Now we're losing letters?!

I totally agree, I am still trying to understand.

I'm glad you all mentioned this, because I am also still trying to understand exactly what all this means. The information provided in the link/KB are kind of vague right now. I'm hoping this gets addressed in a better capacity than the usual Blackbaud “Eh, just check the Knowledgebase. Answer's probably there."

Is there anyone here rom Canada that uses e-receipts? it looks like their solution to e-receipting is to use the NXT receipt function, but we don't have that in Canada, so does that mean I'll have to export, word merge, create PDFs and manually send e-receipts one by one to donors??

I'm at a bit of a loss, like Kylea said, what does RE even do anymore?

Suzie MacMillan:

Is there anyone here rom Canada that uses e-receipts? it looks like their solution to e-receipting is to use the NXT receipt function, but we don't have that in Canada, so does that mean I'll have to export, word merge, create PDFs and manually send e-receipts one by one to donors??

I'm at a bit of a loss, like Kylea said, what does RE even do anymore?

Another Canadian here @ Suzie! We rely on EReceips heavily, so we are OUT OF LUCK! NXT doesn't work for Canadians yet, and as you say, manually sending PDF's will be nearly impossible to do with any efficiency. I'm stumped.

I tested this with one of my letters and it didn't entirely work, word merge fields don't match RE merge fields, so for example we use address block in a lot of our letters and when I do it this way, the address lines, city and postal all end up on one line instead of multiple, like it would be in an RE word merge - which means we'll have to update the merge fields in all of our RE templates before we save them for merging on our local computers….not a happy camper right now

Suzie MacMillan:

to top it off, we are an environmental org, this isn't going to sit well with our donors that absolutely do not want paper receipts

I clearly don't know how to reply properly this was in response to Aldera Chisholm

Another Canadian here I can't believe they would make these "backwards" changes. Blackbaud has been quite disappointing in the past year or so. Hopefully by mid next week when my workload improves I can look into the changes, but I am dreading what the implications of these changes will be. We are a very small organization with a very heavy workload on every single individual working here and from what I understand these changes will add more to that already heavy workload. I will be very interested to find out if and Canadian organizations are exploring provider alternatives.

Suzie MacMillan:

to top it off, we are an environmental org, this isn't going to sit well with our donors that absolutely do not want paper receipts

This made me chortle. It's like they think 100% of us mail our thank you letter 100% of the time still. Some of us still are, but not everyone!

Kylea Johnson:

I'm SURE they're going to tell me to ‘just use the pdf’s from NXT'. C'mon. I know they know that NOBODY uses those because they're hideous and we can't edit them. I already have a deep distrust for anything NXT generates and I'm not just going to send receipts off willy-nilly without even looking at or editing them.

I'm not sure that we even have this in the UK???

Beverly Porzelt:

It's not just the pain of change and set up and it's not just letters. This will double the functions every time we use them. And we use them for membership cards, interoffice communication, mailing lists, custom reports, and other uses besides letters and receipts. It really reduces the flexibility of this product and is very disappointing. Security seems like an excuse for budget.

Plus…. if we have to put the templates on our personal computers, what's the impact for “working from home” or those working in small organizations with 1. no shared network other than Google Docs; 2.; only one DBA; with no one else who is capable of doing these merge letters in WORD much less RE; and is scheduled to be going out for STD post surgery in February and retiring in 2023….and in what is the “entry” level position for this non-profit homeless shelter.

Beverly Porzelt:

It's not just the pain of change and set up and it's not just letters. This will double the functions every time we use them. And we use them for membership cards, interoffice communication, mailing lists, custom reports, and other uses besides letters and receipts. It really reduces the flexibility of this product and is very disappointing. Security seems like an excuse for budget.

My assumption is that the Microsoft products in the database are outdated and no longer supported by Microsoft which is a “security” issue - but instead of updating their program they are putting the onus on their customers - this is just an assumption though

Warren Sherliker:

Probably not what you want to hear right now but there are other options to Letters. It would take a little effort initially to migrate to those but then they should replace things like receipts.

BB Just added this tutorial which admitedly does require a subscription to Encodian I think and a bit of tech setup:

We also provide tools like SmartSYNC which can automate emails with merge fields, branding etc. to cover receipting and other regular tasks. We do the tech work there so easier migration for folks. Anyway, get in touch if interested via the support @ smartthing.org or PM me. We are BB partners so this is a paid for option but saves loads of time and effort when up and running.

Hope that helps a bit - totally understand the pain of change…

I see what you are saying but Letters are only one piece of this new challenge. The tutorial and other options don't address the loss of EReceipt functionality, which is a vital piece for us, especially as Canadian clients - we have different government requirements than our US counterparts and the EReceipt function addressed that. Mail merging letters, yes, we can work with. Losing quick letters is incredibly annoying, but my red flags are the inability to quickly reissue receipts from a gift, and losing EReceipts. I understand that international clients are a small piece of the Blackbaud universe, but we certainly are feeling pretty unimportant and forgotten right now.