The Buzz: June 2023 Edition!

Crystal Bruce

Welcome to this month’s edition of The Buzz. Inside you’ll find June’s monthly challenge and exclusive badge opportunity, harnessing the power of AI to improve efficiency, award opportunities for creative community members, upcoming events ... and more!

Hello Community,

There’s a lot going on this month, so let’s get right to it!

June Monthly Challenge

We strongly believe that being a member and becoming involved in our community is great for your professional development, and we’re making it even more fun! For the month of June, if you level up in ANY activity badge, you’ll receive a bonus - an exclusive, limited-time badge for taking that next step. To make it easier for you, we’ve redesigned the Badge Glossary page to show what badges you have and which badges are next. The page also includes a comprehensive list of our badges with descriptions of how to earn them. The more you are involved in our community, the better it is!

Bringing AI to You

This week, Blackbaud announced the next generation of our Intelligence for Good® strategy and our commitment to making AI more accessible to social impact organizations. Read more about what that means for you and your organization, and about the extensive set of new capabilities to be announced this year.

Rewarding your Creativity

Tomorrow, June 8, is the deadline to apply for Innovation Grants, which will be awarded to members of our community who propose projects of value to both their organization and the social impact community as a whole. The three award categories include:

• Off-the-Grid Award focused on generative artificial intelligence

• Microsoft Power Platform Award focused on new uses of Microsoft Power Platform

• How is Your Data Award focused on improving representation of data trends or analysis

You can read more about that award and others that are up for grabs here in the SKY Developer community. And there’s still time to get those creative juices flowing by participating in #bbdevdays, with sessions happening today and tomorrow - register now.

New on ENGAGE: Using Automation to Boost Efficiency

Want to learn ways to reduce burnout and use artificial intelligence to improve job efficiency, productivity, and job satisfaction? We’ve got you covered with the latest offering from The Engage Blog: “Fundraiser Burnout? Try Automation to Boost Both Efficiency and Employee Morale.” You’ll also read about real-life examples of how organizations have used automation to gain efficiency...like Preble Street, whose staff saved 500+ annual work hours using automations for gift reporting and documentation.

Early Bird Registration for bbcon 2023

Hey early birds! Registration is now open for bbcon 2023 in Denver, Colorado. Save the date and sign up for this year’s conference taking place October 22nd-24th at the Colorado Convention Center by June 18 to take advantage of early bird pricing. Stay in touch with all things bbcon including discussions leading up to this year’s conference by bookmarking and subscribing to the bbcon community. Need help convincing your manager to approve your attendance? Check out the sample justification letter on the bbcon website.

Congratulations to Blackbaud’s Chief Marketing Officer, Catherine LaCour!

Catherine LaCour, a familiar face many of you have seen on stage at bbcon, was just named a winner in the inaugural Elite 18 Customer-Led CMO Awards presented by Influitive This award recognizes CMOs who are achieving success by putting their customers' journeys at the center of their marketing efforts. Read our announcement here to learn more about how Blackbaud is centering customers in our marketing strategy, including through Blackbaud Community!

Events:

Check out these upcoming events that will help you maximize your impact:

Get in Sync with the Enhanced Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge®-ResearchPoint™ Integration (Wednesday, June 14th at 1pm ET)

10 ways Blackbaud Makes Budgeting Easier (Thursday, June 15th at 1pm ET)

Strategic Innovation: How Do I Plan When I Don't Know What's Coming? (Thursday, June 22nd at Noon ET)

Empowering Communities, Empowering Change: The Role of Grantmakers as Community Leaders (Thursday, June 29th at 11am ET)

Ethics and Privacy in the Age of AI (Thursday, July 6th at Noon ET)

Community Tip of the Month:

Do you have an idea on how to improve the Blackbaud Community? Excellent! We want to hear from you. We set up an ideas bank for suggestions for enhancing your experience in the community. If you’d like to see something changed, updated, or added, post your idea so we can consider it! Here’s a link to the Blackbaud Community ideas bank and remember, this is just for community ideas, not product ideas.

Happy Birthday to all our Geminis and Cancers!

It’s time to celebrate all our June birthdays in Community! If your special day falls in the month of June, let us know, so we can wish you the happiest of birthdays in the comments below.

Lauren Henderson

I'm excited to learn more about AI!