.
Rather than guessing, test it:
- Take three members whose cards you can see (staff members’ own memberships work well).
- In each search screen your desk uses, try the card number, then the constituent lookup ID.
- Write down which number works in which screen.
If the number on the card can’t be searched from daily sales, that’s worth a ticket to Blackbaud support to confirm there isn’t a configuration option you’re missing. Ask specifically about searching by membership or card number from the point-of-sale screen, not just from the constituent record.
Workarounds that hold up
Make the card show the number staff can search
The cleanest fix is upstream. If your search screens reliably accept the constituent lookup ID, print that number on cards, in welcome emails, and in renewal letters, even if a separate membership number also exists. Members only ever need one number, and it should be the one the desk can type. Changing card templates is usually easier than changing how search works.
Use the barcode instead of the digits
If your cards carry a barcode and your desk has scanners set up for Altru, scanning bypasses the typing problem entirely. It’s worth confirming what the barcode encodes, though. If it encodes the card number and the sales search doesn’t accept that number, scanning will fail the same way typing does.
Keep a membership query open at the desk
Where the sales screens can’t find a member by card number, a membership query can. Build an ad-hoc query on memberships that outputs the membership or card number, the member’s name, the constituent lookup ID, status, and expiration date. Add a filter on the card number set to prompt at runtime, or simply leave the full active-member list available to sort and search.
Staff then look up the card number in the query, grab the name or lookup ID, and search on that in daily sales. It’s two steps instead of one, but it’s dependable, and the expiration date is right there when someone asks if they’re still current.
Put the number where staff already look
If your team uses smart fields or custom attributes on the constituent record, consider surfacing the current membership number there so it shows up on the record staff already open. This helps when the member is found by name: staff can confirm “is this the right Jane Smith?” by matching the number on the member’s card.
Clean up the name search, too
Many membership ID problems are really duplicate-record problems. When the same family exists as two or three constituent records, a name search returns a pile of near-identical results and staff grab the wrong one, sometimes the record without the active membership. If last-name searches routinely return confusing lists, reviewing and merging duplicates will speed up the desk as much as any ID fix.
Quick answers
Can I change a member’s ID to match their card?
Editing identifiers on live records can affect integrations, exports, and anything that matches on that number. Test in a sandbox first, or ask Blackbaud support before changing IDs in bulk.
Why does the number work in one screen but not another?
Different search screens offer different fields. A number that searches fine from the constituent area may not be an option in the sales search. Your test list from above is the quickest way to train around it.
What should the member be told to bring?
Whatever number you’ve confirmed works at the desk, ideally printed on the card and in every renewal email, so there’s only one to remember.
