Connections : Blackbaud

Blackbaud’s 2009 Conference for Nonprofits - Day 4

Steve MacLaughlin — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:04:00 GMT

This is the final day of Blackbaud's 2009 Conference for Nonprofits and there's a big focus on Internet topics today.

This morning I am doing a session called "The Future of Blackbaud’s Internet Solutions" which will be full of surprises about some great new things we're working on. And then the online focused content kicks into high gear!

Blackbaud added an extra set of Internet related sessions on today's agenda. Blackbaud's Internet Afternoon is an exclusive networking and training opportunity for our Blackbaud Sphere and Blackbaud NetCommunity customers. There's was no extra cost for these sessions for conference attendees.

I'm doing the keynote presentation as part of the afternoon Internet sessions. I'll be covering some of the major trends in online fundraising that are changing how nonprofits engage with supporters.

Today's Live Sessions:
Can't attend the conference? Watch these sessions live online:
12:00 to 1:30 p.m. ET, Keynote Session, presented by Steve MacLaughlin
1:30 to 2:45 p.m. ET, Google Analytics® and Search Engine Optimization, presented by Bo Crader and Chris Tuttle
3:15 to 4:45 p.m. ET, Launching the Space Shuttle: Practical Advice to Ensure a Smooth Launch of Your Website, presented by Raheel Gauba

Follow the conference on Twitter: http://twitter.com/bbcon and by using the hash tag #bbcon.
Other Links: Conference Sessions | Special Internet Sessions | Live Streaming Sessions

Blackbaud’s 2009 Conference for Nonprofits - Day 3

Steve MacLaughlin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:04:00 GMT

This is the third day of Blackbaud's 2009 Conference for Nonprofits here in Charleston, South Carolina.Yesterday was pretty action packed and the tweetup event was a lot of fun.

The morning begins with keynote speaker Derreck Kayongo, a former Kenyan refugee who fled political despotism in Uganda, Derreck will share how he chose an uncommon path on life’s journey — a path that has led him to his current work of changing the world. Derreck will share his story and his personal mission in a context that will reenergize attendees and challenge them to sharpen their focus as they continue on their personal journeys.

I'm doing two sessions today. The first one is "Online Metrics Demystified: Understanding Your Hits, Clicks, and Errors" where I'll be covering metrics for the web, email, online fundraising, and social media, industry benchmarks and trends in online metrics, and how to pull them all together to measure your online success. The second session is with Blackbaud product manager Ryan Frere and is called "Leveraging Blackbaud Enterprise CRM for Strategic Online Fundraising." In this session, we will review the native internet capabilities within BBEC and how customers can successfully leverage these features and functionality on the Infinity platform

Today's Live Sessions:
Can't attend the conference? Watch these sessions live online:
9:00 – 10:30 a.m. ET, Keynote Session, featuring Derreck Kayongo
11:00 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. ET, Future-Proof: Making Viable Plans in Uncertain Times, presented by Dean Feener
3:45 – 5:00 p.m. ET, DIY (Do It Yourself): Is Your Fundraising Strategy in Need of Makeover? Presented by Richard McPherson

Follow the conference on Twitter: http://twitter.com/bbcon and by using the hash tag #bbcon.
Other Links: Conference Sessions | Special Internet Sessions | Live Streaming Sessions

Blackbaud’s 2009 Conference for Nonprofits - Day 2

Steve MacLaughlin — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:50:00 GMT

Today Blackbaud's 2009 Conference for Nonprofits really swings into high gear after yesterday's kickoff events. This is going to be a very busy day with lots of sessions, meetings, and events on the agenda.

Today's Live Sessions:
Can't attend the conference? Watch these sessions live online:
8:30 – 9:15 a.m. ET, General Session with Blackbaud CEO Marc Chardon
9:30 – 10:45 a.m. ET, Skill Building: Ethics Under Fire, presented by Jay Love, Joy Simpson, and Paul Clolery
3:45 – 5:00 p.m. ET, The Tough Questions We Aren’t Asking Ourselves, presented by Holly Ross (NTEN)

Today's Special Event:
There will be a #bbcon Tweetup at 5pm to 7pm tonight. Get more details and tell your friends.

