Your mailing house wants a file with columns named FirstName, LastName, and Zip. Altru hands you something closer to “ConstituentNameFirst name” and “AddressZIP”. Someone opens the file in Excel, retypes the header row, saves it, and sends it. Next month a different person does the same job and spells one column differently, and the vendor’s import fails.
Header names are a small thing until another system depends on them. This guide covers where Altru’s export headers come from, what you can control inside Altru, and how to make the header row predictable when Altru alone doesn’t give you enough control.
Where the headers come from
An export definition is built from a source view, and each column you add is a field from that view. By default, the column header reflects the field’s name and, often, its path through the data model. That’s why related fields (an address on a constituent, a membership on a household) can come out with long, slash-separated names. The naming is accurate from Altru’s point of view; it just isn’t what an outside system expects.
Collection fields add another wrinkle. If you export more than one of something, such as several phone numbers or interests, Altru has to distinguish the repeated columns, and the generated names for those can be hard to predict until you run the export and look.
What you can adjust inside Altru
How much control you have over individual column headers depends on your Altru version and the export format you choose. Before you plan around a workaround, confirm what your installation supports:
- Open an existing export definition and look at the selected columns. If you can edit a column’s display name or header text there, do it, and then run a test export to confirm the new name actually appears in the file. Some header options only apply to certain output formats.
- Test in a sandbox if you have one. Renaming headers on a definition that a scheduled process or a vendor already depends on is a change worth testing first.
- If you’re unsure, ask Blackbaud support whether your version allows custom export column headers and whether those headers persist when the definition is copied or edited later.
If renaming isn’t available or doesn’t behave the way you need, the next place to look is queries.
Use a query instead of an export definition
Ad-hoc queries let you set the display name of each output field, and those names generally carry into the exported results. For a flat file going to a vendor, a query with carefully named output columns is often the simpler tool. A few habits keep it clean:
- Name output fields exactly as the receiving system spells them, including capitalization and spaces.
- Avoid characters that cause trouble in other tools: slashes, commas, quotes, and leading or trailing spaces.
- Keep header names unique. Two columns called “Email” will confuse almost any import.
- Put the vendor’s name in the query name (for example, “Mail house – spring appeal file”) so nobody edits it for a different purpose.
The tradeoff: queries handle repeating data less gracefully than export definitions. If you need one row per constituent with three phone numbers in separate columns, you may need smart fields or a different approach rather than a plain query.
When you have to fix headers after the export
Sometimes the cleanest option is to accept Altru’s headers and translate them consistently. The goal is to take the retyping out of human hands.
- A mapping sheet. Keep a two-column reference: Altru header on the left, required header on the right. Even if someone still renames by hand, they’re copying from a fixed list rather than guessing.
- A saved spreadsheet transformation. Excel’s Power Query (or a similar feature in your spreadsheet tool) can rename columns as a saved step. Point it at the new export file, refresh, and the renamed output appears the same way every time.
- A short script. If someone on staff or a volunteer is comfortable with scripting, a few lines can rename columns and reorder them. Store it somewhere shared and document who owns it.
Whatever you choose, run the result through the vendor’s test import at least once before the real deadline.
Treat the header row as an agreement
The headers break most often when someone “improves” an export without knowing what depends on it. A few habits prevent that:
- Write down, for each recurring export, who receives it and the exact columns they expect.
- Don’t add, remove, or reorder columns on a definition that feeds another system without checking with the recipient.
- Copy the definition before experimenting, and experiment on the copy.
- When a vendor changes their template, update the definition or query and the mapping sheet together.
If the file is really feeding another tool
Many header problems exist because the export is a manual bridge into Google Sheets or an email platform. In that case, Data Bridge syncs Altru query data directly to Google Sheets, Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, and other tools, so the recurring download, rename, and upload cycle may not be needed for those destinations.
Quick answers
Why do my export headers include slashes?
The header reflects the path to the field in the source view. Related records produce longer names.
Will renaming a query output field change the data?
No. Display names affect the column label only, not the values.
