Hi everyone. Just a reminder that all of us Blogbaudians have picked up and moved into new digs over at blogs.blackbaud.com. Come by and see us!

Product Blogs

• The User’s Edge — The official blog of The Raiser’s Edge
• The Ledger — The official blog of The Financial Edge
• The Spotlight — The official blog of The Patron Edge
• The Book Bag — Blackbaud’s school software blog

Personal Blogs

• Connections — Steve MacLaughlin, Director of Internet Solutions
• Navigating the Fundraising Universe — Jim Bush, Enterprise Bus. Architect
• Webby Things — Chad Norman, Manager of Internet Marketing

Corporate Blogs

• From the Doc Side — The Product Documentation Team Blog
• Blackbaud News — Up-to-date Blackbaud News

Industry Blogs

• NetWits — Internet marketing, communication, tools, and technology

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As part of our upgraded online community, some new blogs are coming to life over at Blackbaud.com:

The User’s Edge: The Official Blog of the Raiser’s Edge
The Ledger: The Official Blog of The Financial Edge
The Spotlight: The Official Blog of The Patron Edge

There are also a couple of personal blogs: Steve MacLaughlin’s Connections and my own Webby Things. The infamous Jim Bush is next, along with a few more brave souls we’re coaxing out of the ‘baud. Stay tuned for more, or just subscribe to Blackbaud Blogs (rss) and let us come to you.

Designing for Extensibility

One of the coolest parts about building software is designing for extensibility. When you are building a system that must support extensibility you apply much more rigor around what programming interfaces are exposed, being sure they are resilient from release to release, and a whole host of other technical goo that I won’t bore you with. Extensibility is something we paid strict attention to in Blackbaud NetCommunity’s (BBNC) platform architecture.

The “cool” part comes when you look out at the BBNC developer community and see how many compelling solutions our customers and 3rd parties are building using the BBNC API. I’m not going to sugar coat it, this stuff takes solid programming skills and a good grasp of Web technologies, but if you posses those skills, this is a pretty rich canvas.

Frankly, the technical nature of the API has probably led us to be a bit too reticent in regards to discussing it. In the past, if a customer inquired, we’d happily respond with a link to the SDK and send them on their way. We’re working hard to get better in this area. This API layer has shipped “in the box” with BBNC since day one, and we’ve reached the point where people are blogging about it and discussing it in peer support forums etc. The API ecosystem has arrived so, expect to see continued momentum on this front from Blackbaud. I’ll include some links to some great resources for aspiring BBNC developers below. While we don’t have programming phone support around the API, there is a LOT of information out there now, and plenty of folks using it on their live Web Sites.

The BBNC Component Model

First, a little background. The NetCommunity component model is based around the concept of “parts.” Parts typically are designed around very specific scenarios (Take an online donation, self-service profile updates, targeting content based on member demographics etc.). Pages are typically composed of a number of parts which ultimately is served up as a Web Site’s content. Now, an important goal of the team was that these parts have a configuration user interface that a non-uber-Web-guru could be productive with. With each release of BBNC we refine existing parts, and roll out new ones. This has worked very well.

Enter the Developer - The BBNC API

So, given a well defined component model and set of core design idioms, the logical next step was making this architecture “pluggable.” The goal here was to provide the APIs, SDKs, samples and tools that a reasonably skilled developer could leverage to build their very own “custom” part that would surface in the system to the folks building the site as if they were intrinsic parts. Here were the high level scenarios we wanted to support in the API:

• Support for adding custom parts into the system, treated as fist class parts by all designer interfaces of BBNC.
• Support for fetching key data from The Raiser’s Edge via a custom Web Services based API extension mechanism.
• Support for riding on BBNC’s secure transaction pipleine for cases where data obtained by a custom part needs to be downloaded securely and processed in RE.

In the end, the resulting API supports all the key scenarios outlined above, and it really is gratifying to see what enterprising developers out there have built with minimal guidance from Blackbaud! Like I said, we’re getting better in this area.

