nptech.info

pHere are the most popular Forums posts as well as unanswered posts from last week:/p pbMost Popular Topics:/b/p ul lia href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/forums/t/14460.aspx" target="_new"report/query format/a/li lia href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/forums/t/14484.aspx" target="_new"Email Types/a/li lia href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/forums/t/14284.aspx" target="_new"Cumulative query omitting certain appeals/a/li lia href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/forums/t/14424.aspx" target="_new"Best practice for solicit codes?/a/li lia href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/forums/t/14457.aspx" target="_new"duplicate criteria specified in configuration/a/li/ul pbUnanswered Posts:/b/p ul lia href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/forums/t/14448.aspx" target="_new"Windows 7/a/li lia href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/forums/t/14493.aspx" target="_new"Reporting on Total Gift Amount/a/li lia href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/forums/t/14470.aspx" target="_new"Email donor acknowledgement letters/a/li lia href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/forums/t/14439.aspx" target="_new"Volunteer Job Record - add time frame and # of volunteers?/a/li lia href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/forums/t/14467.aspx" target="_new"How to pull constituents who have a relation with a specific Constituent attribute?/a/li/ul pbNew Shared Client Documents:/b/p ul lia href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/forums/p/14450/83997.aspx#83997" target="_new"Donor Update Form/a/li/ulimg src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=90386" width="1" height="1"

pBack in December (or thereabouts; it was a while ago and I#39;ve garnered a couple more gray hairs since then), I posted a workaround for users who were experiencing the error bWord cannot start the converter Mswrd632.wpc/b after they installed a Microsoft Windows security update (KB973904). The error would be encountered when trying to run Mail Merges in Blackbaud#39;s software but also with any other software that needed the converter which was disabled by the update./p pAfter that posting, a couple of users responded that they were concerned about the workaround as it essentially reversed part of the update. Well I#39;m happy to report that the workaround provided to us (and then to you) by Microsoft now has a fix in the form of a utility called bMicrosoft Fix it 50352/b (again from Microsoft; note the creative name). To get the fix, check out a href="http://support.microsoft.com/kb/973904" target="_blank"Microsoft Knowledge Base article 973904/a and download and run the utility as instructed. We#39;ve also got the information in our a href="http://www.blackbaud.com/kb/index?page=contentamp;id=bb708164" target="_blank"Knowledgebase (BB708164)./a/p img src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=90229" width="1" height="1"

pIn a href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/blogs/raisersedge/archive/2009/12/11/news-you-can-use-error-in-mail-merge-after-installing-windows-security-update.aspx" target="_new"December/a, we reported that the Windows security update (KB973904) released on December 8, 2009, changed the way that Windows and third-party components use the WordPad-to-Word 6.0 converter, which caused users to receive the error, bWord cannot start the converter Mswrd632.wpc/b when attempting to run mail merges in The Raiser#39;s Edge.nbsp; Microsoft has issued a utility to address this issue. Go to a href="http://support.microsoft.com/kb/973904"Microsoft Knowledge Base article 973904/a to download and run bMicrosoft Fix it 50352/b to resolve the issue. nbsp;This information is also in Knowledgebasenbsp;solutionnbsp;a href="http://www.blackbaud.com/kb/index?page=contentamp;id=BB708164"BB708164/a./pimg src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=90138" width="1" height="1"

pHere#39;s some info from Jeff:/p pRecordings of the roundtables are now available. There were two sessions, one for 3.2.5-3.3.5 users and a separate session for 3.4.1 users./p pa href="http://www.blackbaud.com/images/blogs/the_spotlight/3.2.5.zip%20" target="_blank"Download the recording/a for 3.2.5-3.3.5./p pa href="http://www.blackbaud.com/images/blogs/the_spotlight/3.4.1.zip%20" target="_blank"Download the recording/a for 3.4.1./p img src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=89272" width="1" height="1"

