Every year at bbdevdays, the creativity, generosity, and ingenuity of the Blackbaud developer community inspire us. This year's hackathon showcased what makes this community special: practitioners solving real challenges with technology and sharing those solutions so others can learn and benefit.
We're excited to recognize the winners of the 2026 bbdevdays Hackathon Awards. Congratulations to this year's participants and especially to our award winners!
You can check out these winners and all submissions on the bbdevdays hackathon website (registration required).
Best in Education Management
The “ON” Ramp: Migrating Schools Reporting to SKY API
Carolyn Stevens (Cranbrook Schools), Matt Clemmens (Clemmens Consulting), Nick Marchese (Collar City Consulting & Emma Willard School), and Vicky Wong (University School)
With the deprecation of the ON API approaching, this team created a practical migration toolkit to help schools transition reporting and integrations from the legacy ON API to SKY API. Their solution gives schools guidance, best practices, and implementation strategies that make a complex transition significantly more approachable.
Best in Data Quality
Creating Python Data Pipeline to Resolve Challenges in Reporting
James Parsons (Mount Royal University)
James demonstrated how a modern data pipeline can transform fragmented reporting data into a unified analytics foundation. By improving consistency, accuracy, and scalability, the project establishes a reusable framework for cleaner reporting and more advanced analytics across the institution.
Best Use of AI in a Solution
AI Generated Action Summary from Add-in Button
Bob Rickards (St. Norbert College)
This solution uses AI to automatically summarize constituent interactions and activities. Triggered from a Blackbaud add-in, the workflow analyzes constituent actions, generates a concise AI-powered summary, updates constituent notes, and delivers the results to staff by email. The result is a faster, more efficient donor research and relationship management process.
Best Use of SKY Connectivity
Add Individual Blackbaud Education Management™ URL Links to Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT® and Add Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT URL Links to Blackbaud Education Management
Todd Peyton (St. Albans School)
Sometimes the simplest ideas can have the biggest impact. Todd's solution bridges information across Blackbaud products by creating direct navigation between Blackbaud Education Management and Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT constituent records. By eliminating manual searches and reducing clicks, the solution helps staff access the information they need exactly when they need it.
Thank You to All Participants
The bbdevdays hackathon continues to highlight the innovation happening across the Blackbaud ecosystem. Whether participants explored AI, improved reporting, streamlined workflows, or created new ways to connect systems, each submission reflected a commitment to helping social impact organizations work smarter and achieve more.
Congratulations again to our 2026 winners, and thank you to everyone who shared ideas, built solutions, and helped make this year's hackathon a success.
