Web forms for organizations

Mayada Wadsworth

Our webforms work very well for individual constituents, connecting the transactions to their records (as long as they have signed in). However, we found that when an organization made a purchase online, Altru created a new individual. Since we couldn't merge an individual with an organization, we were faced with fake refunds and replacement transactions which are laborious and hard to trace later if a question comes up. Our solution was just to remove the organization membership levels from the website and ask them to mail a check or call in their credit card.

Our renewal process for organizations also relies on letters - no email renewals. A library often ends up with a whole string of email addresses, and we can't ask them to let us know when a particular employee leaves.

Has this been a problem for anyone else? Is there a “best practices” for organization constituents? We have a lot of libraries who join in order to get the Library Passes to loan out to their members. There are also a few like The Arc and most recently an inquiry from a group home. Any guidance would be appreciated!

Tami Goertzen

@Mayada Wadsworth We also have this problem. I don't have a solution, but I'm hoping someone else will chime in.

Tamara Christensen

@Mayada Wadsworth We haven't found a good workaround for this yet either. We don't sell organization memberships through webforms, they need to mail in checks or call with cc numbers. This seems to be okay since most libraries have friend groups who pay for the memberships and they don't have issues with pulling checks.

Laura Schmid

@Mayada Wadsworth

I don’t have a solution but I do have a workaround that may help.

If an organization purchases something online or donates online – yes – the system will generate an individual record. Boo.

How to fix. I essentially build a good organization record, copy and paste all the data to the org record, then move the payment to the org record via the “Change patron on order” tool. Then delete the individual record that was generated during the online sales transaction. Then you have the correct type of record with the sales order on it. If it happens again, then just move the sales order to the right record and delete the bad individual record again. If they purchased a membership, then you could probably use the purple gear “Other tasks” icon and transfer the membership to the right record.

Otherwise, I suggest not allowing businesses to buy memberships online. We have a “Community Membership” program specifically designed for businesses, ideally those that serve their own clients. We promote it on our website but we don’t sell it on our website. Businesses must APPLY; they must qualify. Because we don’t just allow anyone to purchase this special membership. It’s a really good deal and it’s really meant to appeal to social servicing, non-profit kind of businesses.

I’ve got a Google form set up where people apply, and then I get an email alert when someone applies. I contact the person at the org and then—if they qualify—I call and do the transaction over the phone and process the back office payment. I find it’s better to have that personal interaction with these organizations anyway.

Check out our Community Membership program here: https://www.cincynature.org/membership/group-and-corporate-memberships/community-membership/. Feel free to email me if you have any questions: lschmid@cincynature.org

Laura Schmid
Membership Manager
Cincinnati Nature Center