In July 2014, Canada enacted  The Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation  (CASL) - strict new regulations for bulk email. The phase-in period for CASL stretched over 3 years to allow organizations to adjust their emailing practices to align with CASL's rigorous opt-in policies and rules for suppression of unwanted email. The grace period for CASL ends July ... more

Hi! Attention Canadian Blackbaud CRM users, especially those involved in database management and reporting. There will be a BBCRM user group at the Blackbaud Toronto office on Monday, June 19th 1:00-3:30pm ET. Agenda: Types of reports are you pulling, especially for prospect/campaign management, raised vs. received revenue, financial ... more

It's hard to believe it's June already, and it's already time for the Q2 BBIS Spotlight !  This quarter's spotlight will include some fantastic content from some guest Blackbaud speakers that many of you have worked with on BBIS, so join us on Tuesday, June 13th @ 2 PM EDT to learn more about the following: SP13 Preview I'll be demonstrating our upcoming ... more

The Blackbaud CRM Developers' Conference June 28–29, 2017 North Charleston Marriott Charleston, SC   Register today   The fifth annual Blackbaud CRM Developers’ Conference is fast approaching, and registration is closing soon! Don’t miss this chance to share your amazing ideas and learn best practices for configuration, ... more

After you upgrade to SP12, there is a new feature in BBIS event batches to separate out constituent updates and additional donation revenue into other batches. If you configure the batch settings to take advantage of this feature, please note that you will need to open up any BBIS event batch templates that you are using and re-save them to avoid a batch ... more

You can now download Hotfix 47 from Blackbaud.com.  The patch report can be found here .  more

When updating all addresses with AddressFinder results in CRM 4.0 SP9 and above users may notice that the addresses that were only standardized (ie. no NCOA changes were identified for the address) are now in all caps even though this option wasn't marked in the Data Tune-Up Settings. We are currently evaluating this issue and will update this ... more

Verizon recently announced its decision to close down its email business. The holders of the roughly 4.5 million email addresses with an @verizon.net extension will have a very short period of time to migrate their email address as-is to AOL – or abandon the address. People who choose the first option will continue to use the same @verizon.net email ... more

You can now download Hotfix 44 from Blackbaud.com.  The patch report can be found here .  more

In the Q1 2017 Roadmap call, we mentioned a modification to the Blackbaud CRM System Requirements . Specifically, Blackbaud Data Warehouse (BBDW) was added as a deployment requirement. Blackbaud previously made mention of this in October 2016 at BBCON and in prior client communications. This requirement means Blackbaud clients still have a ... more

Alongside of CRM, BBIS has released new features as part of 4.0 Service Pack 12. It is now available on the downloads page of blackbaud.com .    Service Pack 12 includes 3 value-adding features for BBIS.     BBIS Highlights 1. Event Registration Form – Our new event registration form, initially released in SP11, now includes the option to allow ... more

We are pleased to announce that Service Pack 12 for version 4.0 released today, and is available on the Blackbaud    downloads page .   Highlights of the Service Pack are as follows: 1. Fundraiser on the Go - This mobile first responsive app, simplifies a fundraisers job while on the road. The web application allows a Fundraiser to complete specific tasks ... more

Fundraiser on the Go is a mobile-first, responsive web application for Blackbaud CRM.  Included is a list of frequently asked questions related to Fundraiser on the Go.   more

You can now download Hotfix 44 from Blackbaud.com.  The patch report can be found here .  more

Point-to-Point Encryption (P2Pe) is a capability that that helps to reduce the number of applicable PCI DSS requirements for your cardholder data environment (CDE).  Our goal is to help limit your annual PCI assessment to the 35-question P2PE SAQ (Self-Assessment Questionnaire).  Blackbaud is partnering with a  preferred hardware provider, ... more

In 2008, the University of Oxford launched a capital campaign (Oxford Thinking) with a fundraising goal of £1.25 billion. As the campaign approaches the end its eighth year, it has raised more than £2.48 billion and has more than doubled its original fundraising goal to £3 billion.   Conrad Youngman is the web and design officer with the central ... more

In case you missed some of the enhancements delivered in 2016, or would like to go back and review these capabilites, check out this 2 016 Blackbaud CRM Release Datasheet  for a concise recap.   more

Fundraising techniques are always evolving and the most successful fundraisers are the ones that continually evolve with it.  In 2017, Blackbaud CRM fundraisers will have a new tool to assist in their success,  Fundraiser on the Go. more

I'm thrilled to announce the release of  BBIS 4.0 Service Pack 11. It is now available on the downloads page of blackbaud.com.   Alongside all the CRM goodness included in Service Pack 11, it also addresses 25 defects and includes 9 value adding features for BBIS.   Highlights of Service Pack 11 include the following BBIS enhancements: New event ... more

I’m excited to announce the release of BBCRM 4.0 Service Pack 11.  It is now available on the downloads page of blackbaud.com .   Service Pack 11 addresses 69 defects and includes 9 value-adding features.    Highlights of BBCRM 4.0 Service Pack 11: Improvement of Blackbaud Data Warehouse stability and performance by allowing the ETL to employ a ... more

