I have to say, y'all are rockin' the certification this year! Let's see if we can certify EVERYONE  (I dream big!) In March, the following people earned their Altru Fundamentals Certification: DongQuan Su Laura Chaney Tammi Kimbrell Erin Ciechowski Heather Stahr Jessica Albright Therese Conturso Terre Kemble Carol Fischenich Jessica Cantrell ... more

Hello Everyone,  It's almost time for the upcoming release of version 5.13 for Altru! We will be upgrading our staging environments first, and we have scheduled this to occur on Wednesday April 10th from 8am-1pm EST.  During this time any Staging Environments may be down for a short period of time. The staging sites won't be down during the whole 5 hour ... more

Let's give a virtual pat on the back to those Community Members who certified in February 2019!! Marck Menke Alexis Markopoulos Tami Goertzen Rachel Peterson Mackenzie Merrill-Wick Charlotte Conway Rebecca Bucci Kaitlin LeRoy Nicole Kindbeiter Elizabeth Withers Kathy Freney Smith Lucia Stancioff Kate Pasch Nic Beckett Lisa Quinn Shannon ... more

Welcome to 2019...sorry I'm a little late! Let's take the time to say a hearty congratulations to those Community Members who certified in January 2019!! Cate Fossing Marissa Tucker Colleen Ruby Peyton Proffitt Kari Nelson Morgan Starr Katherine White Debra Jaeger Emily Gillings Lisanne Norman Jess Monroe Laura Farrell Jacqueline Forbes Georgia ... more

Welcome to Altru 5.12 . This readme lists the issues resolved in version 5.12 of Altru:   Description KB Article Number This fix resolves an issue where an error may occur when connecting an RSS Feed to Outlook. Error: Outlook cannot download the RSS Content from (XXX) because you do not have the required credentials.   115859 This fix ... more

 Join the bbcon 2019 speaker lineup in Nashville more

Let's not forget to congratulate our community members who certified in December. Way to go! Maria Mingalone Andrea Hart Lani Curtis Barbara Boo Emma Deaner Elizabeth Grover Catherine Glidwell Brooke Torricelli Marian Steijlen Jenny Conn Shannon Morin Interested in 2019 Altru Certification? Check out this blog .  more

Hello Everyone,  It's almost time for the upcoming release of version 5.12 for Altru! We will be upgrading our staging environments first, and we have scheduled this to occur on Wednesday January 16th from 8am-1pm EST.  During this time any Staging Environments may be down for a short period of time. The staging sites won't be down during the whole 5 ... more

Great New Year’s news— Blackbaud University 2019 Certification is available now! Blackbaud University offers certified learning opportunities that recognize student achievement and help validate product knowledge. We provide these development opportunities to reflect our students’ commitment to excellence.   Fundamentals ... more

I do not need to write a lengthy or terribly witty intro to illustrate just how attuned we are to our security online. Every news cycle seems to reveal another data breach. We get weird emails from friends telling us how their dream vacation in Thailand went south and now they need your help – and money – right away (even though you saw them in the grocery store ... more

A hearty congratulations to the November certified users in the Altru community!! Eileen Hanson Lauren Barry Amanda Denton Kim Coleman J Kiku Langford McDonald Kathleen Ecker Amy Snitehurst Lauren Stapleton Rebecca Gilliam Ashton Campbell You've still got a few days to certify in 2018! Be on the lookout for information on the 2019 Altru ... more

We identified an issue that may impact printing capability in the latest version of Chrome; Version 71. We are currently working to address this issue, but we wanted to let customers know that this has the potential to disable printing within the Chrome browser. We are recommending to temporarily use Internet Explorer or choose not to update to Chrome ... more

When new features are released, it is nice to run a couple of tests to see if the feature is something your organization can utilize.  This blog will discuss some tips to testing features in your live database.    What happened to the Altru Sandbox?   We apologize for the delay in this response, but we wanted to make sure we did a thorough investigation.  ... more

According to Wikipedia, compulsory education began in Prussia around 1800. It’s hard to believe the requirement to learn in a structured environment is merely a 19 th century thing. In the U.S., schools themselves were around in the 17 th century but learning in general was done mostly through community – by family or the religious community. School ... more

You might be familiar with our Blackbaud Altru ® training , but have you taken a look at our newest courses? We update our curriculum regularly to keep up with the changing technology and ensure that you are using your solution effectively and efficiently.  Our newest Blackbaud Altru courses include:  Blackbaud Altru: Streamlining Guest ... more

Congratulations to all our October Certified Users from the Community!  Lisa Dretske Kelly Drumm Caitlin LaPorte Jackie Chambers Tracy Jen Amelia White Ally Tatlow Melissa Maney   more

Do you have a clear strategy for your grants from end to end? Not sure what the whole process looks like? We’ve got your back. We’re excited to invite you to join our upcoming two-part Success Session series that will help you connect the dots end to end on the lifecycle of a grant across your offices. Check out the two events below and click to register – and ... more