piContinuing a series of five posts on a project, began in 2008, by the Blackbaud Documentation team. /ibr / /ppbBy:/b Georgeanne Cheng, Ellyn Hassell, and Lindsey Robbins/p Wow! We learned a lot in this project. It#39;s been over a year since we began and we still have more we want to do. For example, we want to streamline our process for taking survey data and entering it into our TFS customer contact database. But, before we move forward, we wanted to share what we learned along the way. Without further ado, here are our top 10 recommendations/best practices... ollibDocument everything/b you learned through the research and implementation phase./lilibPost the best practices/b in a place that#39;s easy to edit and improve over time. /liulliWe posted ours on an internal wiki. Easy to update whenever we get feedback./liliWe also provided a table of the TFS work item fields. Each field has an entry on the table. Easy to look up when one is not sure about what to enter on a field./liliProvide as many great examples as you can. We spent a lot of time on examples to make sure they reflected the type of content we hoped for in the work item fields./li/ullibPractice entering customer contact information/b in the form before you begin using it as a team. We discovered fields we didn#39;t need or could improve upon when we were practicing the form ourselves. Workflow recommendations can be ironed out at this time as well./lilibWhat fields need to be required?/b When you think about this, you can determine which fields you absolutely need for form entry and which are nice to have. Having only the bare minimum required fields ensures it#39;s a quick painless process. If you get more data, awesome but if not, at least it#39;s better than nothing at all, which is what you#39;ll get if you create a form with lots of required fields/lilibMake note of known issues/b or hiccups you discover with the work item. For example, we discovered the following issues:/liulliWhen you link and work item and save it, your reciprocated links may not initially appear (on the Details tab). You may have to close the work items and reopen them to see the links. On rare occasions, you may have to restart TFS in order for the links to appear. This is a known issue with TFS./liliYou cannot delete a saved work item. You can make it obsolete./li/ullibCreate flyover text for fields./b Okay, so we know not everyone is going to stop what they are entering in a work item to open up an internet browser and review the help documentation. So, we created short flyover text to help users enter content in the fields./lilibCreate queries ahead of time /bfor your team to use. Saved queries prevent frustrations and headaches trying to find work items. We provided instructions on how to access the customer queries and how to choose what displays in the query results. We created the following queries ahead of time./liulliAll Contacts - Customer contact work items not tagged as obsolete./liliContact by Source - Customer contact work items with an iteration path of Documentation/Customer Contact/Source. Sorted alphabetically by source type./liliDeleted Contacts - Obsolete customer contact work items./liliDo Not Contact - All customer contact work items with quot;Do not contactquot; selected in the Communication field./liliMy Customer Contact - All customer contact work items assigned to you./li/ullibProvide a short tutorial/b to your team before implementation. Walk them through the work item and explain why you are making the change. But, you almost must expect to help people the first few times they need to use the form. Provide reminders throughout the year to use the work item if people forget to use the database./lilibPractice, play, and learn/b. Ideally, find an image of Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2008 which includes Team Foundation Server to use. We then used Microsoft Virtual PC (allowed us to quot;playquot; the image) and Visual Studio power tools, which gave us the Process Editor to make changes. nbsp;This completely changed our project for the good. When Ellyn, found the image, she was able to practice creating and modifying our work item in a safe environment. We didn#39;t import our work item into our live environment until we were really, ireally/i ready. And by then, we had completed a lot of testing so we knew the work item was close to where we wanted it to be./lilibAsk questions/b. We asked many questions - questions about TFS, about work items, about customized reports, about security permissions, and about what we wanted from our work item. We even asked many a questions of Google. Lots of people use TFS and provide answers on the interwebs. All you have to do is ask. We even had meetings where we had more questions than answers. It also never hurt just to ask another person in our department if they knew anything about an issue we were having. If we ran into a roadblock, we were directed to another person and to another person until the issue resolved. You#39;d be amazed what you can learn and accomplish when you ask questions. /li/ol pbUp Next... /bEllyn closes the series of blog posts with a discussion of what#39;s next. Where do we go from here?/pimg src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=77278" width="1" height="1"

pI#39;m in Kansas City for the Big 12 Development Conference. This is the second year in a row that I#39;ve had the chance to attend and present at the conference. /p pThe conference is made up of schools from Baylor University, University of Colorado, Iowa State University, University of Kansas, Kansas State University, University of Missouri, University of Nebraska, University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University, University of Texas, Texas Aamp;M University, and Texas Tech University. Blackbaud works with nearly all these institutions to provide solutions around fundraising management, financial management, wealth screening and analytics, and Internet solutions. /p p Today, I#39;m doing a session called bquot;Not Just Another Social Networking Session: How to Listen, Learn and Launch a Social Media Strategyquot; /bthat is a follow-up to an intro session from last year#39;s conference. The goal is to go beyond stats or explanations, and to get more focused on building out a functional strategy./ppI#39;m looking forward to trying out some new things and some tips from a href="http://www.blackbaud.com/company/experts/chad-norman.aspx"Chad Norman/a and a href="http://www.blackbaud.com/company/experts/frank-barry.aspx"Frank Barry/a. Thanks to both of them for their never ending work to make sense of all things social media.br //p img src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=89112" width="1" height="1"

