Say you’re running a members-only evening with 150 spots, and you want no more than 30 of them sold at the student rate. Or a family program where every child ticket has to come with at least one adult. In Altru, the event capacity is easy to set. Capping one ticket type inside that capacity is a lot harder.
When people ask how to “restrict ticket types” for an event, they usually mean one of two things:
- Which ticket types appear for this event at all (for example, no child tickets at an adults-only lecture).
- How many of a given ticket type can be sold (for example, only 30 student tickets out of 150 seats).
Altru handles the first fairly well. The second takes workarounds. Each is covered below.
Controlling which ticket types are offered
In Altru, the price types you can sell come from the program’s price list, and events under that program inherit those prices. To keep a ticket type off an event, the cleanest approach is usually at the program level:
- Give the event its own program when its pricing really differs. An adults-only lecture series shouldn’t share a program with family workshops just because they happen in the same room. A separate program with only the prices you want is easier to maintain than remembering exceptions event by event.
- Check whether your version lets you adjust prices on an individual event. Depending on configuration, some organizations can change pricing for a single event without touching the whole program. If you aren’t sure, try it in your sandbox on a test event before relying on it for a live one.
- Look at the sales channels. A price type can be available at the desk but not online, or the other way around. If the problem is mainly the web (people buying a member rate they aren’t eligible for, say), check which price types your web forms show for that program before you restructure anything.
Capping the quantity of one ticket type
This is the part people get stuck on. As far as we know, Altru does not give you a simple per-price-type limit inside an event’s capacity, such as “150 total, max 30 at the student price.” Capacity applies to the event as a whole. If you’ve found a native setting that does this in your version, use it. If not, confirm with Blackbaud support before you build around the gap, because the options below all have tradeoffs.
Option 1: Split the inventory into separate events
Create two events at the same date and time: one with a capacity of 120 at regular prices, and one with a capacity of 30 that offers only the restricted ticket type. Each has its own hard cap, so Altru enforces the limit for you.
The downside: you now have two events to report on and two to check in, and your total attendance for that slot is spread across both. Name them clearly (for example, “Night Tour 7pm” and “Night Tour 7pm, Student Allocation”) so desk staff and anyone running reports can tell them apart.
Option 2: Use a limited discount instead of a separate price type
If the restricted ticket is really a discounted version of a standard ticket, handling it as a discount or promo code may give you more control than a separate price type. Whether a discount can be capped by number of uses, and how that behaves online versus at the desk, is worth testing in your sandbox before you promise anyone a hard limit.
Option 3: Monitor and close it manually
For small events, it’s sometimes enough to build a query of tickets sold by price type for that event and have someone check it daily as the date gets closer. When the restricted type hits its number, remove it from the event or web form. It isn’t automatic, and it can oversell by a few if sales come in quickly, but it costs nothing to set up.
Option 4: Make it a desk policy
Some limits, like “one child ticket per adult,” are hard to enforce in any ticketing setup. If the rule only matters at the door, write it down, train staff on it, and put it in the event description so buyers know ahead of time. That’s often more reliable than a configuration nobody remembers.
Choosing between them
- The limit is strict and the event sells online: split inventory (Option 1). It’s the only approach above where Altru itself stops the sale.
- The limit is a soft target: monitoring (Option 3) is usually fine.
- The restricted ticket is really a promotion: test a capped discount (Option 2).
- The rule is about combinations of tickets rather than counts: handle it with policy and clear event copy (Option 4).
Before you go live
Whichever route you pick, run a test sale in your sandbox through every channel that will sell the event: daily sales, advance sales, and the web form. Limits that work at the register sometimes behave differently online, and you’d rather learn that before a sold-out event than after. Then check that your attendance and revenue reports still roll up the way your finance and programs teams expect, especially if you split one event into two.
Quick answers
Can I hide a ticket type from one event without changing the whole program?
Sometimes, depending on how your event pricing is set up. Test it on a sandbox event first. If it doesn’t work, a separate program for that kind of event is the dependable fix.
Will splitting an event into two mess up capacity at the door?
Only if staff don’t know about it. Use clear names and make sure whoever is scanning or checking in can see both events.
