Do you want to know what enhancements and additional features are coming next? Mark your calendars for the Altru Roadmap Call – Thursday, April 30^th  at 1:00pm EST!

Join Altru Product Managers to see what we have planned for the remainder of 2015.  Don’t miss updates on exciting initiatives like responsive web form design and new integrated Target Analytics tools. There are plenty of great features to come, and we think you’re going to like what’s in store.

Stick around for the Q&A session where we’ll candidly answer all of your product questions.  We take customer feedback seriously – we’ve already implemented over 115 Altru Community ideas!

Register now for the Altru Roadmap webinar!

In a few days, you’ll find new features included in your Altru™ subscription designed to increase efficiency and add functionality. Visit the Altru New Features page to get all the information and guidance you need to begin using the new features right away.

The theme of this release is training and ticket printing! Here are some highlights:

• Walkthroughs: Have you ever forgotten how to complete a task in Altru that you haven’t done in a while? Or wanted to learn a new task, but weren’t sure of the right steps? With a click of a button, our new walkthrough feature will guide you step-by-step through tasks, directly in the product. Altru release 4.2 includes walkthroughs for over 30 tasks, and more are on their way! Walkthroughs are accessible from the help panel and also from special launchers placed throughout Altru, near the tasks you might be attempting to complete – just look for the green man icon!

• Custom Ticket Templates: You can now customize ticket document templates in a vector graphics software program. This allows you to both change the layout of an existing default ticket template and design a completely new template in Scalable Vector Graphics (.svg) files. This change also provides faster printing, helping you move customers through the ticket lines faster!

Warning: To avoid disruptions in printing sales receipts and tickets, you must update the ActiveX Control add-on for Internet Explorer on the Blackbaud Altru Workstation Interface. Please follow these instructions. However, please wait to update workstations used for batch printing until after the 4.2 upgrade.

Installing the files will take approximately 15 seconds per work station.

• Credit Card Receipts: To help you save time and resources, Altru no longer automatically prints the extra credit card copy for credit card payments. Instead, Altru will print the signature copy for your records and the itemized copy for guests, with an option to reprint either receipt from the sales order.

We are thrilled to release this new functionality to you and always welcome your feedback.

Last month, I celebrated a year in the Altru Education Lead position. It’s crazy how time flies. I’ve learned a lot in a year. I’ve learned more about what Altru users struggle with, more about the importance of ease of accessibility of training resources, and more about how quickly (or not quickly) we are able to release new content that our users need. I’ve also learned even more about how to best use Altru. (I hope you have too!)

As year two gets under way, our users will continue to see the release of new content and easier ways to navigate our resources. We’ve got some long term projects under way as well that I’m hoping we’ll be able to reveal more about throughout the year and maybe even release to you in late 2015.

It’s been a good year and I’m glad to reflect on what’s been accomplished and why I do the job. Every day I come to work because I know that what I do has a positive impact on our customers and through them the communities that they serve.

I’d love to hear from you what you think of what we’ve done this past 12 months and where you think we need to continue to improve. Drop us a note any time on the Altru Community tagged with the category Training.

And now for your regularly scheduled list of instructor-led trainings in May:

Altru Masters Workshop: Tips & Tricks for Constituent Record Maintenance: Duplicate Prevention and Management – May 6th – 1-2pm ET – Register here

In the one-hour instructor-led Masters Workshop, take a step toward learning to manage your database like a pro. Learn how to help prevent and manage duplicates, search for and update erroneous or missing data, and create processes to save time doing all of it!

Altru Masters Workshop: Tips & Tricks for Constituent Record Maintenance – Constituent Update Batch & Global Change – May 6th – 3-4pm ET – Register here

In this one-hour instructor-led online Masters Workshop, we will explore two common and powerful database update tools available in Altru, global change and constituent update batch. Discover how to correct data mistakes in your system, when to use each tool, and how to avoid common stumbling blocks while cleaning your records. Familiarity with Batch in Altru is recommended before attending this class.

Altru Masters Workshop: Using Group Sales for Facility Rental – May 7th – 1-2pm ET – Register here

Facility Rentals have a growing presence in Arts & Cultural operations. It is difficult to find an institution that is not providing some resources to the local community by offering its premises and services for rental. While Altru does share the Facility Rental processes with Group Sales, these are distinct operations and this one-hour instructor-led Masters Workshop will review these differences and how the Facility Rental team at your organization can take full advantage of Altru to efficiently manage operations. We will identify key configuration elements and how the group sales process can be aligned to the unique needs of facility rentals.

Altru Masters Workshop: Increasing Membership Renewals Through Online Sales – May 11th – 2-3pm ET – Register here

In this one-hour instructor-led online event, we will discuss how to send email renewal notices with a direct link for a member to renew/upgrade their membership. We will also discuss the importance of driving Members to register for the web to receive special discounts and rates for tickets.

Altru Masters Workshop: Tips and Tricks for Constituent Record Maintenance – May 19th – 1-2pm ET – Register here

Want to figure out why you keep mailing “Mr. Jones and Jones”? Wondering what to do if you are in your own database three times? This one-hour instructor-led online event will help you better understand the tools in Altru to help keep away the dust bunnies and make sure your database is an accurate record of your supporters. Prerequisites for this class: Introduction to Altru and Query 101 in Altru.

Altru Masters Workshop: Converting Visitors into Members – June 4th – 1-2pm ET – Register here

Memberships are an important component of an Arts & Cultural organization’s “community”. More than just a revenue stream, they are a key component of event participation, loyalty, and championing the mission of the organization. During this one-hour instructor-led workshop we shall investigate what opportunities organizations have to leverage Altru to develop a strategy and implement features such as appeals, events, and discounts to recruit visitors into becoming members.

Did you know?

While these are special Masters Workshop sessions are run live only once or twice a year, we record them whenever possible and post the recording and a copy of the class materials on our website. Check out the past Masters Workshops.

