Case Study: Chabot Space and Science Center achieves dramatic reduction in gala wait times with Blackbaud Altru

Chabot Space and Science Center - Customer Case Study

Chabot Space and Science Center, founded in 1883 to inspire learners about the universe, hosts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year and runs an annual gala that raises more than $250,000. The gala suffered from extremely long checkout lines—especially for live and silent auctions—because the ticketing system was not cloud-based, forcing staff to record credit card details by hand and process payments later, which led to multi-hour waits and a poor donor experience.

Chabot adopted Blackbaud Altru, a cloud-based solution for ticketing, merchandise, and fundraising, enabling real-time transactions at off‑site venues with only Wi‑Fi and a few laptops. The unified, easy-to-use system reduced patron wait times from more than two hours to just minutes (often none), centralized constituent records for staff access, and allowed executives to focus on relationship building rather than operational issues.

Chabot Space & Science Center

Zack Coan

Grants Analyst and Administrative Manager