Someone was tidying up last season’s offerings, clicked delete on the wrong scheduled program, and now the tour or class you sell every weekend is gone. The first question is always the same: is there an undo?
The short, honest answer is that Altru has no recycle bin for programs that you can open yourself. Once a delete goes through, you won’t find a “restore” option on the record, because the record no longer exists. That leaves two realistic paths: ask Blackbaud whether anything can be recovered on their side, or rebuild the program yourself. In practice, most teams end up rebuilding. Here’s how to handle both, and how to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
First, confirm what was actually deleted
Before you start rebuilding, take five minutes to check what’s really missing. “The program is gone” can mean a few different things:
- The whole scheduled program was deleted. It no longer shows up in your program list at all.
- Only some events (dates and times) were deleted. The program itself is still there, but specific sessions are missing from the calendar.
- The program was marked inactive or taken off sale. It looks gone from the website or the sales screen, but the record is still there and can be turned back on.
The third case is more common than people expect, especially when more than one person manages programs. Search for the program by name, including inactive records, before you assume the worst. If only events were removed, you just have to add those dates back, not rebuild the entire setup.
Contact Blackbaud support quickly
If the program really is gone, open a support case right away and include the program name, the approximate time it was deleted, and who did it, if you know. Blackbaud hosts Altru, so it is the only party that might be able to help at the data level.
Keep your expectations realistic. We can’t promise what support will be able to do, and the answer may depend on your situation. Recovering a single deleted record is very different from restoring an entire database to an earlier point, and a full restore would also roll back every sale, gift and membership entered since then. That trade-off is almost never worth it for one program. Ask support plainly what options exist, what each would affect, and how long it would take. Then keep rebuilding while you wait, so you’re not stuck if the answer is no.
Rebuilding the program
Rebuilding goes faster when you collect the details first instead of trying to remember them as you go. Sources that often still hold the information:
- Past sales and reports. Existing orders, daily sales and advance sales reports, and any saved queries that pulled program data may still show names, prices and dates.
- Your website. A cached copy of the program page or an old calendar screenshot can show the description, times and pricing.
- Staff notes and emails. The person who originally set it up often has a configuration checklist or the original request.
- A similar program. If you run a comparable class or tour, open it side by side and copy the settings from there.
Then rebuild the setup piece by piece. Check each of these, since anyone who sets up programs in Altru knows they’re easy to miss:
- Program name, category and description (including any public-facing web text).
- Price types and prices, plus any discounts that applied.
- Capacity, and any resources, locations or staffing tied to the program.
- Which sales methods it’s available through (daily sales, advance sales, group sales, online).
- The event schedule: every remaining date and time for the season.
- Any web forms or website links that pointed to the old program.
The last item is easy to overlook. A rebuilt program is a new record, so links, web form selections, and any queries, smart fields or reports filtered on the old program won’t automatically point to it. Go through them one at a time.
What happens to existing orders
This is the part to check carefully. Depending on what had already been sold, Altru may not allow a program with sales to be deleted at all, or the delete may affect related event or order data in ways that aren’t obvious. We don’t want to guess at the exact behavior for your configuration. If guests had already bought tickets for upcoming sessions, pull a list of those buyers from orders or reports as soon as you can, compare it against what’s in the rebuilt program, and contact anyone whose booking doesn’t line up. If you’re unsure how a delete affects existing transactions, ask Blackbaud support or test it in a sandbox before deleting anything else.
Preventing the next one
- Inactivate instead of deleting. For a program you’re finished with, taking it off sale or marking it inactive hides it without destroying the setup. Next season you can copy or reactivate it.
- Tighten security roles. Review which roles can delete programs and events. Most staff need to sell and edit, not delete. Limit delete rights to one or two administrators.
- Keep a configuration record. For each major program, keep a one-page sheet (or a saved query export) with its prices, capacity, sales methods and schedule. It takes ten minutes to make and saves hours if you ever have to rebuild.
- Agree on a cleanup routine. End-of-season cleanup is when most accidental deletes happen. Have one person do it from a written list, and have a second person review the list first.
Quick answers
Can I undo a program delete myself in Altru?
Not that we know of. There’s no user-facing restore for deleted programs. Contact Blackbaud support to ask about options on their side, and start rebuilding in parallel.
Is a rebuilt program linked to the old one’s history?
No. It’s a new record, so reports, queries and web links need to be pointed at it, and historical comparisons may need to combine both.
