Best Of

How's Your Year Going?

Hi all,

How's it going? How's 2026 treating you? How're you getting on with your resolutions, if you had any?

Things are fine here. Exercise feels dialed in. Family time has been nice on the weekends. I've found a good balance in upskilling and reading for leisure. I've found an every-other-day approach to be good for me - learn Python tonight, read some Monte Cristo tomorrow, etc etc.

Hope everyone is doing well, thriving, and living their best. :-)

Bobby Steurer

5

Enable Mandatory Fields in Raiser's Edge NXT

Request to enable admin users with the ability to designate specific fields as mandatory within Raiser's Edge NXT. This functionality would streamline data entry, significantly reducing the time and resources currently dedicated to data cleanup tasks resulting from missing or inconsistent information.

Current Challenges & Impact:

Data Cleanup Overhead: Our data team spends 1-2 hours per week rectifying missing data (eg acquisition source on constituent records), including follow-ups with users. This process hinders productivity and delays critical reporting.
Inconsistency & Duplication: The absence of mandatory fields and single-selection options for tables (eg address type and email type) leads to data inconsistencies, duplicates, and inaccuracies, further complicating reporting and analysis. This also creates challenges for our integration solution.

Specific Fields:

Fields: Custom fields, addressee/salutation fields, valid from date field and others and other fields as determined necessary by the organisation.
Tables: Single-selection enforcement for fields like address and email type.

Benefits:

Improved Data Quality: Mandatory fields ensure completeness and accuracy, enabling reliable reporting and informed decision-making.
Increased Efficiency: Reduced data cleanup tasks free up valuable time for the data team and other users.
Enhanced User Experience: Clearer data entry expectations minimise errors and user frustration.

Karyn Pierce

10

Re: Now Available: Sound Notifications for Customer Support Chat

Great! Next request - pasting screenshots (instead of uploads).

Art Bryman

5

Re: Narrowing on one Constituency Code - Faculty/Staff

It does not matter how many you have. You have the one column pull the primary constituency, then have the 2nd column pull just the Faculty/Staff Code (which is doesn't matter where it is located, it will pull just that code. This way you will capture all of the Faculty/Staff code with these two columns. Below is for the 2nd column. Your first column will pull the primary.

Joe Moretti

5

Who is Going to be in The Room Where it Happens??

I was soooo excited to read that Lesie Odom, Jr. was going to be the keynote speaker at bbcon this year. Who else out there is a Hamilton fan?? Who has never seen Hamilton and been in "The Room Where it Happened" with Aaron Burr, Sir??
My grandson was born in May 2016, less than a year after Hamilton opened on Broadway and the soundtrack was constantly streaming at their house (Broadway lovers, of course). When Nathan got fussy, we would start the soundtrack and on the first seven beats before the opening song started he would instantly stop fussing and listen, and ultimately fall asleep. This worked for months! And now, at 10, he is also a Broadway lover!

Patti Hommes

5

Now Available: Sound Notifications for Customer Support Chat

We heard from you that the lack of sound in Support chats made it difficult to multitask and keep working during conversations without missing a message or delaying conversations. We took your feedback seriously and have released a new feature.

What’s New

We’ve released a new sound notification feature that will give an audible alert from your browser’s default sound setting whenever a new message is received during a chat with our Virtual Assistant or Customer Support Agent. This will make it easier for you to multitask, review documentation, or navigate between screens while waiting for a response.

While it’s a simple enhancement, we know it was an important request and hope it will make a meaningful impact on your support experience.

Let Us Know How We’re Doing!

Your feedback is always welcome here in the Community and on Support surveys which helps us keep improving the support experience to get the help you need, when you need it.

Matt Lacy

26

Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT® May Product Update Briefings: Key Highlights and Your Top Questions Answered

Missed the Raiser’s Edge NXT Product Update Briefing? Want a quick recap of what was announced, what’s coming next, and the questions your peers are asking? We’ve got you covered with key highlights, important updates, answers to frequently asked questions, and links to on-demand recordings.

During the May 2026 Product Update Briefings, we shared the latest enhancements coming to Raiser’s Edge NXT web view and provided additional clarity around the future of the unified view experience. Our focus remains on helping you complete more of your work in one place while giving you the tools and time needed to plan for long-term adoption.

Planning for the Unified View Experience

One of the biggest themes was the importance of planning now for the unified view experience. Taking a proactive approach can help your organization prepare thoughtfully, reduce disruption, and better align new capabilities with your fundraising strategy over time.