font size="3"font face="Times New Roman"span pHave you ever had trouble deleting a Student Progression Entry because the delete button was grayed out? If you have confirmed that the user has a href="http://www.blackbaud.com/kb/index?page=contentamp;id=BB338420" class=""rights to delete Student Progression Entries/a, there are four main areas of the software that need to be checked for information before you can delete a Student Progression Entry./p ol liAre students enrolled in classes? If so, a href="http://www.blackbaud.com/kb/index?page=contentamp;id=BB134926" class=""drop them!/a/li liDo the students have Course Requests? If so, a href="http://www.blackbaud.com/kb/index?page=contentamp;id=BB146892" class=""delete them!/a/li liHas Attendance been entered for this Student? If so, a href="http://www.blackbaud.com/kb/index?page=contentamp;id=BB334161" class=""remove it!/a/li liDo the Students have GPA#39;s, Ranks, or Performance Categories? If so, a href="http://www.blackbaud.com/kb/index?page=contentamp;id=BB447998" class=""get rid of them!/a/li/ol pOther Areas to check are Lunch, Residence Life and Grade-Based Billing in Student Billing. If this student has been scheduled for a Lunch entry, it will need to be removed in Scheduling, Edit Student Schedules. Once you open the Student, click Lunch and delete any existing Lunch entries.nbsp; Also, if you have the Residence Life optional module, you will need to ensure that there is no Residence Life information for this student in the given Academic Year. Finally, if you have Student Billing, you will need to make sure that if you are using Grade-Based Billing, that this Student hasn#39;t had any Scheduled Activity generated based on his Grade Level.nbsp; /p/span/font/font pnbsp;/pimg src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=83915" width="1" height="1"

pBlackbaud is pleased to announce its sponsorship of a class="tracked" href="http://beaconfire.com/thebeaconsxsw/"font color="#3d9fc8"The Beacon: Lounge with a Conscience/font/anbsp;at the a class="tracked" href="http://sxsw.com/interactive"font color="#3d9fc8"2010 SXSW Interactive Festival/font/a on March 12 to 16 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas. Thenbsp;Beacon offers nonprofit professionals a central location to network, share ideas, and relax between sessions. New this year, The Beacon will also feature afternoon acoustic concerts from Austin-based bands. In addition, Blackbaud will host the following panel:/p pspan style="FONT-WEIGHT:bold;"Panel Description:/spannbsp;/p pspan style="FONT-WEIGHT:bold;"Debunking the Myth of Social Media Fundraising /span/p pBlackbaud’s a class="tracked" href="http://www.blackbaud.com/company/experts/frank-barry.aspx"font color="#3d9fc8"Frank Barry/font/a will moderate a panel featuring Lance Armstrong Foundation’s Brooke McMillan, Epic Change’s Stacey Monk, and Charity Dynamics’ Donna Wilkins to discuss several case studies examining successful fundraising strategies that incorporate social media sites such as Twitter®, Facebook®, and YouTube®. The panel will also explore results from a recently completed research project investigating social media fundraising strategies specifically supporting nonprofit events./p pspan style="FONT-WEIGHT:bold;"When:/spannbsp;Saturday, March 13, 2010 at 12:30 p.m. CT/p pspan style="FONT-WEIGHT:bold;"Where:/spannbsp;Austin Convention Center, Hilton Cbr /br /span style="FONT-WEIGHT:bold;"Who:nbsp;/span/p pspan style="FONT-WEIGHT:bold;"Frank Barry, Manager, Professional Services, /spana class="tracked" href="http://www.blackbaud.com/" target="_self"span style="FONT-WEIGHT:bold;"font color="#3d9fc8"Blackbaud/font/span/abr /Frank Barry manages professional services for Blackbaud and is responsible for driving performance in the consulting, technical services and project management practices. He blogs at a class="tracked" href="http://www.netwitsthinktank.com/"font color="#3d9fc8"www.netwitsthinktank.com/font/a and can be found on Twitter at a class="tracked" href="http://twitter.com/franswaa"font color="#3d9fc8"http://twitter.com/franswaa/font/a./p pspan style="FONT-WEIGHT:bold;"Brooke McMillan, Online Community Evangelist, /spana class="tracked" href="http://www.livestrong.org/site/c.khLXK1PxHmF/b.2660611/k.BCED/Home.htm" target="_self"span style="FONT-WEIGHT:bold;"font color="#3d9fc8"Lance Armstrong Foundation/font/span/abr /As the Foundation’s online community evangelist, Brooke reaches out through online tools and social media to build the LIVESTRONG community and raise awareness of its efforts./p pspan style="FONT-WEIGHT:bold;"Stacey Monk, CEO and Co-Founder, /spana class="tracked" href="http://epicchange.org/" target="_self"span style="FONT-WEIGHT:bold;"font color="#3d9fc8"Epic Change/font/span/abr /Stacey Monk is the founder of Epic Change, a startup nonprofit that helps hopeful people in need share their quot;epicquot; true stories in innovative ways to help them acquire the financial resources they need to create positive quot;changequot; in their communities. Stacey was a creator of a class="tracked" href="http://www.tweetsgiving.org/" target="_self"font color="#3d9fc8"TweetsGiving/font/a, one of the first efforts that used Twitter for event fundraising./p pspan style="FONT-WEIGHT:bold;"Donna Wilkins, President, /spana class="tracked" href="http://www.charitydynamics.com/site/PageServer" target="_self"span style="FONT-WEIGHT:bold;"font color="#3d9fc8"Charity Dynamics/font/span/abr /Donna Wilkins is the president of Charity Dynamics and leads the company in developing innovative online programs that help nonprofits of all sizes achieve results. /p pFor a roundup of nonprofit-focused events and sessions at SXSW Interactive, visit a class="tracked" href="http://www.blackbaud.com/webbythings"font color="#3d9fc8"www.blackbaud.com/webbythings/font/a./pimg src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=89083" width="1" height="1"