We are excited to preview one of the new capabilities coming to Blackbaud CRM.  If you have watched our CRM Quarterly Roadmap webinars, you may have heard that we are releasing a new mobile enhancement in Q1 2017.  Blackbaud CRM’s new Fundraiser on the Go is built on SKY UX and will power your fundraisers from any device, allowing you to easily oversee ... more

Hi everyone!  To keep communication open around our supported versions, we wanted to remind you that Blackbaud CRM version 3.0 will enter Extended Support on December 31, 2016.  As noted in the Blackbaud CRM Notice of Support End Dates , Extended Support for 3.0 will begin on December 31, 2016, and will remain in effect through December 31, 2017.  Th e ... more

Read more about new Blackbaud CRM features being delivered in the last release of 2016, 4.0 Service Pack 11.   more

Hello, BBIS world!    I hope you caught Sam McGuin's recent post in our Announcements blog about some BBIS enhancements in SP10.  For those that missed it, and also for those that just can't get enough community blogs, I wanted to share a couple of quick tips on how to prepare for one of the key components of SP10 for BBIS: the switchover to site-wide HTTPS ... more

We are excited to preview some of the new Blackbaud Internet Solutions (BBIS) features coming out in SP10 later this month! As those of you who have been watching our CRM Quarterly Roadmap Update and BBIS Bi-Annual Review webinars, you may have heard that we increased our BBIS investment this year. The new team members are now fully ramped up and working ... more

The focus of this guide is demonstrate the creation of a way to automate a process in BBIS to display targeted information to website users, based on an Attribute that a website visitor submitted through a BBIS profile update from.  This is done with a CRM Query and BBIS role, and allows users with this role to view certain content on a page containing ... more

Check part 1 of this blog here: Acknowledgement Email And Transaction Download Process Overview - Part 1   In other situations, the Acknowledgement email is received with no difficulty and we show that the transaction was processed by the merchant account provider.  However, we cannot locate the transaction in CRM and it is not available for ... more

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After the recent roadmap call announcing that bug fixes and new features would continue to be delivered via 4.0 service packs instead of a 5.0 release, we wanted to provide everyone with more insight into the service pack release process.   Blackbaud CRM releases bimonthly service packs for version 4.0. This means there is a rolling two-month delivery ... more

As of August 28 2016, Blackbaud Internet Solution (BBIS) clients using Blackbaud Secure Payments (BBSP) version 1.0 web pages will be upgraded to responsive web pages (BBSP version 2.0). BBSP 2.0 is responsive so that donors using mobile devices will get an optimized user experience and supports HTML5 and CSS3 coding. This required update is being ... more

When it comes to increasing user adoption of your CRM system, one way to ensure users feel invested in inputting great data is to ensure the system is returning insights, alerts and notifications valuable to them. Like any good relationship, it should be a two-way street…no one wants to give without a little get! One powerful tool in Blackbaud CRM for delivering these personal messages are email alerts.   While many may be familiar with the out-of-the box email alerts, these are really just the beginning of what you can do. With custom email alerts you can create alerts for virtually any scenario, assign one or multiple users to the alert, and even change the criteria triggering the alert per user(s). more

Blackbaud CRM Service Pack 8 Released We are happy to announce Service Pack 8 for version 4.0 was released on June 8, 2016.  This Service Pack introduces the following new features:   Email Setting allowing for multiple or single emails for shared email address Update to Delete email messages and newsletters functionality To find out more about these ... more

Hot off the press! Our new performance benchmarks whitepaper explores a wide range of topics related to performance, and provides some simple calculations to help determine if your hardware is properly sized for your database size and usage.   more

Hi Folks! My name is Joseph and I’ve been on the CRM team here at Blackbaud for 2 years now. I’d like to share a feature of CRM that I’ve helped a handful of customers setup in the past. We receive this question from time to time so would like to share this tip with all of you.             Using Microsoft’s SQL Reporting Server, we can deliver CRM reports ... more

LeAnn M. Hillman, Enterprise Support Specialist, Blackbaud CRM; A+ , Security+ , Network+ The ETL (Extract, Transform, and Load) process is what updates the data warehouse with information for new or changed records from the source database. From time to time you may encounter a failed ETL process for your Blackbaud Data Warehouse and wonder how to go about troubleshooting why the ETL process failed. There are some tools you can use to begin the investigation, whether you are hosted by Blackbaud or if you self-host your own environment.  This blog will discuss how to determine if your ETL job failed, and troubleshooting steps to take once you have determined that it did fail to then attempt to find the reason for the failure.   more

We are happy to announce Service Pack 7 for version 4.0 was released on March 31, 2016.  This Service Pack introduces the following new features: Refund Details and Refund Query View for Credit Card Transactions Even Invitation query nodes in Constituent Query Constituent Interaction Listbuilder Recurring Gift Status field in Query Search for ... more

