A visitor buying two adult tickets opens the Title dropdown on your web form and scrolls past Rev. Dr., Lt. Col., Hon., The Most Reverend, and a few entries someone added years ago for a single gala guest list. It looks cluttered, and it looks like a database rather than a checkout. Some people pick the wrong one by accident, and those mistakes end up on constituent records and in your salutations.
The short version: that list comes from your Altru title code table, and the code table is shared. Cleaning it up is mostly a data decision, not a web form setting. Here’s how to think about it and what you can realistically change.
Where the dropdown gets its values
Titles in Altru live in a code table that the whole database uses. Staff see it when they add a constituent at the desk, it appears in data entry for revenue and memberships, and public web forms draw from it as well. That is why a title someone added for one event shows up for every online ticket buyer.
We are not aware of a native way to give a single web form its own shorter title list while staff keep the full one. If that would solve your problem, confirm it with Blackbaud support or test in a sandbox before you plan around it, since form options can differ between releases.
Option 1: Trim the code table itself
This is the cleanest fix when your list has grown with entries nobody really needs.
- Find out what’s actually in use. Build a constituent query that outputs title and counts records per value. You’ll usually find a handful of titles cover nearly everyone and a long tail is used once or not at all.
- Decide on a short public list. Mr., Mrs., Ms., Mx., Dr. covers most visitor-facing needs. Talk to your development team before removing anything, because donor and board salutations often depend on the formal titles.
- Inactivate rather than delete where you can. Inactive code table entries generally stop appearing as choices while existing records keep their value. Check how your version behaves in a sandbox first, and confirm whether an inactive title still prints correctly in letters and acknowledgments.
- Fix the one-off records. For the stragglers on rarely used titles, either update those constituents to a standard title or leave them alone and accept that staff will see the value but won’t be able to pick it for new records.
The trade-off is real: anything you inactivate disappears from staff entry too. If your major gifts officer needs “Ambassador” for three people, that title has to stay active, and online visitors will see it as well.
Option 2: Make the field less prominent online
Many organizations don’t need a title from a ticket buyer at all. Look at your web form configuration and check whether the title field can be made optional or hidden for that form. If it can, that is often the fastest improvement, because the list stays complete for staff and casual buyers simply never see it.
Collect formal titles where they actually matter: donation forms, gala registrations, and membership levels where you send personalized acknowledgments. Ticket purchases rarely need one.
Option 3: Tidy up what comes in
Whatever you choose, some bad data will still arrive. A simple monthly routine helps:
- Save a query of constituents created through web forms in the last 30 days, with title included.
- Scan for obvious mistakes, like “Rev.” on a family four-pack or a title that doesn’t match the name.
- Correct them before they feed into a membership renewal letter or a donor acknowledgment.
This takes a few minutes once the query exists, and it catches the problems that actually embarrass you in print.
Video walkthrough
The video below covers this topic in more detail.
When the web form itself is the bigger issue
A long title dropdown is often one symptom of a broader problem: the public form doesn’t look or behave the way you want buyers to experience your organization. If that is where you’ve landed, Social Good’s Checkouts replaces Altru web forms with a branded, mobile-friendly checkout for tickets, memberships, and donations, with Apple Pay and Google Pay, and writes the data back to Altru.
Quick answers
Will inactivating a title change existing constituent records?
In general, no; records keep the value they already have. Verify in a sandbox, and check that letters and acknowledgments still render the title as expected.
Can I reorder the list so common titles appear first?
That depends on how your code table is sorted and how the form displays it. Test it on a non-production form before counting on it.
