How-to
How to Record a One-Time Gift From a Member in Altru
A family renews at the Household level, then hands the cashier an extra $100 “for the animals.” Or a long-time member mails a check in December with a note that says nothing about their membership at all. Both are one-time gifts from a member, and both are easy to record in a way that blurs
How to Handle Donated Memberships for Raffles and Auctions in Altru
Every spring the letters arrive: a school PTA, a rotary club, a hospice gala, each asking whether you’d donate a family membership to their raffle or silent auction. Saying yes is easy. Recording it in Altru so that finance, the membership team, and whoever eventually walks up to the desk with a certificate all see
How to Count Part of a Membership Sale as a Donation in Altru
“Count part of the membership as a donation” can mean three different things, and each one gets solved somewhere different. Before you change anything in Altru, figure out which of these your finance, development, or membership lead actually wants: A tax-deductible portion on the receipt. The member paid $150, the benefits are worth less than
How to Remove Defunct Membership Benefits in Altru Without Losing History
The reciprocal network you dropped three years ago. The parking pass that went away when the lot was sold. The “two free guest passes” that turned into “one guest pass” during the last price change. Old membership benefits tend to hang around in Altru long after they stop existing in real life, and they cause
How to Link Free Guest Tickets to Membership Levels in Altru
Your Family level includes two free guest passes a year. Your Patron level includes unlimited guests on every visit. Your Individual level includes none. On paper this is simple. In practice, the cashier has to know which member is in front of them, which level they hold, how many guest tickets they’ve already used, and
How to Give Guest Passes With Altru E-Memberships
When a member had a plastic card, the guest pass was easy to picture: a paper voucher in the welcome packet, or a line printed on the card saying “+2 guests.” Once memberships are sold online and delivered by email, that piece of paper goes away. The benefit still exists in your membership brochure, but
How to Set Up a Nanny or Caregiver Pass in Blackbaud Altru
A nanny pass (some places call it a caregiver pass or an additional adult option) lets a member family send the kids with a nanny, au pair, or grandparent who isn’t on the household record. Members ask for it constantly at zoos, children’s museums, and gardens, and the people who ask are usually your most
How to Set Up Library and Organization Memberships in Altru
A public library buys a museum pass. Over the next twelve months, dozens of different families check that one pass out, walk up to your admissions desk, and hand over a card with the library’s name on it. Then the library’s coordinator emails asking how many people used it, and renewal comes with a purchase
How to Set Up Lifetime Memberships in Blackbaud Altru
A lifetime membership sounds simple: someone pays once and never renews. In Altru, the hard part isn’t selling it. It’s everything that assumes members expire. That includes renewal notices, lapse reports, card printing, retention numbers and the scan at the door. Getting it right takes a few decisions before anyone builds a level. Start with
How to Set Up Summer or Short-Term Memberships in Altru
A summer pass for local families. A three-month membership for visiting researchers. A month-to-month option for people who balk at a full year up front. Each one sounds simple until you sit down to build it in Altru, where the membership setup assumes, by default, that people join for a year and renew for a
