A school coordinator books a field trip for 120 students and asks for an invoice. A board member pledges a gift and wants to pay later in the month. A wedding couple owes a deposit to hold the garden for June. In each case the payment is real, the amount is known, and nobody wants to read a card number over the phone.
That is the gap Link2Pay is built for: sending someone a branded link they can open and pay from, with the payment posting back to Blackbaud Altru so your records stay where they already live.
How these payments usually get collected
Payments that don’t fit the standard ticket or membership web forms tend to end up in one of a few places:
- Phone calls. Staff take card details by phone and key them in. It works, but it ties up a person, invites transcription errors, and means card numbers are being spoken aloud and sometimes written down.
- Mailed or emailed invoices paid by check. Slow to arrive, slow to deposit, and someone still has to match the check to the right group sale or pledge in Altru.
- A generic web form repurposed for the job. Payers land on a page meant for something else, type in an amount by hand, and staff reconcile it afterward.
- A separate payment app. Fast for the payer, but the money now lives outside Altru, and the revenue has to be re-entered or imported later.
None of these are disasters on their own. The cost shows up in follow-up emails, reconciliation time, and payments that sit unpaid because paying was inconvenient.
What Link2Pay does
Link2Pay creates a branded pay-by-link for a specific payment and posts that payment to Altru. You send the link by email, text, or however you already communicate with that person, and they pay from their phone or computer on a page that looks like your organization rather than a third-party processor.
The common uses fall into four groups:
- Group sales. School groups, tour operators, scouts, and corporate outings that book ahead and pay before the visit.
- Pledges. A donor has committed to a gift and needs an easy way to fulfill it.
- Invoices. Program fees, rentals, or other amounts you bill for after the fact.
- Deposits. Event and facility rentals where you need money in hand to hold a date.
The important part for an Altru shop is the write-back. Because the payment posts to Altru, your finance and development staff aren’t keeping a parallel spreadsheet of who paid by link.
Video walkthrough
For a quick look at Link2Pay in action, watch the walkthrough below.
Questions to settle before you roll it out
Pay-by-link is simple for the payer. The work is on your side, deciding how these payments should land in Altru. Sort out these questions with your Altru administrator and finance lead first:
Where should each payment type post?
A group sale deposit, a pledge payment, and a rental invoice are different kinds of revenue in Altru. Agree on how each should be recorded, which designations or programs apply, and who reviews them. If you’re not sure how a particular payment type is best handled in Altru, test it in a sandbox or check with Blackbaud support before you send links to real payers.
Who on staff sends links?
Group sales staff, development officers, and event coordinators may all want to use it. Decide who can create links and how they record what they sent, so two people don’t bill the same group twice.
How will you follow up on unpaid links?
Sending a link doesn’t guarantee payment. Decide who checks for outstanding balances and how often. An Altru query on open group sales or unpaid pledges is a reasonable place to start that review.
What should the payer see?
Write the message that goes with the link: what the payment is for, the amount, and who to contact with questions. A link with no context gets ignored or flagged as suspicious, especially by school business offices.
Is it a fit?
Link2Pay makes the most sense when you regularly collect payments that don’t belong on a public ticketing or membership page, and when those payments currently involve phone calls, checks, or manual re-entry. If almost all your revenue comes through daily sales and online tickets, the benefit will be smaller.
It is also a different job from a public checkout. If you want to replace your Altru web forms for tickets, memberships, and donations, look at Checkouts instead. Link2Pay is for the one-off, known-amount payment you send to a specific person.
Full details are on the Link2Pay feature page.
Quick answers
Do we have to leave Altru to use it?
No. Link2Pay works alongside Altru, and payments post back to it.
Can a donor pay a pledge with it?
Yes, pledges are one of the main uses, along with group sales, invoices, and deposits.
Is this the same as our online ticketing checkout?
No. A checkout serves the public buying tickets or memberships. A pay link goes to one person for one payment you already know about.