To support your planning process, we announced a new Raiser’s Edge NXT Feature Map designed to help you quickly identify when functionality will become available in web view.

With the Feature Map, you’ll be able to easily see:

Features currently available in web view
Functionality planned for release this year
Features planned for post 2026 development
Items unlikely to move forward

New Payment Processing Update Announcement

Based on continued customer feedback, we have decided not to require CVV for back-office entries starting on Feb. 2, 2027, as communicated. We will continue to recommend best practices for mail solicitations, such as using a QR code or a follow-up phone call to collect and verify CVV in alignment with PCI compliance guidelines.
Online transactions will continue to require CVV for payment processing. The change applies only to back-office manual transaction entries, where CVV will not be required. Learn more about the updated CVV/CSC requirements.

Unified View Timeline Updates

The roadmap for the unified view continues to become clearer based on planned functionality and your feedback. During the briefing, we announced continued support for the transition to the unified view through:

Late summer 2027 for customers in North America, Europe, and the United Kingdom
Late winter 2027 for customers in New Zealand and Australia

We recognize that many organizations have fiscal years ending June 30, and this timeline was designed with those operational realities in mind to help reduce competing priorities during your transition. By this timeframe, you will no longer need database view for daily operations. As new functionality continues rolling out, now is a great time to begin exploring web view features and familiarizing your team with the unified experience.

To support your learning journey, Blackbaud University offers courses, resources, and training opportunities to help your organization stay current on enhancements and best practices.

What was Discussed During the Product Update Briefings?

Below are some of the major feature updates and enhancements highlighted during the May 2026 Product Update Briefings.

Recent Releases in Web View

Functionality Coming Soon to Web View

Town Hall: Get a First Look at the Refreshed Constituent Record

An anticipated feature during the Product Update Briefings was the refreshed constituent record experience coming to web view. To help you prepare and visualize the enhancements in action, we are hosting a sneak peek town hall where we will walk through the updated experience, highlight key improvements, and answer your questions live. Register here and join us June 10 @ 11 a.m. EST

Import for Constituents and Gifts
Export: Single Row Query Results
Batch Control and Validation Report
Gift Adjustments and Benefits
Matching Gifts
Acknowledgments and Reminders
Planned Giving
Real-time Receipting
Recognition Programs: Lifetime and Loyalty
Abandon Donation Reminder

Web View Features in Development

EFT Processing
Batch Defaults
Manual Recurring Giving Processing
Customized Receipts
Overfunding Pledges
Address Accelerator
Bulk Edit (Global Change)
Recognition Programs: Annual
Volunteer Management
Quick Letters
Action Tracks
Communication History

Your Questions, Answered

We appreciate the incredible level of engagement during each Product Update Briefing. Throughout the live sessions, product managers and team members worked behind the scenes to answer questions in real time. More than 1,000 questions were submitted during one of the 60-minute sessions, and while we couldn’t answer every question live, we gathered the most common themes and topics to help provide additional clarity and guidance. You can access top questions and themes here:

May 2026 PUB Questions.pdf

And continuing the conversation, we partnered with Bill Connors for a special one-hour live discussion with our product managers focused on your top questions and feedback. You can register to watch the on-demand recording here.

How Do I Learn About New Features as They Become Available in Web View?

We provide information about new and enhanced features through our regular communication channels, including:

You can watch full-length, on-demand Product Update Briefing presentations with a special focus on features for your region:

As Raiser’s Edge NXT web view continues to evolve, our goal remains the same: helping organizations streamline operations, strengthen donor engagement, and complete more work in a unified experience. Whether you’re actively using new functionality today or beginning to build your transition plan, there are more resources, enhancements, and opportunities to learn than ever before.

Thank you to everyone who joined the May Product Update Briefings, shared feedback, and asked thoughtful questions. Your input continues to help shape the future of Raiser’s Edge NXT.

Tanya Fitzgerald

5

Re: New Email Builder: Image Alignment, Header Styles and Padding, Column ID

@Crystal Bruce,

I also added a comment to my idea to add bulleted/numbered lists, which i'm shocked isn't a feature already given that it's in almost every wysiwyg editor out there.

So my wishlist includes:

We're looking for a few improvements to the email builder:

Fix Inline Images so that text can wrap nicely around images. Would probably necessitate ability to put a little padding around the image so it looks nice.
Ability to have bulleted lists in new builder content. This is kind of paramount to nonprofit messaging.
Ability to define an ID for columns and images. This would allow us to target some styling (including dark mode styles) utilizing the new builder.
Ability to define Headers. Right now, all text is inserted as paragraph tags so margins and line-height looks awful.
Padding Selection: Current builder only allows for setting padding for a column once (i.e. padding: 5px;). We need to be able to set padding individually for top, bottom, left, right.
Ability to copy e-mails from one campaign to another. There's currently not a way to create an email template in the new builder and re-use it.