The Blackbaud Altru Major Giving Series is designed to help you dive into using the powerful Major Giving module within Blackbaud Altru. Whether you're using it for the first time or looking for ways to better leverage this functionality, this series will give you all the tools you need to get your Development team raising more money, faster and more ... more

Watch the recent webinar recording and sign up for the upcoming email integration webinar and Early Adopter Program (EAP) more

Congratulations to all our September Certified Users from the Community!  Candace Gunkel Olivia Jackson Beth Unger Kaitlinn Dibner Patrick Hogan Amanda Targoff   more

In Altru 5.11, we made enhancements from your feedback! Version 5.11 includes functionality to enable a "Continue Shopping" button to display on your patrons' shopping carts, as well as bug fixes and general enhancements .  Shopping Cart: Adding more items to your shopping cart is now easier than ever! Your web forms can now be configured to add a ... more

Welcome to Altru 5.11 . This readme lists the issues resolved in version 5.11 of Altru:   Description KB Article Number This fix resolves an issue where job openings may double if a staff resource was added through a track on a group sales reservation. 115799 This fix resolves an issue where the expiration date for guest passes may not match the ... more

Congratulations to all our August Certified Users from the Community! Hope to see you at bbcon! Andrew Collins Kate Baker Lori Turman Landon Harvey Margie Ponce Lisa Romans Simone Davis Amanda Shuman Alicia Bono Elyse Sulkey Charlotte Jones Emma Newberry-Davis Taylor Surratt Janine Powell David Noah Cassandra Cody Ann Murphy Christina Beargie ... more

Hello Everyone,  It's almost time for the upcoming release of version 5.11 for Altru! We will be upgrading our staging environments first, and we have scheduled this to occur on Thursday October 4th from 8am-1pm EST.  During this time any Staging Environments may be down for a short period of time. The staging sites won't be down during the whole 5 hour ... more

How would you describe your organization's approach to its online presence? That would include all How things digital: Website, search engines, social media, etc. Killin’ it! We are highly strategic, coordinated, and curated. On Track. We have modernized and taking next steps. Pretty good. We’re following some best practices but there are clear ... more

In the early days of recording music, Alexander Graham Bell (I know, right?) devised the use of a wax cylinder to capture sound in a bit more sustainable fashion than Thomas Edison had devised in 1877. This wax cylinder had grooves cut into it that retained sound for playback. The cliché in the groove is credited to have come into use in the 1920s as a nod to ... more

Get all the details for arts and cultural professionals! more

To help protect sensitive data but still enable you to multi-task or take time for deliberate decisions in Altru, your Blackbaud ID now automatically signs out after 90 minutes of inactivity . Previously, your Blackbaud ID automatically signed out after 15 minutes of inactivity. This change is being made after consideration of user feedback and a ... more

It's time once again to congratulate our newly certified Altru users! Christine Van Ormer Austin Lee Laura Schmid Joshua Graham Paige Lindsey Jennifer Hinderliter Rebecca Wright Emily Gillings Claudia Cervantes Laura Lover Mackenzie Merrill-Wick Jordan Barratt Zitlaly Valenzuela Jimenez Janet Lizza Lela Gee-Boswell   Test your knowledge of ... more

Planning for EOY fundraising starts now! Improve your strategy with these resources.  more

Test your knowledge of Blackbaud Altru ® . more

I take a lot of surveys and so many of them ask, “Are you the first one of your friends to try new technology?” You might assume that working at a software company my answer would be a resounding “Yes!” But it’s not. Truth be told, I’m typically the one that waits until everyone has tried something and then I dip my toes in the pool. So, as I was learning to use ... more

Sorry for the delay, folks! It's July and time to celebrate our May & June Altru Certified Community Members. I saw a bunch of names I've met in classes during the past two months...congratulations to each of you! May: Jordan Baker Kayla Sewell Belle Forino Katrina Heller Brigitte Austin Erica Ando Dionne Cardenas Nandine Hemraj Samantha Wilson Lisa ... more

Hello Everyone,  We will be upgrading our staging environments on Tuesday July 3rd from 12PM - 5PM EST.  During this time, the  Client Sandbox  and all other Staging Environments, may be down for a short period of time. The staging sites won't be down during the whole 5 hour block, only a small increment of time within that timeframe.  As a note, this will ... more

Welcome to Altru 5.1 . This readme lists the issues resolved in version 5.1 of Altru:   Description KB Article Number This fix resolves an issue where users were unable to log into Blackbaud.com and received an Oops something is wrong error message. 114331 This fix resolves an issue where users may have experienced timeout errors when ... more

Hello Everyone,  We have rescheduled our original staging database move from Thursday June 14th to Monday June 18th from 8AM - 1PM EST.  During this time, the  Client Sandbox  or any Staging Environments, may be down for a short period of time. The staging sites won't be down during the whole 5 hour block, only a small increment of time within that ... more

Hello Everyone,  It's almost time for the upcoming release of version 5.1 for Altru! We will be upgrading our staging environments first, and we have scheduled this to occur on Thursday June 14th from 8AM - 1PM EST.  During this time, the  Client Sandbox  or any Staging Environments, may be down for a short period of time. The staging sites won't be down ... more

