How-to
How to Set Up Donor Recognition Names in Altru
“Mr. and Mrs. Robert J. Hale” is a fine addressee line. It is not what the Hales want engraved on the donor wall. They want “Bob and Linda Hale,” or “The Hale Family,” or “In memory of Margaret Hale.” And one of your longtime donors wants to be listed as “Anonymous” in the annual report
How to Set Up Named Giving Opportunities in Altru
A bench by the koi pond, a gallery wing, a keeper’s station at the elephant barn, a brick in the entry plaza. Naming opportunities are some of the best gifts a cultural organization can offer. They are also some of the hardest to track, because each one is a physical thing with a price, a
How to Handle Uncashed and Missing Checks in Altru
“Uncashed check” means two different problems depending on which way the money was supposed to move, and Altru handles them very differently. A check you received but never deposited. A donor mails a gift, or a member pays a renewal by check at the desk. Someone enters it in Altru, and then the paper check
How to Change a Check Amount in Altru (Posted vs. Unposted)
A donor’s check for $250 gets keyed as $25. Or the amount is right but the check was meant to cover a membership and a gift, and it all landed on one line. Either way, someone has to change a check amount in Altru, and how hard that is depends almost entirely on one question:
How to Credit an Account With a Payment in Altru
A school pays for a field trip, then cancels two days out. A member pays twice for the same renewal. A family buys timed tickets, can’t come, and asks if the money can “sit on their account” for a later visit. Each time, someone at the desk asks the same thing: how do I put
How to Adjust a Gift Made Through an Altru Online Donation Form
A donor gives $100 through your website and checks the box for the education fund, but meant the general fund. Another donor’s gift lands on a brand-new constituent record because they typed a work email. A third calls to say they fat-fingered $1,000 instead of $100. All three are “adjust the online gift” problems in
How to Adjust a Gift Aid Gift in Altru After It Has Been Claimed
A donor calls three weeks after your Gift Aid claim went to HMRC. Their £50 gift should have been £20, or the card payment was disputed, or it turns out they were never a UK taxpayer. The gift is already marked as claimed in Altru, and now the record and the claim disagree. This is
How to Project Pledge Installments by Month in Altru
The finance director wants a simple number: how much pledged money should come in each month for the next year? Altru has the information. Each pledge holds an installment schedule with dates and amounts. What Altru doesn’t obviously give you is one report that lays those future installments out by month. In most databases you
How to Run a Pledge Report or Pledge Export in Altru
Pledges are where finance and development tend to disagree about the numbers. Development wants to know who committed what. Finance wants to know what has actually come in and what’s still owed. A good pledge report answers both questions. Altru can get you there, though usually through a query you build yourself rather than a
How to Edit a Pledge in Altru Without Breaking Your Revenue Records
Editing a pledge in Altru is easy right up until money has moved against it. A pledge with no payments and nothing posted can usually be changed freely. A pledge with installments paid, a payment schedule in motion, or revenue already sent to your general ledger has to be handled more carefully, because what you