pIf you have ever had the pleasure of installing any of our web products, then chances are you know first-hand the work and time involved with properly configuring the NTFS permissions they require.br /br /It used to be that setting permissions involved you going out to Knowledgebase, finding the appropriate solution for your product, and dutifully walking through all of the steps listed to set the NTFS permissions on the necessary folders; double that work if you have more than one web product to install, and triple it if you propagate the permissions for one web product folder to another and accidentally reset its permissions. There had to be an easier way…br /br /The solution to this problem is PermFlashNTFS!br /br /PermFlashNTFS is an application that I wrote, in my spare time, to address this very issue. Simply stated, it is a program which completely automates setting NTFS permissions. Here’s how it works:br /br /When you launch PermFlashNTFS, it prompts you asking which product(s) you would like to set permissions for. Based on the selections you make, it then queries the computer (via registry, environment variables, WMI queries, and direct IIS Metabase access) to determine if those products are actually installed and where they are located.nbsp; If, for some reason, PermFlash is not able to determine where a web product is located, it will prompt you for the location. PermFlash will then create a file and pass it to a Microsoft utility, called a href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=E8BA3E56-D8FE-4A91-93CF-ED6985E3927Bamp;displaylang=en" title="SubInACL" target="_blank"SubInACL/a, to automatically set the NTFS permissions required for each product (according to the Knowledgebase solutions listed below). Along the way, it produces detailed output logs to let you know exactly what it found and where, what NTFS changes were made, and what NTFS errors (if any) were encountered.br /br /What this means to you is that the NTFS permissions setting process has been reduced to a few simple clicks of a Wizard. Precious time has been saved and frustration averted!br /br /a href="http://www.blackbaud.com/files/support/downloads/other/blogs/permflashNTFS.zip" target="_blank" title="Download PermFlashNTFS"Click here to download PermFlashNTFS/a (no installation required!)br /- Prerequisites: a href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0856eacb-4362-4b0d-8edd-aab15c5e04f5amp;displaylang=en" title="Microsoft .Net 2.0" target="_blank"Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0/abr /br /(PermFlashNTFS was written in VB.Net and is open source! a href="http://www.blackbaud.com/files/support/downloads/other/blogs/permflashNTFS_source.zip" target="_blank" title="Download PermFlashNTFS SourceCode"Click here to download its source code/a.)br /br /iDisclaimer:nbsp; I’m not a Blackbaud developer, so this source code is not a representation of coding practices and procedures used by our programmers.nbsp; PermFlashNTFS is not supported by Blackbaud, which means our Customer Support analysts will not be able to assist you with this utility, and we cannot be held responsible for any issues resulting from its use. It is released under the GNU Public License Agreement and is provided without any warranty./i/ppPlease feel free to add any questions you have about PermFlashNTFS in the comments.br //ppIf you want to see what files and folder permissions are being set on, or if you still want to do it the hard way, review the Knowledgebase solutions for your products linked below:br //pullia href="http://www.blackbaud.com/kb/index?page=contentamp;id=BB50354" target="_blank"The Financial/Education Edge and The Raiser#39;s Edge/a/lilia href="http://www.blackbaud.com/kb/index?page=contentamp;id=BB248018" target="_blank"The Researcher#39;s Edge/a/lilia href="http://www.blackbaud.com/kb/index?page=contentamp;id=BB146980" target="_blank"Faculty Access for the Web/a/lilia href="http://www.blackbaud.com/kb/index?page=contentamp;id=BB180453" target="_blank"NetClassroom/a/lilia href="http://www.blackbaud.com/kb/index?page=contentamp;id=BB520401" target="_blank"RE:Anywhere/a/lilia href="http://www.blackbaud.com/kb/index?page=contentamp;id=BB411212" target="_blank"NetCommunity/a i(PermFlash#39;s support for BBNC is limited to version 5 only and should be considered BETA)/ibr //li/ulimg src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=88274" width="1" height="1"

pWe#39;ve added a a href="http://support.blackbaud.com" target="_new"Customer Support/a button to our website#39;s home page to make accessing our support resources even easier. a href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/blogs/website/archive/2010/03/08/new-blackbaud-com-customer-support-button.aspx" target="_new"Read more about it on the Web Sitings blog/a./p img src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=88235" width="1" height="1"