Hello all, A few years ago, we launched a project to allow all Altru users to use the power of Tableau to visualize some of their own data. It had been a while, so I decided to refresh and repost this information, as I think it is an amazing resource. Below is the original information, refreshed for your use. Please check it out, and let us know if you put it to ... more

Hi all - you may have noticed I'm the new face of Blackbaud University around the Altru Community . I've been sending along some friend requests and posting the monthly certification praise blogs. I'm a fan of certification for many reasons. I will get to that in a bit. Before that, let me introduce myself. My name is Mary Aquino-Cooper. I've worked at ... more

Spring has finally sprung and it's moving toward summer. That's exciting to me - and Blackbaud University is excited to celebrate our Altru users who became  Blackbaud Certified  in April!     Be sure to review our listing and celebrate your colleagues by viewing their profiles, becoming Blackbaud  Community  friends, or just congratulating them ... more

How Fundraising Performed in the Arts and Cultural Sector in 2017 more

Blackbaud University is excited to celebrate our Altru users who became  Blackbaud Certified  in March!     Be sure to review our listing and celebrate your colleagues by viewing their profiles, becoming Blackbaud  Community  friends, or just congratulating them on this significant achievement. Brittany O'Dowd Susan Matyas Jillian Bock ... more

In Altru 5.0, we focused a lot on making improvements and enhancements from your feedback! Version 5.0 includes new query and smart field definitions to help your development staff find information about potential donors, enhancements to the Constituent Update Batch settings, and new search functionality in Fundraiser on the Go. We made ... more

Welcome to Altru 5.0 . This readme lists the issues resolved in version 5.0 of Altru:   Description KB Article Number This fix resolves an issue where the Documentation Summary Tab may have been missing.    111561 This fix resolves an issue where when a patron registered twice for an event, the second registration may not show as a gift even ... more

You’ve heard the saying “two is better than one,” and in this case, it rings true. When it comes to delivering visitor and member data insight, Blackbaud and Guru are two companies leading the charge together. As an aquarium, garden, museum, or zoo, you’re already great at collecting visitors’ contact information to easily stay in touch, but are you ... more

Don't miss the premier tech gathering for social good. October 9–11 | Orlando, FL more

Hello Everyone,  It's almost time for the upcoming release of version 5.0 for Altru! We will be upgrading our staging environments first, and we have scheduled this to occur on Friday March 23rd from 12pm-5pm EST.  During this time, the  Client Sandbox  or any Staging Environments, may be down for a short period of time. The staging sites won't be down ... more

As a reminder, in preparation for upcoming changes to PCI requirements, Blackbaud will begin disabling TLS 1.0 across its solutions beginning today, March 15, 2018. The PCI Council has released an update to the PCI Data Security Standards. Per the new requirements, TLS version 1.0 will be considered obsolete as of June 30, 2018, and only versions 1.1 ... more

Blackbaud University is starting the year by celebrating our Altru users who became  Blackbaud Certified  in February!    Be sure to review our listing and celebrate your colleagues by viewing their profiles, becoming Blackbaud  Community  friends, or just congratulating them on this significant achievement. John Bachman Jennifer Carman Jared ... more

Blackbaud University is starting the year by celebrating our Altru users who became Blackbaud Certified in January!   more

Welcome to Altru 4.99 . This readme lists the issues resolved in version 4.99 of Altru:   Description KB Article Number This fix resolves an issue where the Total Revenue and Payments Report may not match the payment method distribution section of the report when a membership promotion was applied to a membership with contributed revenue.   ... more

In the upcoming release of Altru (version 4.99), we are excited to announce support for printing Sales Documents in Google Chrome! Since this was a top idea in our Community (over 130 votes across 3 different ideas), we know that many of you are likely eager to make the switch from IE to Chrome on your Point of Sale workstations. Read on to learn about what ... more

As a reminder Staging Environments were upgraded today (1/8/18) to version 4.99 of Altru. With this release we made some changes to our staging environment for performance enhancements of the staging environments. Due to this, your organization may have to reconnect the SSO (Blackbaud ID) usernames and passwords again in your Staging Environment. ... more

Hello Everyone,  It's almost time for the upcoming release of version 4.99 for Altru! We will be upgrading our staging environments first, and we have scheduled this to occur on Monday January 8th from 12pm-5pm EST.  During this time, the  Client Sandbox  or any Staging Environments, may be down for a short period of time. The staging sites won't be down ... more

Starting today, we will be Spotlighting Development, Fundraising, and Donor Reporting. These are all important features for your End of Year Reporting. Check out the Spotlight on Altru Resources page to learn more about Development, Fundraising, and Donor Reporting. I know there are reporting experts out there, so also visit our forum contest  and ... more

Hey Altru Community, We’ve received several questions lately asking if we offer afterhours support, and the answer is we do!  I wanted to give you guys the low down, so you would know how Altru Support has your back!   Altru offers customer support for specific questions and problems via chat and phone, depending on your support level purchased, Monday ... more