Resources for Aspiring BBNC Coders

The NetCommunity API Wiki - Comprehensive set of documentation and samples in open Wiki format. Please contribute information!

Blackbaud Labs - At Blackbaud Labs we periodically release cool samples and screen casts covering the entire Blackbaud technology portfolio. We have featured BBNC’s API a lot recently so we encourage you to have a look.

There’s more to come, so sit tight. And thanks to all the developers out there building on the platform. The next release of BBNC has a good chunk of new stuff targeted directly at improving the API based on your feedback to date.

The new book People to People Fundraising: Social Networking and Web 2.0 for Charities recently hit the bookshelves. It was around this time last year that I was sending the draft of my chapter in the book to the editors.

The book covers a variety of important topics related to how nonprofit organizations can leverage Web 2.0 and other social networking technologies.

The contributors to People to People Fundraising bring with them a lot of experience and this is an excellent way to either start or enhance your understanding of this important trend.

My task during the writing process was to put together the introductory chapter for the book. So the challenge was to paint a broad, but still vivid and engaging, picture of what people to people fundraising means in order to setup the rest of the book. Amazon.com has the “search inside” feature setup and the chapter appears as the excerpt. Click here to take a look at some of what made it into print, including this paragraph of prose:

“A fundamental reality of fundraising is that people give to people with causes, not to organizations. Buildings and brochures may in some ways influence people, but they cannot hold a conversation. People need to feel a personal connection to the causes and initiatives they choose to donate to. The power of personal content, communication, and collaboration all combine to create a sense of community.”

So where do we go from here? Lots of places, hopefully. Over the next year I will be spending a lot of time writing and talking about applying the notion of people to people fundraising in a variety of different ways. As always, this needs to be a two-way conversation so you feedback and ideas are very important. With that in mind there will be some upcoming ways to get engaged in the dialogue. Stay tuned…

I uploaded another screen cast to Blackbaud Labs. In this one, I’ll build some mashups that employ the rich Infinity platform API’s from Microsoft PopFly, Yahoo! Pipes, and (of course) Facebook.

Head over to Blackbaud Labs and watch the short screen cast. I’m excited at the thought of what you guys will do with the platform!

Go Red Sox!

After a few days of server chaos, we are finally back online - sorry for any inconvenience. Due to the issue that caused the meltdown, we had to switch the location of the blog install. So, if you were getting content via our RSS feed, please note the new URL.

Hi all. I’m really pleased to be a new blogger out here in cyberspace. I’ve done some casual reading, kicked the tires on a blog or two, even took a test ride, but this is my first experience really being behind the wheel.

Before I get to the meat of what I want to talk about today, a very quick intro. Unlike some of the others on the blog, I’m a bit less techy. I’m a word person. As such, I want to talk about the power of words…

What first drew you to your own organization? What was it about the mission, the people, the results that made you want to dedicate your time? What gets you out of bed in the morning?

Whatever the answers to those questions, those are probably the same things that are going to motivate donors and volunteers. As you all know, it’s much harder to say no during a face-to-face solicitation then it is over the phone or through the mail. If your communications with prospective donors and volunteers personifies your mission, it’s going to be equally hard to say no.

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Hello all! My name is Jamie Holaday (formerly De Gregory). I’m the internal communications coordinator here at Blackbaud. That means I work with people around the company to help foster communication within Blackbaud. I’m also a bit obsessive when it comes to all things communication, including spelling, commas, and the proper use of the dash.

I’m going to try and share of bit of that obsession with you and see how it can be applied to help nonprofits communicate in ever more effective and creative ways. Hopefully you’ll join in the conversation and we’ll get some real communication going!

Prior to Blackbaud I was getting my master’s degree at Texas A&M in Science and Technology Journalism. Before that I was fully immersed in the science side of things studying Physics at Ithaca College. You know you better watch out when you find someone who likes math AND commas.