And as always, we have our regularly scheduled classes:

Appeals & Mailings 101 – May 15, 27
Batch 101 – May 1, 26
Daily Financial Reconciliation – May 13, 26
General Sales 101 – May 5, 21
Introduction to Altru – May 4, 19
Managing Group Sales Reservations – May 8, 22
Membership Setup 101 – May 8, 18
Merchandise 101 – May 12
Query 101 – May 14, 29
Query 201 – May 15, 28
Revenue 101 – May 4, 20
Ticketing Setup 101 – May 8, 20
Web Forms 101 – May 12, 29

There’s an idea in our User Community to be able to customize the ticket template.  I’m going to paraphrase, but users were asking for the ability to print their organization name on tickets, change the font size, or make other cosmetic changes as wanted.  It’s with my pleasure that I get to announce that we have taken that idea and implemented in the upcoming Altru 4.2 release.

With this update, you’ll now be able to customize the ticket document in Altru.  You can now customize ticket document templates in a vector graphics software program. This allows you to both change the layout of an existing default ticket template and design a completely new template in Scalable Vector Graphics (.svg) files. This change also provides faster printing, helping you move customers through the ticket lines faster!

Additionally, if you need to, you can make different versions of the ticket document for different programs.

Wanna see how?   Watch of a video Creating Custom Ticket Templates in Altru

For step by step instructions, review the New Feature Guide and go to the chapter on Tickets.

Tips and tricks:

• Based on my testing, I recommend the Inkscape editor.  I’ve used this to create several ticket templates.
• Most vector graphics software programs will work to make ticket templates.
• When designing a ticket template, always use Landscape format or the ticket will appear rotated and stretched.

If you’re an Altru user who needs to go beyond the standard report on discounts being used, I may be able to help. When running your discount report, you may want to break it down a little further and find out how many times a discount is being used for each price type in a given period of time.

Below, I have outlined the steps needed to build a query on discounts by price type.

1. First go to Analysis > Information Library. Click Add an ad-hoc query and select Sales order as the source view.

2. Delete the Lookup ID from the Results fields to display:

3. Select Sales Orders on the left side and move the Transaction date field from the middle column to the Include records where: This is where you will enter your date or date range.4. Expand Sales Order Item, then select Sales Order Item Discount. Move the Discount name field from the middle column to the Include record where: section. This is where you will select the discount(s) that you would like to analyze.

5. Move the Discount name field from the middle column to the Results fields to display: section and click the abc with pencil icon to give this field a friendly display name like “Discount Name.”

6. Move the Number of discounts field from the middle column to the Results fields to display: section.
7. Select the newly added Number of discounts field in the lower right, then click the ∑ icon above and select SUM. Also click the abc icon to give this field a friendly display name like “Number of Discounts.”8. The last step is to select Sales Order Item from the leftmost column, then from the middle column, move the Description field to the lower right. You could also give this field a friendly display name as well, such as “Discounted Price Type.”
9. Now go to the Preview results tab and take a look.

Below is an example of what the final query looks like.

We are very excited to announce that we have entered the beta testing stage for our brand new Knowledgebase!

What’s new and exciting about Knowledgebase?

• No more login! You no longer have to log in to blackbaud.com to search for answers.
• Knowledgebase now includes product documentation and YouTube videos in addition to articles.
• Knowledgebase is now powered with better search capabilities – use keywords, phrases, filters and search suggestions you as type.

We’d like to invite you to test the new Knowledgebase and share your feedback. Are you ready to check it out? It’s easy as pie!

1. Go to our new Knowledgebase Preview Page: https://www.blackbaud.com/knowledgebase/kbpreview.aspx
2. Click the Knowledgebase Help button for instructions, tips and tricks.
3. Click the Knowledgebase Preview button.
4. Click the Knowledgebase Survey button to let us know what you think. Your feedback is important so take the survey as often as you’d like. We review all feedback so we know where to improve.

Please contact us if you have any questions or need assistance during this process. We’re excited to move forward with our new Knowledgebase and hope you are too!

Have you ever called or chatted into support and received news that the issue you reported is not working as designed? At some point, no matter how long you work with a particular software you will run across something that may not be working as intended or designed. In the Altru world, we call these bugs.

Today, we want to share with you our internal policies and procedures about how we handle bugs. The good news is that big changes are coming this year (based on your feedback) that will impact both you and your organization…in a great way! Our hope is that by sharing this information, there will be less confusion and more transparency in the way we do things.

When it comes to filing a bug there are a lot of moving parts. Whether it’s something that’s not working at designed or it’s a feature request, our team treats them all with the utmost urgency and priority. Here at the top 4 questions when it comes to bugs in Altru.

1. How do you know when something is a bug?

It’s not always the easiest to tell if something is not working as designed. Our support team is trained to lookout for these types of issues, so you’re in good hands! Here are some key things to look out for when you think you’ve stumbled upon a bug:

• Configuration is key! Many times issues can be mistaken for bugs if the configuration is off. If the configuration is correct and the issue is still occurring, it’s likely a bug.
• Filtering – Are there items missing from system generated reports or lists? If you’ve checked and cleared the filters and data is still missing, this is an indication of a bug.
• Errors – anytime you see an error that has XML, SQL, overflow, subquery, Server Error, file could not be downloaded, etc you probably have a bug on your hands.
• If something is functioning in a completely different way than you expected, this could also be a bug.

If you are ever unsure, it’s best to create a case with our team. We are happy to look into it. It’s likely something we’ve seen before and we will be able to fix it in a short call! Also, Knowledgebase is a great resource to search and find known issues and featured workarounds.

