On April 1, 2012 we will launch the first phase of our new Blackbaud Learn for Blackbaud CRM training subscription. This subscription based training solution is our commitment to your ongoing skill development and job knowledge that gives you and your staff the ability to achieve fundraising success.

The first phase includes approximately 35 self-paced electronic learning lessons you can take at your convenience from anywhere you have internet access. All lessons are 5 minutes or less and make use of video to demonstrate how to complete specific tasks. Printable resources are available in each lesson for quick reference.

What does the Blackbaud Learn for Blackbaud CRM training subscription offer?

Self-paced lessons available 24/7 that:
- Demonstrate how to log in and navigate Blackbaud CRM.
- Help you manage the constituents who interact with your organization.
- Teach you how to work with revenue transactions.
- Show how to enter revenue using the batch entry process.

Why would I want to purchase the Blackbaud Learn for Blackbaud CRM training subscription?

A well-trained staff is more productive, efficient, happy, and effective. If you use the training subscription with our free Overview to Blackbaud CRM lessons, you have a solution that educates your staff on the basics of using your Blackbaud CRM solution. You can also use your subscription for orienting new employees to Blackbaud CRM as a way to reinforce what was learned in project team or onsite training, and as a quick refresher for completing a task.

We are already in the planning stages for the second phase and would really like your input on what you want included. Feel free to leave a comment here or send an email to CRMTraining@Blackbaud.com and share your ideas with us.

Until next time!

We all carry knowledge with us, gained from life and our past experiences. As we learn new information we try and associate it with our past knowledge, sort of like a new piece in a jigsaw, we try and see how the new knowledge fits with the old. This association helps us make sense of “the new”, as well has actively enabling us to add it to our world knowledgebase.

Every culture has valued and used stories to pass on information from one generation to the next. I love a story with believable characters, an interesting plot, and a message or meaning (I gravitate to fables and parables).

When approaching Training for The Raiser’s Edge, I try and bring both association and story to help trainees acquire and remember both skills and knowledge.

I travelled to Charleston recently, and a friend, a real southern belle, was showing me around Battery Point. “Look at your feet”, Heidi said. Well, typical Australian, I wondered what I “stepped in” and began checking my shoes. “No, look at the stones under your feet, they are over 200 years old”.

And so it is with The Raiser’s Edge, The Financial Edge, and The Education Edge, don’t forget to look at the status bar at the bottom of the page. Just as the cobblestones added to my knowledge about Charleston, so too the status bar will give you tips and tricks about program functionality.

Also, don’t forget about our “How-to” documentation that is available for all Blackbaud Products.  The one guide that I still use all the time is The Raiser’s Edge Keyboard Shortcuts document that lists an entire page of shortcuts, tips, and tricks.

Whether you believe Sir Francis Bacon or Shakespeare said it first, I think we can all agree, “Knowledge is Power” not just in life but in software as well. Knowing how to do things correctly and using the most effective tools in any of Blackbaud’s products increases the efficiency of your organization and lets you spend more time and money toward achieving your mission.

Sadly, too often I hear people refer to training as something that is ‘nice-to-have but not a must-have’ and put it first on the chopping block when budget cuts are under discussion. Organizations committed to training their staff report improved recruiting, better retention and higher output.

Just saying that you are committed to training is not enough. To make sure that you maintain your commitment to having a staff that is fully trained, it is vital to have a training plan. By having a plan in place, you are more likely to achieve the specific goals you have set.

An effective training plan should include 5 things:

1. Buy-in from the top – Recognition that training time is important and that learning new skills that help users do their jobs more effectively positively impact career success
2. Needs analysis – Determine what processes could be improved, identify tasks that are labor-intensive or time consuming and evaluate current skill levels in these areas
3. Define budget – Define the budget in terms of both time and money allocated for training.
4. Delivery options – Identify options available, whether that is training at your organization or online training options.
5. Follow up – Identify opportunities to use your new skills. Once the new skills are in place, evaluate improvements in efficiency to measure return.

We’d like to help you by providing the following example of a very basic Needs Analysis.  All of the courses can be taken within 60 days of this posting.

For a limited time, you can choose to take 12 hours of classes for $699, a savings of over $250! Click here for more details or chat with a representative.

All of the classes above are included as part of the Blackbaud Learn More subscription. Don’t have a Blackbaud Learn More subscription? Chat with a representative today to find out more.

