A parent wants to sign their child up for summer camp. They can’t find the registration page, so they use the donate form on your website, enter the camp fee, and type “for Ava’s camp week” in the comments box. Now there is a gift in Altru that isn’t a gift, and a child who isn’t registered for anything.
Fixing it means turning donation revenue into program or class registration revenue. We aren’t aware of a single built-in action in Altru that converts one into the other, and the right fix depends on where the money already is. Below is how to decide which fix to use, and what to talk through with finance before anyone touches the record.
Start with three questions
Answer these before you edit, refund, or re-enter anything:
- What did the payer actually mean? A comment that mentions a class isn’t proof. Some people donate in honor of a camper or add a gift on top of a fee they paid somewhere else. Call or email them and confirm they meant to pay for a registration, and for which session.
- Has the revenue been posted? If the donation is still in an unposted batch or hasn’t gone to your general ledger, you have more options. Once it has posted, any change becomes an adjustment that finance needs to see.
- Has an acknowledgment or tax receipt gone out? If the payer already has a letter thanking them for a tax-deductible gift, that letter is now wrong. Whatever you do in Altru, they need a corrected receipt.
The three ways to fix it
Option 1: Refund the donation and process a real registration
Refund the online donation to the original card. Then register the participant through your normal program or class registration process and take a new payment, either by phone or by sending the family to the correct form.
This is the cleanest option for reporting. Donation totals stay accurate, the registration has its own revenue with the right designation, and roster and capacity counts for the class are right. The downside: the payer sees a refund and a new charge, you may pay processing fees twice, and the refund can take several days to show up on their statement. Tell the family exactly what will happen before you do it.
Option 2: Move the money internally without touching the card
Some organizations avoid a second charge by recording the registration with a non-card payment method set up for internal transfers, then reversing or adjusting the original donation by the same amount. Real money only moved once, so the payer sees one charge, but the revenue ends up in the right place.
This is where you need finance involved. Whether Altru lets you adjust or reverse a posted online donation this way, and which payment methods and GL mappings you have set up, depends on your configuration. If your team hasn’t done it before, try the whole sequence in a sandbox or ask Blackbaud support, and make sure both entries net to zero on the deposit and in the GL. Put a note on both records that points to the other one.
Option 3: Leave the donation and comp the registration
The quick fix is to leave the gift alone and register the child at no charge. Front desks reach for it because it is fast.
We don’t recommend it unless the amount is small and finance is fine with it. Donation revenue is overstated and program revenue is understated. The payer’s giving history now includes money that paid for a service. And because they got something of value in return, the gift receipt overstates what they can deduct. If you do this, note it clearly on the constituent record and send a corrected acknowledgment.
Things that get missed
- Capacity. If the class was full by the time anyone noticed, the family may not have a spot. Check availability before you promise a fix, and decide whether a refund is the only real option.
- Recognition and appeals. If the donation was tied to an appeal or campaign, removing it changes those results. Tell whoever reports on that appeal.
- Household giving totals. Smart fields or queries that add up lifetime giving will include the payment until you reverse or adjust it.
- Waivers and registration details. A donation form doesn’t collect participant names, ages, allergies, or emergency contacts. You still need to get those through your normal registration process.
Catching it sooner
This almost always starts on the website. Families pay where the “pay” button is easiest to find. A few changes make it much less common:
- Link program and class pages straight to the registration form, and don’t put the donate button next to “Register” on those pages.
- Add a line above the donation form, something like “Signing up for a class or camp? Register here instead,” with a link.
- Build a simple query of recent online donations whose comments mention words like camp, class, workshop, or registration, and have someone check it weekly. It’s much easier to fix a gift the same week than after the batch has posted and the receipt has gone out.
Quick answers
Can I just change the donation’s designation to a program?
Changing a designation keeps the payment a donation. It doesn’t create a registration, so the participant still won’t appear on a roster. You need a registration transaction too.
Who should own these fixes?
Pick one person, usually whoever reconciles online revenue, and give them a short written procedure. If desk staff improvise their own fixes, every one ends up different and the books don’t line up.