2. What information is needed to file a bug?

Once we’ve determined that something is not working as designed, there is specific information the support team needs in order to file the issue with product development. The first and most important are the steps to duplicate. We need to know what steps were taken before the issue occurred. These steps are critical for our R&D teams to find the issue and ultimately develop a fix.  It can take anywhere from 1-3 days to get a bug filed and this is dependent on the required information needed. To help us out, make sure to have this information handy when talking to a support analyst:

• Altru version
• Brief description of the problem
• Browser version (Ex. Internet Explorer 11)
• Video or screenshots
• Customer Authorization Form

3. How long does it take to get bugs fixed?

We generally expect the turnaround for resolution to be in our next release. Our releases are bi-monthly so the timeline for a resolution is usually between 45-60 days. However, if we believe that your issue is data related, we generally expect a quicker resolution since we do not have to roll out a fix to all our clients. We also take the severity and priority of bugs into consideration when planning the fixes. If we believe a bug to be high priority, we rank the bug as such and communicate that it is a “must fix”. This often means it’s guaranteed to be in the next release (if not sooner) and our product development team will drop everything and begin working on that specific issue. Our product development team is committed to working around the clock for critical issues that prevent sales from occurring or when something is down.

4. What is our notification process for bugs?

The bug notification process is a bit different than a normal problem/how-to support case. For a normal support case, the support team contacts customers every 2 days. However, once we’ve determined something is a bug the communication process is a bit different. Starting in the 2^nd half of 2015, you will start getting updates/notifications of open bugs every month! We think this will help to keep you informed and up to date on the time to resolution and what items are still outstanding. You will also be notified via Case Central for any bugs that are fixed in a release. With every release, we drop new features but we also fix lots of bugs. If your organization reported a bug that’s being fixed in a release, the contact on the case will be notified.

Inevitably, there is always data entry and data clean up to do in your databases. Committing time to getting this done is very important—after all, our data is the lifeblood of our organization! One tool in Altru to help you get this done (and get this done right!) is the Constituent Update Batch. Here are three of my favorite tips for using Constituent Update Batch to your advantage!

1. Create Templates for Common Edits or Clean Up Tasks

As you know, when you’re working in Batch, you have the option to Customize Fields in each batch:
If you find yourself, clicking this button and adding the same fields each time, you may want to consider editing your batch template—or better yet, creating a new Constituent Update Batch Template for your common tasks.

Here are the steps:

1. Go to Revenue > Batch Entry
2. Click Batch Templates from the left menu under Configuration
3. Click the drop down arrows beside your Constituent Update Batch Template and click Copy:
   
4. Altru will prompt you to name your new template:
5. Once your template is saved, you can edit the template to include only the fields you need. In this example, I created a new batch template to indicate constituents would like to receive an Email Newsletter. I only want to include Name, Email Address, and an Attribute indicating they signed up for my newsletter:
   You can also add default values—for example, here I’ve set the default attribute value to Yes:
   

Setting these templates and field defaults in advance, can help save you time—especially if you have a data entry or clean up task to complete frequently!

2. Use the Constituent Update Batch when Importing New Constituent Data

At my previous organization, we’d often get lists of constituent information from other organizations, departments, and trustees. This list was usually a blend of new information and information we already had. It would also usually involve me combing through the list to pick out the salient information that needed to be added to our database!

In Altru, thanks to the Constituent Update Batch, that process is much easier! If you use the Constituent Update Batch for your import or your batch entry, you can both add new records and update existing records.

The Batch also has duplicate matching built in—that means when you’re importing a list, Altru will alert you to a matching constituent and ask you what you’d like to do with the information you imported (for example, if you imported a new email address—do you want to add this as a new email address on the record? Or discard the information?)

3. Use Constituent Update Batch in Conjunction with Query and Import

Another great way to get clean up done quickly, is to export a list, do a mass-clean up in Excel, and re-import the list back in with a Constituent Update Batch. Here are a few things that we can update in Constituent Update Batch:

• Attributes
• Constituencies
• Titles
• Genders
• Gives Anonymously?
• Email Addresses
• Addresses
• Phone Numbers

One common request we get in Support is to clean up Titles. An easy thing to do is to export a list of individuals without Titles. Be sure to include First Name, Last Name, and Look Up ID. Marital Status and Gender is often helpful as well:
By exporting the list to Excel, you can sort the list:
Then use Excel to add the titles to multiple records:
You can then save this file as a CSV and use Import with the Batch type of Constituent Update to import this data back into Altru.

Want to learn more? We also have some other great resources on Batch and Import here:

• Knowledgebase: How to import records in Altru (includes video demo) (BB724017)
• Video: Batch Basics (7 minutes)
• User Guide: Batch and Import
• Coming Soon: Recording of the May 6th, 2015 Masters Workshop on Constituent Update Batch and Global Change. Find recordings of past Masters Workshops here.

Over the next month, we will have series of blog posts all related to Volunteer Management in Altru. We hope you’ll enjoy them. This is the first installment in that series.

One of the components I find interesting in the Volunteer module in Altru is the screening plan feature. This is because it reflects the overall functionality of the volunteer module – it has a level of flexibility that you can fine tune to match the features available to the needs of your organization.

So what is a screening plan? Basically it is the ability for you to confirm that a prospective volunteer has completed all the necessary steps to be eligible for certain assignments. A screening plan allows you to define those steps and keep track as the volunteer completes them.

Connecting Volunteer Jobs to Screening Plans
Let us first look at how screening plans relate to the volunteer jobs on offer. Every volunteer job is connected to a single volunteer type. A volunteer type is the capacity in which volunteers assist your organization. So, multiple volunteer jobs may be associated with a single volunteer type. We then connect this volunteer type to a single screening plan. This way you can see how a variety of volunteer jobs, all connected to a single volunteer type, link to a screening plan. Please note that you can also assign multiple volunteer types to a common screening plan as the sample screenshots below show. We can see a volunteer job connected to a specific volunteer type and in turn how multiple volunteer types can be associated with a single screening plan.

Connecting Volunteers to Screening Plans
When we assign a volunteer type to a volunteer’s record, Altru will automatically connect the screening plan associated with that volunteer type to this constituent’s record. As we can assign multiple volunteer types to a constituent, we have a catalog of screening plans for that constituent. We can keep track of the volunteer’s progress through the screening plan by clicking on the screening plan link and updating the status of a particular step (application form, interview, training materials, etc.) in the screening plan.
As they complete the screening plan, their status changes from Pending to Active and they qualify for jobs connected to that screening plan.

