Redacted Users/Connect RE

Yes! We just noticed this today!

Our addresses for alums and past parents in Core aren't kept up to date, but they are in RE. The BBID change triggered Connect RE to overwrite the RE addresses with old info. We now have 45 pages of changes to go through and reenter correct addresses.

Another source of frustration with Blackbaud…I completely understand and appreciate the need to protect user data; however, creating an automated system that deactivates accounts and redacts information and not informing your users that this is happening is another lapse in Blackbaud's judgment. Automation cannot account for the nuances we all encounter with our constituents. Knowing these nuances and accounting for them helps maintain the relationships we have built with our constituents. When someone attempts to log on to the system and is informed their account is inactive or deactivated, they assume we, the school, did this. "Why did you make my account inactive?" "We didn't." "Well, it is not letting me in and says my account is inactive." This makes the school appear as if we do not know what we are doing, or worse, have disregarded the potential needs of our constituents. Neither is how any school wants to be perceived.

Perhaps a better approach from Blackbaud would have been to notify all K12 clients what best practices are to protect user data - "Blackbaud recommends a user's account be deactivated and pertinent information redacted if the user has not logged on in the last 365 days." "To help our clients best protect their users' data, we have introduced a new feature, 'Inactive Users,' which now appears in the Task box of your Core homepage. Here you can see a list of all users who have not logged on in the past 365 days, and decide how you would manage this user." The users could appear in a list exactly as the Unhandled profile changes appear. When this link is clicked, Blackbaud could CTA themselves by having the opening text be their best practices for handling inactive users. They could also include the reminder that changes to the listed users' data will be shared with RENXT if databases are linked. I envision this list of inactive users could be filtered on persona, role, etc.

When I have had the opportunity to work with Blackbaud during a Discovery Session, I continually harp on giving us, the users of the system, as many options as possible because one size does not fit all, especially in education, and even more so with independent schools. Know your clients. Blackbaud is supposed to be a system that helps make our jobs, serving our families, easier. Let us make decisions on how we will manage our data. Give us the tools we need to do this effectively and quickly.

And for those institutions for whom the automation works, have a checkbox available that activates automation.

Scott

I thought I had triggered records to be marked as changed, but now I see it was the 2025-9-9 thing that caused a huge number as well. So much fun.