Blackbaud NetCommunity v5.5 Release News (Part 3)

Blackbaud announced today the official release of Blackbaud NetCommunity v5.5. The release also contains some important updates to our Online Campus Community (OCC v2.5) solution.

"We designed Blackbaud NetCommunity from the ground up as a content management and online fundraising solution to serve the needs of the nonprofit community. Since it was introduced in 2004, more than 600 nonprofits have selected NetCommunity to create an online presence and recruit and retain donors in the online space." - Marc Chardon, Blackbaud CEO

BBNC v5.5 includes improved site design features and a native social networking feature called “Wave,” that will provide nonprofits with an opportunity to further engage their constituents online. Additionally, the release unveiled a new set of NetCommunity Open Platform APIs for creating custom parts, integrated web services, and custom transactions.

"With Wave, Blackbaud has introduced a new way to leverage social networking—both within the application and by integrating to social network services like Facebook—which will add to the viral nature of our work. Being able to have an easier way to reach out through social networking channels will help us extend our audience as we move more and more in that direction. Additionally, the ease of integration between Blackbaud NetCommunity 5.5 and our other Blackbaud systems will help us close the loop between our online and offline direct marketing efforts and really take our reporting, data management and usage to new levels.” - Michael Sola, Director of Information Technology, Chesapeake Bay Foundation

Here are some more details about what is in the new release:

Content Management – The solutions now support “workflows” by allowing designated users to approve and publish submitted items from content authors. The improvements also supports versioning and roll-back capabilities of content. Multiple image uploads (even from Facebook!) and easier document linking are just a few of the other content management enhancements.

Fundraising and Marketing Enhancements – The latest release significantly improves the management of donations by allowing website visitors to make multiple donations or registrations via a single transaction. Viral marketing and fundraising efforts are enhanced through support of eCards and page sharing links that embrace Web 2.0 concepts. And to support direct marketing initiatives, we now provide an easy way to create “friendly URLs” and external source code tracking.

Improved Internationalization, Accessibility, and Extensibility – The latest versions provide improved compliance with online accessibility standards, including Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) and Section 508. Re-captioning of fields on many forms, allowing website content to appear in multiple languages, is also supported. Best of all, these versions make our open APIs even more powerful, allowing richer customizations by clients and partners.

Social Networking – Wave, Blackbaud NetCommunity’s new social networking feature, is the first natively-developed social network in an Internet solution designed for nonprofits. BBNC 5.5 & OCC 2.5 now go beyond simply allowing the sharing of information with Facebook to allowing organizations to provide their website visitors tools for their very own social networks, complete with personal messaging, Circle of Friends, self-forming groups, and expanded Facebook integration.

Customer Requests – And of course, every release gives us an opportunity to incorporate more customer requests, and this is no exception. Great features such as a scrolling donor wall for TeamFundraising pages and printable event calendars will make clients’ websites more friendly to visitors, the updated EE PlugIn will make their work easier, and additional security options, including reCAPTCHA online fraud prevention, will protect them behind the scenes.

We're already working on the next few releases of BBNC and OCC to keep the momentum going. Innovation doesn't sleep or take holidays.