Managing Multiple Screening Plans
It is not unusual that volunteer recruitment be “seasonal.” This can result in a formal (or informal) cohort of volunteers completing various steps of their screening plan together. Altru has a convenient feature in Screenings and Expirations found within the Volunteer section on the Volunteer page. We can pull the list of volunteers that are connected to a particular screening plan, identify who is past due and update their status within this display making it easier to manage multiple screening plan status at one time.

Collaborating on Setting up Screening Plan Components
It is helpful if all the offices that use volunteers collaborate to determine all three components related to screening plans:  Volunteer Types, Screening Plan Steps, and Screening Plans. This allows for the avoidance of any unnecessary duplication and helps to also deliver operational efficiency.

If you haven’t checked out our new Knowledgebase, you’re missing out!

We want to hear from you! Your feedback will help us continue to shape your Knowledgebase experience. It’s easy as pie to get started:

1. Go to our new Knowledgebase Preview Page: https://www.blackbaud.com/knowledgebase/kbpreview.aspx
2. Click the Knowledgebase Help button for instructions, tips and tricks.
3. Click the Knowledgebase Preview button.
4. Click the Knowledgebase Survey button to let us know what you think. Your feedback is important so take the survey as often as you’d like. We review all feedback so we know where to improve.

Please contact us if you have any questions or need assistance during this process.

From building forts to Lego engineering to Knights & Fairies, Altru customers have it going on this summer, especially for kids! Most summer camps start around the 3^rd week of May and run through mid-August for ages 3-10. Members typically get a break in cost and are offered early bird rates & registration. Have multiple children? No problem, Altru customers are offering a wide variety of discounts for multi camp registration as well as sibling discounts.

There are also a number of adult programs going on this summer as well! From art studio classes to history lectures, there is something for everyone in the family!  Check out some of the “goings on” this summer in a location near you!

Hands on Children’s Museum – Olympia, WA

This year HOCM is featuring a mammoth-themed camp, farm-to-table, fabulous forts (yes, they will spend a week building forts) and WHODUNNIT (kids solving mysteries). Check out their website for more info!

Museum of History & Industry – Seattle, WA

MOHAI is featuring a number of camps for ages 3-6 from Seafaring Adventure Camp to Back to the Future Innovation Edition. They are launching two new camps this year on Game Design Basics and Coding and Computer Craft. Click here for more information on all camps. Better hurry, two are already sold out!

KidsQuest – Bellevue, WA

This year KidsQuest is offering 12 different summer camps for kids ages 3-8 and they are already 50% filled! Sign your kids up for a range of camps like Art Explorers I and II, Engineering Explorers, Lego Engineering I & II, CSI Science, Science Explorers I, II, & III, The Science of Art, Music & Movement Explorers, and Extreme Structures. Click here to get more information about KidsQuest’s summer camps!

Children’s Museum of the Lowcountry – Charleston, SC

Every week CML offers a new camp from creating fairy gardens + castles, tinkering with recycled materials to make new contraptions, cooking delicious snacks using fresh ingredients from the garden, searching for loot on a Treasure Hunt and growing magic crystal trees! Register your kiddo here for camp this summer.

Discovery Place – Charlotte, NC

The Discovery Place offers camp for preschool to rising 9^th graders with themes in science, technology, engineering and art. Just a few to peak your interest are Under the Sea, Young Einstein, Zoologists: We love Animals, Paleontologists and Rocket Scientists. Click here for more information on all the summer camps offered in 2015!

New York Transit Museum – Brooklyn, NY

The New York Transit Museum hosts all kinds of summer camp groups from all over the city, in much the same way they see school groups during the year. If you are attending a summer camp in the New York City area, you might be visiting the NY Transit Museum! Check out their website for more information on other events during the year!

Frye Museum – Seattle, WA

Frye Museum is offering several studio art classes for adults that run for four days each throughout the summer, as well as a couple multi-day art history courses. Learn more about all of the programs at the Frye here.

Last week we began a month long series of blog posts all related to Volunteer Management in Altru. This is the second installment in that series. Check out Part 1 if you missed it.

Colleague:  “Hi! Sorry to bug you at the last minute. You know we have our fun Saturday Fete event in a couple of days. Unfortunately, I just got a phone call from our volunteer Jim. He is feeling unwell and cannot make it. Is it possible for you to find someone to substitute? I know it is short notice. Sorrrrry!”

So, have you been on the receiving end of this call?  Or maybe you have had to make that call? In either case, we can take advantage of the time management features of the volunteer module in Altru to make things quite a bit simpler.  This feature allows us to record and retrieve when volunteers are available for assignments making matching them to assignments easier.

We access this functionality through the Availability tab of a volunteer record:
We can assign availability based not just on monthly schedule but also days of the week and time of the day. This gives us tremendous flexibility to match almost any schedule combinations.
Please note that leaving this section empty is equivalent to having the volunteer available at any time for the assignments for which they qualify.

Altru also has an optional field in this same area where you can assign a block of time when a volunteer may be temporarily unavailable. For example, suppose our sample volunteer Sue has family visiting for a number of days and so will not be available for a brief period as an exception to the schedule mentioned above:
So why set up this information? Altru uses this data to determine if the volunteer is available for an assignment by creating a match with the job occurrence schedule.  The time interval from the screenshot below shows how Altru delivers our volunteer Sue as an option along with other volunteers who would qualify.
Now, let’s say if Sue contacts us to change her availability and is now available between 11 AM and 3 PM instead of the afternoon.
This means that she is now available for a partial duration of the assignment. Altru will recognize this change and remove her from the list of matching volunteers:
This simple example illustrates how the time availability function can supersede any of the other features that Altru uses to match volunteers with job occurrences.