pimg src="http://www.blackbaud.com/images/blogs/sxsw_npedition.jpg" align="right" width="350" height="219" hspace="6" alt="" /Depending on who you ask, it may or may not be a surprise that a href="http://sxsw.com/interactive"SXSW 2010/a has become a destination for nonprofit staffers. With fifteen percent-ish attendees working with nonprofits, SXSW can be inspirational. It#39;s the perfect place to meet change agents like a href="http://twitter.com/kanter"Beth Kanter/a, a href="http://twitter.com/daveiam"David Neff/a, and a href="http://twitter.com/amyrsward"Amy Sample Ward/a, as well as network and learn from your peers at other nonprofits. But the attendees are just the beginning.../p pBuilding on its success from last year, a href="http://www.beaconfire.com/"Beaconfire Consulting/a will again be sponsoring a href="http://beaconfire.com/thebeaconsxsw/"The Beacon: Lounge with a Conscience/a. One of three lounges at SXSW, The Beacon is ithe/i place to hang if you#39;re representing the nonprofit sector. You can stop by for SoapBox lunches each day, where you can turn your donation to a worthy cause into a tasty lunch. Each afternoon, a href="http://beaconfire.com/thebeaconsxsw/index.php/category/events/beacon-stage/"The Beacon Stage/a will feature an acoustic performance to benefit the a href="http://www.sweetrtelief.org/"Sweet Relief Musicians Fund/a. I#39;m really excited that a href="http://www.blackbaud.com"Blackbaud/a is sponsoring the stage this year, and can#39;t wait to hear some of the great artists. br //p pWhen you find yourself leaving The Lounge, there are plenty of great sessions to attend. Blackbaud#39;s a href="http://www.twitter.com/franswaa"Frank Barry/a will be moderating ia href="http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/849"Debunking the Myth of Social Media Fundraising/a/i. Along with friends from a href="http://tweetsgiving.epicchange.org/"Tweetsgiving/a (Epic Change), a href="http://www.livestrong.org"The Lance Armstrong Foundation/a, and a href="http://www.charitydynamics.com"Charity Dynamics/a, real examples of how nonprofits can use social marketing to raise money will be discussed. br //p pbHere are the sessions that caught my eye and made it onto my messy schedule (in order of appearance):/b/p ul lia href="http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/787"bTechnology For Results Not Profits/b/a - iSaturday, March 13 at 11 a.m./ibr /The LifeChurch.tv team will discuss how passion impacts technology for nonprofits./li br / lia href="http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/394"bA Conversation About Social Change Through Social Media/b/a - iSaturday, March 13 at 12:30 p.m./ibr /Mark Horvath from InvisiblePeople.tv discusses how good storytelling is a three-way conversation./li br / lia href="http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/849"bDebunking the Myth of Social Media Fundraising/b/a - iSaturday, March 13 at 12:30 p.m./ibr /This panel looks at how nonprofit organizations are raising money via social media. /li br / lia href="http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/469"bDigital Marketing for Non-Profits/b/a - iSaturday, March 13 at 3:30 p.m./ibr /Learn how the L.A. Philharmonic Association built an online brand and increased giving in a failing economy./li br / lia href="http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/704"bUprising Tide - Inciting Online Communities into Offline Movements/b/a - iSaturday, March 13 at 3:30 p.m./ibr /A look at how organic net-roots movements were started in New Orleans after the Hurricane Katrina disaster./li br / lia href="http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/457"bCrowd Sourcing Innovative Social Change/b/a - iSunday, March 14 at 3:30 p.m./ibr /This panel will share the best innovative nonprofit ideas from the crowd-sourced Social Change Challenge./li br / lia href="http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/568"bIt#39;s Time to Save the World with Design Thinking/b/a - iSunday, March 14 at 3:30 p.m./ibr /With design thinking we can change the world by seeing why problems happen - then solve them./li br / lia href="http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/472"bDinosaur to Digital: A Museum Convergence Success Story/b/a - iSunday, March 14 at 5:00 p.m./ibr /Learn how a traditional museum in SF used online tools to position itself as a valuable resource and social hub./li br / lia href="http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/5071"bGames For Good/b/a - iMonday, March 15 at 12:30 p.m./ibr /Hear from nonprofits who have made games to support their mission that people actually use./li br / lia href="http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/841"bChange the World, Lives, with Bikes/b/a - iTuesday, March 16 at 11:00 a.m./ibr /A great look at how cycling and social media are changing the world through online communities and events. /li br / lia href="http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/728"bWill Kiva Kill Your Nonprofit? Donations 2.0/b/a - iTuesday, March 16 at 11:00 a.m./ibr /Learn how your nonprofit can adapt to a world that includes distributed donation groups like Kiva.nbsp;/li /ul Besides attending the sessions above and hanging at The Beacon, there are a few other activities you should pencil into your schedule. The a href="http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/6118"Convio Nonprofit Technology Bash/a is on Tuesday evening, and is a perfect place to meetup and get ready for all the closing night parties. Also, be sure to check out a href="http://wecanendthis.com/category/sxsw/"CauseLab/a, which is launching on March 15 in the Hilton. They are inviting disrupters and innovators from all disciplines to solve three main challenges to ending hunger in America, and will be holding brainstorming sessions throughout this year#39;s SXSW. pThat#39;s all for now. Please let me know what I missed, and I#39;m looking forward to seeing you all later this week!/p img src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=88018" width="1" height="1"