Below are links to the top 100 nonprofits. I created this list of links from The Nonprofit Times annual list.

http://www.ymca.net/
http://www.salvationarmyusa.org/
http://www.redcross.org/
http://www.catholiccharitiesusa.org/
http://www.goodwill.org/
http://www.ujc.org/
http://www.mskcc.org/
http://www.bgca.org/
http://www.americares.org/
http://www.habitat.org/
http://www.cancer.org/
http://www.nature.org/
http://www.worldvision.org/
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/
http://www.giftsinkind.org/
http://www.feedthechildren.org/
http://www.voa.org/
http://www.scouting.org/
http://www.easterseals.com
http://www.foodforthepoor.org
http://www.girlscouts.org/
http://www.crs.org/
http://www.shrinershq.org/
http://www.care.org/
http://www.americanheart.org/
http://www.dana-farber.org/
http://www.secondharvest.org/
http://www.ywca.org
http://www.si.edu/
http://www.pbs.org/
http://www.stjude.org/
http://www.cityofhope.org/
http://www.unicefusa.org/
http://www.childrenshospitalla.org/
http://www.ccci.org/
http://www.ucp.org/
http://www.savethechildren.org/
http://www.map.org/
http://www.moma.org/
www.samaritanspurse.org/
http://www.metmuseum.org/
http://www.fhcrc.org/
http://www.aed.org/
http://www.brothersbrother.org/
http://www.mfah.org/
http://www.bbbs.org/
http://www.ob.org/
http://www.nwmedicalteams.org
http://www.cbn.com/
http://www.metoperafamily.org
http://www.jdc.org/
http://www.marchofdimes.com/
http://www.directrelief.org/
http://www.compassion.com/
http://www.nmha.org/
http://www.cmalliance.org/
http://www.leukemia-lymphoma.org
http://www.diabetes.org
http://www.nmss.org/
http://www.theirc.org/
http://www.cff.org/
http://www.specialolympics.org
http://www.alz.org/
http://www.cmmb.org/
http://www.ducks.org/
http://www.wcs.org/
http://www.christianchildrensfund.org/
http://www.uncf.org/
http://www.girlsandboystown.org/
http://www.younglife.org/
http://www.iie.org/
http://www.artic.edu/
http://www.tbn.org/
http://www.mda.org/
http://www.amnh.org/
http://www.mercycorps.org/
http://www.girlsinc.org/
http://www.jdrf.org/
http://www.wish.org/
http://www.history.org/
http://www.komen.org/
http://www.crista.org/
http://www.nga.gov/
http://www.cartercenter.org/
http://www.wgbh.org/
http://www.lungusa.org/
http://www.npr.org/
http://www.mfa.org/
http://www.hadassah.org
http://www.tpl.org/
http://www.kennedy-center.org/
http://www.thirteen.org/
http://www.ja.org/
http://www.rotary.org/
http://www.dav.org/
http://www.projecthope.org/
http://www.family.org/
http://www.arthritis.org/

Tom Churchill is the Product Support Manager, Technical and Developer Solutions at Blackbaud, overseeing the support for such products as Blackbaud NetCommunity, The Information Edge, Crystal; along with the support across the products for VBA, API and Read Only Database Assistance.

Tom joined the company in 1998, first as a member of The Raiser’s Edge customer support team, then as a technical support analyst and then as a member of Developer Solutions Support. He has supported RE:VBA and RE:API, the Blackbaud Developer Program and The Information Edge since the inception of each product. Tom has taught more than 175 days of Blackbaud training and was the lead RE:Open and RE:VBA/RE:API trainer for more than a year-and-a-half.

In his free time, he enjoys researching the Civil War. In April of 2003, a book he co-authored, called “The Civil War Research Guide,” was published by Stackpole Books.

This is a placeholder for Bo Crader’s bio.

These first couple of weeks have been exciting to say the least. I really want to thank all of you who have left comments…your participation is welcome, if not needed, and you have the ears of nearly everyone here at Blackbaud. Keep those comments coming!

We have new readers arriving all the time, so I wanted to highlight some of the comments that caught my eye over the last few days.

