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Before you watch: Clarifying Services and Programs

Within the “Blackbaud Universe,” we have several programs and offerings that we are leveraging to serve parish and parishioners digitally. In this training we are working within three of these programs:

Merchant Services

Merchant Services is the system we use to track online gifts at the parish level. The Diocese of Jefferson City has a “group buy” agreement with Blackbaud to facilitate online giving, but each parish has (or should set up if they have not yet) their own Merchant Services account. With your own Merchant Services account, donors and parishioners who wish to set up a recurring tithe give directly to your parish using the giving form on your parish website.

Your parish’s Merchant Services account is set up with assistance from the diocese and can be accessed at: bbms.blackbaud.com. This is one account for the parish, with a username and password that the diocese keeps on file. If for any reason your parish needs to change log-in credentials for Merchant Services, please contact the diocese to ensure your service is not interrupted.

To learn more about Merchant Services, you can click to visit: www.blackbaud.com/products/blackbaud-merchant-services.

RE NXT (or Raiser’s Edge): Where you log in with your “Blackbaud ID”

RE NXT is the “Web View” of Blackbaud’s database system, Raiser’s Edge. Individual users who have a Blackbaud ID can log in to RE NXT at www.blackbaud.com to view parish or parishioner data within the system. If you do not have a Blackbaud ID and believe you should, please contact Denise Barnes (dbarnes@diojeffcity.org)

When a parishioner makes a donation or sets up a tithe, an email notification (in which names and gift amounts are redacted for security purposes) is sent to assigned parish staff, with links to the gift report in RE NXT.

WordPress

WordPress is the open-source online software our diocese uses to host parish websites. WordPress is a “universal” program; the theme we use is developed and managed by Blackbaud. We use our WordPress parish websites to embed our secure online giving forms on parish giving pages, usually at parishname.diojeffcity.org/give.

How to Get Mistakes in Giving Corrected Quickly

From time to time a parishioner may fill out a giving form incorrectly — whether that means miscalculating the schedule of a recurring gift, or selecting an unintended amount from the list — and we want to ensure we can correct that quickly.

In order to streamline correcting a gift, please use the following steps:

• Collect the following information into an email to communication@diojeffcity.org
  • Parish name
  • Parishioner or Donor Name
  • Amount of gift
  • Date gift was made (the date the donor submitted a gift on the online form)
  • Description of the error that was made and what need to be corrected

You can also encourage your donor to contact us at communication@diojeffcity.org directly if they would prefer to handle the correction.

We carefully monitor the email address above and will respond or forward the request to the right contact in the diocesan office to correct the gift as quickly as possible. Please know that we can and will correct any errors, even up to refunding your donor as necessary. You can confidently let your parishioner or donor know that the error will be corrected accurately. While phone calls may seem like the “faster” option, having the issue in writing can often allow us to fix things within a number of hours.

Gift Management and “Batching” Gifts in RE NXT

Though not directly related to the online giving procedures we’ve discussed in the above video, we have received several requests for a quick guide on batching gifts in RE NXT. Denise Barnes has provided a training video, which we’re including with this post for your convenience!

A Note on Future Weekly Webinars

As you’ve noticed, our Weekly Webinar schedule has adapted since it was first circulated to expand on existing topics, accommodate requested training topics, or answer and address specific questions and concerns from parish website administrators and other parish staff. You can view our full Weekly Webinar schedule, as well as past training videos, by clicking here. When changes to our schedule are made, we make sure to update that list to reflect upcoming sessions. If you have a training topic to request, we welcome your feedback! Please email Ashley Wiskirchen (awiskirchen@diojeffcity.org) to request a topic or ask for more information on any given topic.