Training Available in December

December is traditionally a busy month for the organizations that we serve. Between end of the year giving, school vacations, planning for the new year to come, and the holidays, there’s never a dull moment. This month we’re focusing on helping you wrap up the year and start next year fresh.

Internally here at Blackbaud we’re also planning for next year ourselves. I hope we’ve come a long way this year in improving the education resources for our customers, but we want to do even more in 2015. If you have suggestions or are looking for something specific, we’d love to hear from you on the Altru Community – just add your comments to our post.

Happy Holidays!



Altru Masters Workshop: Import Basics – December 1st – 1-2pm ET – Register here

This one-hour online instructor-led Altru Masters Workshop will cover importing constituent records into Altru. During the class we discuss the process for creating import files using Microsoft Excel and the process for creating batch templates that will be used in your import process. The examples used in class will focus on new constituent and constituent update imports. Batch 101 in Altru is a prerequisite for this class and attendees should have familiarity with using comma separated values spreadsheets.

Altru Masters Workshop: End of Year Reporting and Analysis Part I – December 3rd – 1-2pm ET – Register here

In this one-hour instructor-led hour session, we will discuss things you should do to prepare for your Annual Report such as basic end of year reporting including attendance for the year and revenue tracking. This is the first of a two-part series.  Part II must be enrolled in separately.

Altru Masters Workshop: End of Year Reporting and Analysis Part II – December 17th – 1-2pm ET – Register here

In this one-hour instructor-led follow up to the End of Year Reporting and Analysis Part I session, we will discuss in-depth end of year reporting and preparation for the new year. Includes topics are writing off unpaid pledges, creating future fiscal years, grant reporting, and sending out annual statements to your donors. This is the second session of a two-part series.  Part I must be enrolled in separately. We recommend attending Part I as a prerequisite for Part II.

Altru Masters Workshop: Improving your Acknowledgements – December 10th – 2-3pm ET – Register here

This Masters Workshop explores the best practices for one of your most important donor communications: your acknowledgements! During this hour-long session we will review acknowledgement configuration, offer suggestions for improved segmentation, demonstrate adding common merge fields, and provide tips and tricks for using the letter content editor.

And as always, we have our regularly scheduled classes:

Appeals & Mailings 101 – Dec 4, 15

Batch 101 – Dec 9

Daily Financial Reconciliation – Dec 5, 15

General Sales 101 – Dec 12

Introduction to Altru – Dec 11

Managing Group Sales Reservations – Dec 1, 17, 29

Membership Setup 101 – Dec 4, 16, Jan 2

Merchandise 101 – Dec 10, 29

Query 101 – Dec 5, 31

Revenue 101 – Dec 9

Ticketing Setup 101 – Dec 2, 16, 30

Web Forms 101 – Dec 11, Jan 2

There are no classes being held the week of Christmas.