Follow the conference on Twitter: http://twitter.com/bbcon and by using the hash tag #bbcon.
Other Links: Conference Sessions | Special Internet Sessions | Live Streaming Sessions

Blackbaud’s 2009 Conference for Nonprofits - Day 1

Steve MacLaughlin — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 19:00:00 GMT

Today is the start of Blackbaud's 2009 Conference for Nonprofits in Charleston, South Carolina. This is the 10th year of the conference and every year it just gets better and better.

There are a lot of pre-conference workshops going on today. I'm attending the Blackbus.org User Group meeting this afternoon. I have put together a bunch of things for show and tell. Plus, I know they will probably have a lot of questions about our Internet solutions.

The welcome reception starts at 6pm tonight. Should be a good start to a great week of sessions and meeting with clients from across the nonprofit sector

Follow the conference on Twitter: http://twitter.com/bbcon and by using the hash tag #bbcon.
Other Links: Conference Sessions | Special Internet Sessions | Live Streaming Session

Blackbaud's 2009 Relationship Management Conference - Day 2

Steve MacLaughlin — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 05:54:00 GMT

It's the second full day of Blackbaud's 2009 Relationship Management Conference here in London. You can follow the conference on Twitter using the #bbeconf09 hashtag.

I'm doing a sessions today called "The Changing Nature of Online Fundraising" that covers a variety of topics. Lots of stats, trends, and information from across online giving, email, social media, etc. in this session.

There are 30 different sessions today and here are some that might be of interest:

Email Marketing For Fun(draising) & (Non) Profit! – Margaret Farmakis, Return Path
Cool Tools – How Technology Is Changing The Way We Communicate With Our Supporters – Robert McAllen, Program Manager, Blackbaud Europe
Launching the Space Shuttle – Practical Advice To Ensure A Smooth Public Launch Of Your Website – Raheel Gauba, Creative Director, Blackbaud Internet Solutions
donorCentrics Helps Me Make Decisions! – Stephen O’Neill & Kevin Morton, MS Society
Deep Dive into Blackbaud NetCommunity - Robert McAllen, Program Manager, Blackbaud Europe

Blackbaud's Chief Technology Officer Shaun Sullivan is the plenary speaker today. I'm sure he'll have a few new surprises for the attendees.

Look for updates on this blog and Twitter.

Blackbaud's 2009 Relationship Management Conference - Day 1

Steve MacLaughlin — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 06:45:00 GMT

I'm back in London this week for Blackbaud's 2009 Relationship Management Conference at the Victoria Park Plaza hotel. You can follow the conference on Twitter using the #bbeconf09 hashtag.

Today's activities start off with the keynote presentation by Paul Williamson, Head of Ticketing for the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Paul the ultimate responsibility to fill the 35 stadiums to capacity for the wide range of events, from gymnastics to judo, archery to paralympic boccia.

I'm doing two sessions today:

Online Metrics Demystified: Understanding How To Measure Your Success
You’ve Got Mail! Now What? Improving Your Email Communication

There are 33 different sessions today and here are some that might be of interest:

Your Website In Focus – Does Your Website Meet Your Organisational Objectives? – Raheel Gauba, Creative Director, Blackbaud Internet Solutions
Creating A Post Crisis Charity Mindset: Moving Beyond The Transaction – Steve Bridger, nfp 2.0
Your Audience Judges Books By Their Covers: Make The Best First Impression & Keep Your Audience Engaged – Raheel Gauba and John Wells, Blackbaud Internet Solutions
The Bespoke Raiser's Edge - Real Wold Customisations - David Zeidman, Zeidman Development

Blackbaud's Chief Scientist Chuck Longfield is the afternoon plenary speaker today.