pI am pleased to announced that we have made nine more grants to nonprofits where our employees volunteer.nbsp; This is through the Reward Your Passion program I have talked about before.nbsp; /p pI love this program because it allows us to take corporate dollars andnbsp;disperse them within communities where our employees work and live - leaving the choice of where and how to volunteer up to each person.nbsp; Philanthropy IS personal after all./p pThis round honored employees and their favorite nonprofits from Charleston to St. Louis to New York City to Denver./p ul li diva class="" href="http://www.avp.org/"NYC Anti-Violence Project/a/div/li li diva class="" href="http://www.rmhcharleston.org/Home.asp"Ronald McDonald House of Charleston/a/div/li li diva class="" href="http://www.denver.assistanceleague.org/contact.cfm"Mile High Assistance League/a/div/li li diva class="" href="http://parkcirclefilms.org/"The Greater Park Circle Film Society/a/div/li li diva class="" href="http://hospicehouse.net/"Hospice of the Upstate/a/div/li li divLaing Band Boosters/div/li li divLunch Buddies/div/li li divProfessional Theatre Awards Council/div/li li diva class="" href="http://www.villaaugustina.org/"Villa Augustina/a/div/li/ul pCongratulations to these great organizations and the employees who donate their time to further their missions.nbsp; And thank you to Katie, Stephen, Simone, Victoria, Carolyn, Vanessa, Jennifer and Andy -- our Team Blackbaud Global employee committee, who served as grantmakers!/pimg src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=88168" width="1" height="1"

pWe#39;ve added a a href="http://support.blackbaud.com/" target="_new"Customer Support/a button to our website#39;s home page to make accessing our support resources even easier. a href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/blogs/website/archive/2010/03/08/new-blackbaud-com-customer-support-button.aspx" target="_new"Read more about it on the Web Sitings blog/a./pimg src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=88142" width="1" height="1"

pWe#39;re just one monthnbsp;away from NTEN#39;s annual a class="" href="http://nten.org/ntc"Nonprofit Technology Conference/a.nbsp;The 2010 a class="" href="http://nten.org/ntc"Nonprofit Technology Conference/a will take place on April 8-10, 2010 in Atlanta, GA at the Omni Hotel at CNN Center./p pNTEN aspires to a world where all nonprofit organizations skillfully and confidently use technology to meet community needs and fulfill their missions. NTC is one of the largest nonprofit conferences of the year and it#39;s a must-attend event for those in the technology sector. a class="" href="http://nten.org/ntc-register"Register today/a and don#39;t miss this event./p pTherenbsp;will be sessions on a a class="" href="https://www.ntenonline.org/EWEB/DynamicPage.aspx?webcode=NTCSessionsListamp;evt_key=a46e8f9d-07c0-4c02-8d0b-69a352f194c0amp;PageTitle=All%20Sessions"broad range of topics/a including Advocacy, Budget, Collaboration, Community, CMS, CRM, Change Management, Data, Email, Infrastructure, Integration/APIs, International, Mobile, Open Source, Planning, Social Media, and Websites. The best thinkers and speakers in the nonprofit sector will be at NTC. Will you?/p pThere are a few sessions featuring Blackbaud speakers and clients including the following:/p pstrongWe Are Media Sessions br //strongApril 8 @ 8:00am - 10:00am and 11:00am - 1:00pm br /Chad Norman | Blackbaud /p pstrongBlackbaud Enterprise CRM – Facilitating the Constituents’ Journey/strong br /April 9 @ 3:30pm br /Richard Geiger | Blackbaudbr /br /strongBlackbaud’s Online Event Fundraising Solution - Friends Asking Friends/strongnbsp;br /April 10nbsp;@ 10:30ambr /Frank Barry | Blackbaud br /Mark Davis | Blackbaud br /br /strongOnline Fundraising Benchmarks and Metricsnbsp;br //strongApril 10nbsp;@nbsp;1:30pmbr /Steve MacLaughlin | Blackbaud /p pAnother important part of the NTC is the a class="" href="http://nten.org/ntc-dos"Day of Service/a, whichnbsp;is our way of giving back to the community that hosts the Nonprofit Technology Conference. This year#39;s Day of Service will be held Thursday, April 8 in Atlanta, where you#39;ll be able to consult and assist the nonprofits working in the area or help install a wireless network in a community location./p pNTEN is going great work to help nonprofits make the most of technology. I have been fortunate enough to be involved with NTEN over the past few years, including serving on the board of directors this past year. I can#39;t wait for this year#39;s NTC and I hope to see many of you there./pimg src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=87957" width="1" height="1"

