A member clicks “Buy tickets” on your website, lands on the Altru web form, picks two adult admissions, and pays full price. Later they email to ask why their member discount didn’t apply. They never signed in, because they never saw where to do it.
That email is the visible part of the problem. The hidden part is worse: guest records created by people who already have a constituent record, members paying non-member prices without complaining, and renewal or upgrade transactions that don’t attach to the right household. A sign-in option that’s easy to miss turns into duplicate records and a steady trickle of refund requests.
Below is what you can do about it with Altru web forms as they are, plus some honest notes on where the limits are.
Why the sign-in option gets missed
On many Altru web forms, signing in is presented as a secondary link rather than a step in the flow. Visitors arrive with one goal (buy tickets, renew, give) and scan for the thing that matches it. A small text link near the top or inside the cart doesn’t register, especially on a phone, where the header area is often scrolled past within a second.
There’s also a timing problem. If members only discover they should have signed in once they’re at payment, many will just finish the purchase rather than back up and start over.
Fixes you can make without changing Altru
1. Ask the question before they reach the form
The page on your own website that links to Altru is fully under your control, and it’s the best place to fix this. Instead of a single “Buy tickets” button, give visitors two clear paths:
- Members: sign in for your discount
- Buy as a guest
If your web forms support a direct link to the sign-in page (check the URL you land on when you click the sign-in link in a test session), point the member button there. If not, link both buttons to the same form and use the member button’s surrounding text to tell people exactly where the sign-in link sits on the next page.
2. Use the form’s own text areas
Altru web forms generally let you add descriptive or instructional text. Use the first block of text a visitor will see for one short line, something like: “Members, sign in first so your pricing and benefits apply.” Keep it above the item selection, not below it. One sentence works better than a paragraph nobody reads.
3. Restyle the link if your setup allows it
Some organizations apply their own stylesheet or header and footer content to their Altru web forms. If yours does, you may be able to make the sign-in link look like a button, increase its size, or give it your accent color. What’s adjustable depends on your Altru setup and how your forms are hosted, so test changes on a non-production form or in a sandbox first, and confirm with Blackbaud support before relying on any CSS that targets specific page elements, since markup can change with updates.
4. Put it in your emails
Renewal reminders, member newsletters, and event announcements are read by people who are, by definition, members. Every link from those emails to a purchase form should say “sign in when you get there,” or link to the sign-in page directly if that’s possible on your forms.
5. Make the front desk part of the loop
When a member calls about a missed discount, log it. A simple tally by month tells you whether your changes are working. If refunds for missed member pricing are common, also decide whether staff will honor them after the fact, and write that policy down so it’s consistent.
Cleaning up what’s already happened
Purchases made without signing in can create a new constituent record instead of attaching to the existing one. A query on constituents created recently through web forms, exported and compared against existing email addresses, is a reasonable starting point for finding them. Merge carefully: check addresses, households, and membership history before combining records, and don’t merge on email alone if your organization has shared family or office addresses.
What you can’t easily change
The structure of the Altru web form itself, including where the sign-in option appears and whether a visitor is prompted to sign in before checkout, isn’t something most organizations can redesign. If your team needs sign-in placement to work differently, it’s worth asking Blackbaud support what’s configurable on your version rather than assuming either way.
That’s why the steps above focus on the edges: the page before the form, the text on the form, and the emails that send people there.
When a different checkout makes sense
Some organizations decide the Altru web form isn’t where they want the purchase experience to live. Social Good’s Checkouts replaces Altru web forms for tickets, memberships, and donations with a branded, mobile-friendly checkout, and the data writes back to Altru. If sign-in visibility is one of several things you’d change about your web forms, that’s an option to look at; if it’s the only issue, the fixes above are usually enough.
Quick answers
Do members have to sign in to get member pricing on Altru web forms?
In most setups, member pricing depends on the form knowing who the buyer is, which usually means signing in. Test it on your own forms with a member account to confirm how yours behave.
Can I move the sign-in link to the top of the page?
Possibly, if your forms accept custom styling, but placement options vary. Test in a sandbox and check with Blackbaud support before changing a live form.