Look for updates on this blog and Twitter.

PayPal and Blackbaud Partner to Help Nonprofits

Steve MacLaughlin — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 13:00:00 GMT

Blackbaud and PayPal have announced the launch of BlackbaudNow, an affordable solution to help new and growing nonprofits reach their fundraising goals.

"More than 100,000 nonprofits already use PayPal for payment processing, We know that our work with Blackbaud, a trusted partner of nonprofits, will allow us to better serve our nonprofit customers and help them achieve their fundraising goals.” - Glenn Lim, general manager of alliances and non-retail payments, PayPal

BlackbaudNow gives smaller nonprofits the tools they need to quickly and easily get their organization online and growing its donations today. This allows them to quickly and easily build a website by using prebuilt templates to establish an online presence and enable online donations in just minutes.

There are no programming skills or special technology required for nonprofits to use BlackbaudNow. Online donations are automatically processed and populated in your donor database. This enables these nonprofits to run reports, email constituents, and enable future fundraising campaigns.

BlackbaudNow is specifically designed for smaller nonprofits, with features such as:

WebNow — to create online presence and enable online fundraising, with point-and-click site design, and donations securely processed with PayPal
DonorNow — to track donor giving history and communications
EmailNow — to support email messages, e-newsletters and appeals With this affordable solution, nonprofits do not pay any setup or monthly fees. Instead, nonprofits only pay fees on a per-transaction basis.

Set up, hosting, and support are all free. Nonprofits simply pay a transaction fee of 4.95% and $0.30 per transaction for all online donations. Funds are deposited twice monthly to their nonprofit PayPal account. Nonprofits that sign up will also have access to a nonprofit community with the information, knowledge, and resources to ensure their success.

"We welcome the addition of BlackbaudNow to the marketplace and applaud both Blackbaud and PayPal for their efforts to provide the nonprofit sector an easy, cost-effective and secure way to take their fundraising and communications efforts online." - Rebecca Masisak, Co-CEO, TechSoup Global

In celebration of the launch, Blackbaud and PayPal are inviting nonprofits to participate in the BlackbaudNow Donation Sweepstakes. From March 30 to June 30, 2009, nonprofits that sign up for BlackbaudNow will be automatically entered in the sweepstakes. The first place contest winner will receive a matching donation of up to $2,500 and 20 additional nonprofits will receive matching donations of up to $500.

Worry Less

Steve MacLaughlin — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 18:22:00 GMT

All nonprofits worry about the economy, but Blackbaud clients worry less. They worry less because they're using the best combination of solutions available in the market today.

That isn't just a bunch of marketing spin. Our solutions have won more awards, rank higher in industry surveys, and have higher customer retention rates than any other vendor serving nonprofits. The voice of the market always speaks louder than any marketing efforts.

Blackbaud has been working exclusively for nonprofits since 1981. This isn't the first or the last economic whirlwind that we've been through together with our customers. Along the way we've also seen quite a few technology trends, fads, burnouts, and changes. Someone is always claiming to have a magical new new thing.

While some companies are scaling back or spreading themselves too thin — Blackbaud is investing in both today and tomorrow's solutions. We have been successful because our solutions get meaningful and measureable results for our clients. You can't fake that and you certainly can't fool people either.

Today, Blackbaud helps support the missions of more than 22,000 organizations worldwide. Nonprofits you already know like the American Red Cross, Cancer Research UK, Heifer International, Lincoln Center, Save the Children, University of Oxford, and the WGBH Educational Foundation. We also work with organizations whose names might not be as familiar, but their need for a trusted technology partner might be even greater.

For better or worse, these are moments that drive change within organizations. Nonprofits will need to embrace new strategies, channels, and tools to build relationships with a savvier and more choice conscious constituent. This isn't news to most of our clients and is another reason why they worry less.

Blackbaud is certainly changing too. A company once only known for its fundraising tools is now recognized for expertise in analytics, financial management, direct marketing, and the Internet. We're offering more choices and options. We're being more open with the solutions we build. We put a lot of resources into making sure our clients worry less.