LeAnn M. Hillman, Enterprise Support Specialist, Blackbaud CRM; A+, Security+, Network+ Have you ever tried to print a report in Blackbaud Enterprise CRM while using Internet Explorer, only to find that when you click the 'print' button in the report viewer toolbar...nothing happens???  What about users who report missing the print button altogether?   more

Testing from version to version is a critical part of release readiness for your organization. Testing the product ensures that users are aware of changes that have been made to key areas of the system before going live. Historically, organizations have reported that they spend a large amount of time manually testing with each release. Since testing is critical part of validating each new version, consider using automation to replace the repetitive tasks being put on already strained resources.        more

You’ve been there right? An alert comes in from your credit card company regarding a suspicious transaction. You know immediately it was not yours. You become instantly anxious thinking of the impending hassle the card compromise and a new credit card will cause you. If you haven’t been there, consider yourself lucky, but I’m willing to bet you have at least one close friend or family member who has. For me that someone was my mother, who got the call that she was among one of the 17.2 million Target breach customers at perhaps the  least  opportune time…day 2 of her overseas trip to Australia, where she was visiting me during my time working for Blackbaud Pacific. If you can identify with this scenario, chances are many of the constituents in your Blackbaud CRM database can as well. And for those with an ongoing pledge, recurring gift or membership commitment, an update to your organization is just one of the many update to-dos on their list. And because there are likely no late fees for their donation (unlike those pesky utility bills), chances are they just might forget, leaving  you  to chase them down. Or worse yet, they may decide upon contact to cancel their commitment. Wouldn’t it be better if there was a service to pro-actively update the card information, saving both time and hassle for the donor  and  your organization? more

We are happy to announce the release of Service Pack 6 for version 4.0 on January 29, 2015.  This Service Pack introduces several new features including: •         Credit Card Updater Service •         Add Constituents to a Group in Bulk •         Constituencies Performance Improvements •         Mark Constituencies Inactive •         ... more

Recently, I was able to learn more about how customers use Blackbaud CRM to accomplish everyday tasks like processing gifts in batch. I bring these learnings and insights to future Blackbaud development efforts, but also wanted to share a few tips with you.   Did you know…   more

The New Year has come and gone, and here at Blackbaud, we've been reflecting on End of Year email fundraising. December has always been a big month for fundraising, but the importance of email fundraising as a critical component of your campaigns has never been higher.   more

It's January yet again.  For some of you, that means fresh snow on the ground and a chance to practice your shoveling skills.  For others, it's a chance to cheer as your football team puts the finishing touches on a season that began 5 months ago.  For the Blackbaud CRM team, it's a chance to look back on what we accomplished during the past year, and give some additional information to our users that wouldn't necessarily show up in a user guide.     more

We are back from an amazing #BBCON!  For those who were unable to attend, we will be presenting a repeat performance of our roadmap session on November 12 th , 2015 at 1:00 pm EST.   Register now.   more

Hi everyone! Coming to you from #bbcon!  We are excited about all the great content at #bbcon this year, including the roadmap session this afternoon.  Don't worry if you couldn't make it! We will be doing a repeat performance at the quarterly Roadmap call, November 12th.    more

Hi Community! A special thank you to the organizations upgrade teams who have shared their advice with us on the surveys. This wouldn’t be possible without you. We continue to learn from the information we receive and wanted to share some of your learnings for the benefit of all your peers.   After a completed upgrade to 4.0, select upgrade team members at organizations receive the BBCRM upgrade survey. One of the questions we ask is: “What advice would you give to other organizations who are considering upgrading?” Across versions of BBCRM the advice is very similar.…   more

The  What’s New  section of the SDK developer guides is updated for Service Pack 5 of Blackbaud CRM 4.0 . Starting with this service pack, the  Refresh UI Model  utility now allows users to update the partial classes of UI Models created with C#. In addition,  Blackbaud CRM  now requires Microsoft .NET ... more

We are happy to announce Service Pack 5 for version 4.0 was released on October 5, 2015.  This Service Pack requries Microsoft .NET4.5.2 to support TLS 1.2 protocol.  It also introduces the following new features:   Pledge Installments API for the Advanced Donation Form Deleting Email Messages and Newsletter Issues ... more

Hello Community! We want to remind everyone that according to the Blackbaud CRM Notice of Support End Dates , Blackbaud CRM version 2.94 will enter end of Extended Support as of November 2, 2015 .  Anyone still on this version should be in discussions with Blackbaud teams to set an upgrade plan. Visit our Release Resources page for more ... more

We are happy to announce that the target release date for Service Pack 14 is scheduled for February 29, 2016. more

We are happy to announce that the target release date for Service Pack 6 is scheduled for January 29, 2016.   more

As part of the CRM 4.0 release, we made significant enhancements to our Help offering. We designed a tabbed panel to bring online Help topics directly into the program. With the new Help Panel, you can quickly access new feature content, up-to-date Help topics from service pack new features and additional content improvements, and feature videos. ... more

If you upgraded to 4.0 you may have received a survey for your upgrade team, and some may have even received a survey for your end users, but why?   more

