Payment Enablement Fee

To me this is BB way of arm-twisting to get in on the merchant services racket that event software providers use to increase their fees. We use PayPal because it's economical and quite sufficient for the majority of our online donation transactions. However, we do purchase event platform software and have found that without exception, we are required to use their platform's recommended third party processor. This jacks up our overall fee expense for processing and nets the software company additional revenues beyond the platform purchase. BB was late the party here -- they're clearly trying to make up for lost time.

Hi all:


Consider asking your customer success representative (or anyone at Blackbaud who will discuss this with you) to record and forward a formal objection to the payment enablement fee to their chain of command. I spoke directly with a Team Lead for the Healthcare Customer Success team who agreed to do this for my organization.


I specifically asked if there was a formal process I as the customer could follow to formalize the objection and was told no, but that the objection would be registered.

Update:


I've been working with our account rep to try and make sure my comments (complaints) are being recorded. The account reps are not at all happy about this charge either. They had very little notification that this was coming and were instructed that this charge was not to be removed under any circumstances. She did explain that they may be able to negotiate the amount off a future purchase or contract.


She explained that they are gathering all of these comments to make a single report to Travis which he will present up the chain of command so please contact your reps. If people don't complain to them, BlackBaud will assume that customer is ok with the surprise charge.


Yesterday I reached out because we have worked very hard to align all of our contracts to our fiscal year (it has taken 2 years to do so) and this new "fee" was billed for the remainder of the calendar year. I politely asked that it co-term with our existing contracts and was told that wasn't possible with this fee. This set off a new level of frustration. When I voiced my concern, the rep I spoke with on the phone did offer to "try" to get a 90-day extension so it would shift the charge to our next fiscal year.

Agree with you all. I will be writing to the CEO also.


Theresa Meckel

Boston Public Libary Fund

Late to the party! This additional fee totally blew the possibility of us adding Financial Edge for our Finance Department. Advancement uses RE and NXT and were really hoping we could get Finance to move to FE. It was already a long shot but with this out-of-the-blue addition, our CFO will not even consider it now. We have been so incredibly happy with the abilities of Raiser's Edge and were looking forward to getting our products to finally "talk" with Finance. Because of this, though, it's still not happening.


I really do not understand how they can just add this fee with no advance notice, especially when we all have signed contracts. I'd briefly looked into other options our Finance Department had suggested but none of them meet the needs we have for a high school with huge alumnae involvement. It's frustrating, to say the least.

Hi Kenneth - Thank you for your response. But, the relevant section of the terms only states that Blackbaud is allowed to change their terms. I still have not seen, and have not had anyone at Blackbaud show me, that the current terms include any language about the payment enablement fee. i.e. They are invoicing for a fee that is outside the scope of their current terms.


Also, if Blackbaud is going to increase their price mid-contract by $50/month, what keeps them from increasing the price mid-contract $5,000/month?


Someone at Blackbaud is focused on the next quarterly earning report at the expense of customer loyalty, satisfaction and common sense.

Karen Tuecke‍ Have you been able to find anything that we could use to show that this sudden fee is a breach of contract on BB's part? I am really thinking that this would be the only way we could get out of paying this fee.

Maybe we should start a petition for all organizations to add their name to that are dissatisfied with this new fee and then share the list with non profit publications like Non Profit Times and see if they will write an article sharing with their readers how after a significant data breach Blackbaud is doing a money grab likely to cover class action lawsuits under the guise of product enhancements. I have put a complete hold on any future upgrades/data services and will also look to peel back anything we can when contracts renew. In the long run I will make sure that from our organization Blackbaud stands to lose more then it potentially stands to gain as a result of this sudden new fee. We have been a customer since 1996; a quarter of a century. Thanks for the anniversary gift Blackbaud.

As an update to this I have recently cancelled certain data services resulting in a $2,000 loss in revenue to Blackbaud. Anybody else cancelling services to help offset this new fee?