A member calls to say they were promised a discount on their renewal because they joined through last spring’s “Founders Weekend” offer. You open their constituent record in Altru and see the membership level, the dates, and the payment. What you probably don’t see, at least not right there on the page, is which promotion was applied when they joined.
That gap catches a lot of membership staff off guard. The promotion information is usually captured somewhere in Altru, but it lives with the transaction rather than being shown on the constituent’s summary. This article covers where to look, how to make that data easier to find, and when a small process change is the more practical answer.
Why the promotion isn’t front and center
In Altru, a promotion is applied at the moment of sale. It changes the price on that membership transaction. The constituent record, on the other hand, is built to show who the person is and what they currently hold: contact details, household, current membership, giving history, and so on.
So the promotion is really a fact about a sale, not about the person. That’s why it tends to show up when you drill into the membership transaction or the revenue record, and not on the constituent’s main page. Depending on how your organization is configured and which version of Altru you’re on, what appears where can differ, so treat the steps below as places to check rather than a guaranteed click-path.
Where to look on an individual record
- The membership itself. From the constituent, open their membership and look at its transaction history. Each join, renew, upgrade, or rejoin is its own transaction, and the promotion (if one was used) is most likely tied to the specific transaction where it was applied.
- The revenue record for that payment. Open the payment that paid for the membership. Discounts and promotions often show as part of the line-item detail, where you can see the original price versus what was charged.
- The order, if it came from the web or a sales channel. Memberships sold through daily sales, advance sales, or an online form may carry order-level detail that’s easier to read than the revenue view.
If you check all three and can’t find the promotion anywhere, it’s worth asking whether it was ever recorded as a promotion at all. A desk discount entered as a manual price change, or a comp handled outside the promotion setup, won’t look like a promotion later because Altru never knew it was one.
Finding it for many members at once: use a query
Looking up one person is fine. Answering “who joined using the spring offer, and how many of them renewed?” is a query job.
- Start an ad-hoc query from the membership or revenue side rather than from constituents, since that’s where the transaction data lives.
- Browse the available fields for anything related to promotions or discounts. Field names and which query sources expose them vary, so give yourself a few minutes to explore rather than expecting a single obvious field.
- Add constituent name and lookup ID as output fields so the results link back to people.
- Filter on the promotion you care about and a date range.
Save the query once it works. You’ll reuse it for renewal campaigns, for board reports on how a promotion performed, and for answering the next phone call in seconds instead of minutes.
If you can’t find promotion fields in any query source, test in a sandbox if you have one, or ask Blackbaud support which query view includes promotion data for memberships in your setup. That’s a better use of time than guessing.
Getting it onto the constituent record
If staff really need to see the promotion the moment they open a record, you have a few options. None of them is automatic out of the box, so pick the one your team will actually maintain.
Constituent attribute
Create an attribute such as “Membership promotion” and populate it from your saved query. You can update attributes in bulk through a batch, which is manageable if you only care about a handful of promotions per year. The downside is that it’s a snapshot: it only stays accurate if someone repeats the update.
Smart field
Smart fields calculate values on a schedule. Whether one can return promotion information depends on the smart field types available in your Altru environment. It’s worth checking, because a smart field that refreshes on its own is much less work than a manually maintained attribute.
A note at the point of sale
The lowest-tech option: when a promotion is applied, staff add a short constituent note (“Joined with Founders Weekend promo, 20% off first year”). It relies on habit, but notes are visible where people actually look.
Deciding what’s worth the effort
Before you build anything, ask what the promotion data is for:
- Customer service questions (“was I promised a discount?”): the transaction lookup above is usually enough. Train staff on where to look.
- Renewal targeting (treating promo joiners differently at renewal time): a saved query is the right tool, since you’ll be pulling a list anyway.
- Ongoing visibility for front-line staff on every record: that’s when an attribute, smart field, or note habit earns its keep.
Also make sure promotion names are clear. “SPRING” tells nobody anything two years later. A name that includes the year and the channel saves real time when someone is reading old transactions.
Quick answers
Does Altru show the promotion on the constituent summary by default?
Generally not. Expect to find it on the membership transaction or revenue detail. If your configuration shows it elsewhere, great, but don’t count on it.
Can I tell whether a renewal used a promotion, or only the original join?
Each membership transaction is separate, so check the specific transaction you care about. A promotion on the join doesn’t carry forward to the renewal unless it was applied again.