Hilary Engelbrecht

5

New and Improved Raiser’s Edge NXT Community Home Page 🎉

We are excited to announce that the Raiser’s Edge NXT Community has a new look!

We’ve refreshed the home page to make it easier to find helpful conversations and resources, engage with active community members, and see how others like you are using Raiser’s Edge NXT in their day‑to‑day work.

What’s New?

The updated home page is designed to help you get to the good stuff faster. Here’s what you’ll notice:

What’s New from Blackbaud, front and center: Product enhancements, updates, and important announcements now always appear at the top—so you don’t have to hunt for what’s new.
More of what’s useful: We’re highlighting discussions and content that we think you’ll find especially helpful and relevant to your use of Raiser’s Edge NXT.
Events: Easy access to helpful webinars like InsideTrack to Unified View, Town Halls, and more. Community experts you can easily spot: You’ll see trusted, active contributors featured, making it easier to recognize peers who really know their way around Raiser’s Edge NXT. This includes rotating All‑Star features, where we spotlight our All‑Stars and their areas of expertise.
Peer inspiration: Explore the success stories section to see how other organizations are achieving their goals with Raiser’s Edge NXT.

Take a Look 👀

We’d love for you to explore the updated home page and see what’s new. This is an evolving experience, and we’ll continue refining it based on what’s most helpful to you.

Have thoughts or suggestions? Drop them in the comments—we’d love to hear what you think. Your feedback helps shape what comes next.

Crystal Bruce

6

Sharing My PowerAutomate Workflow: Monthly Donor Classification & Donor Journey Mapping

MonthlyDonorClassification&DonorJourneyMapping_20260602172253.zip

Description:
This workflow automates monthly recurring donor segmentation and journey mapping in Raiser’s Edge NXT. It reviews active, paused, and lapsed recurring donors, updates custom fields and constituent codes, and helps ensure donors are consistently placed into the appropriate stewardship, retention, and upgrade pathways.

The goal is to eliminate manual maintenance of monthly donor status coding while creating a reliable framework for donor lifecycle communications.

Required Connections:

Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT Gifts
Blackbaud Constituent API
Blackbaud SKY API (HTTP Requests)

Suggested Skill Level:
Intermediate

Configuration Details:

Uses recurring gift records and recurring gift status information.
Creates and updates constituent custom fields including:
- Recurring-Monthly Status
Updates constituent codes used for segmentation and communications.
Designed around recurring donor lifecycle stages such as:
- Active
- Paused
- Former/Lapsed
- Upgrade Eligible
Runs on a daily schedule but can easily be modified.
Uses query jobs and API calls to process larger donor populations efficiently.

Category:
Automation, Data Management, Donor Stewardship, Recurring Giving

About the Flow

Active Donors

For each constituent identified as having an active recurring gift:

Retrieves all recurring gift records.
Identifies currently active plans.
Determines the start date of the current active recurring gift.
Reviews historical recurring gifts to identify prior cancellations or lapses.
Calculates tenure and historical participation metrics.
Updates donor status classifications and journey-related custom fields.
Evaluates upgrade eligibility and timing based on business rules.

This section is intended to support automated movement between onboarding, established, committed, and upgrade-focused stewardship tracks.

Paused Donors

Runs a query to identify donors whose recurring gifts are currently paused.
Reviews existing constituent custom fields.
Recurring-Monthly Status = Paused
Preserves donor history while allowing communications to be tailored appropriately.

This allows organizations to distinguish between donors who have intentionally paused giving and those who have fully lapsed.

Lapsed Donors

Runs a query to identify former recurring donors.
Reviews existing constituent codes and custom fields.
Adds a "Monthly: Former" constituent code when needed.
Removes active recurring donor codes that no longer apply.
Updates donor status fields to reflect the change in lifecycle stage.

This creates a clean separation between active and former recurring donors and supports reactivation campaigns.

Why I Built It

We had been tracking recurring donors using a combination of gift records, constituent codes, custom fields, and queries. Over time those systems tend to drift out of sync.

This workflow makes recurring donor segmentation self-maintaining by using the recurring gift record itself as the source of truth. Once configured, donor status updates happen automatically, and stewardship journeys can be built around consistent data.

Happy to answer questions or compare approaches with anyone building recurring giving programs.

Nicole Holt

6