Blackbaud ID and Sign in for Alumni and Parents

Matthew Williams

Hi all, we transitioned to the Blackbaud ID authentication using Google SSO last Fall for all students. I should have realized it sooner, but that created a problem this summer, because we remove Google accounts for graduates, and now they can no longer log in unless they understand that their username reverts to the old simple username and that they need to request a new password. How do other schools that allow their alumni to login to access unofficial transcripts, directories, and other profile information, manage this transition? Do any schools transition their alumni to the Blackbaud ID using their personal email?


Do you use Blackbaud ID for parents instead of username and password?


Thanks,

Matt

Susan Ott

We're in the exact same boat. Haven't figured out what to do yet. We even disabled their BBID and then found out we should have kept them since eventually everyone logging in will need one. We're thinking of trying to get their new college emails before the end of the school year and instruct them (before graduation) on how to switch from their current email to the new one to log in (after graduation). Would love to hear how others are handling this as well.

Janet Wittenberg

Hi there,


Here is the kb article with our recommended approach.
Ideally you can tie it in with collecting a new contact email for each of the graduates, so you can encourage the new login process with that personal email and Blackbaud ID to maintain their system access.
https://kb.blackbaud.com/articles/Article/192093
 
Keeping your recent grads using a Blackbaud ID is preferred since eventually username/passwords will go away and it would be best to start now keeping your youngest alums familiar with Blackbaud ID. This will make for fewer alums you need to evaluate for the effort of migrating from usernames to Blackbaud ID in the future.

 

Sondra Berry

Janet Wittenberg‍ is there a date when parents will be required to log in with Blackbaud ID and Username feature is turned off? For some reason, I thought it was some time this year.

Rose Mary Herbert

I thought I had heard the same, but asked support before last summer and they told me there was no time frame for usernames/passwords going away.  I really hope that was true because we would much rather transition over summer than mid year.  A clarification on timing would be great!

Janet Wittenberg

Hi Rose,

We haven't set a deadline date yet, although October 2021 is being considered.  We would not try to make this switch in the middle of the school year - but the goal is to give you summertime to prepare.  Please stay tuned.  A release in February will address any ON API accounts that are using Username/password and then once that is adopted we should have no further barriers to schools switching entirely to Blackbaud ID.  Work on having school branding on the Blackbaud ID sign page is also underway, so we will incorporate that as soon as we can.

Janet

Nancy Kierstead

Is there a deadline to have product manager roles, faculty, and students converted? 

Janet Wittenberg

Nancy,

We aren't planning an enforced deadline by role (admins, etc). When the deadline is set, it will be for all users.

Janet

Corrine Duncan

Thanks Janet. I understand the move regarding the ON API accounts and moving over to keys instead of username/password. That makes a lot of sense. Our faculty have already been moved over to BBID and we have been successfully using BBID with them for a year or more. Because they have school provided email addresses and the school is using gmail for our school email, the change has been a relatively pain free process. We are planning on moving over all students to BBID before the end of the school year. Again, because we provide their email addresses, it should be a relatively easy change for all and even help in a number of processes and reliability of logging in for students. Parents and other constituencies but mainly parents is where the concern for us comes in because they do not have a school provided email (and the school has decided that will remain the case). Especially concerning is a possible October 2021 date being considered as a deadline to have everyone switched over. Because currently when an email address is updated it does not update the users BBID. We do not see a huge rate of email address changes but they are substantial enough (parents using work email addresses and move from job to job or change a ISP provider and change their email address). The current process appears to be confusing and creates additional work for parent? or staff? or both and seems to be a potentially a big fall through the cracks process creating more confusion. It would be greatly appreciated if no date was set until this issue is resolved.

Angie Addison

Hi Corrine,

I would love to chat with you about this if you wouldn't mind emailing me your availability if you're interested?


Angie