Altru’s program calendar is fine when you run a handful of programs. Add school field trips, camps, timed general admission, member-only previews, and private tours, and the calendar fills up fast. The question staff ask is always the same: “Can I see just the things I care about?”
The short version is that Altru doesn’t give you a lot of filtering controls on the program calendar, and you can’t add your own filter fields to it. What you can control is how your programs are set up, and that setup decides how useful the filters you do have turn out to be. When the calendar view still isn’t enough, a query usually does the job.
First, confirm what your version shows
Before you redesign anything, open the program calendar and note exactly which filter or selection options it offers. Depending on your setup and Altru release, you may be able to narrow by program, by date range, or by a small set of attributes. Don’t take a colleague’s memory (or a forum post) as the final word. If you’re not sure whether an option exists, check it in your sandbox or ask Blackbaud support directly. It’s the fastest way to avoid building a workaround for something Altru already does.
Write down what’s there and what’s missing. Usually the missing piece is one of these:
- Showing only one type of program (tours vs. camps vs. general admission).
- Showing only programs run by one department or location.
- Hiding sold-out or full events so staff see what still has room.
- Separating public programs from private or group-only ones.
Make program setup do the filtering
When the calendar can’t filter on something, the next best thing is making the information visible at a glance or easy to search. A few habits help a lot:
Use consistent program names
Pick a naming pattern and stick to it, with the most useful sorting word first. For example, “Camp – Junior Naturalists” and “Tour – Behind the Scenes” sort together and scan quickly. Free-form names like “Summer Fun Week 2” don’t tell a desk volunteer anything.
Use program categories deliberately
If you use categories, keep the list short and give each program exactly one. Categories are only useful if everyone applies them the same way. Revisit the list once a year and retire categories nobody uses.
Split programs that really behave differently
Teams sometimes run one program with many event types underneath to keep the list short. That makes the calendar harder to read, not easier. If school groups and public visitors book differently, have different capacities, or are handled by different staff, they’re usually better as separate programs.
When you need a real filter, use a query
For anything the calendar view can’t narrow down, an event or program query is the practical answer. Queries let you filter on almost any field Altru stores, and you can save one per audience:
- Education team: school programs for the next 30 days, with capacity and tickets sold.
- Front desk: today’s and tomorrow’s events with remaining availability.
- Volunteer coordinator: events at a specific location, sorted by start time.
Share the saved queries with the people who need them, or schedule them to export so staff get a fresh list without opening Altru. A query isn’t a calendar grid, but for “what’s on that I need to staff” it’s usually clearer. If your team wants a visual calendar, exporting the query to a spreadsheet or shared calendar tool is a common middle ground. Just be clear that the export is a snapshot, not live availability.
Don’t forget the public side
Sometimes the real complaint isn’t the staff calendar at all. It’s that visitors on the website can’t narrow events by type, age group, or date and end up calling the front desk instead. That’s a website problem, and it’s worth solving separately. Rebuilding Altru’s internal program setup won’t fix what the public sees on your site.
For that side, Social Good’s Calendar Builder lets you embed timed-ticketing calendars on your website with real-time availability pulled from Altru. You can build separate calendars for different programs or audiences and place each one on the page where it belongs, so a camp page shows camp dates and a tours page shows tours. Altru still holds the programs, events, and sales.
Quick answers
Can I add a custom filter field to the Altru program calendar?
Not that we’re aware of. The calendar’s filters are built in. Custom attributes are still useful in queries, which is where most teams do their detailed filtering.
Will renaming programs affect past sales or reports?
Test it in your sandbox first. Renaming is generally a display change, but saved reports, queries, and web forms that reference program names should be checked afterward.
