The short answer: you usually can’t. Altru expects a constituent who has any addresses on file to have one of them marked primary, so the primary checkbox behaves more like a radio button than a toggle. You don’t turn it off. You move it to a different address, or you deal with the current address in a way that makes it stop being used.
Which route is right depends on why you wanted to uncheck it in the first place. Here are the common reasons and what to do in each case.
Why the checkbox won’t clear
The primary address is what Altru falls back on almost everywhere: mailing lists, acknowledgment letters, membership cards, receipts, queries that pull “address” without further qualification, and exports to mail houses. If a constituent with addresses had no primary at all, every one of those processes would have to guess. So the design is that only one address holds the flag, and the way to take it away from one address is to give it to another.
If you open the address and the primary option is grayed out or ignores your click, that is expected behavior, not a permissions problem. It’s worth confirming in your own database, though, since configuration and version can affect what you see. A quick test on a dummy constituent (or in a sandbox, if you have one) will settle it in a minute.
Pick the fix that matches the situation
The constituent moved and gave you a new address
Add the new address and mark it as primary. The old address loses the flag automatically. Then decide what to do with the old one: keep it as a non-primary record for history, or retire it (see below) so it can’t sneak back into a mailing. Keeping it is usually better than deleting it, because past gift receipts and membership mailings were sent there and someone may need to explain that later.
The address is bad and you have nothing to replace it with
This is where most people get stuck, because there is no other address to promote. Your options:
- Retire the address rather than unflag it. Altru addresses can generally be given an end date or marked as no longer current, and many organizations also use a “do not mail” style setting on the address. Check what your address form offers and use whichever option your mailing queries already respect.
- Delete the address if it was entered in error and has no history worth keeping (a typo, a test entry, an address attached to the wrong person). With no addresses left, there is nothing to be primary.
- Add a mail-suppression solicit code or similar flag at the constituent level if your team uses those to pull people out of mailings until a good address turns up.
Whatever you choose, test it. Run the query or mailing selection you actually use for appeals and renewals and confirm the constituent drops out. An address that still carries the primary flag but is marked “do not mail” only helps if your selections check that setting.
The wrong address is primary for part of the year
Seasonal residents are a common source of this question. Rather than flipping the primary flag twice a year, look at whether your address type and date options let you record the seasonal address with a date range. If you’re not sure Altru will automatically treat a seasonal address as preferred during its window, don’t assume it does. Check with Blackbaud support or test it on a sample record before you rely on it for a mailing.
The primary address is really the household’s address
When individuals are members of a household, addresses can be shared between the household and its members. Changing the primary on one person may not change it for everyone, or it may change more than you expected. Before editing, look at whether the address is shared and from which record. If a couple separates and one person moves out, add that person’s new address on their own record and make it primary there, and leave the household record alone until you’ve sorted out the household membership itself.
Things to check before you change anything
- Open membership or pending fulfillment. If a membership card, ticket mailing, or acknowledgment is about to go out, changing the primary address changes where it goes.
- Duplicates. If you’re fixing an address because the person shows up twice with different addresses, merge the duplicate constituents first. Otherwise you’ll fix one record and the other will keep mailing.
- Who else touches addresses. Web form transactions and imports can add or update addresses. If the “wrong” primary keeps coming back, the source may be an online purchase or a batch import that overwrites what staff entered.
Make it a written rule
Address handling drifts when every staff member improvises. A short internal note saves a lot of cleanup:
- New address received: add it, make it primary, keep the old one as history.
- Returned mail with no new address: retire or suppress the address the same way every time, and note the date and reason on the record.
- Entered on the wrong person: delete it, then add it to the right constituent.
Once everyone follows the same steps, your mailing queries can be built around one consistent signal instead of three different workarounds.
Quick answers
Can a constituent have no primary address?
Only if they have no addresses at all. As long as at least one address exists, expect Altru to keep one of them as primary.
Does deleting the primary address promote another one?
It may, or Altru may ask you to choose. Behavior can vary, so if the constituent has several addresses, set the new primary yourself first and then remove the old one. That way you control which address takes over.