The majority of our customers have now gone through the Single Sign On transition and been upgraded to version 4.98.  Like a great Dave Letterman show, I’m here with a Top 10 list for SSO.  I’ve compiled 10 need to know things we’re getting questions about so you’re prepared and ready for a smooth transition. 1. You must create a Blackbaud.com account! —   ... more

Welcome to Altru 4.98 . This readme lists the issues resolved in version 4.98 of Altru:   Description KB Article Number This fix resolves an issue where Altru may have charged a patron for two pledge installment payments instead of one, as upcoming payments that weren’t due yet may have been pulled into the process. 110877 This fix resolves an ... more

Starting today, we will be  Spotlighting Data Cleanliness  for the entire month of October. We will be discussing topics such as  merging duplicate constituent records ,  customizing and using name format options and  constituent matching settings . Check out the  Spotlight on Altru Resources page  to learn more about maintaining a cleaner ... more

Blackbaud University is excited to celebrate our Altru users who became Blackbaud Certified in August and September!   more

Hello Everyone,  It's almost time for the upcoming release of version 4.98 for Altru! We will be upgrading our staging environments first, and we have scheduled this to occur on Wednesday October 20th from 8am-1pm EST.  During this time, the  Client Sandbox  or any Staging Environments, may be down for a short period of time. The staging sites won't be ... more

Thanks for joining us last month as we explored Program Management & Configuration in our Spotlight on Altru program! We’ve gathered up all the resources from this month so you can see them all in one convenient spot: September Altru Spotlight: Program Management & Configuration Tips for Adding and Managing Price Types Program Management – Get a ... more

Over the past few weeks, we've heard a lot of great questions around how admins can expect to be managing users after Single Sign-On is officially rolled out in October. Listed below are some guidelines on how to manage the most common scenarios going forward. Adding a brand new user Whether it's a new staff member, intern, or volunteer, when you have a new ... more

Arts & Cultural News to Know Check out our Monday Roundup of Arts & Cultural News to Know on arts.blackbaud.com. We’ll also include what’s trending on social media with recommended hashtags that you can start using at your organization. Make sure to check out arts.blackbaud.com every Monday to see what’s happening right now! more

The Arts & Cultural Private Events at bbcon 2017 Tuesday October 17 | 8-10 pm ET Baltimore Museum of Industry  If you're coming to bbcon , you’ll enjoy the opening networking reception on October 17 in the Innovation Showcase Expo Hall from 6:00–8:00 p.m. Then join the after-party for arts and cultural professionals at the Baltimore Museum of Industry . ... more

Thanks for joining us for our first installment of the Digi-Know Webinars! Incase you missed it, here are the recordings to all 4 webinars, and the Tipsheets you can use to apply our discussions to your organization's initiatives. What did you think of the series? What would you want to hear more about next time? Let us know in the comments!    Writing and ... more

We are excited to inform you that Blackbaud ID, Blackbaud’s new single sign-on (SSO) experience, is being enabled for Altru in the  October 2017 releas e . This new login experience will enable your users to leverage a single set of credentials across Blackbaud Internet Solutions™, including Blackbaud.com, Knowledgebase, and applications like ... more

For the month of September, we will be Spotlighting Program Management and Configuration. This time, we’ll be covering things like changing the prices at your organization, deleting programs and events, raising capacity, editing programs, and scheduling programs to repeat at the same time every week. Check out the Spotlight on Altru Resources ... more

  We’re so excited to have Guru join us at bbcon 2017! A member of Blackbaud’s partner network, Guru enhances the visitor experience through location-aware mobile apps, cutting edge AR/VR technology, and riveting content. Guru also acts as a business enhancement tool using data collection and analysis to plan exhibits, create target markets for ... more

Did you know that Altru customers get a discount for bbcon? bbcon is almost here! Check out what the conference has to offer for Arts & Cultural administrators this year > Altru users can get to bbcon for only $700 ! Message Brianna Weaver directly to verify and claim your code!   Check out more bbcon resources in the community here > more

A few weeks ago we talked about the importance of preparing your Site Administrators for Single Sign-On . After Single Sign-On is enabled, the login process will change and all users will enter their Blackbaud.com credentials to access Altru going forward. The Site Administrator is the person at your organization responsible for inviting and ... more

The Quarterly Altru Roadmap Review Be sure to attend so you can learm more about our upcoming releases for the remainder of 2017, oncluding information on our convergence with Blackbaud Sky and the vision for Altru, Mobile Fundraisier on the Go, and the new login experience coming this October! W atch the On-Demand Recording Now >  Sign Up for the ... more

Starting today, we will be  Spotlighting Ticketing and Sales Reports  for the month of August. We will be discussing various reports including the Discount Code report, Giving Detail report, ZIP Code report, Program Revenue report, and more. Check out the  Spotlight on Altru Resources page  to learn more about Reporting. We encourage you to also ... more

Blackbaud University is excited to celebrate our Altru users who became Blackbaud Certified in July! Be sure to review our listing and celebrate your colleagues by viewing their profiles, becoming Blackbaud Community friends, or just congratulating them on this significant achievement.   more

