Pivot Table Filter, retain all values

I have been able to find ways to remove old values in a filter list but I cannot find how to retain them. I have a set of pivot tables that come from several sources. I want to be able to compare values from each source but it could happen that there is no data in one or more of the sources in any given month. For example I get a list of students admitted to a course from one source, I get a list of students completing the course from another source and I get a list of students declined for admit from another source. It could happen that there are students admitted or completing a course but none that were declined that month. The course name appears in the filter list for the two sources where there is data but it doesn't appear in the filter list for the non-admit data source. I want to be able to choose that course even if there aren't any students that month for that course. I have created a macro that cycles through each pivot table to be sure the filters are all set the same but I get a run time error if that value is missing from the filter list of any of the pivot tables. Is there a way to set the filter list so the 'course name' is always there even if there is no data? I tried running the macro with dummy data that contained the desired name in all sources and went through each pivot table and set the data options to retain 'Max' then ran it again with live data that had a missing piece and the value wasn't there. Any ideas?

Thanks,