Do you know that Blackbaud has an Adobe® Captivate® Train the Trainer offering? Attendees learn the skills needed to create a self-paced eLearning library that can help educate current and future employees on your  Blackbaud CRM solution.

Adobe Captivate is one of the leading, eLearning rapid development tools that allows you to create and maintain software demonstrations, interactive simulations, branching scenarios, and quizzes.

This training solution includes an Introduction to Adobe Captivate self-paced eLearning course that gives participants an overview of how to:

• Rapidly Create and Update Projects.
• Add Multimedia Projects.
• Send Projects for Shared Review.
• Publish and Track Results.

This course is followed up by 2 days of onsite training where one of our Educational Solutions Designers takes what was learned in the Introduction to Adobe Captivate eLearning course to the next level. In the onsite class, you will learn to complete tasks including:

• Using preferences, object styles, and master slides to establish a consistent look and feel to your projects.
• Recording actions you perform in a software application.
• Quizzing learner’s knowledge of the content included in your projects.
• Incorporating interactivity to engage learners.
• Uploading and sharing projects.
• Tracking learner participation and quiz results.

If you are interested in developing self-paced eLearning for your Blackbaud CRM solution, email CRMTraining@Blackbaud.com to see how our Adobe Captivate Train the Trainer solution can help you get started.

Until next time!

Adobe® Captivate® is either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries.

We all have constraints on our time.  How great would it be if you could spend an hour or two  and learn about General Ledger?  Let’s say it’s your job to create new journal entries.  Instead of trying to teach yourself or read a manual, why not spend a couple of hours in an online class targeted specifically at you – the journal entry creator?

You can now pick from a list of shorter classes that will give you information about just what you need to know.  Each class is only one or two hours long and provides the opportunity to interface with a live instructor in a virtual classroom.  So now, you have choices!  You can take the three-day classroom class, the two-day online class, or take specific shorter classes to learn General Ledger.  And, if you’ve already signed up for or taken the multiple day classes, you can use the targeted shorter classes for review!

Check out this list of classes:

The Financial Edge:  Navigation, Home Page and Options (1 hour)

General Ledger: System Setup (1 hour)

The Financial Edge: Security (1 hour)

The Financial Edge: Field Options and Attributes (2 hours)

General Ledger: Beginning Balances (1 hour)

General Ledger: Account Management (2 hours)

General Ledger: Grant Reimbursements (2 hours)

General Ledger: Journal Entry I (2 hours)

General Ledger: Journal Entry II (2 hours)

General Ledger: Visual Chart Organizer II (2 hours)

The Financial Edge: Report Settings (2 hours)

The Financial Edge: Dashboards (2 hours)

General Ledger: Balance Sheets and Income Statements (2 hours)

General Ledger: FAS 117 Reports (2 hours)

General Ledger: Account Reports (2 hours)

General Ledger: Journal and Batch Reports (1 hour)

General Ledger: End of Year (1 hour)

General Ledger: Income and Expense Allocations using Allocation Management (2 hours)

And don’t forget to check out all Financial Edge classes to round out your learning!

Our team is working on a new curriculum for moves management, and you can help drive the content. We’d like to know what training would be most helpful to you.

Use the comments section below to answer these three questions:

• How does moves management fit in your overall fundraising strategy?
• Do you have a moves management process in place?
• What kind of moves management training would benefit you?

If you’re willing to talk to us more about your moves management program or your training needs, send your contact information and best time to reach you to dolores.vogel@blackbaud.com.

Look for our first two new moves management classes in March 2012:

• Tracking Moves Management Information in The Raiser’s Edge® – For those of you who don’t have the RE:Search module.
• Tracking Moves Management Information with RE:Search™ – For those of you who have the RE:Search module and can track moves management information on the Prospect tab of the constituent record.

Happy New Year!  As we begin this new year (most likely by wrapping things up from last year) we have a few great new things in the world of training that we want to share with you.

Mobile Alerts!

 We’ve launched mobile alerts!  Yes, you’re reading that right!  You can get messages about new classes, discounts, helpful tips, and so much more directly to your phone.  All you have to do is text BBLearn to 69866 and we’ll send you weekly updates on anything and everything related to training.

