How-to
How to Handle a Donor Organization Name Change in Altru
A check arrives from “Riverbend Community Health Partners.” Nobody on staff recognizes the name, so whoever processes it creates a new organization record in Altru. Three months later someone notices that Riverbend is the same foundation that has given to you for a decade under its old name, and now its giving history is split
How to Add Descriptions and Extra Info to Constituents in Altru
Every constituent record eventually collects information that doesn’t fit the standard fields: “Board chair’s spouse, prefers no phone calls.” “Local school district, books field trips through the curriculum office.” “Lent us the 1890s quilt collection.” Staff want somewhere to put that, and in Altru there are a few places it can go. Which one you
How to Track Promotional Swag and Giveaways in Altru
The tote bags went out at the spring member preview. The enamel pins went to donors at the gala. Six months later, someone in development asks, “Did the Garcias already get a pin, or should we send one with their thank-you note?” And nobody can answer without digging through a spreadsheet that lived on a
How to Restrict Who Can Edit Code Tables in Altru
Someone adds “Gift Shop – NEW” to a code table on a Tuesday afternoon. By Friday it shows up in three dropdowns, a report filter is quietly missing half the revenue it used to catch, and nobody remembers creating it. Code tables are small, but they feed queries, reports, web forms, and every dropdown your
Altru Action Types: What Belongs in Your List and How to Clean It Up
Open the action type list in almost any Altru database that has been live for a few years and you’ll find some version of this: “Phone Call,” “Phone call,” “Call – Membership,” “Called donor,” “Misc,” and a type someone created for a single event in 2019. Nobody planned it that way. Each entry made sense
How to Set Up Constituent Note Types in Altru That Staff Will Use
Open a few constituent records in an older Altru database and you’ll usually find the same thing: a dozen notes, all typed “General,” some saying “called about parking,” others recording that a donor never wants a phone call again. The information is there. Nobody can find it, sort it, or pull it into a list.
Who Should Be Added as a Constituent in Altru (and What to Log)
Every Altru database eventually hits the same fork. One camp wants a constituent record for every person who walks through the door, so nobody is ever “lost.” The other camp wants records only for members and donors, so the database stays clean. Both camps are partly right, and the database ends up reflecting whichever person
How to Use Constituency Codes in Altru (and Find Current Constituents)
Constituency codes answer one simple question about a person or organization in Altru: what is their relationship to us? Trustee, docent, vendor, corporate partner, teacher, press. Used well, they make lists and reports fast to build. Used loosely, they turn into a junk drawer that nobody trusts. This guide covers how they work, how to
How to Flag a Banned Visitor in Altru So Front-Desk Staff See It
Sooner or later every attraction has to tell someone they can’t come back. Maybe it was harassment of staff, a theft from the gift shop, or a repeated safety problem near the animals. Leadership makes the call, and then someone asks the admin: “Can we put that in Altru so the desk knows?” You can,
How to Store Birth Year in Altru Without a Full Date of Birth
Plenty of organizations want to know roughly how old their visitors and members are without asking for a full date of birth. A senior discount, a youth program with an age cutoff, a grant report that breaks attendance down by age group: all of those need a year, not a birthday. Asking for less is
