A longtime member moves across town, changes her email, and renews online. She types the new address and new email into your web form, pays, and assumes you’re up to date. Three weeks later her renewal reminder goes to the old inbox, and her card goes to the old address.
That gap between “the patron told us” and “Altru knows” is one of the most common data quality problems in Altru. This guide covers why it happens, how to check what your setup actually does, and how to build a routine so new contact details from web forms end up as the primary info on the right constituent record.
Why new web form details don’t always become primary
When someone submits a web form, Altru has to decide two things: who this person is, and what to do with any details that differ from what’s already on file. Those are separate questions, and most of the trouble comes from mixing them up.
- Matching. If the patron uses a new email, a nickname, or a different spelling, Altru may not recognize them as an existing constituent. The result is often a brand-new constituent record holding the fresh details, while the old record keeps the outdated ones. Now you have a duplicate, and neither record is fully right.
- Updating. Even when the match succeeds, a new address or email may be added to the record without being set as primary, or it may not be written to the record at all. Which of these happens depends on how your Altru environment and forms are configured, and the behavior isn’t always obvious from the form settings alone.
We’d rather be plain about this: there isn’t a single well-documented switch in Altru that says “always make web form contact info primary.” If you need certainty about how your forms handle it, test it rather than assume.
Find out what your forms actually do
Before changing any process, run a controlled test. A sandbox environment is best; if you don’t have one, use a clearly labeled test constituent in production and clean it up afterward.
- Create a test constituent with a known address, email, and phone.
- Submit each of your main web forms (membership, donation, ticket purchase) as that person, using a new email and address but the same name.
- Repeat once using the same email but a new address.
- Check the results in Altru. Did it create a second constituent? Did the new details land on the existing record? Are they marked primary, or added as secondary entries?
Write down what you find for each form. The membership form and the donation form don’t always behave the same way, and the answer drives everything that follows. If the results don’t match what you expected, Blackbaud support can confirm whether you’re seeing intended behavior or a configuration issue.
Build a review routine around the gaps
Once you know where updates fall through, you can catch them on a schedule instead of waiting for returned mail.
Query for recently added contact info that isn’t primary
Build a constituent query that returns records where an address or email was added in the last week (or since your last review) but the primary address or email is older. Add the transaction date and source if you can, so you can see that the change came from an online purchase. Reviewing that list weekly and promoting the new details to primary takes a few minutes once the query exists.
Query for new constituents created online
A second query for constituents created from web transactions in the same period, with name and ZIP or phone in the output, makes likely duplicates easy to spot. Sort by last name and look for pairs.
Decide who wins when details conflict
Agree on a simple rule and write it down. Many organizations go with “the most recent information the patron entered themselves is primary,” with exceptions for things like a household address a staff member confirmed by phone. Without a rule, two staff members will resolve the same conflict differently.
Keep the old details, mark them inactive
When you promote a new address, end-date or mark the previous one inactive rather than deleting it. That history helps when mail comes back, when a household splits, or when a donor asks why they got something at an old address.
Reduce the problem at the front of the form
- Ask returning patrons to sign in or look themselves up where your forms support it, so the transaction attaches to the existing record before they type anything.
- Add a short note near the contact fields, such as “Moved recently? Enter your current address and we’ll update your record.” It sets expectations and makes staff review easier to justify.
- Train desk staff to ask “Is this still your best email?” during in-person renewals. Updating at the counter avoids creating a second version of the person later.
Cleaning up the duplicates that already exist
If your test showed that new emails tend to create new constituents, you probably already have a backlog of split records: one with the giving and membership history, one with the current contact details. Merging those, and making sure the surviving record keeps the newest address and email as primary, is the real fix. Social Good’s Deduper is built for this step: it finds duplicate constituent and email records in Altru so you can fix them, rather than hunting for pairs by hand in query results.
Quick answers
Will Altru automatically overwrite primary contact info from a web form?
Don’t count on it. Behavior depends on matching and configuration, and it can differ by form. Test each form and confirm with Blackbaud support if the results are unclear.
Should I just make every new web entry primary in bulk?
Review first. A mistyped email or a gift purchased for someone else can overwrite good data. A short weekly review catches those before they spread.
