Camps, overnights, animal encounters, behind-the-scenes tours, volunteer shifts with physical work: sooner or later someone asks where the signed health release lives, and whether staff can see a child’s allergy before the bus leaves. Altru doesn’t have a dedicated “health release” area on the constituent record. You can still track releases well in Altru. The question is how much of the release belongs there at all.
Our short answer: use Altru to record that a release exists and is current, and be very selective about recording what it says.
Decide what you’re actually storing
“Health release” covers three different kinds of information, and they deserve different handling:
- Status facts. Release on file, date signed, which form version, who signed it (parent or guardian), when it expires. Low sensitivity, high operational value. These belong in Altru.
- Emergency contacts. Who to call and how. Altru already handles people and relationships, so this fits naturally.
- Medical details. Allergies, medications, conditions, dietary needs, physician information. This is the sensitive part. Program staff need some of it for a specific session. Your box office cashier and your development team do not.
Once you separate those, the setup gets much simpler.
Recording release status on the constituent record
Constituent attributes are usually the cleanest fit. An administrator can define attribute categories with set data types, so you might create a few like:
- Health release on file (yes/no)
- Health release signed date (date)
- Health release form version (a code table such as “2026 Camp” or “Volunteer Physical Activity”)
- Health release expires (date), if your policy requires annual renewal
Because attributes are queryable, you can build a query of everyone registered for a program who has no current release, or whose release expires before the session starts. That list is what program coordinators actually work from in the week before a camp.
Put the attribute on the right person. For youth programs the participant is usually the child, and the signer is the parent or guardian. If you already create child records in the household, add the release attributes to the child and link the guardian through a relationship. If your organization only tracks the purchasing adult, decide that before you build anything. Retrofitting child records later is tedious.
Emergency contacts
Store emergency contacts as relationships between constituent records instead of typing names and numbers into a free-text note. A relationship stays attached when phone numbers change, can be queried, and doesn’t depend on someone remembering to update a note. If the emergency contact is someone you never want on a mailing list, make sure your communication preferences and solicit codes reflect that.
Where the signed form and medical details should go
This is where we’d urge caution. Notes and any attachment features on the constituent record can technically hold a scanned release or a typed list of medications. Before you do that, check two things:
- Who can see it. Constituent records are viewed by a lot of roles: front desk, membership, development, sometimes volunteers. Review your security roles and test with a non-admin login to confirm whether a given note type or attachment is visible to them. If you can’t restrict it to the people who need it, don’t put medical details there.
- How long it stays. A release for a three-day camp in 2026 probably shouldn’t be readable on a donor’s record in 2031. Altru won’t purge it on a schedule for you, so someone has to own deletion.
Many organizations keep the signed form and the medical details in a separate, access-controlled location (a restricted shared drive, your registration form provider, or a program management tool) and keep only the status attributes in Altru. Program staff print or pull a session roster with the details they need, use it during the program, and handle it according to a written retention policy.
If you’re unsure what Altru’s attachment and note permissions allow in your configuration, test it in your sandbox or ask Blackbaud support before rolling anything out. And because releases often involve minors, have whoever handles legal or privacy questions for your organization review the plan. Requirements vary by state and by program type.
Getting releases collected in the first place
The weakest link is usually intake, not storage. A few habits help:
- Tie the release to registration, so nobody is marked as registered until the release is received, or at least so the gap shows up on a query.
- Use one current form version and retire old ones. The version attribute tells you who signed outdated language.
- Have one person update the attributes when forms come in. Shared responsibility tends to mean nobody updates the record.
- Run the “missing or expired release” query on a fixed schedule before each session, not the morning of.
A simple setup to start with
- Create the three or four status attributes above.
- Add emergency contacts as relationships.
- Store signed forms and medical details outside Altru, with restricted access and a deletion date.
- Build a pre-session query for registrants without a current release.
- Write a one-page policy covering who records what, who can see it, and when it’s deleted.
That gives staff a reliable answer to “do we have a release for this child?” from inside Altru, without turning every constituent record into a medical file.
Quick answers
Can a health release be required before an online registration completes?
That depends on how your registration form is built and what it can collect. Test it with your current form setup, and if the form can’t capture the release, plan a follow-up step and track the gap with your attribute query.
Is a constituent note good enough for tracking releases?
It works for a handful of records but is hard to report on. Attributes with dates and set values are far easier to query and keep consistent.
