ICYMI: Everything Blackbaud Announced at bbcon 2024

bbcon 2024 was packed with excitement, innovation and big announcements. From groundbreaking fundraising AI tools to new integrations and updates for core products, we showcased six waves of innovation coming to our product portfolio––all focused on driving more connection and delivering more context. 

Whether you were there in person, tuning in remotely, or you’re waiting to catch the replay through the free virtual pass, we’ve got you covered with this breakdown of everything shared in our day one tech keynote. 

Wave One: The future of fundraising software 

• In Raiser’s Edge NXT®, the world’s most popular fundraising software, we’re bringing all critical, end-to-end workflows into a single, unified view by the end of 2025, and the most popular functions will be available in web view by mid-2025.  

• Additional Raiser’s Edge NXT updates include: 
  
  • A new left navigation in Raiser’s Edge NXT will make it easier and more intuitive for both fundraising and finance users to quickly find what they need among an expanded array of menu options.  
  • New donor recognition program management capabilities coming in 2025 will automatically tie gifts to these programs for deeper donor engagement.  
  • New events functionality in the updated view is already enabling event attendees to donate in lieu of registration, self-manage giving through the donor portal, and streamline their giving experience with optimized donation forms.   
  • Pledge management will be available in web view in late 2024. Stronger gift management workflows in web view will allow you to create and manage pledges that auto-charge online, and new online forms will let donors set up and pay pledges online. 
  • A new Batch tool will enable you to view and fix exceptions directly in Batch when importing a file of gift records and will also allow you to see more gift details in Batch, for example, if a gift has a membership, tribute or benefit attached. And you’ll be able to manage gifts created in your system via an API, such as when integrating gift data from a Partner or from a third-party product.  
  • Online Membership will be available in web view for new online giving forms in 2025. 
• A collaboration with Microsoft will enable Blackbaud to leverage the Microsoft Fabric™ integrated analytics platform within Raiser’s Edge NXT and Blackbaud CRM™ to unify data sources, creating, for example, personalized productivity dashboards to prioritize each team member’s next actions and critical tasks (learn more here). 

• Blackbaud CRM users will see a refreshed UI in 2025 that will enable more AI-powered insights, greater flexibility and more powerful purpose-built capabilities. 

• In Blackbaud Grantmaking, grantee portal improvements will launch in Q3 2024. 

• A common records engine for K-12 school fundraisers will connect Raiser’s Edge NXT with education management data to provide a complete picture of donors by connecting data across the entire school community. A customer technical preview will launch this year.  

Wave Two: Expanding the powerful, responsible and convenient AI features built for social impact through our Intelligence for Good® approach 

• Blackbaud Copilot, an AI-powered coach and assistant will allow users to interact with their data in natural language, ask questions and gain insights. Copilot is already embedded in Blackbaud Impact Edge™, and a technical preview for both Raiser’s Edge NXT ® and Financial Edge NXT® is planned for 2025 to help fundraisers understand, plan for and engage with high priority donors and prospects, and to help simplify fund accounting by combining automation and personalization.   

• New performance insights will help organizations see how they stack up against others, based on Blackbaud’s rich benchmarking data.   

• An Award Cycle Manager within Blackbaud Award Management™ will give scholarship administrators a centralized view and KPIs to effectively administer a scholarship cycle from start to finish. 

• A new “At-Risk” Student Tool for Blackbaud’s K-12 Education Management portfolio will help teachers identify students in need of extra support by consolidating data on attendance, test scores and work completion. 

• Blackbaud AI in the Blackbaud Merchant Services portal will allow you to build transaction reports with a few quick keystrokes. It’s intuitive, simple and coming in early 2025. 

• And customers are already utilizing:  

• AI-powered Prospect Insights in Raiser’s Edge NXT to find major donors and make the right ask of them, with access for Canadian customers rolling out in early 2025. 

• AI-powered acknowledgements to speed communication with supporters – creating first drafts with the right tone and content specific to your recipient, based on deep knowledge of fundraising best practices.    

• An AI-powered form translator in Blackbaud Grantmaking. 

• An AI-powered question generator in our K-12 Learning Management System to draft quiz and test questions more efficiently. 

• Blackbaud Impact Edge™, our AI-powered impact storytelling tool for CSR teams that uses robust data visualizations, standardized data formatting and generative-AI capabilities to provide more access to data, tell a more in-depth impact story, and turn numbers into narratives with unmatched efficiency.  

Wave Three: Accelerated giving and enhanced online experiences to raise and save more 

• Blackbaud will offer a wider global roll out of its Optimized and Standard Donation Forms, proven to increase conversion rates, including the recent addition of the Intelligent Ask feature powered by Blackbaud AI, which ensures fundraisers target the right gift amount for each donor––even those who have never given to the cause before.   

