Adding Merge Tag to Email

Dwayne Burgess
Dwayne Burgess
Third Anniversary Facilitator 1
in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT®: General Discussions

Hello, I'm new to using Blackbaud and I am having major issues with my email campaign. I am trying to add a merge field to the campaign but in doing so, an image appears when I test the preview, see attached.

90e4057b1622a9c6b84d35bcbdc2cf41-huge-sc

I cannot seem to figure out how to properly add a merge field that collects the subscriber's name so that I can send the email with a custom greeting. Please help.

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  • Ray Bergman
    Ray Bergman
    Sixth Anniversary Kudos 5 Name Dropper Participant

    Dwayne Burgess:

    Hello, I'm new to using Blackbaud and I am having major issues with my email campaign. I am trying to add a merge field to the campaign but in doing so, an image appears when I test the preview, see attached

    I cannot seem to figure out how to properly add a merge field that collects the subscriber's name so that I can send the email with a custom greeting. Please help.

    Hi Dwayne, which Blackbaud Product / Solution are you currently using for this? Might be better for me to move this question to that product's community for better attention towards it.

  • Dwayne Burgess
    Dwayne Burgess
    Third Anniversary Facilitator 1
    Hi Ray,


    Thank you for getting back to me. It looks like I am on Blackbaud NetCommunity. That is what it says at the bottom left when logged in. Mind you, I am fairly new to this software and trying to familiarize myself along the way to support my clients issue with their email.
  • Ray Bergman
    Ray Bergman
    Sixth Anniversary Kudos 5 Name Dropper Participant

    Ok, moved this to the BBNC community as it was previously in the Organizational Best Practices community.

  • Rebecca Leifert
    Rebecca Leifert
    Fourth Anniversary Participant Facilitator 1 Boomerang (2024)

    Hi Dwayne,
    Are you looking to “collect” names or use the firstname you have already in your DB? If it's the latter, then you're in business & doing it all correctly.

    BBNC uses images as place holders for their merge fields vs live text as other email platforms do. FYI - Test emails will always show the image & never fill in the name. If you want to make sure it's working, then you'll want to create a test list via RE query (you or other internal testers only) & then send a final email to your test list. That's the only scenario where the field will fill out and not just show you the image. Make sense?

  • Dwayne Burgess
    Dwayne Burgess
    Third Anniversary Facilitator 1

    Thanks for the clarity Rebecca,

    Yes, this does make sense. My only issue was sending a live email to myself. I created a new list with just a few emails including my own and two of my colleagues. However, when I tried to create a message and select the data source I was not able to select the data source list that I created to send the live email.

    Am I missing something here? Can you share on how to create a test list via RE query?

  • Atticus Rice
    Atticus Rice
    Fourth Anniversary Kudos 1 Participant Facilitator 1

    Hi Dwayne,

    Not sure if you ever got help on this, but I think I'm experiencing the same issue right now. Is your email using the Constituents data merge source? If so, I believe you could create a Query in Database View that includes only yourself (Constituent ID = [your ID]) and then add that to NetCommunity and then to your email as a test source.

    If my experience is accurate, NetCommunity is finnicky with data merge sources, the merge fields presented/available, and the like.

    Hopefully this is helpful and doesn't add more confusion (and my apologies if it does).

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