Service Pack 20

To help you save time and minimize errors, you can now generate a Constituent Update Batch from Constituents. This allows you to select a Constituent Update Batch template and create a Constituent Update Batch using the records on a selection you choose. This can be helpful, for example, if you need to add or update constituents following an event or other situations where you have a specified list of constituents you need to update.

To access this option, under Constituents, select Generate constituent update batch under Maintenance.

We have extended our API capabilities to provide access to open, industry-standard REST APIs. These APIs allow you to customize, integrate, or extend the functionality of Blackbaud CRM. 

To take advantage of this capability, you must create a Blackbaud CRM API developer account and obtain a subscription key. Then, you must set up the connection to the API. Under Administration, select API Configuration. On the API Configuration page, select Edit configuration.

On this screen, you enter your web service URL and the subscription key you received, and add your credentials.

Blackbaud CRM 4.0 Service Pack 20 includes the ability to establish the API connection, but not access to the API itself. Throughout the second quarter of 2019, Blackbaud will contact Service Pack 20 adopters directly to begin onboarding them into the API.

When you configure the global change to delete constituent attributes, you can now select whether you want to delete all values or only attributes with a specific value.

Under Parameters, you can now select your delete options. To delete a specific value, choose a category, then select Delete only attributes with the value: and choose a value.

To create a global change, under Administration, select Global changes under Data. The Delete constituent attribute global change is under the Constituent category.

New email reports will now show data about unengaged recipients. This enables you to better understand unengaged users — those who haven't interacted with an email via an open or a select in a specified period of time.

Previously, these were also known as "inactive" recipients. Therefore, we've updated the terminology throughout the user interface to now use the term "unenaged" instead of "inactive."

However, email reports which existed prior to this release remain unchanged and will not show this new data.

Tip: For more information about unengaged/inactive users, see the Engagement and Email Deliverability Resources blog post. A previous update enabled you to choose to exclude unengaged users from emails. For information about the previous update, see Remove Unengaged Users When Sending Emails.

This release includes additional bounce statuses. These provide users with more information about email addresses which were blacklisted due to spam complaints and emails previously marked as hard bounces.

When you review unenaged recipients (who have inactive addresses), these additional bounce statuses now appear in the list of emails that were not sent. You can filter the list based on these new statuses.

New bounce statuses also appear with the inactive email address on a recipient’s contact record and in the Blacklisted Email Addresses tab in Blackbaud CRM.

For information about bounced emails and best practices for emails, refer to Blackbaud's Email Resource Center.

You can add a new element to the Communication Preference Form to enable online constituents whose email address is associated with a spam complaint to review their email address and learn how to remove their email address from the blacklist.

When you include the Spam Compliance element on the Communication Preference Form, the form will show an icon and a customizable message to inform the individual that their email address previously reported spam and thus emails can't be sent to that address for compliance reasons. The element also includes a customizable message and URL to a Blackbaud KnowledgeBase article which provides instructions which the user can follow to remove the user's email address from the email suppression list.

Additionally, this release helps organizations respect a recipient's right to unsubscribe. When a recipient opens an email in a supported email browser, an unsubscribe link can appear near the top of the email. The recipient can select the link to indicate the individual wants to globally unsubscribe from all emails sent by your organization. Recipients who unsubscribe are marked as not wanting emails and are handled as though the recipient had unsubscribed (globally) from the Blackbaud Internet Solutions communication preference form.

In Blackbaud CRM, the Communications tab of a constituent record will now indicate that an email your organization intended for the constituent was not sent.

Previously, all emails which included the constituent's email address as an intended recipient were shown without distinctions. With this release, an alert icon appears next to any email that couldn't be sent due to a spam complaint, a hard bounce, a previous hard bounce, or a soft bounce. This enables you to review which messages did not reach the intended recipient and the reason for the delivery error.

For information about bounced emails and best practices for emails, refer to Blackbaud's Email Resource Center.

The alert appears for email errors regardless of whether the email was generated from Blackbaud Internet Solutions or Blackbaud CRM.

Apple Pay is now available to donors as a secure checkout option for Blackbaud Merchant Services (BBMS) customers in the U.S. Previously, this method of payment was only available for organizations in the Apple Pay Early Adopter Program (EAP); now it is Generally Available.

With the Donation Form - Mini part, you can now accept payments through Apple Pay when you use Blackbaud Merchant Services (BBMS) to process one-time credit card donations. This new payment option enables your constituents on Apple devices to make donations without having to enter as much information on the donation form, because data such as their credit card number and billing address are already stored in their Apple Pay wallet.

Note: Refer to Apple's Terms and Conditions in the Blackbaud Checkout FAQs.

This release expands enhancements that were introduced in service pack 19.

Customize Page Theme

Previously, we announced that organizations can customize the theme on the Blackbaud Checkout page. This benefits administrators of organizations with branding guidelines who want to change the font and colors on the Blackbaud Checkout page to match your organization's brand. You can also specify a theme to use site-wide and override the site-wide theme on individual forms. For more information refer to Blackbaud Checkout Enhancements.

With this release, the Use site defaults for Blackbaud Checkout Theme option now appears whenever you edit

• an Event Registration part

• Mini Donation Form (see Service Pack 19 enhancements to the Donation Form - Mini Part )

• an Advanced Donation Form

• a Payment 2.0 part

and select a merchant account that supports Blackbaud Checkout. The option is selected by default, but you can override it.

If you don't want to use the default theme, clear the Use site defaults for Blackbaud Checkout theme option. Then enter values for the Primary color and Secondary color and select a different font.

Checkout Page — Separate First Name and Last Name Fields

Likewise, when you edit event registration forms, advanced donation forms, or any Blackbaud Internet Solutions page using Payment 2.0, Blackbaud Internet Solutions now uses separate First Name and Last Name fields. Previously, these forms used a single Cardholder Name field for Blackbaud Checkout.

Checkout Page — Customize Page Theme and Digital Wallets

Additionally, under Digital Wallets, you can choose which forms of payment — Visa Checkout, MasterPass, or Apple Pay— are accepted during checkout for event registration forms, advanced donation forms, or any Blackbaud Internet Solutions page using Payment 2.0. By default, all payment methods are selected.

Note: Digital wallets are only available for Blackbaud Merchant Services customers.

This update fixes multiple defects and issues. For details, review the patch notes for service pack 20.