For prospect researchers who identify and qualify major giving prospects, we have refreshed data for you! Last night, we updated NOZA, Federal Elections Commission (FEC), Experian, and Thomson Reuters Business Intelligence (TRBI) MarketGuide in our Target Analytics database. When we updated the data, we saw an increase in record counts ... more

The  What’s New  section of the SDK developer guides is updated for Service Pack 4 of Blackbaud CRM 4.0. Starting with this service pack, the process to create custom tiles for the Constituent page is now updated to improve the developer experience and remove the need to manually update the database to designate view data forms as ... more

We are happy to announce Service Pack 14 target release date for version 3.0!  We are targeting to release Service Pack 14 in February 2016. more

We are happy to announce Service Pack 4 for version 4.0 was released on August 27, 2015.  This Service Pack introduces the following new features: BBIS Middle Name Field on donation form, payment part, and payment 2.0 part BBIS Donor Option for Event Registration Transactions To find out more about these new features and see all issues ... more

To help you get started, the Community provides several sources of information about Blackbaud CRM and BBIS, including discussion forums, blogs, events, resources, and product ideas. more

A look at the adoption of Blackbaud CRM 4.0 It's been eight months since we released Blackbaud CRM 4.0, and we wanted to take a moment to share some statistics on customer adoption of this version.   Customers Live on 4.0:  18 Remaining 2015 Planned Upgrades:  14 Remaining 2015 Implementations:  5 % of Customers Live on ... more

Revised 08/31/2015 ​In the time since the original posting, we have completed functional and performance testing of Blackbaud CRM 3.0 and 4.0 with Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Service Pack 1.  I have highlighted changes to the original post below.  In summary, we have tested both MSSQL 2014 SP1 base and Cumulative Update 1 (CU1). ... more

Author's Note: When approaching the task of writing a blog post about donation trends with BBIS and the Advanced Donation Form, my first step was to reach out to customers and Blackbaud Support and Services staff to learn more about how the Advanced Donation Form was being used. While fully intending to write about trends in this post, I found that ... more

Hello, world! We want to remind everyone that according to the Blackbaud CRM Notice of Support End Dates for Legacy Versions , Blackbaud CRM version 2.93 will enter the end of Extended Support as of August 3, 2015 .  Anyone still on this version should be in discussions with Blackbaud teams to set an upgrade plan.  Visit our Relese ... more

The  What’s New  section of the SDK developer guides has been updated for service pack 3 of  Blackbaud CRM 4.0 . Starting with this service pack, third-party developers can now manage the child tabs on existing tabs when they modify pages with the AlterExistingPages element, and they can also now allow end users to enter ... more

We are happy to announce Service Pack 3 for version 4.0 was released on June 30, 2015.  This Service Pack introduces 3 new features: Prospect Status Title Blocking Email Messages List Builder for Pending Activity tab on a Fundraiser record To find out more about these new features and see all issues addressed in the Service Pack, please ... more

Today we are excited to share the new Ideas Portal ! T he Ideas Portal allows us to collect, curate, and promote your ideas into features to ensure that key feedback and requests are seamlessly integrated into our product planning and development processes.  We think you’ll find many improvements from the previous IdeaBank. Not only does it incorporate all of the previous features, but it encompasses many other things that you, our customers, have been seeking. more

Fundraisers are a diverse group of individuals who have one thing in common: their passion for their mission. Recently, I've been spending a lot of time talking to fundraisers and our conversations have been enlightening. Our conversations generally go something like this:      Q:     Where do you spend most of your time?      A:     On the road or on the phone with prospects and donors      Q:     What are your typical activities?      A:     Call donors and prospects, plan for meetings, document conversations      Q:     Do you use CRM today?      A:     Yes, but... Several factors play into that loaded response, including:      * Fundraisers are out of the office more than they are in the office      * Fundraisers are much more comfortable in Outlook than they are in their CRM      * CRM has a learning curve Thanks to these conversations, we've learned a lot. So what are we doing with what we've learned?  more

Do you ever ask yourself, “I wonder how other organizations handle [ insert your biggest question here ] in Blackbaud CRM (or BBIS)?” You’re not alone!  We have the answer.   Every week, Blackbaud CRM and BBIS users get together online to have a live discussion about all of the topics you have questions about – and we want ... more

As you may have noticed, there's a lot of goodness coming out in CRM and BBIS documentation lately. From Action Lists to Fixed Bug Lists and more, there's more information available than ever before that is making applying service packs and installing upgrades easier. To add another layer of goodness onto this cake, we've been taking a ... more

Have you participated in our discovery session for email in BBIS yet?  It's not too late.  Check out the details here .  If you're interested and your organization hasn't signed up yet, you can email BBIS Product Manager Sam McGuin at samantha.mcguin@blackbaud.com .  We look forward to talking with you! more

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 www.blackbaud.com to search for answers. -Knowledgebase now includes product documentation and YouTube videos in addition to articles. ... more