• Optimized forms are now available for Blackbaud CRM and Blackbaud Altru® customers in the U.S. and will be available for Blackbaud CRM customers outside the U.S. by the end of 2024. Activation is simple and free.  

• Tap-to-pay capabilities will allow supporters to tap their card on a mobile device to donate, pay entry fees or buy swag.  

• Blackbaud will extend its Complete Cover™ offering—the social impact sector’s only solution with guaranteed 0% processing fees—to an initial set of partners, including Trellis for auctions and events and Almabase for higher education giving days. 

• Blackbaud Tuition Management will be updated with an enhanced checkout, including more payment options and a more intuitive experience. 

• In Blackbaud Award Management, a redesigned student experience will provide a more modern, user-experience for applicants, coming in Q1 2025. 

Wave Four: Next-level digital marketing 

• Blackbaud unveiled its vision for the future of nonprofit communications and how it will seamlessly connect organizations with donors through a unified product experience, including a strategic partnership with Constant Contact to deliver a joint digital marketing solution, that will provide organizations with insight into how their donors and constituents are interacting with them on every digital medium –– not just when they give, but at every single touchpoint in between. 

• Good Move, the native, free mobile app for Blackbaud TeamRaiser, now supports multiple languages including Canadian French and Spanish. 

Wave Five: Connected financial management  

• 100% of core Financial Edge NXT capabilities will be available in a unified view in Q1 2025.  

• Automated invoice scanning using Microsoft AI Document Intelligence will automate the entire payables process from start to finish directly in Financial Edge NXT.   

• Payment Assistant, our new fully automated bill pay available directly in Financial Edge NXT, is helping customers to save hours a week with auto-reconciliation of payment assistant transactions, to reduce check processing costs, and to benefit from robust, built-in fraud protection.  

• New Query functionality with new API end points will make it easier to list, filter and search, enabling you to quickly gather and sort data outside of typical reporting for more detailed analysis capabilities.  

• Deeper integration between Raiser’s Edge NXT and Financial Edge NXT will connect workflows from donation through disbursement with fewer manual steps, making it easier and faster to let donors know what their gifts paid for and when.  

• Financial Edge NXT integration with Blackbaud Grantmaking™ will connect departments and surface the right financial data at the right time.  

• Available now, a new and improved Queue with a report scheduler delivers financial statements and other reports to relevant stakeholders like program managers, board members, development staff, and others; and with the upcoming addition of Blackbaud Copilot, there will be no need to input report parameters to produce what you need. 

• Coming in Q2 2025, streamlined receivables will allow users to email customizable invoices and statements directly out of Accounts Receivable with the built-in ability to accept credit card payments electronically.  

Wave Six: Extensibility and flexibility to create your complete solution  

• An integration with UBIQ Education will provide K-12 schools with a best-in-class option for school websites. 

• Single sign-on access for BrightArrow is now available, enabling an embedded experience within Blackbaud Education Management where faculty can access mass communication functionality with lists provided for all their classes, teams advisories and more.  

• The expansion of Red Arc’s existing integration for Raiser’s Edge NXT to Blackbaud CRM™ will enable cloud-hosted customers to directly connect their preferred digital marketing solutions, like Constant Contact, Mailchimp, HubSpot or Salesforce Marketing Cloud, to their CRM.   

• Six new Microsoft Power Platform-certified connectors will offer more flexibility across the Blackbaud software portfolio.  

• Added low-code tools for Blackbaud CRM will allow you to embed power automate workflows, power apps, adaptive cards and Power BI extensions––these have already been popular in Raiser’s Edge NXT.  

• New SKY Add-ins™ for Blackbaud Grantmaking will enable integration with Microsoft Power Platform to extend or customize workflows, automate posting of approved grant payments or integrate to applications like Docusign to go paperless. 
• Low-code developer training is now included in the Blackbaud University curriculum.

Plus, Blackbaud is the only company exclusively focused on social impact to have received the designation of Trusted Cloud Provider from the Cloud Security Alliance––the world’s leading organization dedicated to defining and raising awareness of best practices to help ensure a secure cloud computing environment. 

See our day one innovation announcements press release here for more information on the six waves of innovation, and our wrap-up press release here that covers key highlights from the event.  

Next year’s bbcon will be held in Philadelphia, Oct. 6-8, 2025. In the meantime, top mainstage moments and select breakout session content will be available on demand, beginning Oct. 15 through the free, virtual pass available on bbconference.com. For more details on Blackbaud’s product roadmap, watch the November 2024 Blackbaud Product Update Briefings on demand.