pWe#39;ve just added a quot;Customer Supportquot; button to our website header tonbsp;make it easier to reach our award-winning online support resources. When you click the button, you’re taken to our public support landing page, a href="http://support.blackbaud.com/"http://support.blackbaud.com/a, which is the same page you reach when you click “Support” on our website#39;s menu bar. /p pnbsp;img title="Website header with Customer Support button" alt="Website header with Customer Support button" hspace="1" src="http://www.blackbaud.com/images/blogs/webheader.jpg" border="1" //p pAs we mentioned in our recently published a class="" title="2009 Customer Support Satisfaction Report (PDF)" href="http://www.blackbaud.com/files/support/cssatreport.pdf" target="_blank"2009 Customer Support Satisfaction Report/a, we#39;re planning to add an idea bank for our website in addition to all our products for online suggestion submission, voting, and status (quot;What#39;s New and in the Works,quot; page 8). In the meantime, please share your suggestions for improving our website by adding a blog comment.nbsp;Thanks! /pimg src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=88110" width="1" height="1"

pimg border="0" hspace="10" alt="Jambi the Genie" align="right" src="http://www.blackbaud.com/images/blogs/jambi.gif" width="167" height="120" / We all wish importing records, especially creating the import file, would be easier. quot;Wish? Did somebody say wish?quot; Jambi shouts. Why yes we did Jambi. I wish you could make it easier to create an import file in FE? quot;Alright then, all the boys and girls at home repeat after me. Meka Leka Hi Meka Hiney Hoquot; Jambi replies. Let#39;s all say it together, Meka Leka Hi Meka Hiney Ho! Jambi shouts in excitement, quot;Your wish has been granted, long live Jambi!quot; and the magic box closes. Wow, that was easy. Let#39;s see how it#39;s done.nbsp; /p pOpennbsp;a saved import parameter or create a new one. On the General tab, mark Create import file under What do you want to do. This option changes the system from looking to pull data into the database to creating the import file. The rest is just defining the import details. Let#39;s start with the Options box. I recommend using Include required fields in the file to eliminate the dreaded error: field name is required. Next, define the location and name of the import file by clicking the ellipses next to Import file. Then, browse to the location and enter the file name followed by .csv in the File Name field. Defining .csv creates a comma separated values file, but you can also use text. I prefer .csv because you can enter the data in a simple spreadsheet format. Now onto the Fields tab. This is where you tell the system which fields to include in the import file. I do not recommend removing any of the fields listed here by default as these are the required fields to import, but you can add as many other fields as you#39;d like. /p pOnce you have everything defined, go ahead and save the import parameter. You can use it when you#39;re ready to importnbsp;and all fieldsnbsp;will already set up for you. Another time saver img src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/emoticons/emotion-1.gif" alt="Smile" /. Just make sure you change the What do you want to do option on the General tab to Import New records or Update existing records. After you save the parameters, click Create Now and voila! You now have a blank import file to start your data entry./p pHappy Importing. Talk to you soon./pimg src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=83918" width="1" height="1"

p style="TEXT-ALIGN:center;"span style="FONT-STYLE:italic;"/spannbsp;/p pimg style="WIDTH:285px;HEIGHT:238px;" height="238" hspace="3" src="http://www.blackbaud.com/images/pr/2010/UBC.jpg" width="285" align="left" alt="" / /p p style="TEXT-ALIGN:justify;"span style="FONT-WEIGHT:bold;"Charleston, S.C. (March 8, 2010) –/span Blackbaud, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLKB), the leading global provider of software and related services designed specifically for nonprofit organizations, today announced that the a class="tracked" href="http://www.ubc.ca/" target="_self"font color="#3d9fc8"University of British Columbia/font/a (UBC) recently selected a class="tracked" href="http://www.blackbaud.com/products/crm/bbec/bbec_overview.aspx?source=pr" target="_self"font color="#3d9fc8"Blackbaud Enterprise CRM/font/a™ as its new organization-wide relationship management system. This leading Canadian public research university with campuses in Vancouver and Kelowna, British Columbia, will use the solution to improve collaboration, development and engagement programs, steward donors and alumni, and cultivate support./p p style="TEXT-ALIGN:justify;"“We were very impressed with the way Blackbaud Enterprise CRM integrates our alumni engagement and fundraising outreach efforts into one complete system,” said Barbara Miles, UBC vice president of development and alumni engagement. “We also saw that Blackbaud offered a technology partnership that would help UBC achieve sustainable success over the long term.”/p p style="TEXT-ALIGN:justify;"a class="" href="http://www.blackbaud.com/default.aspx?pgpId=2531amp;PRID=339" target="_blank"Read more./a/pimg src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=88080" width="1" height="1"

pIn my last post, a href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/blogs/fundaccounting/archive/2010/03/04/blackbaud-fundware-7-60-released.aspx"Blackbaud FundWare 7.60 Released/a, I announced the release of the latest FW version.nbsp; Did any of you think to yourself that it would be so helpful tonbsp;receive an email notification when a new hot fix, service pack, or versionnbsp;is available?nbsp; Good thinking!nbsp;nbsp; I would like to introduce you to the Support Update Notification, also known as the SUN.nbsp; This automated release announcement is sent to your inbox after the release of a hot fix, service pack, or new versionnbsp;and contains links to important information including update instructions and readmes.nbsp; But you have to be subscribed to receive it.nbsp; So how do you subscribe?nbsp; It#39;s easy. Just log into a href="http://www.blackbaud.com/"http://www.blackbaud.com//a, click your name at the top right of any Blackbaud web page, and then click a href="http://subscribe.blackbaud.com/" target="_new"View Subscriptions/a. Mark the Financial Management Software Update Notification and click Submit. /p pI guess this would be a good time to remind you to make sure your email address is correct in your profile as this will be the email address the SUN is sent.nbsp; You should also make sure your email server, proxy server, and firewall allow emails from a href="mailto:*@subscriptions.blackbaud.com"*@subscriptions.blackbaud.com/a./p pTalk to you soon!/pimg src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=84455" width="1" height="1"