I know this because I spend countless hours each day helping to make our clients worry less. Trying to improve their results. Trying to improve and innovate at the same time. My goal is to share some of these results in future blog posts.

News, Notes, and Connections

Steve MacLaughlin — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 16:18:00 GMT

Here are a few Blackbaud related news, notes, blogs, and other connections:

Blackbaud iPhone Browser Simulator
Blackbaud CTO Shaun Sullivan cooked up a Windows simulator for the iPhone. Is this a glimpse at the future? Maybe. What I can tell you is that it is getting thousands of downloads since being posted just last week.

AFP’s Fundraising Effectiveness Project
The Fundraising Effectiveness Project is a simple way for nonprofits to compare their fundraising gain and loss ratios from year to year and compare against other similar organizations. Blackbaud has partnered with AFP to make it easy to participate in a Fundraising Effectiveness Project. In the "Plugins" section of The Raiser’s Edge, users will find the “Fundraising Effectiveness Project Plug-in," which will allow them to easily compile the required information for the survey and submit it electronically. The Fundraising Effectiveness Project Plug-in only takes a few minutes to fill out and run, and not only will it give nonprofits a better idea of their giving, but it will also help the entire nonprofit community by contributing data to the overall project.

CRM&CMS Integration: Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge and NetCommunity
Nonprofit Technology Consultant Michelle Murrain reviews the integration between RE and BBNC. She notes that "If you are an organization which has Raiser’s Edge, and is committed to keeping it, and you want to do sophisticated integration between it and a web front end, then NetCommunity is probably your best solution." Sounds good to me.

Blogs from Across the Pond
There are a few new blogs from our team members at Blackbaud Europe. The latest blogs are The Cutting Edge by BBE managing director Martin Jervis, The Translator by program manager Robert McAllen, and Azadipedia by managing consultant Azadi Sheridan. Give them a look.

Blackbaud Services Achieves Level 1 PCI Compliance
Blackbaud Services has achieved full Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance as a Level 1 Service Provider. Trustwave, the leading provider of on-demand data security and payment card industry compliance management solutions, performed the PCI DSS validation.

Blackbaud Delivers - Vancouver

Steve MacLaughlin — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 14:15:00 GMT

I'm back in Vancouver, one of my favorite cities, for the Blackbaud Delivers series. I'm doing a free half-day session on changes and trends in online fundraising.

In 2008, Blackbaud Delivers began its mission to offer practical nonprofit management seminars presented by some of our best experts in a variety of major cities and via the Internet. One very unique twist was that we allowed people to vote on the sessions that they wanted to see.

In 2009, Blackbaud Delivers is hitting the road and the Web with some brand new speakers and topics. All seminars will be geared toward helping nonprofits reduce your worries and put the practical steps they need in place to keep their fundraising on the upswing this year.

Did I mention that that all Blackbaud Delivers events are absolutely free for you to attend! Simply sign up to attend any of our events.

Seminar Locations & Dates:
Houston, TX | 02/11/09
Starting a Planned Giving Program
Katherine Swank J.D., Consultant, Target Analytics

Atlanta, GA | 02/11/09
Building an Action Plan to Out-Hustle the Economy
Samantha Cohen, Consultant, Blackbaud

Vancouver, BC | 02/17/09
The Changing Nature of Online Fundraising
Steve MacLaughlin, Director of Internet Solutions, Blackbaud

New York, NY | 03/11/09
The Right Message, The Right People, The Right Time: Making the Most of Email Marketing
Allison Van Diest, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Blackbaud

Boston, MA | 04/22/09
Vote & Register

Ottawa, ON | 05/12/09
Vote & Register

Denver, CO | 05/13/09
Vote & Register

Chicago, IL | 06/09/09
Vote & Register

Arlington, VA | 07/23/09
Vote & Register

There is also a companion web seminar series and you can see the dates and topics online.