Persona-Driven Marketing  By Brooke Hansel , Blackbaud Interactive Services Team In a room full of nonprofit professionals, I recently asked, “How many of you work for organizations that have created personas for key audience segments?” 10% raised their hands.   In a previous post , I talked about “knowing your audience” playing a key role in ... more

As we get closer to the introduction of Blackbaud ID and our new Single-Sign On functionality (coming in October!), we want to continue our communication efforts to help ensure all Altru sites are fully prepared for these login changes. If you missed our initial blog post around this topic, you can go back and read through it here .   Today we want to ... more

A list of resolved issues from version 4.97 of Altru, along with Knowledgebase article links pertaining to each issue.    more

Hello Everyone,  It's almost time for the upcoming release of version 4.97 for Altru! We will be upgrading our staging environments first, and we have scheduled this to occur on Wednesday August 2nd from 12pm-5pm EST.  During this time, the  Client Sandbox  or any Staging Environments, may be down for a short period of time. The staging sites won't be ... more

Website Mobilization By Liz Hiers , Blackbaud Interactive Services Team   Did you know that organizations, on average, update their website every 2-4 years? While this seems to be quite frequent, and probably more often than some of you may like, if you think about your website in terms of technology, four years is a very long time!   Oh how far we have ... more

Become a Power User on Blackbaud University Day | October 16 in Baltimore Want to get even more out of your bbcon 2017 experience? Roll up your sleeves and arrive a day early for Blackbaud University Day. Accelerate your learning and build your skills with focused instruction, deep-dive training, and practical demonstrations to help you get the most ... more

Digital Life Hacks for Arts & Cultural Organizations Whether it’s attracting new visitors, engaging current members, or stewarding donors, having a comprehensive digital strategy is critical for your arts and cultural organization. In this webinar series, we’ll cover the core components for online success and share super-smart digital ... more

TrendsWatch 2017 | The Rise of the Intelligent Machine Recorded Webinar Computer systems are beginning to be able to do things we used to believe required human thought—dealing with uncertainty, learning from experience, making predictions, interpreting language, and more. Emerging forms of Artificial Intelligence (AI) can operate on a scale ... more

Coming soon in Altru, there will be important changes that will affect the way you log in to access your database. We want to make you aware of these changes in advance, as there will be steps you need to take ahead of time to ensure the transition is as smooth as possible for you and your fellow Altru users. Introducing the Blackbaud Omnibar The new Blackbaud ... more

Dear Customer, Please be advised of a maintenance that is scheduled to occur on Sunday, July 23, 2017 : · 3:00 AM - 7:00 AM EDT · 12:00 AM - 4:00 AM PDT · 5:00 PM - 9:00 PM AEST · 8:00 AM - 12:00 PM BST This maintenance is necessary to upgrade Email Services to the latest version. Any general purpose jobs (such as bulk email blasts) sent during this time will fail; ... more

Blackbaud University is excited to celebrate our Altru users who became Blackbaud Certified in June! Be sure to review our listing and celebrate your colleagues by viewing their profiles, becoming Blackbaud Community friends, or just congratulating them on this significant achievement.   more

In June of 2016 , some of you probably saw a survey pop up in Altru asking about your overall experience using Altru. We had 435 responses representing 183 different organizations, and are grateful for your participation. Your feedback has led to several changes across the Altru experience including:   Feature enhancements: Performance ... more

Raiser's Edge NXT or Altru? Fundraising solutions are not one-size-fits-all. That's why Blackbaud has built two great options to handle a variety of your fundraising needs, whatever they may be: Raiser's Edge NXT or Altru .  If you're considering new fundraising CRM software for your organization, join this webinar to learn about both solutions, ... more

Super Advocates: How to Find Them, Train Them, and Put Them to Work From social media ambassadors to citizen lobbyists, your most committed supporters can be your organization's most valuable assets when it comes to strengthening your advocacy work and helping you reach your policy goals. But how do we find and recruit them? And once they’re in, what ... more

The Sacramento Zoo | Success By the Numbers   OVERVIEW The Sacramento Zoo is a wonderful organization striving to inspire appreciation of wildlife and nature through education and fun recreation. Their goal is to create stewards of the earth, while serving as a resource within their community and worldwide.   Despite their beautiful mission and ... more

Starting today, we will be Spotlighting Refunding and Rescheduling Tickets for the month of July. We will be discussing  how to create refunds , partial refunds , and  rescheduling tickets to a different program . Check out the Spotlight on Altru Resources page to learn more about Refunding and Rescheduling Tickets. I know there are refund experts out ... more

Watch a recording of Blackbaud's quarterly  Altru Roadmap Review  to learn about Blackbaud SKY™ and what our go-forward technology strategy means for Altru customers. Hear creative ways your peers are using our new Guest Pass functionality and how to use it at your organization. And get the scoop on the continued expansion of our  Altru partner ... more

