Open the action type list in almost any Altru database that has been live for a few years and you’ll find some version of this: “Phone Call,” “Phone call,” “Call – Membership,” “Called donor,” “Misc,” and a type someone created for a single event in 2019. Nobody planned it that way. Each entry made sense to whoever added it. But a cluttered list makes actions hard to enter, hard to query, and easy to ignore.
There’s no single correct list, but there are good habits. Below is how to decide what belongs, a starter list you can adapt, and how to clean up a list that has already gotten away from you.
First, decide what an action type is supposed to tell you
An action on a constituent record already holds a lot: the date, who recorded it, the constituent, notes, and usually a contact method or category (call, email, meeting, and so on). The action type should answer a different question: why did this interaction happen?
That one rule clears up most of the mess. “Phone call” describes the channel, and the channel likely already has its own field. “Membership renewal follow-up” describes the purpose, and that’s what you’ll want to filter on later. When a type name only repeats the channel, it’s usually redundant.
Field names and options vary with how your database was set up, so look at an existing action record before you start. Note which fields you already have for channel, status, and outcome, and design the type list to fill the gap rather than overlap it.
A starter list, grouped by who uses it
Here’s a reasonable baseline for a museum, zoo, garden, or historic site. Trim anything you won’t report on, and rename to match your own vocabulary.
Development and major gifts
- Cultivation
- Solicitation
- Stewardship
- Gift acknowledgment (personal thank-you call or note)
- Pledge reminder
- Planned giving conversation
Membership
- Renewal outreach
- Lapsed member outreach
- Membership upgrade conversation
- Membership service issue (card, benefits, address)
Visitor services and sales
- Guest complaint
- Guest compliment
- Refund or exchange request
- Group sales inquiry
- Group booking follow-up
Programs, education, and events
- Event invitation follow-up
- Program registration question
- Volunteer contact
Administrative
- Data update request (name, address, email, do-not-contact)
- General inquiry
That’s roughly 20 types. Many organizations function well with fewer. Once a list climbs past 40 or so, staff start scrolling, guessing, and picking whatever is near the top.
Habits that keep the list usable
- Prefix by department if your list is long. “MEM – Renewal outreach” and “DEV – Stewardship” sort together in dropdowns and make it obvious who owns each type.
- Don’t create a type for a single event or campaign. Use one general type (“Event invitation follow-up”) and put the event name in the notes, or tie it to the event or appeal if your setup supports that. One-off types are the main reason lists grow out of control.
- Avoid “Other” and “Misc.” If you must keep a catch-all, check what’s landing there every quarter. Anything that shows up repeatedly deserves its own type, and the rest is often unnecessary.
- Assign an owner. One person (usually the database administrator) approves new types. A quick request-and-approve step stops the duplicates.
- Write a one-line definition for each type. Keep it in a shared doc or your Altru procedures manual. “Stewardship” and “Cultivation” mean different things to different people until you write them down.
Cleaning up a list that already sprawls
Don’t start by deleting. Older actions still point at those types, and removing a type that’s in use can fail, or leave history that’s harder to read. Work through it in order instead:
- Count usage. Build an action query that outputs action type and the action date, then summarize by type. You’ll quickly see which types carry real volume and which were used twice.
- Map old to new. In a spreadsheet, list every existing type next to the type it should become. Several old types will collapse into one.
- Stop the bleeding. Mark retired types inactive (code table entries in Altru can generally be set inactive rather than deleted) so they stop appearing in dropdowns while old records stay intact. Confirm how this behaves in your version before relying on it.
- Decide whether to recode history. If your reports compare years, it may be worth updating old actions to the new types. If you only report going forward, leaving history alone is often fine. Bulk-updating actions isn’t something to improvise in production; test it in a sandbox or ask Blackbaud support what’s supported for your database.
- Tell staff, then check in a month. Share the new list and the definitions. Run your usage query again 30 days later to see whether people are actually using the new types.
Build the reports before you finalize the list
The best test of an action type list is whether it answers the questions leadership actually asks. Before you lock it in, write down three or four of them, such as “How many stewardship contacts did each gift officer make last quarter?” or “How many lapsed members did we call, and how many rejoined?” Then sketch the query each one would need. If a question can’t be answered from type plus the other action fields, adjust the list now. Renaming a type in month two is a lot easier than recoding a year of history.
Quick answers
Should action types match our appeal or campaign names?
Usually not. Campaigns change every year, while the purpose of an interaction stays the same. Keep types stable and track the campaign elsewhere.
Can I just rename an existing type?
Renaming generally carries over to the actions that already use it, which is handy when the meaning stays the same. If the meaning changes, create a new type instead so older records aren’t relabeled misleadingly.
How often should we review the list?
Once a year is enough for most organizations, ideally before fiscal-year reporting starts.
