The Buzz: August 2026 Edition!
Welcome to the August edition of The Buzz — your quick roundup highlighting the latest community buzz, exciting product news, opportunities to engage, and helpful resources to explore this month. It's been a big few weeks — let's dive in! 🏊
August's Monthly Challenge: Get Ready for bbcon!
August is the perfect time to lock in your plans. Here's your challenge: Share how you're preparing for bbcon! Are you a first-time attendee or a bbcon veteran? Plan on attending virtually? Share what you are excited about and/or your best bbcon vet tips! What questions or challenges are you bringing? Answer both or any of the questions in the discussion and earn August’s badge:
Advanced pricing to attend bbcon in Columbus, Ohio ends August 19. Register now, save some cash, and enjoy spending time with the Blackbaud Community. Join your peers Sept 29–Oct 1 for three days of networking, problem-solving, expert-led sessions, keynote inspiration, and so much more!
🌎 bbcon London takes place on Tuesday 3 November 2026. Early Bird tickets are available through September 9!
🌎 bbcon Sydney takes place on Monday 19 & 20 October. Early Bird tickets are available through August 29!
New Community Home Pages:
The Blackbaud Grantmaking community and the SKY Developer community have a fresh new look. It’s part of our initiative to transform all of our product community pages. They both feature new and important content right at the top, easier to access resources, and events front and center. Take a look and let us know what you think!
New Feature: Following Members
You can now follow members of the community and be notified if they post a discussion, blog, comment, or event. It’s all super customizable and you can follow our highly engaged members, Blackbaud staff, and any other member you deem worthy of a follow!
You can read more about the new feature here in the help section of the community.
New Feature: Events in the Digests
You’ll never miss a webinar or an event – now that you can get events in your daily, weekly, or monthly email digests. RSVP to the events that you want to attend right from the digest! Want to change how often you get digests? You can always set your digest frequency here.
Can You Help?
A few great questions are still waiting for more replies. If you've tackled a similar challenge or have a tip to share, jump in and help a fellow member move forward!
- Education Management solutions for Higher Education: Need some contacts for other Higher Ed folks near St. Louis, Missouri
- Blackbaud Award Management: A community member new to renewal management at a four-year institution is seeking advice and connections with experienced renewal management users - Awards Management-Renewal process.
Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT:
- Bringing email send information into Raiser’s Edge NXT from Luminate Online
- A community member is looking to connect with peers using this combination of products to learn more about their real-world experience: DotDigital / Zeidman / Raiser’s Edge NXT
- A community member new to Raiser’s Edge NXT is exploring donor journey automation with Constant Contact and has questions about managing dynamic donor segment: Donor Journeys in Constant Contact
Meet the 2026 Blackbaud Impact Awards Finalists!
We're thrilled to recognize the finalists for the 2026 Blackbaud Impact Awards and celebrate this inspiring group of organizations, companies, and leaders from across the global Blackbaud community.
From innovative problem-solvers and data strategists to collaborative leaders and rising stars, their stories showcase creativity, resilience, and extraordinary progress that moves missions forward.
Join us in congratulating them and explore their incredible stories. Then mark your calendar for Tuesday, August 18, when we'll announce the 2026 Blackbaud Impact Award winners!
👉 Learn more about finalists and join the celebration.
🚀 The Wait is Over — Start Your FREE AI Certification Today!
The AI Coalition for Social Impact has officially opened the AI for Social Impact Certification Program with the launch of the first course: AI Fundamentals for Social Impact. The free certification program is designed to help organizations build the confidence, skills, and governance needed to use artificial intelligence responsibly and effectively.
Have you enrolled? What are some of your big key takeaways? Let us know in the AI Explorers group discussion here.
🧭 Anyone can join the group! It’s great for connecting with others who are working to develop their AI skills and to share what you’re learning and applying.
ICYMI: What's New
Don't miss the latest product updates this month!
Raiser’s Edge NXT:
Blackbaud’s Education Management Solutions:
- Blackbaud's Education Management Solutions for K-12 Schools: What’s New for August 4, 2026
- Blackbaud's Education Management Solutions for Higher Education: What’s New for August 4, 2026
Blackbaud Grantmaking:
Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT:
Blackbaud CRM:
Blackbaud Luminate Online and Blackbaud TeamRaiser:
ResearchPoint:
Featured Content:
Don't miss out on these great resources!
