The Altru event calendar color-codes events by program category, which is useful right up until two categories land on nearly the same shade, or you add a tenth category and run out of colors that are easy to tell apart. Then the calendar stops answering the one question staff open it for: “what kind of thing is happening at 2:00 on Saturday?”
Here’s what you can control, what you probably can’t, and the workarounds that keep the calendar readable.
Short version
- Event colors on the Altru calendar follow the program category, not the individual program or event.
- In the setups we’ve worked with, Altru assigns those colors itself from a limited set. There isn’t an obvious place to pick a specific color for a specific category.
- Because the palette is limited, a long list of categories means colors start to look alike or repeat.
- The most reliable fix is on your side: fewer, broader categories, plus filtering and naming habits that don’t depend on color alone.
Altru changes over time, so confirm this in your own database. Look at your program category setup, and if you don’t see a color option, ask Blackbaud support whether color assignment can be changed in your version before you rebuild anything.
Why the colors feel random
As far as we’ve seen, the calendar picks a color for each active program category on its own. You aren’t choosing the color when you create the category. That leads to a few common complaints:
- The “wrong” color stuck. School programs ended up red and members-only events ended up green, and nobody chose that.
- Colors may shift after cleanup. It’s possible that adding, retiring, or reordering categories changes which color goes with which category. Test this in a sandbox before you train staff on “blue means school groups.”
- Too many categories, too few distinct colors. Once you get past a handful, colors that look different in theory are hard to tell apart on a crowded week view.
Make the categories carry less weight
Your category list probably grew one program at a time. Before worrying about colors, look at what each category is for.
1. Merge categories that staff treat the same way
If “Family Workshop,” “Family Craft,” and “Family Day” are all handled by the same people with the same setup, one “Family Programs” category does the job. Keep the detail in the program name. A short list of categories, ideally one you can count on one hand, gives each one a color people can actually tell apart.
2. Organize categories around what staff need to see at a glance
The calendar is mostly used for operations: who needs a room, who needs an educator, which events bring a crowd through the lobby. Categories like “School Groups,” “Public Programs,” “Member Events,” and “Private Rentals” match those decisions better than a category for every program series.
3. Inactivate what you no longer run
Old categories can still compete for colors and clutter filters. Inactivate ones with no upcoming programs, after checking that no reports, queries, or smart fields filter on them. Retiring a category that a revenue or attendance report depends on causes quiet problems later.
Don’t rely on color alone
Even with a perfect palette, color is a weak signal. Some staff are colorblind, printouts are often grayscale, and a full week view turns into a wall of blocks. A few habits help:
- Prefix program names. A short tag such as “SCH –” or “MBR –” at the start of the name shows up in the calendar block whatever color it ends up.
- Filter instead of scanning. If your calendar view lets you filter by category or program, have each team save the view they use, such as education looking only at school groups, rather than reading the full calendar.
- Use a query for planning meetings. A program or event query with date, time, location, category, and capacity, exported to a spreadsheet, is often easier to read in a weekly meeting than the calendar. Sort or conditionally format it by category however you like.
When the real need is a public calendar
Sometimes the color question comes from marketing, not operations. Someone wants the website calendar to show program types in brand colors. Altru’s internal event calendar isn’t built to be that page, and trying to make it serve both purposes usually leaves both groups unhappy.
For the public side, Calendar Builder from Social Good embeds timed-ticketing calendars on your website with real-time availability pulled from Altru. Your programs and inventory stay in Altru, and the staff calendar can stay organized for staff.
Quick answers
Can I give a category a specific color?
Not that we’ve found in typical setups. Colors appear to be assigned by Altru. Check your program category setup and ask Blackbaud support to confirm for your version.
Why did my category colors change?
We can’t say for certain, but changes to the category list, like adding, inactivating, or reordering, are the most likely cause. Make category changes in a sandbox first and update any staff cheat sheets afterward.