Starting with version 4.0 of CRM, we have deprecated the ServiceVersion number (returned in response to a ServiceInfoGet SOAP request and available as a shared property on the AppService class) for the Infinity service. 4.0 returns “300” for this version number, which was the same value returned for CRM 3.0.   In 5.0, we will mark ... more

Blackbaud CRM 4.0 was released November 2014. Since then, Blackbaud has released two Service Packs to address customer reported issues. As of today, there are 3 organizations that are using 4.0 as their production environment version. We will be using this community post to provide status updates on client adoption of 4.0. Important ... more

Please take a moment to catch your breath after reading that title.   My son is approaching 2 years of age and is mobile, so naturally he wants to touch everything in his field of view.  With any non-NERF™ home, there are perils awaiting the uninitiated, and the first of ours turned out to be a propane grill in the backyard.  So when my son ... more

To BBIS Customers-   Due to significant changes that LinkedIn is making to their Developer Program to limit the open APIs , starting on May 12, 2015 Blackbaud will no longer be able to support the “LinkedIn Group Join” part.  The changes are documented by LinkedIn here .   For context, the “LinkedIn Group ... more

Understanding and Managing Database Growth , you say?  Should I start this post by paraphrasing a Drucker quote and saying something about how we need to measure what we wish to improve?  In this case I probably should, because such a quote would be relevant to the topic. The concept of Database growth leads to a lot of conversations for a ... more

You may have noticed that we're trying some new things with 4.0 post-release communication.  One recent example of this was the  March Spotlight ,  which explored some important changes in Service Pack 1.  Another such effort is the newly created  4.0 State of the Release  newsletter.   This ... more

Blackbaud CRM 4.0 features exciting enhancements designed to increase usability, improve quality, strengthen performance, and push the boundaries of constituent engagement and fundraising. New features and enhancements include:   - Improved functionality around many feature areas including Constituents, Prospects, Query, ... more

We are happy to announce that the target release date for Service Pack 4 is scheduled for August 31, 2015. more

We are happy to announce Service Pack 13 and Service Pack 14 target release dates for version 3.0!  We are targeting to release Service Pack 13 on July 31, 2015 and Service Pack 14 on September 30, 2015. more

We are happy to announce Service Pack 2 for version 4.0 was released on April, 29th, 2015.  This Service Pack addresses 355 issues.   To view all the issues addressed in the Service Pack, please review the Service Pack release notes .   To download the Service Pack, please visit the downloads page on our website.   more

There's a lot of exciting activity amongst our Blackbaud CRM customer base these days, with several organizations making the move to version 4.0. With that in mind, I thought it'd be worthwhile to recap all the investments we made in the Blackbaud Data Warehouse with version 4.0, and to provide a look ahead through the rest of 2015. As product ... more

Thanks to all of the organizations who participated in discovery for the Event Check-In.  We received a lot of great feedback.  Our design team has incorporared the feedback and would like to validate the updates with you!  In these 60-minute WebEx sessions we will focus on configuring the Event Check-In app. To ... more

We are happy to announce Service Pack 10 for version 3.0 was released on March 25 th , 2015.  This Service Pack addresses 63 issues.   To view all the issues addressed in the Service Pack, please review the  Service Pack release notes .   To download the Service Pack, please visit the  downloads page  on our ... more

By popular demand, Blackbaud is now offering a Software Development Kit (SDK) “bootcamp”. Having command of the SDK allows a developer to take advantage of the advanced features of Blackbaud CRM. Using the SDK, you can extend or replace the solution’s out-of-the-box features, add tabs to constituent records with your ... more

We are happy to announce Service Pack 1 for version 4.0 was released on February, 23rd, 2015.  This Service Pack addresses 395 issues.   To view all the issues addressed in the Service Pack, please review the  Service Pack release notes .   To download the Service Pack, please visit the  downloads page  on our ... more

We are happy to announce Service Pack 10 for version 3.0 was released on January 26 th , 2015.  This Service Pack addresses 120 issues.   To view all the issues addressed in the Service Pack, please review the  Service Pack release notes .   To download the Service Pack, please visit the  downloads page  on our ... more

We are happy to announce that the target release date for Service Pack 3 is scheduled for June 30, 2015.   If you would like to be notified when a new Service Pack is released, please subscribe to the following  Knowledgebase solution . more

The Blackbaud Data Warehouse isn’t another application but an addition to Blackbaud CRM that can be used with reports and, in 4.0+, to query constituent information. The data warehouse copies data from your source database and places it in a data warehouse to allow you to conduct complex reporting and analysis. After you create the data warehouse, ... more

Thank you to those who were able to attend the Blackbaud CRM 4.0 SDK and BBIS Developer Portal updates session on Wednesday, December 10.  Members of the Blackbaud CRM documentation and training teams shared many new features and enhancements included in the 4.0 release. If you were unable to make the event, you can watch the recording here ... more

Join us for an overview of the Blackbaud CRM 4.0 software development kit (SDK) and the Blackbaud Internet Solutions (BBIS) developer portal.  This webcast will be held on  Wednesday, December 10, 2014 from 1:00 PM to 2:15PM ET.   Register  here . We'll learn from the Blackbaud CRM documentation and training teams while they share key features from ... more