The Raiser's Edge and eTapestry win Campbell Awards

Steve MacLaughlin — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 15:24:00 GMT

I spend a lot of time blogging about the interwebs and online related topics. But I wanted to take time to recognize some of our other Blackbaud solutions.

Both The Raiser's Edge and eTapestry were winners of Campbell Awards for the Top Donor Management and Member Management Solutions. The Campbell Awards are based on a nationwide survey of over 3,800 not-for-profit users of donor and member management solutions.

Dirk Rinker, President of Campbell Rinker noted that "Nonprofit staff members have few opportunities to voice their opinions about the solutions they use. Over the past six years, the Campbell Award has become the de facto standard for independent, statistically valid ratings of nonprofit solutions. We are extremely grateful to the many customers who told us which products they would recommend to others."

There's always a lot of buzz in the nonprofit technology market when someone announces a new CRM system. There's usually more marchitecture to these new solutions than real substance. When a company says their stuff is good it's one thing. When users and executives at nonprofits say it's great — that's a whole other higher standard.

Blackbaud has been building software for nonprofits for more than 27 years now. If there's one thing we know it's that you can't cook up the next greatest thing in just a few months. It's good to know that again and again that nonprofit users prefer proven solutions, like The Raiser's Edge and eTapestry. This year's Campbell Awards are an honor and proof positive of that fact.

Early December News & Notes

Steve MacLaughlin — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 16:51:00 GMT

Here are a few newsworthy and noteworthy items worth a look:

The Salvation Army Southern Territory Selects Blackbaud Enterprise CRM
A very exciting announcement about the latest Blackbaud Enterprise CRM customer. TSAS leads the mission of The Salvation Army in the southern United States across nine “Divisions” representing 15 southeastern states and the District of Columbia. At a national level, The Salvation Army raised $2 billion in 2007 and recently ranked No. 2 in The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s “Philanthropy 400” list of organizations that raise the most funds from private sources.

The Baudcast - Episode 20
The latest episode of The Baudcast does a recap on Blackbaud's 2008 Conference for Nonprofits. Lots of topics are covered including the NetCommunity Developer Challenge, Google map mashups, Facebook apps, custom development, data transparency, social media sessions, PCI compliance, FreeCause, and more. The panel discussion includes Chad Norman (Internet Marketing Manager), Danielle Brigida (Associate Operations Coordinator, National Wildlife Federation), Garrett Keating (United States Naval Academy Alumni Association and Foundation), Michael Sola (Director of Information Technology, Chesapeake Bay Foundation), and Joe Meehan (Manager of Database Administration, Milken Institute), and myself.

Create Custom Donation and Payment Forms for BBNC
Check out the newest creation by Michael Andrews at Blackbaud Labs. The sample code allows a BBNC developer to record a donation, use gift attributes, including how to get all gift attribute types from RE7, selecting a Raiser's Edge Appeal using the CFAPicker Server Control, clearing a Credit Card, designing and sending a custom email acknowledgement that uses custom merge fields, using the EmailEditor Server Control, and using jQuery scripts and images from embedded resources.

The Geiger Counter Blog starts clicking
Richard Geiger, non-profit veteran and Blackbaud practice manager, has joined the rest of us bloggers. Richard has spent more than fifteen years in the nonprofit world and really knows his stuff. I'm looking forward to reading some of his insights and opinions.

Blackbaud’s 2008 Conference for Nonprofits - Day 4

Steve MacLaughlin — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:00:00 GMT

Today is the fourth and final day of Blackbaud's 2008 Conference for Nonprofits here in Charleston, South Carolina. There are lots of conference updates on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bbcon and plenty of tweets with #bbcon. There's also info at the conference blog to check out.