Raiser’s Edge NXT:
- Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT®: Your Guide to the Unified View Transition
- InsideTrack Scoop: The Future of Constituent Data—Smarter Records, Healthier Data
- Working with AI and Raiser’s Edge NXT®: Embedded Experiences, Claude, and Microsoft 365 Copilot
Blackbaud CRM:
- Recover More Gifts with Abandoned Donation Reminders
- Enterprise Fundraising in Action: Your Guide to the Blackbaud CRM™ Track at bbcon 2026
Blackbaud Altru:
ENGAGE:
- AI in Fundraising: What Donors Actually Want
- 50 Nonprofit Social Media Content Ideas
- Faculty Well-Being: Beyond Yoga and Pizza Parties
📅 Events:
Don’t miss these opportunities to connect and learn!
SKY Developer:
- Power BI User Group - Monthly Meet-up (August 12)
- Microsoft Power Automate User Group (August 18)
Blackbaud Grantmaking:
- From Intake to Impact: A Product Walkthrough of Blackbaud Grantmaking (August 19)
- From Requirements to Relationships: Rethinking Grant Reporting (August 26)
ResearchPoint:
Blackbaud Luminate Online and TeamRaiser:
- Reach More, Engage Faster: SMS, MMS, and RCS Messaging with Luminate Online and TeamRaiser (August 25)
Blackbaud Altru:
- Query 101 (August 26)
Blackbaud Agents for Good:
- Blackbaud Development Agent️™: Live Walkthrough (August 13)
- From Curiosity to Confidence: A Practical, Human-Led Approach to Understanding Agent Success (August 27)
Space is Limited — Power Platform Workshop Coming to You
Build smarter workflows and reporting at our Power Platform Regional Workshops coming to Silicon Valley on August 25-26 and Washington, D.C. on October 27-28. Join Blackbaud and Microsoft experts for two days of hands-on learning with Microsoft’s Power Automate or Power BI solutions. Choose the location and track that works best for you and save your spot today!
🏅 Community Kudos
Let's celebrate the amazing community members sharing knowledge and keeping the conversations going! 🎉
Two All-Stars contributed blogs to the community – check them out and leave them a thanks for sharing their expertise!
- Nicole Holt, All-Star, Preble Street, The Risk of Fixing It Yourself: A Lesson in Data Governance
- Austen Brown, All-Star, Prenger Solutions, How Long Does It Really Take to Learn Power Automate?
A special hat tip to Bobby Steurer, Consultant, W4Site, for stirring up some nostalgia in this Just for Fun post: Favorite Database View/OG RE Memory?
Thank you to everyone for answering questions and posting discussions to keep our community thriving and lively!
🎂 Birthdays
August is Leo season wrapping up and Virgo season kicking off — if you're celebrating a birthday this month, drop it in the comments below so we can shower you with birthday love! 🎂🎉
Comments
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As being the very non shy Leo that I am . . . I'm happy to share that yesterday was my birthday :)
It was flipping awesome. My idea of a good time was tackling some of my projects that I knew I could complete in a day or two but weigh on me that I never get to them. I completed one yesterday and I'm wrapping one of them up now and stretching my skills with Power Query. So fast and so much fun.
That and eating as many blueberries as I possible!
Shoulders feel lighter. Tummy is happy.
Happy birthday to the other Leos and Virgos out there :)5 -
Happy Belated birthday @Elizabeth Johnson! You share a birthday with my bestie since childhood, so it's a very special day indeed!!
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August's edition of The Buzz is really buzzing!!
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My birthday is on the 24th of this month. Virgo all the way. @Elizabeth Johnson, we're birth month buds! Happy belated birthday, my friend. Here's to many many more. <3 Since the 24th is on a Monday, I'll be working, but will be taking some time to go donate blood (again!) Leading up to the big day, I'm going axe throwing with a few friends. If anyone's considered trying it but hasn't, you should! I'm totally hooked on it.
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Truly! This was a jam packed Buzz!
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