We are happy to announce Service Pack 1 and Service Pack 2 target release dates for version 4.0!  We are targeting to release Service Pack 1 on February 27, 2015 and Service Pack 2 on April 30, 2015.   If you would like to be notified when a new Service Pack is released, please subscribe to the following  Knowledgebase solution . more

We are happy to announce Service Pack 11 and Service Pack 12 target release dates for version 3.0!  We are targeting to release Service Pack 11 on March 31, 2015 and Service Pack 12 on May 29, 2015.   If you would like to be notified when a new Service Pack is released, please subscribe to the following  Knowledgebase solution . more

Recently, we’ve had a number of clients reach out with similar questions surrounding BBIS Email functionality. We decided to put together a list of some of the FAQs along with some additional information surrounding BBIS Emails we thought would be helpful. After clicking "Send" on a BBIS email, what happens behind the scenes? Regardless of the type of ... more

To keep communication open around our supported versions, we wanted to remind everyone that according to the Blackbaud CRM Notice of Support End Dates for Legacy Versions , Blackbaud CRM versions 2.7, 2.9 and 2.91 will enter the end of Extended Support as of December 31, 2014.  Anyone still on one of these versions should be in discussions with ... more

CRM 4.0 introduces the Information Library as THE place to manage, well, information.  This ListBuilder-driven area replaces what would normally be seen when adding an ad-hoc query but a closer look reveals it’s more than just a replacement. There are options to search/filter/sort this list down to the column level as well as a few extra columns that ... more

Do you have donors with complicated pledges who split their pledge across multiple installments and have each payment applied to the installments differently? If you answered yes, then the new Edit installment wizard introduced in BBCRM version 4.0 will help simplify this process. Instead of going to multiple locations in the program to edit ... more

Leverage top new enhancements favored by Customer Tech Preview (CTP) participants to improve usability and efficiency.  View the demo of top CTP customer version 4.0 features from our October Feature Preview session.   more

Enjoy new information delivery and query features designed to increase flexibility and usability. We’ve added a new information library to manage queries and KPIs with ease, added “Save As” functionality for queries and exports, created a new streamlined way to mark queries as favorites, removed the 500 row export limit for ... more

Leverage new enhancements that improve the use and efficiency of the Apply To Commitments screen accessed from an Enhanced Revenue Batch and Revenue Update Batch.   View the demo of the version 4.0 Batch updates from our September Feature Preview session.   more

Enjoy significant new enhancements designed to help you effectively manage and grow your sustained or recurring giving programs.  Enhancements include a comprehensive activity timeline to display activity associated with a recurring gift, a redesigned gift record, reorganized transaction summary and detail information, and new ... more

Promote a more efficient and streamlined workflow with our enhanced credit card reconciliation process.  Users can identify and work with all reconciliation items from the “Reconcile transactions and disbursements” page in Treasury.  View the demo of the version 4.0 Treasury updates from our September Feature Preview ... more

Take advantage of new management features to add and edit recognition credits on the “Recognitions” screen through the enhanced revenue batch and revenue update batch. Organizations can also set how they want recognition credits to be honored by anonymous gifts. View the demo of the version 4.0 recognition credits and anonymous ... more

Version 4.0 includes new features that increase flexibility on events with designations to support partial payments and adjustments of existing event registration payment amounts and event registration information. View the demo of the version 4.0 event updates from our September Feature Preview session.   more

We are happy to announce Service Pack 9 for version 3.0 was released on September 30 th , 2014.  This Service Pack addresses 113 issues including SQL Server 2014 Enterprise compatibility.   To view all the issues addressed in the Service Pack, please review the Service Pack release notes .   To download the ... more

Hi everyone.  To keep communication open around our supported versions, we wanted to remind everyone that Blackbaud CRM version 2.94 will enter Extended Support on October 31, 2014.    As noted in the  Blackbaud CRM Notice of Support End Dates for Legacy Versions , Extended Support for 2.94 will begin on October 31, 2014, and ... more

We invite you to read more about the new Knowledgebase changes happening here in Support. Check it out:   New Knowledgebase Changes . If you want to be in the know, make sure to   subscribe   to our Support News blog! more

Recently, we’ve had some organizations reach out to us with questions about Blackbaud’s recommendations for firewall settings. Cary McDonald, our Senior Product Support Lead for Developer Solutions and technical guru, shared some helpful insight into what we can (and can’t) suggest in terms of your firewall configuration, and the reasoning ... more

Hi everyone.  To keep communication open around our supported versions, we wanted to remind everyone that Blackbaud CRM version 2.93 has entered Extended Support.    As noted in the  Blackbaud CRM Notice of Support End Dates for Legacy Versions , Extended Support for 2.93 began on August 1, 2014, and will remain in effect ... more

Blackbaud Internet Solutions (BBIS) is our Enterprise level website management platform, which integrates directly with Blackbaud CRM. During the past three months, something special has been happening – BBIS users have been joining together with member of Blackbaud Support and Product Management to form a user group online. Every week, we meet ... more