I've got a mix of client meetings and sessions that I'd like to attend today. Here are my picks for the best Internet focused sessions to attend:

PCI — Technical Impact of the Blackbaud Payment Service (Jake Marcinko & Larry Mishkin)
Preparing The Raiser's Edge for the Internet Age (Molly Maple)
A Deep Dive into Sphere eMarketing (Mark Davis)
The Right Message, the Right People, the Right Time: Making the Most of Email Marketing (Allison Van Diest)

This was my fifth Charleston conference and it was the best one yet. I'm amazed each year to see how the Blackbaud Events team manages to raise the bar. There's a reason the event has been a sell-out for many years now and the team that plans and manages the conference deserve a round of applause.

I also want to thank the people that attended my sessions this year and those that took time to meet up with me throughout the conference. In what might be a Blackbaud first, I managed to speak at all five of our major conferences this year: The Team Approach User Forum in Boston, the Nonprofit Conference in Montréal, the Asia Pacific Customer Conference in Sydney, the Conference for Not-for-Profits in London, and the Nonprofit Conference in Charleston. Thanks to everyone that attended and who made the decision to embrace what technology can do for their organizations.

Blackbaud’s 2008 Conference for Nonprofits - Day 3

Steve MacLaughlin — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 13:30:00 GMT

We're off and running at day three of Blackbaud's 2008 Conference for Nonprofits in Charleston, South Carolina. You can get updates on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bbcon and see what others are tweeting by looking at #bbcon. Be sure to check out the conference blog too.

First thing this morning is the keynote address by Peter Thum, the founder of Ethos Water. The company gives $.05 for every bottle purchased toward humanitarian water programs in developing countries such as Honduras and Kenya. Ethos has raised more than $6 million that will help an estimated 420,000 people. By 2010, Ethos plans to give at least $10 million to nonprofits that fund safe-water projects.

Right after lunch I'm going to attend Chad Norman's session called "The World Wide Web Show — Turn Your Staff into Stars with the Real-Time Social Web." I understand that Danielle Brigida (Associate Operations Coordinator, National Wildlife Federation) will be a special co-presenter with Chad.

Later in the afternoon I'll be in the Blackbaud Internet Solutions VIP room talking to customers. The room was a very busy place yesterday and I'm looking forward to the chance to connect with people.

Then it's time for my "Deep Dive into Blackbaud NetCommunity" session where I'll be covering a lot of great things about BBNC. I also plan to show a couple of things we're working on for future releases.

(Updating Regularly)

Blackbaud’s 2008 Conference for Nonprofits - Day 2

Steve MacLaughlin — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 13:35:00 GMT

This is the start of day two of Blackbaud's 2008 Conference for Nonprofits in Charleston, South Carolina. Last night's opening reception makes way for a day full of sessions. Remember that you can get updates on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bbcon and see what others are tweeting by looking at #bbcon.

The day kicks off with the General Session. You can watch a live stream of it by going here. Look for some exciting announcements and a preview of things to come from Blackbaud.

Blackbaud CEO Marc Chardon started off the General Session by talking about the growing challenges facing the nonprofit world. And then he went on to talk about the changing nature of technology. Over the past 30 years the technology landscape has changed tremendously, and Blackbaud has been along for many of those changes in the nonprofit technology world. The trends are the same: New systems appear but they are all separate and eventually there is convergence. The changes in technology allow you to do more and it also changes the way you do things. And how you do things inside of the walls becomes very important. Convergence is a big part of technology change and it's a big part of where Blackbaud is going.

Marc discussed how our solutions are coming together and discussed how our Internet Solutions will all be converging on Blackbaud's Infinity Platform. This is already the direction our products are taking and is part of our plan to deliver the best technology solutions for our customers. He went on to talk about how this all plays into what the nonprofit world will look like in 2015. The power shifts to the supporter and the technology becomes a tool that enables a broader set of constituents to use. And bringing together all of these tools is something that is already happening today. This makes an open and common technology platform that much more important to embrace the changes that are coming.