Often, a day like a Friday is a good time to spend a little time and clean up your social media. Why clean up? Think about all the time you spend sorting through the clutter of information online to read the information from people you love reading? Think of all the times you think, ugh, I don#39;t want to read that right now. Well, today is a great day to spend a little time, do a gut check, and ask yourself, do I want to follow/read/track this person or feed? It#39;s okay to be cruel. After all, if you don#39;t do a little clean up from time to time, the person you are being most mean to is yourself. pHere are some ideas to get you started.../p olliUn-follow people on Twitter. I bet you can read down through your twitter list of people you follow and instantly know who you should un-follow. It#39;s okay if it#39;s me, I won#39;t take it personal. You#39;d be surprised how freeing it is to un-follow people who clutter your twitter feed with nonsense. It feels so good to un-follow and then instantly see the information you#39;re always scanning to find.br /br //liliHide people or applications in your Facebook news feed. You don#39;t have to un-friend them. Just hover over their update in your news feed, find the Hide button, and click on it. You can also hide everyone#39;s Farmville, Mafia Wars, or other application updates from hogging all that news update space. It#39;s okay to connect with friends you made in fifth grade summer camp, but their fifty random updates a day do nothing but keep you from reading the really relevant, important updates.br /br //liliUn-subscribe from RSS/Atom feeds in Google Reader (or other similar aggregator). If you#39;re constantly marking a feed or folder as quot;Mark all as readquot; chances are you really don#39;t care about the content. Do yourself a favor and un-subscribe so you can make room for new feeds when you discover them. I can personally recommend this one. I did it today and it felt awesome to eliminate what I thought mattered but I wasn#39;t actually reading.br /br //liliAnd, go clean/organize your email inbox. Okay, this one has nothing to do with social media but don#39;t you just feel so good when you leave for the weekend and everything is clean and in order - emails deleted, emails responded, emails filed away. lt;lt;lt;Insert happy sigh heregt;gt;gt; Or... maybe that#39;s just me. /li/ol pEither way, look at your favorite social media websites and see how you can dust the cobwebs, clean out the clutter, and make your efforts more efficient. It#39;s a great task for a Friday when your mind is already on your weekend activities./p img src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=84928" width="1" height="1"

pSeveral times a week, we offer free, hour-long web seminars on our website. The seminars usually focus on Blackbaud products or best practices for nonprofits./p pTo register, select a href="http://www.blackbaud.com/events/webseminars.aspx" target="_new"Web Seminars/a from the Events menu on our website, find a seminar you want to attend, and click Register Now. Once you submit the enrollment form, you’ll receive an email with instructions for viewing the online presentation, as well as the telephone access number. If you’d like to enroll for additional seminars, click Continue after you fill out the enrollment form./p pHere are some of the web seminars coming up next week:/p blockquotestrongMarch 10:/strongbr /strongBlackbaud NetCommunity 6.15 Feature Preview, 1:00 p.m. ET:/strong Join us for a demonstration of the exciting new features available in Blackbaud NetCommunity 6.15.br /br /strongSocial Networks and Fundraising, 1:00 p.m. ET:/strong Learn about the changing characteristics of constituent relationship management in the web generation.br /br /strongThe Financial Edge for Small-Office Organizations, 2:00 p.m. ET:/strong Learn how to manage budgets, allocate grants, and run the reports you need./blockquote blockquotestrongMarch 11:/strongbr /strongIgnite your website with Blackbaud NetCommunity Spark for Cultural Organizations, 2:00 p.m. ET:/strong Join us to learn about Blackbaud NetCommunity Spark, our online membership and marketing solution that helps your cultural organization expand its existing online strategies.br /br /strongLessons Learned from Haiti 1: Online Rapid Response Strategies, 2:00 p.m. ET:/strong This session will explore how online fundraising, email communication, and social media played in important role in the relief efforts of many nonprofits./blockquote pExclusive to our a href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/blogs/raisersedge/archive/tags/Blackbaud+Learn/default.aspx" target="_new"Blackbaud Learn/a customers on March 12 at 2:00 p.m. ET, join us for strongGetting started with your Blackbaud Learn program!/strong to determine which role-based classes are best suited for you and your staff./p pHave a super weekend!/pimg src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=84905" width="1" height="1"