Username Formula will only allow email addresses?

Oona McKnight
Oona McKnight
Tenth Anniversary Kudos 1 Name Dropper Participant
in Blackbaud Enrollment Management System™
Does this message mean that we will ONLY be able to use emails as usernames starting in July? What will we do for parents who don't have an email address??


(this is from What's New today)
Username Generator

We've added a warning message to the username generator that informs the user of upcoming changes happening in July. Specifically, on July 6, the only available username formula will be email address.

Comments

  • Liz King
    Liz King
    Eighth Anniversary Kudos 2 K-12 Fall 2025 Product Update Briefing Badge Name Dropper
    I believe we just won't be able to use the helpful generator, which is frustrating because we just aren't ready to move everyone to Blackbaud ID. It's a lot. Plus, many constituents have multiple email addresses. An email address is no longer unique. Users forget which one to input constantly when they try to retrieve their passwords =( =( =(
  • Coco Parham
    Coco Parham
    Eighth Anniversary Kudos 5 December 2025 Monthly Challenge Name Dropper
    As soon as the email option was available to use with the username generator, we started using it. This spring I BBID connected our first group of incoming parents and sent out the email. 100% responded are and registered in the first week! Woo hoo! I call that a win win!

    I am sure some will want to change their email addresses later but that will be ok.
  • Sarah Bienvenue
    Sarah Bienvenue
    Ninth Anniversary Kudos 3 Name Dropper Participant
    Hi all, I first want to be very clear that this does not mean that you need to move your users to BBID. It does mean that down the road, the change will be easier as you will already have collected an email address from your parents. This is a step that allows for a more secure experience for your parents. We will also be changing it for those users who create an account and will only accept email address as a username there as well.


    thank you,

    Sarah
  • Kim Hughes
    Kim Hughes
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 1 Name Dropper Participant
    We do use email address for parents and students since they are on BBID, but I actually use the generator with the grad year to help create the username and check for availability before I their emails are created. And since users can have the same email in their profile, or because of the admissions events, they often have their parent's email listed, we overwrite the emails when we import their email after I have created in username generator, exported and re-imported. We also have previously had problems where emails available weren't available as usernames (might not be as much of an issue now that we use the entire email and not just the username part), so we started with usernames and we use the student's grad year in their email address so it was helpful when I was creating to just copy and paste our domain on the end and check for availability. Then I produce the list out of Blackbaud and send to IT to actually create them all.
  • Oona McKnight
    Oona McKnight
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 1 Name Dropper Participant
    Thank you, Sarah. But my question is still, will we ONLY be able to use emails for usernames? What will we do for parents without an email, or two parents who share an email address?
  • Deanna Thompson
    Deanna Thompson
    Tenth Anniversary Name Dropper Participant Facilitator 1
    I also need to know the answer to this. Thank you!
  • Sarah Bienvenue
    Sarah Bienvenue
    Ninth Anniversary Kudos 3 Name Dropper Participant
    Hi Oona, there would be nothing preventing you from assigning a non-email address username in either core, or when processing an inquiry for the time being. As for parents without an email address, they would need to be assigned a username in one of the above methods.


    Thank you,

    Sarah

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