A board member walks up to the desk and says the director promised her neighbor $15 off a family membership. For an admission ticket, the cashier would pick the adjustable discount, type in 15, and be done. For a membership, that discount often doesn’t show up as an option, or it shows up and doesn’t change the total. Now there’s a line and nobody knows what to do.
This article explains why that happens, how to check what your own Altru setup allows, and the workarounds that hold up when finance reviews the books later.
Why the discount doesn’t reach the membership
In Altru, discounts are configured as their own records and tied to the kinds of items they can apply to. Ticket and merchandise discounts are the common case, and adjustable discounts (where staff enter the amount at the point of sale) are mostly used for admission. Memberships run on a different setup. Their prices come from the membership program, its levels, and its terms, and a sale-time discount doesn’t always hook into that pricing the same way it does for a ticket price.
So the gap is usually not a cashier error. A discount that works for tickets just may not be eligible for membership items in your configuration, and an adjustable discount especially may not be offered on a membership line at all.
Behavior can depend on your Altru version and how the discount was set up. Don’t take anyone’s word for it, ours included. Test it before you write a policy around it.
Check what your setup actually does
- Open the discount record and look at what it applies to. Note whether memberships are listed as an eligible item type or if the discount is limited to tickets and merchandise.
- Run a test sale in daily sales (use a test constituent and void it after) with a membership in the cart and try to apply the discount. Write down exactly what happens: no option, an option with no effect, or a working discount.
- Try the same membership on your web form if you sell memberships online, since web and desk behavior don’t always match.
- If results are unclear, ask Blackbaud support whether adjustable discounts can be applied to memberships in your version. Give them the steps you took in the test sale so they can tell you whether it’s a configuration issue or a limitation.
Workarounds that hold up
None of these is as quick as typing an amount into a box. Each one does leave a clear record, which matters more for memberships than for tickets because the money affects renewal pricing, giving history, and revenue reporting.
1. Build the discount into the price
If the discount is recurring and predictable (educators, seniors, military, a partner organization), make it a real price instead of a sale-time adjustment. Depending on how your program is structured, that might be a separate level or a separate term with its own price. A “Family – Educator” level at the reduced rate shows up in reports, and you can count how many you sold without searching transaction notes.
The tradeoff is clutter. Every extra level is another thing to maintain at renewal time, and another option a seasonal cashier can pick by mistake. Keep the list short and name the levels clearly.
2. Use fixed discounts for the common cases
If your testing shows that a fixed discount can apply to memberships even though an adjustable one can’t, create a few fixed discounts for the amounts you actually give: 10% off for a promotion, $20 off for an event. You lose the flexibility of typing any amount. You get consistency, and the discount name tells you why the price changed.
3. Handle true one-offs with a documented approval
For the occasional “the director promised” situation, decide ahead of time who can approve a reduced membership and how it gets recorded. Options vary by setup. Some organizations keep a single reduced-price level for manager-approved exceptions, and others sell at full price with a separate comp or adjustment processed under their normal refund rules. Whatever you choose, require a constituent note or attribute that says who approved it and why. Without one, nobody can explain the odd price at renewal time.
4. Rethink whether it should be a discount at all
Some “discounts” are really something else. If a donor is covering part of someone’s membership, record the gift as a gift. If a corporate partner gets memberships for its employees, that may fit better as a group or partner arrangement than as dozens of discounted desk sales. Getting the transaction type right keeps revenue reporting honest.
Talk to finance before you pick
Ask how membership revenue and discounts post in your setup before you decide on an approach. A reduced level shows up as lower membership revenue. A discount may be tracked separately, and a full-price sale followed by an adjustment produces two entries someone has to reconcile. Finance usually has a preference, and it’s easier to build around that preference now than to reclassify a year of transactions later.
Close the loop at renewal
One problem specific to memberships: the renewal notice. A member who joined at a reduced rate will compare next year’s renewal price to what they paid last year. Decide now whether discounted members renew at the discounted rate or at full price, and make sure your renewal letters and emails say the same thing. A short query of members on reduced levels or with your approval attribute gives you the list to check before renewal notices go out.
Quick answers
Is the adjustable discount broken?
Probably not. It’s most likely set up for tickets and not eligible for membership items. Check the discount’s configuration and run a test sale to confirm.
Can staff just override the membership price?
That depends on your version and on user security settings. Test it with a non-admin login before you count on it, and if it works, limit it to roles that should have it.