Almost all of your volunteers may have some aspect of time restriction. For some, availability may be seasonal as they move away for the summer or winter season, while for others, for example students, volunteering may be restricted to weekdays and school hours. The benefit of Altru’s time availability feature is more than just efficiency and not having to hunt through our “rolodex” of volunteers every time to find someone available. It also delivers a more positive experience for our volunteers by respecting their most precious commodity: time. With this feature we will not be regularly imposing on volunteers to find out if they are available and will contact them only for assignments that match their schedule.

I trust this tip will give you an opportunity to revisit the functionality of the volunteer module and help you assign volunteers for the different times you need their services.

Which let’s you respond to your colleague’s inquiry: “No worries, I just checked on Altru and we have a few volunteers who should be available to step in and help out. Please give me a few moments to confirm things and I shall update Altru with the new assignment!”

Guest Post from Dan Peters, Data Manager & Analyst, Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI)

Here at the Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI), we decided to purchase Tableau for creating reports and dashboards using data from Altru, as well data from other sources, and this blog post is about using Tableau with Altru, its capabilities and limitations. Tableau is an incredibly powerful tool, crunching millions of rows of data with ease and enabling you to quickly create data visualizations that would be much more complex and less visually appealing in other software applications. It is now being used by many around the world, from journalists to major corporations, and gets high marks for its usability and performance. If you are curious to see how some people have used Tableau, check out https://public.tableau.com/s/gallery for a gallery of some of the most creative and innovative uses of Tableau.

However, for most of us, we just need a good way to analyze our data. We aren’t looking to get as creative as the examples in the Tableau Public Gallery! I’m not paid by Tableau to be an evangelist for them, but I’m an absolute believer in using software such as Tableau to get the most out of your data. Many organizations invest lots of money in databases such as Altru to capture patron information and make the organization run more efficiently, but they don’t invest much, if anything, in understanding that data, and they fail to use it well to make strategic decisions. We talk a lot about getting data, but don’t spend the time actually understanding it. But while Tableau is an amazing product, it’s not for everyone or everything.  So let us examine what it is good for and what it is not, and how you can use it to get the most out of your Altru data!

Here’s what Tableau is good for:

• Data visualization. Data visualization means graphs, charts, histograms, etc. But these aren’t those hideous 3D pie charts that may come to mind. For most people, looking at nothing but numbers in a excel file makes their eyes glaze over, so the idea is to transform data into a visual format that looks good and makes sense to more people. Good data visualization starts at the big picture, and allows the viewer to “drill down” further, if they want. Your finance-minded people may still be demanding numbers and text-based tables (in a sense, the data drilled down to its lowest level), and sometimes a number is the most straightforward way to express the data, but the goal is to switch that old data paradigm. Here in an example from MOHAI, I have created a Daily Admission report that mixes basic data visualization with text tables, with the goal being to see the big picture trend but also allow the leadership team to grab some numbers that are important to them (note: for data privacy, I’ve blurred out most of the numbers, but you at least can get the idea):
  This is another example of a more visual Tableau dashboard. This is an analysis of a small series of talks happening at our museum.
  
• Data exploration. Many times, you aren’t really sure what questions you should be asking or what answers you are really looking for in your data. With Tableau, you can easily start to explore your data. It’s not an exaggeration to say that within Tableau you can build a quick and dirty (but still really good looking!) visualization from start to finish in less than 5 minutes. And once you start quickly creating visualizations, you might learn something that you weren’t expecting about your patrons, sales, organizational activity, etc.! Tableau shines when your goal is to explore the data you have on hand.
• OData! Want the quickest way to get your query from Altru to Tableau? Use OData. If your query has a lot of rows of data, it will take a while to load, but once it is in Tableau you can start playing with your data without any intermediary steps required. Plus, once you have created reports or dashboards using OData you can quickly refresh the OData feed and update your dashboard! So easy! NOTE: There is a known bug with all versions of Tableau from 9.0 and earlier – it does not properly read combined Date + Time OData from Altru (example: Order Complete Date field). This bug has already been identified and fixed by their team, but I do not know the exact release date for the fix.
• Bringing together all your data. Do you want one dashboard that shows a more complete picture of your organization instead of multiple reports from Altru? Tableau can help you do this! You can bring multiple data sources (excel sheets, csv files, OData feeds, etc.) together into one workbook and show all of it on one dashboard (in the example report I showed above from MOHAI, there is data from two sources: an Admissions query and a Discount query). Data from multiple sources can be linked together via calculations or simply displayed side-by-side.

Of course, Tableau isn’t the panacea for all your data wants and woes. So it is worth noting the limitations, too.

Here’s what Tableau is NOT good for:

• Excel replacement. Repeat after me: Tableau ≠ Excel. Excel is still a great tool and an important one at that, but don’t try to force Tableau to do what Excel does. Tableau is built very differently on the back end, so expecting Tableau to behave exactly like Excel will lead to many head-desk interactions.
• Creating reports exactly like Crystal Reports or creating reports with very specific page or design requirements. Tableau is built for the desktop and web, not paper. Here at MOHAI, I will still create PDFs of the dashboards/reports that I generate because it is easier to send to board members and others, but be aware that if you have very specific design requirements, this isn’t the best platform. Tableau is designed to be interactive and allow end users to explore and filter data.
• Data prep and clean-up. Tableau can fix a few things, and in the newest version (9.0), they have implemented some really cool tools to fix up Excel sheets if your data isn’t perfect. But if you want to append multiple queries together, clean up your data, or do more complex data enhancement, you need to do that work before using the data in Tableau. Always remember: garbage in = garbage out. Make sure your data and queries are good before you get to analyzing, although sometimes you have to start analyzing before you realize your data needs work!
• “Auto-refreshing” or Live Dashboards. In some much more expensive and complex scenarios, there is the possibility of that, but for data coming out of Altru into Tableau, there is no such thing as a Live Dashboard. You could manually update the data as much as you want, but it’s not technically a live or auto-updating dashboard.