We are happy to announce Service Pack 8 for version 3.0 was released on July 10 th , 2014.  Currently there are 33 clients that have downloaded, are in the process of testing, or applied the Service Pack to their production environment.    This Service Pack addresses 59 issues including allowing If, Then, Else Statements in ... more

Blackbaud is working to make our Quality Assurance processes more effective by incorporating the tests you run when you're preparing for a CRM patch, service pack or new release.  Any test cases provided by you will be reviewed against our current test suites for accuracy and aid us in molding our manual and automated test suites to cover the tests that ... more

What is Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation? Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) is a new law that sets rules on the sending of commercial messages across many technologies such as email, SMS, MMS, social direct messages, etc.  CASL requires express “opt-in” consent. This means that under CASL, emails can only be sent when the recipient, through ... more

As the fiscal year’s end draws near it is common for many organizations to begin the process of reconciling Blackbaud CRM to the General Ledger.  Many organizations use query as a tool to group transactions in similar accounts or as a reporting tool, but it is important to note that there are some limitations that need to be highlighted.  Queries are used ... more

We’ve recently made improvements to the Product Discovery process so that you’ll always know which topics are in discovery, and so you can be notified when new subjects are added. The Product Discovery process is an important way for you to express your organization’s needs for CRM.  It allows us an opportunity to learn about problems you have that we ... more

Back by popular demand, this class is a repeat of the Dashboards and KPIs class taught in February.  We'll learn the fundamentals and build a number of KPIs and Dashboards during the class.  If you're not taking advantage of this functionality, join us to learn how! We'll learn how to do the following: Identify and configure KPIs for a variety of ... more

Do you have ongoing performance concerns in your CRM database?  The performance team wants to hear about them! Join Len Wyatt and David Hendershot from the CRM Products team for a Skype Chat next Thursday, June 5th, from 2-3pm ET to share your experiences.  The Performance Team would like to get a broad picture of the concerns that you have.  Typically, ... more

Do you have upgrades on the brain?? Seems like everyone is planning for an upgrade, working on an upgrade, or anticipating the next release these days!  In an effort to personalize the experience, we are bringing a new series of updates to the CRM Community ( www.blackbaud.com/bbcrm ). The Blackbaud Upgrades team (Joe Price, Emily Carpenter, and ... more

Over the weekend, a security flaw was discovered with Internet Explorer (IE) versions 6 through 11. The security flaw allows malicious hackers to get around security protections in the Windows operating system. They then can be infected when visiting a compromised website.  Microsoft is working a fix; however, at this time the  Department of ... more

Have you ever wanted to customize the way your records are arranged in Blackbaud CRM?  Or wished that a data list could include a couple of additional fields? There are ways to “customize” your CRM database even if you aren’t a backend developer.  Join Jim Ballou, Principal Solutions Engineer for Blackbaud CRM, to dig in to this functionality and make ... more

All BBIS users are invited to Skype chat with your peers, in weekly sessions starting Wednesday, May 7 th , from 2-3pm. Blackbaud Internet Solutions (BBIS) is our Enterprise level website management platform, which integrates directly with Blackbaud CRM. While we strive to provide outstanding support, we know that YOU, BBIS users, are a ... more

The CRM Resource Center has been updated and re-organized with you (Blackbaud Enterprise CRM users) and your nonprofit in mind.* Now, we invite all of you - named contacts and end users alike - to jump on a call to take a quick tour of the updates that we’ve made to the CRM Community and how they can make your life easier! We’ve made changes to our user forums, ... more

The Blackbaud CRM Community Skype Chat Group is off to a running start!  Thank you to everyone who joined our first session.  We compiled a list of topics to discuss at future sessions (every Wednesday from 1-2pm ET), and the schedule of upcoming sessions is below.  To join the group, just download Skype and add carolinebarnes.bb as a contact.  You don't ... more

Blackbaud Enterprise CRM Support’s Upgrade and Customization teams are joining together to de-mystify the upgrade process in a series of informational web seminars where we’ll address your major upgrade questions and concerns. In Part 1 of the series, we’ll be discussing FTM (the Financial Transaction Model) and smokescreen testing – two of the ... more

All Blackbaud CRM users are invited to Skype chat with your peers in weekly sessions starting Wednesday, March 12 th , at 1-2pm ET. While we strive to provide outstanding support, we know that YOU, Blackbaud CRM users, are an incredibly knowledgeable and valuable resource.  You work at the same types of organizations, in the same roles, using the same ... more

Thank you so much to all who attended the KPIs and Dashboards 101 web seminars on February 12 and February 20.  As promised, here is the recorded web seminar: Here are the web seminar documents, as a reference: PowerPoint presentation All presenter notes are included Web Dashboard “Cheat Sheet” This has been updated with details about how to use the ... more

*New Session Scheduled!* In response to popular demand, we have scheduled a second session of our KPIs and Dashboards web seminar.  See details below: KPIs and Dashboards in Blackbaud CRM are quick, easy tools you can set up to get a snapshot of your organization’s activity and progress towards goals.  If you’re not taking advantage of these ... more

