Best Practices to Change Email Addresses or Domains

When User IDs include email addresses, you must change those email addresses during a maintenance window. This applies to the OpenID Connect (OIDC) and Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) 2.0 SSO connections.

If you do not use a maintenance window, then changes to email addresses create new Blackbaud IDs that do not have access to Blackbaud solutions or user history. Changes to email addresses are necessary when organizations change domains, such as changing from "josmith@blackbaud.com" to "josmith@bb.com," or change the format for email addresses, such as changing from "josmith@domain.com" to "john.smith@domain.com." Individual users can also make changes such as updating email addresses to reflect name changes. To avoid creating new Blackbaud IDs and losing access to Blackbaud solutions, change email addresses during a maintenance window.

  1. Identify all users who need to maintain their account history.

  2. Designate a time period for users to modify email addresses.

  3. Communicate the scheduled maintenance window of downtime for SSO logins.

  4. When the maintenance window starts, turn off the connection with Blackbaud.

    Note: Users cannot access Blackbaud through SSO while the connection is turned off.

  5. Instruct users to reset their passwords, sign in to their user profiles, and select Edit BBID email address to change their email addresses.

  6. Turn on the connection with Blackbaud back on.

Note: Users who manually change emails with Blackbaud need the ability to access emails for both the old and new email addresses. They need access to the old email to reset the password, and then they need access to the new email to verify the email address and confirm it with Blackbaud because their account reflects the new email address before the new SSO connection is turned on with Blackbaud.