The Only Article You Need to Read About Online Engagement   Hi, I'm Ben from Blackbaud's Interactive Services Team, and I have a confession to make. When it comes to online marketing, I cringe every time I hear the words “engage”, “engaging” or “engagement”. Organizations are always looking to attract more people to their cause, and want their website ... more

Do you bring a shopping list with you when you go to the grocery store? For me, it’s imperative. Otherwise, I end up walking around the store for two hours, and all I have to show for it is a cart with three apples, some graham crackers, and a bag of frozen broccoli. Not quite the makings of even one actual meal.  more

bbcon may seem far away, but the time to register is now—we are so excited for bbcon and the Blackbaud Community has a new section dedicated to all things bbcon. Check it out to get all the latest updates on sessions, speakers, registration deadlines and more! What’s at bbcon for a professional in the arts & cultural space like you? This year, the Arts and ... more

Blackbaud University is excited to celebrate our Altru users who became  Blackbaud Certified  in April and May! Be sure to review our listing and celebrate your colleagues by viewing their profiles, becoming Blackbaud  Community  friends, or just congratulating them on this significant achievement.   more

Creating a Website that Works   “Design is not how it looks and feels. Design is how it works.”  -Steve Jobs   A website is (or should be) much more than a pretty picture. It is often the first impression someone has of your organization. It is a vehicle to tell your story, engage visitors and lead them to take some sort of action. A website that works includes… ... more

A list of resolved issues from version 4.96 of Altru, along with Knowledgebase article links pertaining to each issue.    more

We have started rolling out a recent change to the   OData Query   feature in Altru, and while it will mostly have a positive impact on our users, we have identified a scenario that will require a minor adjustment to existing custom reports that were authored in a certain way. If you find technical details boring, please feel free to jump down to the FAQ ... more

Beginning today, the Blackbaud team will be spotlighting different areas of Altru each month in the Community. These educational posts will cover specific topics where we often get questions. The goal of this program is to put resources at your fingertips, in one location, helping you have a better understanding of a particular topic and, ... more

Top 3 Trends in Nonprofit Web Design in 2017   Hi, I'm Aga from the Blackbaud Interactive Serives Team , and as a designer, I’m always looking at what’s cool and trendy in our industry. I see a lot of really great work out there and some pretty crazy ideas as well. The trick is to take inspiration from what the design community is producing and distill it into ... more

Hello Everyone,  It's almost time for the upcoming release of version 4.96 for Altru! We will be upgrading our staging environments first, and we have scheduled this to occur on Tuesday May 23rd from 12pm-5pm EST.  During this time, the Client Sandbox or any Staging Environments, may be down for a short period of time. The staging sites won't be down ... more

The  Blackbaud Arts and Cultural Group  is collaborating with  TRG Arts , a firm with over 20 years’ experience building patronage at cultural organizations like yours, to bring you on-demand webinars with valuable tips and strategies on operations and management. Here are some videos you might like:   Ignite Your Membership Campaign: Building a ... more

A list of resolved issues from version 4.95 of Altru, along with Knowledgebase article links pertaining to each issue.   Welcome to  Altru 4.95!  This readme lists the issues resolved in version 4.95 of Altru:   Description KB Article Number This fix resolves an issue where refunds may have taken longer than 5-10 seconds to process.   109894 ... more

We hope you can join us for an upcoming Support Seminar! All of our Support Seminars and upcoming webinars can be found on the Events Tab in the Community.   Please reply below to let us know about other Support Seminar content you would like to see this year! If you’re interested in the sessions below but can’t attend live, please register to be sent a ... more

Altru 4.95 upgrades are starting soon. Here are some of the great features you can expect: Guest Pass Configuration You can now add guest passes as a benefit to specific membership levels. For example, your highest member level can include four guest passes that can be used at select ticketed programs. You can also issue guest passes directly to ... more

Blackbaud University is excited to celebrate our Altru users who became Blackbaud Certified in March! more

Join us for the Blackbaud Vision Marketing and Fundraising Summit in Raleigh, NC . This FREE Event (Yep, really!) has a full day of fresh content!  Date: April 25, 2017 Time: 9am-3pm Location: CAM Raleigh 409 W Martin St, Raleigh, NC more

Pasadena, CA | Blackbaud Altru User Group Join our FREE Altru pre-conference User Group at  InterActivity 2017 . Get inspired by the work of fellow peers using Altru, and take away valuable insight from Blackbaud’s arts and cultural technology experts to drive your  children’s museum success  moving forward. Are you an Altru user in the Pasadena ... more

Blackbaud University is excited to celebrate our Altru users who became Blackbaud Certified in February!   more

Hello Altru Community! Next week, we will be replacing the current Altru Sandbox with a new and improved version. If you have any work in the current Sandbox that you'd like to be able to recreate in the future, now is the time to take screenshots and notes.  We expect the new version to be hosted by Wednesday (3/15), but it might take us a little while to work ... more

We hope you can join us for an upcoming Support Seminar! All of our Support Seminars and upcoming webinars can be found on the Events Tab in the Community.   Please reply below to let us know about other Support Seminar content you would like to see this year! If you’re interested in the sessions below but can’t attend live, please register to be sent a ... more