KPIs and Dashboards are quick, easy tools you can set up to get a snapshot of your organization’s activity and progress towards goals.  If you’re not taking advantage of these pre-defined calculations in Blackbaud CRM, join us to learn the basics and get started! By the end of the session, you will be able to: Identify and configure KPIs for a variety of ... more

Please see the document attached for information on the planned dates for Blackbaud CRM versions entering critical support only, (called “Extended Support” on versions 3.0 and later) and the planned end dates for all support and maintenance corrections on the following versions of Blackbaud CRM. more

Thank you to those who were able to attend the Blackbaud CRM Quarterly Roadmap Review.  For those unable to make the live event, we have made the slides from the presentation available for your reference. more

Please see the document attached for details on changes to the support level for Blackbaud CRM (BBCRM) versions 2.90 and 2.91, Blackbaud Internet Solutions versions 2.9 and 2.91 and Blackbaud Direct Marketing versions 2.90 and 2.91.   more

Thank you to all who attended our Blackbaud CRM Release Briefing on October 30th.  The presentation from the webinar is attached with details of our upcoming release plans, the support lifecycle policy for current product versions, and frequently asked questions. more

Reference the Blackbaud CRM Service Level Agreement resources posting for the SLA details for Blackbaud CRM version 3.0 and greater. more

View enhanced list functionality available on a variety of lists throughout the program.   more

If you experience performance issues when you run ad-hoc queries, “or” statements in your filter criteria could be the problem. For best results, queries should include at least one filter that eliminates most unwanted records, but “or” statements prevent a single filter from eliminating records. For this reason, queries with “and” statements ... more

Have you ever seen this error message? Or this one?         Where do you go from here?? Dealing with security and permissions problems can be complex and confusing.  So, we’ve drawn upon the expertise of several Senior Customer Support Analysts to present a FREE webinar that will help demystify the process.  We’ll discuss our troubleshooting strategies ... more

When you search for constituents, the search criteria that you enter on the Constituent Search screen directly impacts how long it takes to get your search results. For best results, we recommend that you are selective in your search criteria and that you enter detailed information. By providing detailed search criteria, you help to ensure that you ... more

Do you have too many Query Selections but don’t know how to remove them from your query views?  You can do the following steps to remove them from Query Designer: 1.  In Blackbaud CRM, click Analysis, and then Query. 2.  Select the Selections tab. 3.  Highlight the selection that you would like to mark inactive and click Edit. 4.  On the Edit selection ... more

GL distributions tab enhancements allow users to visualize donation transaction events, including original transaction, subsequent activity, and adjustments in a timeline display. This display is particularly helpful for tracking complex transactions, such as stock and property, through the acquisition, change, and sale stages. The ... more

On April 22, 2013, HMRC launches a new system for Gift Aid submission that allows you to send your Gift Aid claims directly from The Raiser’s Edge. This blog post gives you the information you need to know for this change so that you've plenty of time to change over before the paper forms are no longer accepted in October. WHO NEEDS TO READ THIS BLOG? ... more

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We are excited to announce the release of Blackbaud CRM 3.0.  Some key new features within the release include additional membership configuration, tracking of social media accounts, new wizard to enter designations/purposes, and a new GL distribution tab to help view the full life cycle of the financial posting data. You can find detailed ... more

When you open a constituent record in Blackbaud CRM, you will see that record’s active constituencies (e.g. Major Donor, Volunteer, Event Registrant) listed below the contact information. Clicking on an active constituency lets you quickly jump to that area of the application for that record. As is often the case in Blackbaud CRM, you can customise ... more

In my last blog post, I explained how to set up Standard Email Alerts  in Blackbaud CRM.  Today, I'll give you the skinny on Custom Email Alerts (for   those pathologically averse to reading a user guide). Custom Email Alerts allow your organisation flexibility with regards to alerting your users when changes have been made to records in the database ... more

You've created great mailings and your organization has begun collecting donations, but how can you be sure all donations are accounted for in your reports? After your Marketing Effort has been activated and your organization begins accepting donations, run a refresh on your Marketing Efforts. You can do this manually by opening the Marketing ... more

Do you ever think to yourself: "I have so many processes to run and only 8 hours in the day.  How can I accomplish all of these without camping at work?"  If this sounds like you, perhaps queue is the answer to your prayers. Queue processes allow your organization to set up processes to run on a scheduled basis.  You can set them up to run once, daily, weekly, ... more

Introducing new Global Change developer guide materials for Blackbaud CRM SDK developers.  A global change allows you to make changes to specific records within your database via criteria that you specify.  Explore, build, debug, configure and integrate today!  Access the help for more information ! more

You may have heard about some changes coming in 2013 about Gift Aid, so I thought I’d take some time to outline Blackbaud’s plans on that. Gift Aid is the UK Government scheme to assist charities in claiming back the element that would have been paid in tax for a donation by a UK tax payer. It’s administered by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). Late last year, HMRC ... more