A longtime supporter calls to renew at a patron level and says, “I don’t need the passes or the magazine. Just make the whole thing deductible.” It’s a reasonable ask, and a common one among donors who give through a donor-advised fund, a family foundation, or who simply never visit. The question is how to record it in Altru so that the receipt, the benefits, and your reports all agree.
Short version: Altru doesn’t give you an obvious “waive benefits” checkbox on a membership sale that we can point to with confidence. You handle it through how you set up the level or the transaction, plus some follow-through outside the sale itself. Below are the options, the tradeoffs, and the parts people tend to miss.
Why this matters before you touch Altru
In the U.S., when a donor gets something back for a payment, only the amount above the fair market value of what they received is deductible. Once a payment is over $75 and includes goods or services, you generally owe the donor a written statement with a good-faith estimate of that value. A member who declines benefits is asking you to state that nothing was provided, so the full amount is a contribution.
Two points worth knowing:
- The decline has to be real. If the donor still gets a card and uses free admission, you haven’t actually withheld anything. Your process needs to stop the benefits, not just change the receipt.
- Some low-cost membership perks can be disregarded anyway. IRS guidance lets organizations ignore certain routine membership privileges (like free admission or shop discounts) at lower membership prices. Whether that applies to your levels is a question for your finance team or tax advisor, not something to decide at the front desk.
Three ways to record it in Altru
1. A dedicated “benefits declined” level
Add a level (or a parallel set of levels) within your membership program, such as “Patron – Benefits Declined,” priced the same as the regular level but with no benefits attached and a fair market value of zero. Staff sell that level instead of the standard one.
- Good: the person still counts as a member, keeps renewal history, and shows up in membership reports. You can query the level by name to find everyone who declined.
- Watch for: card printing, member-event invitations, and renewal mailings that are built off “all active members” will still include these people unless you filter the level out. Check every query that feeds a benefit.
2. Record it as a donation, not a membership
Take the payment as a straight gift. The receipt is clean and fully deductible.
- Good: simplest for acknowledgments and the least room for error on the tax side.
- Watch for: the donor drops out of your membership counts, renewal reminders, and “member since” history. If they renew next year as a regular member, it will look like a new join. Many organizations don’t want that for their most loyal supporters.
3. Keep the regular level and flag the record
Sell the normal level, then mark the constituent with an attribute, note, or solicit code that says benefits were declined, and adjust the acknowledgment accordingly.
- Good: no configuration changes.
- Watch for: the revenue record still reflects a membership with benefits, so your data and your receipt disagree. This is the weakest option for an audit and relies on every staff member remembering to check the flag.
For most organizations, option 1 is the best balance. Before you build it, set it up in a sandbox or test environment and confirm how Altru treats the deductible amount and benefits on that level. If you’re not sure how benefit values flow into your acknowledgment letters, Blackbaud support can confirm for your version.
The follow-through checklist
Whatever you choose, the sale is only half the job. Before you offer this to donors, walk your process end to end:
- Acknowledgment letter. Make sure the letter for these gifts states that no goods or services were provided, and that it doesn’t pull in a standard benefit value by default.
- Membership card. Exclude the declined level or flagged records from card production, including any digital card process.
- Admission at the door. Decide what desk staff do if a “declined” member shows up. Usually they pay admission like anyone else. Write that down.
- Mailed benefits. Remove these records from magazine, newsletter-as-benefit, and gift fulfillment lists.
- Member events. Decide whether invitations count as a benefit for your organization and filter accordingly.
- Renewals. Renewal notices should offer the declined level again, not quietly switch the donor back to the standard level with benefits.
- Online sales. If you want donors to choose this themselves, check whether your web forms can show the declined level as a separate option. If they can’t, keep it a staff-assisted transaction.
Train for the conversation
Donors often ask about this by phone, and the person who answers may be a seasonal hire. Give them one line: “We can record your membership with benefits declined so the full amount is a contribution. You won’t receive a card or free admission.” Then route the actual transaction to whoever owns membership data. That keeps the records consistent and avoids a donor being told “sure” and then receiving a card in the mail.
Quick answers
Can a member waive benefits partway through their term?
You can change their level or flag the record going forward, but whether that changes the deductible amount for a payment already made is a tax question. Check with your finance team before reissuing any receipt.
Should the declined level cost less?
No. The point is that the donor pays the full amount and receives nothing back. Price it the same as the matching standard level.
Will declined members skew our membership reports?
Only if you want them to. With a separate level, you can include or exclude them in any report by filtering on the level name.
