Your spring camp sells out in a day. Within a week, the phones are full of parents asking to be “put on the list,” and someone at the front desk is keeping that list on a sticky note. Then a family cancels, and nobody is sure who asked first.
Altru doesn’t give you a dedicated waitlist tool for preregistered programs or capacity-limited events, at least not one that holds a queue, notifies the next person, and turns their spot into a registration automatically. If your version has something closer than that, Blackbaud support or a quick test in a sandbox will tell you. In the meantime, you can build a waitlist from pieces Altru already has, and it holds up well as long as everyone uses the same one.
Decide what the waitlist has to do
Before building anything, answer three questions. They determine which approach fits.
- Does order matter? If you promise “first come, first served,” you need a reliable timestamp for each request. If you just call whoever answers, you don’t.
- Do you hold payment? Most organizations don’t take money for a waitlist spot. Taking a deposit means refunds when no seat opens, which adds work.
- How fast must a released seat be filled? A camp that starts in three months can work through a list by email. A Saturday workshop that opens a seat on Friday night needs someone to call people.
Option 1: A companion “waitlist” program or event
The most common workaround is to create a second, free program or event that mirrors the sold-out one, named clearly (for example, “Spring Camp Week 2 – WAITLIST”). Staff register interested people into it at no charge, the same way they would for the real program.
What you get:
- Every request is tied to a constituent record, so you have contact details and household information in one place.
- The transaction date gives you a natural first-come order.
- You can query the waitlist roster like any other registration list.
What to watch:
- Make sure the waitlist program can’t show up anywhere public by mistake, and keep it out of attendance and revenue reports where it would inflate counts.
- Free registrations may still produce confirmations or tickets, depending on how you have things set up. Check what the guest receives so nobody shows up thinking they’re enrolled.
- Moving someone from the waitlist into the real program is a manual step: register them in the real program, then cancel or mark their waitlist entry so they aren’t contacted twice.
Option 2: Track interest on the constituent record
If you’d rather not create shadow programs, record the request directly on the constituent: an attribute (such as “Waitlist – Spring Camp 2027”) with a date, or an interaction or note logging the request. A query on that attribute becomes your list.
This keeps your program inventory clean, and it works well when the list is short or order is loose. The downside is consistency. Attributes and notes only work if every staff member enters them the same way, with the same name and a date. Give people one exact label to use and a short how-to.
Option 3: An online interest form
When demand is mostly online, a simple “join the waitlist” form on the program page cuts down on phone calls. Whether you build it as an Altru web form or as a general form on your website, the important part is getting those submissions onto constituent records, not just into someone’s inbox. Otherwise you end up with a second list that doesn’t match the first.
If submissions land outside Altru, assign one person to enter them on a set schedule, and use the submission time as the place in line.
Releasing a seat
Write down the steps for when a cancellation comes in, since this is where most waitlists fall apart:
- Process the cancellation or refund in the real program first, so capacity actually opens up.
- Pull the waitlist query, sorted by request date.
- Contact the next person with a clear deadline (“reply by noon Thursday”). If they don’t respond in time, move to the next name.
- Register the person who accepts in the real program, then close out their waitlist entry.
- Note who was contacted and when. If a family later asks why they were skipped, you’ll have an answer.
Be careful with the gap between step 1 and step 4. If the program is open for online sales, a released seat may be bought by someone browsing your site before your waitlisted family replies. If that’s a problem, temporarily reduce capacity by one while you work the list, or take the program off online sales once it sells out.
Members and priority
Many organizations give members first claim on waitlist spots. If you do, make that visible in the list itself: include membership status and level in your waitlist query output so staff don’t have to look up each person. State the rule on your website too. “Members are offered open seats first” heads off a lot of complaints.
Quick answers
Can Altru notify waitlisted people automatically when a seat opens?
Not that we’re aware of as a built-in waitlist feature. Plan on a staff member reaching out, using a query of the waitlist sorted by date.
Should we collect payment to hold a waitlist spot?
Usually not. Take payment only when a seat is confirmed. It keeps refunds and reconciliation simple.
How do we know if we need more sessions?
Run your waitlist query at the end of each season. A long list for the same program, year after year, is one of the best reasons to add a session.