New Search Filter on Blackbaud.com

Back in December of 2011, Blackbaud launched a brand new website.  If you haven’t seen it yet, check it out.  If you have seen it then you probably love the new look and feel just as much as we do.  However, there is particular feature on the website that got a big upgrade: Class Search!  We’ve added a new filter called “Show Class” so you can see classes with seats available, all classes and classes that are free with your Learn subscription.  The default option shows only classes that still have seats available but you have the ability to show all classes (even those that are full).  Just remember, each time you change the filter selection, click the Search button to refresh the results.

New Regional Sites for 2012

Last but certainly not least, you’ve asked us to hold regional classes in new cities so we did!  We are offering classes in 9 new regional cities and changed training facilities in 12 other cities.

New Cities:

• Baton Rouge, LA 
• Birmingham, AL (July 2012)
• Burlington, MA (suburb of Boston)
• Downers Grove, IL (suburb of Chicago)
• Edison, NJ
• Orlando, FL
• King of Prussia, PA (suburb of Philadelphia)
• Rochester, NY (June 2012)
• Tampa, FL

Cities in which we’ve changed the regional facility:

• Boston, MA
• Calgary, AB
• Cincinnati, OH
• Detroit, MI (now in Beverly Hills suburb)
• Edmonton, AB
• New York, NY (downtown location)
• Omaha, NE
• Ottawa, ON
• Seattle, WA (now in Kirkland)
• Toronto, ON
• Vancouver, BC 
• Washington, DC

Don’t forget to check out Blackbaud.com for the most up-to-date information on these new training facilities.

As everyone gears up for the launch of The Raiser’s Edge 7.92, the Instructional Designers are working at a feverish pace to finish creating awesome new and updated classes to get you up to speed on the new features.  In fact, we’re even planning to release some videos for the beta release later this month.  In total, the result of this collaborative effort between Educational Services, Products, and Support will result in 19 brand new recorded videos plus updates to all current Raiser’s Edge content to include information on the great new features.  What does this mean for you?  Hours of awesome new and revamped content to help you save time and start using all the great tools in the biggest feature release on The Raiser’s Edge in years.

In addition to the almost two dozen new self-paced videos, we will be updating our instructor-led classes to make sure you learn everything you need to know about the new features in the The Raiser’s Edge 7.92 release.  Look for new course materials in our online, regional, and onsite training classes all powered by Blackbaud Learn.  Finally, as a slightly longer term strategic initiative, we will be revamping the existing self-paced lessons for The Raiser’s Edge by adding new knowledge on the new features, shortening the videos and giving them a fresher, more up-to-date look and feel.  So be sure to check back here often to see what new trainings you should take advantage of! Not sure what the new release includes? Check out the release page when it becomes available with the general release in March 2012!

Some of you may be looking for our very popular Database Doctor class for The Raiser’s Edge. Based on student feedback, we broke the content into shorter, single-topic classes so they fit into your schedule more easily. So if your database needs a doctor, check out the following classes that have replaced the Database Doctor class:

• The Raiser’s Edge: Business Rules, Fields Options and Attributes
• The Raiser’s Edge: Globally Add, Edit, and Delete Data
• The Raiser’s Edge: Managing Duplicate Constituents and Table Entries
• The Raiser’s Edge: Generating Mail Merge Letters in Records
• The Raiser’s Edge: System Security

So what type of doctor does your database need? We are always looking for new ideas for classes and would love to hear your ideas!

Did you know that Blackbaud has Educational Solution Designers that can create custom courseware for your organization to use during your Blackbaud CRM training?

What is custom courseware?

Custom courseware is training material customized to the unique way your organization uses Blackbaud CRM. Your custom courseware may include your organization’s terminology, practice activities that reflect your procedures and workflows, graphics from your database, and content regarding the customizations Blackbaud has created for you in the CRM application.

How is custom courseware created?

An Educational Solutions Designer uses the documentation created in design sessions and works closely with someone at your organization to customize the courseware to your specific needs.

How will you benefit from custom courseware?

• Educational Consultants use the courseware during training to provide a more tailored training experience.
• Courseware is customized specifically to your organization and can act as a great reference guide for end users after training.
• Courseware is a great tool to orient new employees and volunteers to the way your organization uses the system.
• You receive an electronic copy of the courseware so that you can update the documentation as policies and procedures change in your organization and as the system changes with new releases.
• You can upload the electronic courseware to your organization’s intranet for easy access.

For more information about custom courseware, email CRMTraining@Blackbaud.com.