I hope this post has answered some questions about using Tableau with Altru and given you some ideas of how you can better harness the data that you have! Once you start down the exciting path of analyzing and visualizing your data, you will not look back!

Want to learn more about Tableau?  These are some of my favorite links:

Tableau Community: http://community.tableau.com/welcome (it’s a lot like the Altru Community!)
Drawing With Numbers Blog:  http://drawingwithnumbers.artisart.org/
VizWiz: http://vizwiz.blogspot.com/

Did you know that we release new Altru education videos almost every month? As of this writing, in April and May, we’ve released eight new videos.

Viewing Undelivered Email
Setting Up Altru Appeal Segments and Selections
Understanding Fundraising Hierarchies in Altru
Excluding Constituents from an Altru Membership Renewal Process
Entering Altru Memberships Dues in Batch
Manually Mark Gifts Acknowledged in Altru (a new feature in Altru v4.3)
Understanding Altru Deposit Templates
Adding, Deleting, and Inactivating Code Table Entries

So far in 2015, we’ve released 31 new videos overall. New videos give our users quick and easy ways to learn new things about Altru. Most of our videos are under 10 minutes long and are available to you via the Altru videos page on the Blackbaud website and YouTube and through Training Central. With the release of our new Knowledgebase, when you ask a question, the videos are also part of any search results.

But we’re not just working on new video content. I hoping that next month I’ll be able to announce some exciting things about our instructor-led online classes and introduce you all to a new web page that pulls together all our different education offerings into a single location!

In the meantime, here’s the list of Masters Workshops and regularly scheduled instructor-led trainings happening in June:

Altru Masters Workshop: Converting Visitors into Members – June 4th – 1-2pm ET – Register here

Memberships are an important component of an Arts & Cultural organization’s “community”. More than just a revenue stream, they are a key component of event participation, loyalty, and championing the mission of the organization. During this one-hour instructor-led workshop we shall investigate what opportunities organizations have to leverage Altru to develop a strategy and implement features such as appeals, events, and discounts to recruit visitors into becoming members.

Altru Masters Workshop: Is it Daily Admission, a Scheduled Program, a Preregistered Program or a Special Event? – June 10th – 3-4pm ET – Register here

Have you ever been confused by the different types of events in Altru? Wondered which variety would be best for the particular programming that your organization is planning? In this one-hour Master’s Workshop, learn the differences between the different types of programs and events in Altru. We’ll cover the functions of each and review common scenarios to determine when to use a scheduled program, pre-registered program, or special event.

Altru Masters Workshop: Import Basics – June 18th – 1-2pm ET – Register here

This one-hour online instructor-led Altru Masters Workshop will cover importing constituent records into Altru. During the class we discuss the process for creating import files using Microsoft Excel and the process for creating batch templates that will be used in your import process. The examples used in class will focus on new constituent and constituent update imports. Batch 101 in Altru is a prerequisite for this class and attendees should have familiarity with using comma separated values spreadsheets.

Altru Masters Workshop: Improving Your Acknowledgements – June 24th – 2-3pm ET – Register here

This Masters Workshop explores the best practices for one of your most important donor communications: your acknowledgements! During this hour-long session we will review acknowledgement configuration, offer suggestions for improved segmentation, demonstrate adding common merge fields, and provide tips and tricks for using the letter content editor.

Altru Masters Workshop: Creating a Successful Moves Management Program – June 29th – 12-1pm ET – Register here

In this one-hour instructor-led Masters Workshop, learn how to use the Interactions functionality in Altru for Moves Management.  The session will cover how to add new interactions and track due dates, notes, solicitors, and participants for the interaction.  We’ll also look at some basic reporting tools you can use to review upcoming deadlines and analyze the success of your Moves Management program.

Did you know?

While these are special Masters Workshop sessions are run live only once or twice a year, we record them whenever possible and post the recording and a copy of the class materials on our website. Check out the past Masters Workshops.

And as always, we have our regularly scheduled classes:

Appeals & Mailings 101 – June 11, 22
Batch 101 – June 22
Daily Financial Reconciliation – June 11, 23
General Sales 101 – June 1, 17
Introduction to Altru – June 4, 19, 29
Managing Group Sales Reservations – June 3, 15
Membership Setup 101 – June 3, 18
Merchandise 101 – June 8, 30
Query 101 – June 8, 23
Query 201 – June 9, 22
Revenue 101 – June 4, 16
Ticketing Setup 101 – June 1, 16
Web Forms 101 – June 9, 25

This is the third installment in a month long series of blog posts all related to Volunteer Management in Altru. Check out Part 1 and Part 2 if you missed them.

In the previous installment of this volunteer series we reviewed options on how to leverage time availability to quickly identify which volunteers are available for assignments. In our blog post this week we are going to dive in a little bit deeper and see how we can use Altru to match up the most suitable volunteers for particular assignments.

Refining the match function between jobs and volunteers can be particularly useful if you have a variety of volunteer jobs that are essentially very similar but have some important differences. Let us take docent tour guides for example. We may have some docents that enjoy schools kids – while others may prefer just adult groups. I am sure you have a select group of experienced docents that are your “go to” for VIP tours.

Let us review some of the parameters that determine which volunteers qualify for a job:

Availability
As mentioned in our previous blog post, if the volunteer has availability restrictions, Altru will use those to identify if the volunteer qualifies as a match for this job occurrence. No mention of availability means the volunteer is available for any time slot.

Location
This is another parameter to determine prequalification. If a location is mentioned for the job occurrence, Altru will select those volunteer records that have a matching location mention. No mention of a location on the volunteer record means the volunteer is eligible for any location and vice versa, if the job occurrence does not have a location assigned means volunteers for any location are eligible for this job.

