BBNC 7.1 – Events, Directory Messaging And More!

Pallavi Paranjape

Hello again,

I’m back to share some more details about our upcoming Blackbaud NetCommunity 7.1 release. We are in our final stages of readiness and some of you will start to see your Blackbaud hosted NetCommunity sites updated to version 7.1 as early as next week! In addition to Email enhancements and Security updates, this release will also include some new features related to Events and Alumni Services:

 

• Integrated Events Calendar – Creating an Online Events Calendar was a multi-step process that went like this:

1. First you had to create the event in Raiser’s Edge.
2. Manually create that event in the NetCommunity Online Calendar.
3. Create and publish an Event Registration Form.
4. Link the Event Registration Form to the Event in the Online Calendar.
5. Rinse and Repeat for every event in Raiser’s Edge that needed to be included on the NetCommunity calendar.

      With integrated events calendar we have simplified this:

1. Create the Event in Raisers Edge. Create an event query in Raiser’s Edge that specifies the criteria for events to be added to the NetCommunity Calendar.
2. Add the event query to the Event Calendar part in NetCommunity. Once you have this configured, any future events that meet the query criteria will automatically be added to the NetCommunity Calendar.
3. You can simply check a box on the Event Registration Form and the link to Register will automatically be published on the event in the Calendar.

• Directory Messaging - Your alumni can now not only search for their peers in the online directory, but also send them email messages. The recipient’s email address will be kept private from the sender. The email recipient can also opt-out of receiving any future email messages sent from the directory.

 

• Additional Fund Designations for Membership – Currently in NetCommunity, any additional donations made as part of signing up or renewing Membership can only be allocated to a pre-designated fund. With this improvement, you can provide the end user a choice of Funds that they can support with their additional donations.

 

• Raiser’s Edge Integration Count – Some clients have a large volume of data that needs to be synched between NetCommunity and Raiser’s Edge and in some instances the data integration can get backed up. Starting with NetCommunity 7.1, you can now navigate to the administrative Site and Settings section and get the status of the Raiser’s Edge integration. You can then make an informed decision and adjust the integration run times (records per minute) as needed.

 

• Updated JQuery Library – NetCommunity uses a few third party plugins and libraries. As part of normal product maintenance, we updated the JQuery version to 1.12.3. We plan on making another update to JQuery version 3.1 in 2017.

As we finish rolling out NetCommunity version 7.1 over the coming weeks, our development teams will shift focus to planning and implementing exciting new features for the 2017 roadmap.


One of the big areas of focus for us in 2017 is going to be Events. We invite you to contribute to our design process by sharing your ideas and experiences with us. Please take a moment to take this short survey and let us know how we can make the online event registration process work better for you and your event attendees.

Thus far, 2016 has been a very transformative year for NetCommunity and we look forward to keeping the momentum going into 2017 and beyond! Join me at BBCON 2016 to learn more about NetCommunity plans for the future.

Best Regards,

Pallavi Paranjape

Product Manager - Blackbaud NetCommunity