Summer camp registration opens Monday. The camp is built in Altru, the sessions have dates and capacities, staff can sell it at the desk without trouble, and yet the public page shows nothing, or shows the session with no way to add it to the cart. Preregistered programs (camps, classes, workshops, guided tours, overnights, anything with a fixed date, a fixed headcount, and a registration deadline) are where online selling in Altru most often breaks down, because several separate settings all have to agree before a single seat appears on the web.
This guide covers what those settings are, the order to check them in, and the decisions worth making before you open registration.
How a preregistered program differs from daily admission
Daily admission is sold against a time slot or a day, and guests are mostly anonymous. A preregistered program is different in three ways that matter online:
- Each session is a scheduled event with its own date, time, and capacity. The program is just the template; the events are what people actually buy.
- Capacity is hard. When a camp session holds 20 children, the 21st sale is a real problem, not a slightly busier gallery.
- You usually need to know who is attending, not just who paid. A parent buying three camp seats is one buyer and three participants.
Keep that distinction in mind, because most “it won’t sell online” problems come from a setting that is fine for desk sales but incomplete for web sales.
The layers that all have to line up
Think of an online preregistered sale as passing through four layers. If any one is missing, the program either disappears from the web or shows up without a buyable option.
1. The program and its events
The program needs scheduled events with future dates and capacity greater than zero. An event that is already full, already past, or was created with zero capacity simply won’t be offered. If you copied last year’s sessions, double-check the dates actually rolled forward.
2. Prices that are allowed online
Desk staff can sell any price type assigned to the program. The web generally only offers the prices you’ve specifically made available for online sales. A program with member and nonmember child prices at the desk but no price enabled for online sales will often appear online with nothing to select. It’s an easy thing to miss, so check it first.
3. Sales dates and cutoffs
Preregistered programs often have an on-sale date and an online cutoff before the event starts. If the on-sale date is in the future, or the cutoff has already passed for the sessions you’re looking at, nothing shows. Cutoffs are worth setting deliberately: a Friday-night cutoff for a Monday camp gives your team time to build rosters and handle medical forms.
4. The web form or online sales page
Finally, the program has to be included in whatever web form or online sales listing your site uses. Creating a new program does not always mean it appears on an existing page automatically. Confirm the program is attached to the form, and that the form itself is published and pointing to the right site.
Exact screens and option names vary by Altru version and by how your organization’s online sales were originally configured, so if you can’t find one of these settings, ask Blackbaud support where it lives in your environment rather than guessing.
Decide these before registration opens
Participant details. Decide what you need for each attendee: name, age, grade, allergies, emergency contact. Then test whether your current online form actually collects that per participant or only for the buyer. If it only collects buyer details, plan how you’ll gather the rest (a follow-up form, a check-in packet) before the first family registers, not after.
Member pricing. If members get a discount, decide how the web will know someone is a member. Some setups require members to log in; others rely on a discount code. Test it with a real member record and a nonmember record so you see both paths.
Waitlists and sellouts. When a session fills, what should a parent see? If your online setup can’t capture a waitlist, put a clear note and an email address on the page so demand doesn’t disappear silently.
Refunds and transfers. Write down the policy (session swaps, sibling changes, illness) and make sure the desk processes it the same way every time, so capacity counts stay accurate.
Test like a parent, then like an accountant
- Open the public page in a private browser window on a phone. Find the program, pick a session, choose a price, and check out with a test card or a comped transaction your finance team approves.
- Confirm the sale in Altru: the order, the constituent record, the event’s remaining capacity, and the revenue posting.
- Check that the confirmation email says what the family needs to know: date, drop-off time, location, what to bring.
- Run a query of registrants for that event and make sure it gives your program staff a usable roster.
- Void or refund the test, and confirm capacity goes back up.
If step 2 or step 5 surprises you, fix that before opening sales. Capacity that doesn’t release after a refund is how sessions end up overbooked.
Quick answers
The program sells at the desk but not online. Where do I start?
Check that at least one price type is available for online sales, then check the on-sale and cutoff dates. Those two explain most cases.
Can I sell one session online and keep another desk-only?
Often yes, through how you set prices, sales dates, or which events are offered on the form. Test it in a non-production environment if you have one, since the exact behavior depends on your configuration.
Where Social Good fits
Everything above can be configured in Altru on its own. If your web forms are the sticking point, especially on phones, Checkouts is a branded, mobile-friendly checkout that replaces Altru webforms for tickets, memberships, and donations, with Apple Pay and Google Pay, and writes the sales back to Altru. Ask us whether it fits your preregistered program setup before you plan around it.