Volunteer Type
If the job has a volunteer type associated with the job than volunteers need that volunteer type in an active status assigned to their profile in order to qualify for the job. If the status is set to pending (for example, their status may be set to pending because they have not yet completed a specified screening plan) they still would not be eligible for the assignment. If the job does not have a volunteer type defined than any volunteers of any type qualify for the job.

We can connect a volunteer job to only one volunteer type while a volunteer can be associated with multiple types. So in the context of the assignment, volunteer type is essentially a “Go/No Go” filter. By associating a volunteer with multiple types, we pre-qualify the volunteer for various specific volunteer jobs.

Creating a Match through Traits
Volunteer traits are characteristics volunteers need to complete a job. The trait may be required or optional. If the job has the trait set as required, than volunteers need to have that trait present on their record to qualify for the assignment.

As both jobs and volunteers can have multiple trait assigned, Altru reviews the traits between a volunteer and the job and delivers a match percentage as per sample below:
This percentage value is a rounded value based on the number of matched traits divided by total number of traits associated with the job. In the example above, Carrie Engram is a 100% match because she has all the traits that are associated with the job. At the other end of the spectrum Donna McInnis is at 0% because she has the volunteer type connected with the assignment, but does not have any of the traits assigned for the job. Please note that if the job in this example had a required trait, Donna would need that trait to qualify for this occurrence. Sue Spin is 67% because she has two of the traits for this job, while George and Patrick are at 33% because they only have one trait the matches up.

The neat part is that you can drill down to see which features match up by clicking on a volunteer’s name and then clicking Match Details:
This way you can compare and identify which parameters may be more relevant and help choose between two volunteers that are at the same percentage match.

There are some traits that have slightly different rules when it comes to evaluating match percentage.

Traits – Verification
If the trait has a verification option, than Altru requires the trait be verified on the volunteer record for it to positively influence the match percentage. For example in the screenshot below you can see that as the certification has not been verified, the match is set to a “False” status.
If we verify the status of the certification, we can see how the display confirms this status and also bumps up the match percentage:
The following traits have a verification setting: Administrative, Certificate, Course, License and Medical. Please ensure that you have a process in place to confirm if a volunteer has been verified as necessary to appropriately assist with assignment matching.

Traits – Volunteer Special Needs
It is understandable that some volunteers may have special needs such as a mobility or lifting restriction. To qualify a volunteer for a job, Altru confirms that job also has the same special need trait assignment. This is a very useful feature to ensure that we do not approach volunteers with a volunteering opportunity which they unfortunately may not be able to assist.

Traits – Skill Level
Adding a skill trait to a job or volunteer requires one to assign a skill level. Altru requires the volunteer to have a skill level that is the same or higher to qualify for the job. This feature is useful for jobs (typically public facing) where you prefer to have volunteers to have a higher level of skill.

As you can see the volunteer module is a flexible system that delivers harmony on both fronts: it helps you efficiently identify volunteers that match job requirements and also keeps volunteers satisfied with assignments that match up with their skill set and preferences, letting you deliver an enjoyable experience for all.

In early June, you’ll find new features included in your Altru subscription designed to increase efficiency and add functionality.

The release includes features that allow faster printing and more flexibility with memberships and acknowledgements! Here are some highlights:

• Faster Receipt Printing: Itemized sales receipts have been updated to print faster. Other improvements to the itemized receipt include:
  • The receipt now displays the order’s transaction date rather than the date the receipt is printed.
  • The receipt uses the designation’s public name rather than the name of the full designation hierarchy.
  • The receipt no longer includes a $0 balance.
• Online Gift Memberships: With Release 4.3, when patrons purchase gift memberships online, they can enter the recipient’s information and specify whether to deliver the membership cards and future renewal notices to themselves or to the recipients. They can also enter a friendly name and gift message.
• Manually Mark Gifts as Acknowledged: You can now manually mark payments and pledges as acknowledged after you send a personal note to a donor or thank them in person.

Visit the Altru New Features page to get all the information and guidance you need to begin using the new features right away.

We are thrilled to release this new functionality to you and always welcome your feedback.

You will receive an email notification from Blackbaud advising you of your organization’s upgrade window.

Summer is here and it is hot outside. For some, summer means staying indoors and enjoying the air conditioning, as standing in the heat is not on their to-do-list. Others, however, love the outdoors. There is one thing all of us can agree on: standing in line stinks.

With the release of Altru 4.3, we’ve significantly shortened the time it takes to print documents. In fact, the move to SVG gives you print speeds at least twice as fast as the old way. We accomplished this by moving away from Microsoft Reporting Services to something called Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG). SVG removes the bulk of the back and forth that takes place when you complete a sale and print sales documents, like tickets and receipts.

How does this impact you? We’ve reduced the amount of time it takes to prepare documents for printing by approximately 2.37 seconds, from 2.93 seconds to .56 seconds. Please note that these improvements only include the time it takes Altru to transfer data to the printer and does not take into account the actual printing of the documents. The speed of different printers will vary.

However, the team did some testing that was a bit more “real life” and timed the process all the way through printing using an Epson TM-T88IV receipt printer and a Boca Lemur S ticket printer. A transaction with two tickets and an itemized receipt showed an improvement from 9.38 seconds in Altru 4.1 to 4.84 seconds in Altru 4.3.
And no, you are not crazy, the font has changed on the Itemized Receipt. In order to cut start-finish printing speed in half, we had to use a fixed width font that works with SVG. With a new font, some customers may find that they need to tweak their payment method names to optimize formatting. That’s an easy fix, and you can find more info on that here. You’ll also no longer see a “Balance Due” on your receipt when the balance due is $0 (this will appear if it is necessary, such as if there is a balance due or change to be dispensed).

Will your patrons notice the font change? Possibly. Will you notice your lines moving faster? Most definitely.

With this change, along with the printing changes in version 4.2 (no extra CC receipt, SVG ticket printing), Altru 4.3 takes a big step toward shortening the time it takes to move a patron from standing in line to enjoying everything that you have to offer!