Then Blackbaud's Chief Technology Officer Shaun Sullivan took the stage to show how some of the things Marc talked about are actually possible today using Blackbaud's technologies. Shaun started off by announcing that the winner of the Blackbaud NetCommunity Developer Network Contest is Garrett Keating from the U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association & Foundation. Garrett used the BBNC Open Platform, The Raiser's Edge API, Google Maps, and geocoding to dynamically plot events from RE on a website. Shaun then announced the release of the NetCommunity Facebook Developer Toolkit that allows customers to develop a Facebook application that integrates with both BBNC and The Raiser's Edge. Shaun showed off an example of what can be done with the toolkit. It's now available at Blackbaud Labs for download and use.

Up next is Jeane Chen, Executive Vice President of Engineering with Blackbaud's Kintera division. Jeane talked about the Sphere Connector for The Raiser's Edge. She explained how the solution works and how it leverages the best technologies from the Kintera division and Blackbaud. Jeane then did a live demonstration of making a gift online using Sphere and how the donation information automatically flowed down into The Raiser's Edge in real-time for processing. She also covered some of the many configuration settings that can be setup as a part of the solution. The Sphere Connector uses the same technology framework as Blackbaud NetCommunity to handle transactions, drop gifts into batch, and all the other features Blackbaud customers have come to expect from online integration.

Shaun Sullivan reappeared on the stage to show another demonstration of some cool new tools. Shaun unveiled the "Nimbus" Cloud Computing Platform that allows for Generation 7 applications to take advantage of Infinity Platform tools through the use of cloud computing. He showed how a record can be entered into The Raiser's Edge system, gets uploaded to the Nimbus cloud, and can then be pulled into a mapping tool for any user on a browser. Shaun showed it appearing on Safari for the Mac, which got a lot of applause. Shaun closed by showing how data can be taken from Nimbus and deployed to a mobile device. He showed how data from Nimbus can be passed to the iPhone using the mobilize functionality, and then demonstrated in real-time the data showing up on iPhone.

Just finished my session called "What Social Networks Should Be Doing for You" at the conference. I think it's a good sign that people are interested in your topic when it's standing room only. I covered a lot of topics, examples, and talked about where this is all going and why it's so important to nonprofits. Then I had the chance to sit in on Tim Wolf's session about the social networking tools available in Blackbaud NetCommunity.

During the lunch break I was able to catch up with some clients and talk about people's reactions to the conference so far. Michael Andrews' session about the BBNC API got rave reviews. I think people were excited about today's announcement of the NetCommunity Facebook Developer Toolkit. The lunch break also showed what a room full of 1,200 nonprofit professionals looks like. Very impressive.

After lunch I jumped to Shaun Sullivan's Emerging Technologies session. Shaun did a brief overview of the Infinity Platform, and after a minor interruption, went on to talk about what it means for current Blackbaud customers. Shaun talked about Blackbaud Direct Marketing as an example of an Infinity Platform application that works with The Raiser's Edge 7, Blackbaud Enterprise CRM, or really any other application. The application blades can surface in the larger solution or as a stand-alone option. That gives a lot more choice and flexibility to our customers. But is it scalable? Shaun talked about some of the testing Blackbaud has done with Microsoft on the Infinity Platform to handle 2,000 concurrent users, 60 million constituents, 100 million gifts, 205,000 batch gifts per hour, and 1.28 million acknowledged gifts per hour on a single instance of the application. And there solutions today in the market and a growing number of customers that are using them right now.

Then Shaun went on to talk about some of the recent software innovations. He started with the user experience side of the Infinity Platform. There has been a ton of research and thinking about the computing experience, and Blackbaud has been putting a lot of that usability research into how Generation 8 solutions behave. Shaun showed an example of the application search capabilities and how it behaves in a way users now expect from a rich application. He then talked about the Infinity Platform API and how well developed it is for customers to use. Shaun fielded a lot of questions from the audience that ranged from infrastructure, to browser use, to Internet solutions, and other areas.

That's it for today. Lots of great sessions, plenty of client interactions, and as always a lot of interesting discussions.

(Updating Regularly)