The Buzz: May 2024 Edition!

Hello community and happy May!

We have a lot of really cool things to cover, so let’s get started.

May’s Monthly Challenge

The Blackbaud Institute has a new look! The Blackbaud Institute is a research lab that explores topics essential to the operations of nonprofits, foundations, CSR teams, and educational institutions. Blackbaud’s latest research, “Gen Z at the Table” is a fantastic resource that asks Gen Zers themselves how they see their role in philanthropy. It also looks at how to engage Gen Z on their own terms to tap into their generosity that’s on the rise! You can read more here. Read the report then leave a comment on the blog letting us know your big takeaways. Is there something in the report that surprised you? Is there data that you plan on leveraging to enhance your Gen Z engagement strategy? If you leave a comment on the blog with your takeaways, you’ll earn this badge for the month of May:

Community Kudos

Thank you to all 100 members who shared your favorite books with the community in April to earn the Bookworm Badge. If you are curating a summer or winter reading list, this is the list to consult. What are some of your favorite pieces of literature or professional development books? Let us know!

Shout out to Carlene Johnson for being our top contributor in April with 2,010 actions. This Community All-Star sent 1,765 connection requests to fellow members in April!

All-Star Alex Wong continues to top the charts for responding to other members' questions with 132 responses!

Dan Snyder, another All-Star extraordinaire, was sharing the love in April with 97 likes given.

bbcon 2024: Early Bird Registration

Reminder that early bird registration for bbcon is open through June 26th — you can find all the details here on the bbcon website. And sessions will be announced in June, so stay tuned to learn about all the great content that you won’t want to miss! If you’ve already registered, you can now claim your 2024 bbcon attendee badge here to show everyone you’ll be there! Over in the bbcon community, we are sharing photos and memories from bbcons past. If you have a memory you’d like to share, you can jump in on this discussion.

bbdevdays

Registration is also open for bbdevdays, happening June 4-6th! This virtual conference is for developers of all skill levels. The conference includes "Ask a Developer" sessions, skills labs, user meetups, and exciting keynote speakers.

Skills UP Webinar Series

Our popular Skills UP professional development webinar series is back starting May 15th with three new sessions designed to help leaders drive organizational success and positive impact. Topics include:

• Be a Silo Buster: The Key to Increasing Collaboration in Your Organization

• Creating an Inclusive Workplace

• Uncovering and Encouraging Employee Motivations

Get more information and register for free here.

Blackbaud Support Enhancements

We recently announced enhancements to the support chat virtual assistant, which now harnesses the power of AI and the collective wisdom of our Knowledgebase to transform the way you find solutions for questions related to Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT®, Raiser’s Edge®, Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT®, Financial Edge®, and our Blackbaud education management solutions. You can read more about the update here. Last month, we also announced a game-changing AI enhancement to the Blackbaud Knowledgebase, which you can find out more about in this blog post <hyperlink>.

Blackbaud Product Update Briefings

We hope everyone had a chance to attend the Product Update Briefings live or watch them on-demand. We greatly appreciate all the feedback we are receiving through our Product Update Briefings community challenge, which provides you an opportunity to not just share your takeaways but also earn an exclusive badge. You can find a link to all the different product discussions here.

Community Tip of the Month

It is easy to stay informed of announcements coming from Blackbaud, tips and tricks, and updates to your products by making sure you are subscribed to the blogs. It is a one click process and here is the how to do it! You can set how often you want to be notified by instant, weekly, or weekly.

Events

• Regional Workshop: Microsoft Power Automate & Microsoft Power BI Users (Tuesday, May 14th in Dallas, Texas)

• User Group: Microsoft Power Automate (Tuesday, May 21st at Noon EST)

• eTapestry webinar: Creating an Online Presence with Online Forms (Wednesday, May 15th at 11am EST)

• Webinar: Skills Up: Be a Silo-Buster: The Keys to Increasing Collaboration in Your Organization (Wednesday, May 15th at 1pm EST)

• Webinar: Skills Up: Creating an Inclusive Workplace (Wednesday, May 29th at 1pm EST)

• Product Tour: Introduction to Blackbaud Grantmaking ™ (Thursday, May 16th at 11am EST)

• Webinar: The Benefit of Adding BlackbaudU Courses to your Onboarding Program (Wednesday, May 29th at 1pm EST)

Birthdays

Happiest of birthdays to all of our May birthdays! We are celebrating the Geminis and Tauruses among us. If you are celebrating a birthday this month, let us know in the comments below, so we can wish you another happy year around the sun.