Hey look, another Blog post on Responsive Design! One with statistics and flashy words like “optimization” and “analytics” – I better bookmark this one and read it sometime…

Before you do bookmark this post for “later” reading, however, I would encourage you to pause for a moment. See, the difference here is that I’m not just another Interactive Specialist harping on the importance of mobile optimization in the hopes you’ll sign a nice new contract for services. No, the difference this time is the 1,300 lbs gorilla in the room that just came down on the side of mobile optimization – that gorilla being Google.

What did Google do?

What hasn’t Google done? They have a car that drives itself for goodness sake. However, when it comes to your site’s search rankings, what Google has done is changed their search algorithm on mobile devices to down rank sites that are not “mobile friendly.” What this means for you is that the proverbial fire has just been lit underneath your behind – your site needs to be mobile friendly, or you are going to find your reach start to contract.

Did you know users are now spending upwards of 60% of their Internet time on mobile devices?

Yes, its true – a recent study has shown that not only is the majority of Internet traffic generated from mobile devices, but that users are spending an increasing amount of their Internet time on mobile devices and in apps. This simply continues to support the trend lines that we in the industry have seen for awhile – mobile has become the primary method of browsing the web. Prior to Google’s algorithm change, this was a useful statistic, but it didn’t mean your users were going to have any harder time finding your site.

With this change however, now your users will have a harder time finding their way to your site, as Google will be able to judge your site as “mobile friendly” or not, and down-rank your site accordingly.

If that isn’t compelling enough, this change will also hit your giving as well.

A recent Blackbaud Study has shown that client sites that embraced responsive designs and methodologies saw significantly better conversions online than non-responsive sites. Mobile giving forms made the experience of giving online substantially easier, and allowed for impulse giving in a way that non-responsive forms simply cannot do. So, you combine this information with the algorithm change from Google and you have a pretty compelling case being made – the time is now to get mobile optimized.

What are my next steps?

Reach out to your Blackbaud Account Executive to start the conversation about the services Blackbaud can offer to get your site mobile friendly, and fast. With Altru Release 4.4, due out this summer, you have the ability to make all of your webforms responsive, so your visitors can purchase everything from tickets to memberships on the device of their choice. Even better, we also have the ability to create a responsive, fully integrated, WordPress calendar to show off your events. The time is now to get your site onboard with Google’s algorithm changes and the overall trends of mobile browsing. Up to this point, this has been a strong suggestion – now, it is a necessity.

You can read more about Google’s changes here: http://npengage.com/nonprofit-marketing/what-googles-new-algorithm-really-means-for-your-nonprofit/

Want to test your site to see if Google thinks it is mobile friendly or not? Utilize their free tool here: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/

These are my favorite type of blog posts to write.  It’s a case of “you asked and we listened”.

One of the top ideas in Altru User Community is for the ability to manually mark a gift as acknowledged. Maybe you, or someone of your staff, personally thanked a donor for their gift via a one-off letter or by a personal phone call,  and you don’t want to include their donation the next time you run the Acknowledgement Process. Before Altru 4.3, there wasn’t a way to do this. Their letter would be included in the process and you’d need to remove it prior to stuffing and stamping envelopes.

Great news, in the latest Altru release you can now manually mark gifts as acknowledged without generating an acknowledgement letter in the Acknowledgement process.

Here’s how. On the payment record in the Tasks section, you’ll see a new task to ‘Mark acknowledged’. Use this when you acknowledge a gift outside of Altru. Once you manually mark a gift as acknowledged, the Status changes to Acknowledged and on the Letters tab you’ll see a revenue letter labeled ‘Manual Acknowledgement’.  The gift will now not be included in your Acknowledgement Process. Check out our how-to video for more detail.

One note, you cannot manually acknowledge sales orders. Additionally, if you manually acknowledge a pledge, the associated payments are not included and must be acknowledged separately.

Please let us know if you have any comments.  Feel free to add a comment here or on the Community.

A popular idea asked for in the Altru Community is a gift membership message field. In the 4.3 release that idea was implemented! Now you are able to gather a custom personal message between the gift giver and the gift recipient when purchases are made online. In addition you can also chose to deliver the membership to the Gift Recipient or the Gift Giver.

That’s great, but how do you implement it now?

You came to the right place! There are going to be a couple of things you will need to have in place first before you start leveraging this new functionality.

First, it’s important to know that not only can your patrons add this new custom information when they buy a gift of membership online, but that you can also add a custom message and custom given by name to your non-online transactions. In order to access the new fields, you will need to complete the transaction as normal, then from the membership record you can Edit the transaction to reveal the new fields.
Second, to print cards, we recommend that you separate your print membership card process so gifts of membership are processed on their own. To do this you’ll need to create a separate process and then attach a selection that includes only gifts of membership to that new process. In your selection your criteria should be:

Member\Membership\Membership Transaction\Is gift is equal to Yes

In the Results section of your print card process, check the box for Create constituent selection from results and give the selection a name. You will use this selection in your export process.

Once you have your print card process setup, next you need to setup your membership card template. Here we recommend that you create a custom Microsoft Word template using the new fields and an Export process. The export definition used in the export process should contain all of the fields you need in your membership card template. The new field for the custom note is found under the Membership Transaction section and is called Gift message.  The new field for the custom given by name is also found under the Membership Transaction section and is called Given by. This is the same place where you will find these fields in a query:
With the fields in your export definition you should create your membership card template in Microsoft Word. We recommend you do this merge outside of Altru. The export process you will use should include the export definition of the fields you need and the constituent selection generated by the separate gift of membership card process that you created.

When you have your print card process and export process setup then you would follow these steps to print your cards:

1. Run the print card process for gifts of membership sold.
2. Go to Export and attach the constituent selection created from step 1 to your export process and run that.
3. Download your export results.
4. Open your Microsoft Word card template and attach the data set you downloaded in step 3.
5. When the cards are printed, go to membership card process used in step 1 and click either print cards or download output to mark cards as printed.