A lot of readers were happy to see that Shaun Sullivan would be blogging, but Charlie Crystle thinks he may have found Shaun’s motivation:

It’s about time, Shaun! I figured once you stopped reading my blog you’d find the time to start your own.

Cason White really opened up the floor with his first two posts: A Dialog on Design, and Blackbaud 2.0. Cason and the entire Design team are excited to begin this dialog, and it sounds like a few of you feel the same way. Peter Gulka kept it broad when he wrote:

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I’m Cason White, an Interaction Designer at Blackbaud. I get fired up about creatively solving user problems and designing experiences that make people’s teeth tingle (in a good way).

My goal in this blog is to spur discussions about the design process, what makes for good design and how design is changing our industry and our world.

I’ve been at Blackbaud since 2005, when I moved back to the South after 8 years in Colorado. My career includes stints as an advertising executive, an instructional designer, an information architect and principal of a Web consulting firm.

Have a question? Fire away…

First, welcome to BlogBaud! I’m super excited about the fact that we got this kick-started. A few of us here at ole BB have been dying to do this for a while now. Kudos to Chad Norman for doing it the old fashioned way — do it first, then ask if it’s ok after you have built something too cool to deny Every year at our conferences I get a shot of adrenaline when I get to interact with so many of our customers, so maybe we’ll get a community going here that will perpetuate that feeling year round. Now what’s with the title to this post?

On New Year’s Day the Sullivan family made our annual journey to Sullivan’s Island (no relation!) for the Polar Bear swim. It’s an amazing event where literally thousands of people dressed in a bizarre array of “bathing attire” take a running plunge into the Atlantic at exactly 2 PM. The swim takes place on a stretch of beach behind Dunleavy’s Pub, the event’s organizer since its inception 14 years ago. The whole thing can simply be described as surreal. They have a great saying, “freezin’ for a reason” which refers to the fact that the whole event is focused on supporting charity. I’ve got a really good friend whose sister has Down Syndrome and I know this day warms his heart, so we do it together, along with an ever-increasing number of our sons (we have 3 each). My 9 year old, Sammy did it this year, proclaiming “that wasn’t so bad.”

The vibe of the whole event is awesome, with an awareness and camaraderie born from the fact that we all know we are doing something to help someone else. What a great way to start the year.

Now I probably should come clean. This year a real polar bear would not have survived the conditions. The air temperature…67. The water temperature…a balmy 60. It is South Carolina after all. However, knowing how much it means to my friend and his family, coupled with the sheer spectacle of the event, I know I’d do it no matter what the conditions are.

Happy New Year. We’ll “dive” into something technical next time…

I just wanted to kick off this blog with a big hello from all of us here at Blackbaud.

We’ve started this site to give our employees a platform to sound off on what they know best: technology, nonprofits, business, and Blackbaud itself. There are a few of us here who have wanted to blog for years, and now we’ll have our chance. We look forward to discussing topics with you, so please leave some comments!

We would love to hear what you think, so if you have a question or comment just let us know.

Hello everyone, I’m a Business Systems Architect on the Emerging Products team at Blackbaud. I’ve been here since June of 2003. I’ve been fortunate enough to work pretty closely with many of our “Enterprise” clients. Previously I was a Product Design Manager with Thomson Financial in Boston, MA. I’m a native of the Boston area, but have settled here in the Charleston area for good!

Thanks for stopping by, but we’ve moved over to blogs.blackbaud.com. We’re keeping this site up to preserve what is here, and to that end, here is the original “About” page:

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Welcome to BlogBaud.com, a nonprofit blog written by Blackbaud employees.

As employees of Blackbaud, we are interested in nonprofits, technology, business, and Blackbaud itself. Over time, the topics discussed here will reflect that. The goals of this blog are simple:

• To make a contribution to the nonprofit industry.
• To raise the visibility of Blackbaud.
• To expose Blackbaud employees to the public.

This blog has multiple contributors, and you can subscribe to their feeds by clicking the next to their name. Though contributors may post daily, weekly, or monthly, you can always find the most recent content on the homepage.