Hi again! We'd like your help to think through how we can better organize our solutions in the future. If you could spare some time for the survey below, my team would greatly appreciate it. It should take no more than 5 minutes of your time (depending on your answers, it might take even less).  The survey will first ask a few questions about you and your ... more

As an arts and cultural organization, one of the goals of collecting data about your constituents is to be able to communicate with them more effectively and in turn increase engagement and giving. However, in order to be successful in this goal, there are a few important basics that you can’t forget, regardless of how much additional data you may have ... more

Blackbaud University is excited to kick off 2017 with our first group of Altru users to become Blackbaud Certified ! The following individuals earned Altru Fundamentals Certification in January:   more

Quick question: What do King Tut, Picasso, Titanic and Princess Di have in common? These seemingly diverse icons are examples of some recent popular blockbuster exhibitions. So, what is a blockbuster exhibition? Art historian Albert Elsen quite eloquently (and maybe with a hint of smile) defined a blockbuster as a “large-scale loan exhibition ... more

A list of resolved issues from version 4.94 of Altru, along with Knowledgebase article links pertaining to each issue.  more

As an arts and cultural organization, one of the goals of collecting data about your constituents is to be able to communicate with them more effectively and in turn increase engagement and giving. In order to be successful in this goal, there are a few important basics that you can’t forget, regardless of how much additional data you may have, ... more

Early in my career as a fundraiser for arts organizations, I heard about a sustained giving program during my local NPR station’s pledge drive. Of course, I went right into work and asked my boss if we had any plans to launch a program of our own. Very quickly they replied that “Arts donors don’t give like that, it would never work for us”. That was a looong ... more

Members are a vital part of arts organizations.  As enthusiasts of your institution, they are likely to attend more than the average visitor.  And it is no secret that it costs five times more to acquire a new member than it does to retain an existing member, which is why your member renewal campaign is critical to the success of increasing member ... more

With holiday season in full effect, there are several certainties we can all count on. Unavoidable carbohydrates. The annual national debate about Starbucks cup designs. And, one of my favorites, football. It is ubiquitous. At nearly every family gathering, there is likely at least one person who insists upon watching the game.   Yes, football is my ... more

Season of Giving Campaign Year-end is upon us, and it’s not too late for one final appeal in 2016! Organizations, large and small, should capitalize on the Season of Giving. A year-end appeal is powerful and creates exposure for your organization by educating others on your past, current and future efforts. Publicity is vital; however, solicitations ... more

Clean and reliable data. It’s what we all want in our databases. Sometimes it can seem like an unattainable dream, but by instituting a handful of policies and practices, you can make it happen. If we take a step back, there are really only two areas to consider on our way to our goal of clean and reliable data – 1. Adding good data to begin with and 2. Fixing ... more

As a consultant for a software company, it probably wouldn’t surprise you to know that I’m a bit of a techy. I do everything online which means any “snail mail” that comes to my mailbox gets a cursory glance and (unless it’s important) sits in the “to-be-recycled” pile.   To be honest, during most of the year this doesn’t bother me. There’s just too much junk ... more

How do you think about the concepts you’re asked to deal with as part of your job every day? How do they relate to each other (or not)? What words do you use to describe those relationships?   Strange questions on their own, I suppose. But extremely helpful for folks like myself (I’m a Senior User Experience Researcher on the UX Team at Blackbaud) to improve ... more

*Update* We had unexpected delays with printing, but we just shipped out books to everyone who requested one. If you don't receive yours, please let me know. I sincerely apologize for the delay! We're happy to announce that Altru for Beginners is new and improved! If you’re not familiar with this book, it’s an easy-to-read guide for new and experienced ... more

A list of resolved issues from version 4.92 of Altru, along with Knowledgebase article links pertaining to each issue.  Welcome to  Altru 4.92 . This readme lists the issues resolved in version 4.92 of Altru:   Description KB Article Number This fix resolves an error that occurred when resolving a conflict in scheduled or pre-registered ... more

Do you want to learn more about configuring your membership programs? Maybe you want to dive into tasks, such as  membership reports  and  smart queries ? I am excited to announce a brand new class,  Altru: Membership Program Management , which can help you efficiently work through the entire membership cycle. more

The September release is coming your way!  Altru 4.92 includes architecture and performance enhancements, including the implementation of state of the art monitoring tools as part of our  commitment to ensure the highest levels of quality and reliability. This includes: Adopting a more sophisticated performance monitoring tool to identify ... more

***We still have times available! If you'd like to share your getting started experience with us, please sign up by September 23rd.*** Hello Altru users! We want to improve our Getting Started resources and would love to learn more about your experience as a new user or training others to use Altru.  Who do we need?        Anyone who trains new users at ... more

If you missed the latest Altru Roadmap Review, we caught it all on video for you. Watch the webinar on-demand and hear what's coming up next for Altru. Some of the Roadmap highlights from this session included: Member-Only Events Retain your current members and attract new ones by offering access to member-only events online, in person, or over the ... more

As an Altru Community member, we know you have valuable feedback, and we’d like to get your thoughts on the Blackbaud University experience. We hope you’ll spend five minutes to tell us how we are doing. As a sign of thanks, upon completion of the survey you’ll be entered in a drawing to win one of four  $25 Amazon gift cards !   At Blackbaud University, we ... more

This release includes much anticipated features to drive membership revenue and increase sales speed! Here are some highlights: Members only events Altru now empowers your organization to offer members only events, not only at the front desk and back office, but also online! These exclusive events can reward current members while also enticing ... more

A list of resolved issues from version 4.91 of Altru, along with Knowledgebase article links pertaining to each issue.  more

Back in January some of you may have seen a survey pop up in Altru focusing on your overall experience using Altru. We had 245 responses representing 145 different organizations, and are grateful for your participation. Your feedback has led to several changes across the Altru experience.   more

Welcome to Altru 4.9 . This readme lists the issues resolved in version 4.9 of Altru:   Description KB Article Number This fix resolves an issue that was related to the number of minutes after start for the on-sale period to end for program web forms. Program web forms should show until the time period passes for the on-sale period to end. 98110 ... more

Blackbaud announced a $1 million gift to the International African American Museum (IAAM), which will be built on Charleston’s Gadsden’s Wharf. Blackbaud will sponsor the Digital Media Lab that will take the museum experience outside of its four walls. Virtual or in-person visitors to the museum can trace their family origins, research their ... more

Starting next week, you'll find new features in Altru! This release is all about saving time and improving efficiencies! Here are some of the highlights: more

Message from Mike Culler:  As noted in a prior post, Blackbaud will be holding Altru User Groups as pre-conference events at ACM's Interactivity Conference (5/4) and AAM's Annual Meeting (5/25). We are excited to have the opportunity to spend the better part of the day with you in this capacity. As part of the user group agendas, we want to hear from you on ... more

Hey Altru Community,   We have exciting news from our Support team!  On April 18 th , we are extending our  chat support  until 8pm EST!  This is a request we heard from a lot of our customers, and we worked hard to deliver this to ensure that when you need us, we are available! Haven't used chat yet?  See what your Altru colleagues say about chat:  “Continue to ... more

The Altru Sandbox database will be unavailable on Thursday March 24, 2016 for updates and improvements. A new cleaner Sandbox database will be up on Friday. The replacement of the Sandbox will allow us to begin a regular refresh schedule for the database, keeping it cleaner and more manageable for practice and trainings in the future. Thank you. more

Hi all, They are finally here. Today we are launching the Tableau/Altru Visualization Project. Using the power of a well regarded third-party application in the field of analytics, and OData feeds from Altru queries, we can create some great reports. If you would like to try this out for your organization, follow these steps: 1. Install Tableau If your ... more

Starting this week, you'll find new features in your Altru solution! The release is all about increasing your fundraising dollars through recurring giving and additional online donations. Here are some details of what that entails: Online Recurring Gifts: Website users can now sign up for recurring gifts online! On the donation form, the user can ... more

Edit: The files are now available here: https://community.blackbaud.com/blogs/60/819 Hi all! My name is Luke Hedgren, and I am a Data Analyst on the Altru team. I am here to announce an upcoming project that we have been working on. If you came to (or viewed) our BBCon session about Reporting in Living Color, you may have an idea of what we are doing. With ... more

Blackbaud’s planned rollout of an EMV-compliant point-of-sale (POS) solution has been delayed. We are working closely with our partner, Visa, on a resolution. Timing for general availability is dependent on certification of Visa’s solution, which is now scheduled for March 2016. However, until we have EMV terminals available, Blackbaud is ... more

Some of our Cybersource customers let us know they received an email from Cybersource at the end of January letting customers know they were upgrading the certificate used with Production API endpoints for both the SOAP Toolkit and the Simple Order API connection methods.  They went on to say that in order to be prepared for the udpate, you should run ... more

It's time to get your ALL ACCESS PASS ! Over the years, the Arts & Cultural team has created a lot of great content. But it was spread out - all over blackbaud.com, npENGAGE, the community, our resources section - to name a few. Not so helpful! So to kickoff 2016 with a bang, we've created the All Access Pass, a microsite dedicated to all things Arts & Culture. ... more

We are excited to announce that you now have the opportunity to access ResearchPoint TM , the prospect management software from Target Analytics®, from directly within Altru ® ! This new functionality will enable you to sort through your visitor and donor files to find high-value prospects hiding inside your current database. To find out more about ... more

bbcon was jam-packed this year with more sessions dedicated to arts and cultural organizations than ever before. Just take a look. And we don’t want a single organization to miss out on the great content that was shared. That’s why we’re inviting you to bbcon Encore . Get front row access to the top arts and cultural bbcon sessions, including: Getting the ... more

We're finally here! Hope you guys survived the last few community-free days. I think you're going to enjoy this new space. There are some great features you should take advantage of. Here's a few things to get you started: Posting here is just called Starting a Discussion - no more questions or problem categories. You can post a new topic here, ... more