Clarify End of Life Timeline

Elliott Wood

Maybe Blackbaud can jump into this discussion - as we've been discussing with several of our clients, there was a little bit of question around the exact timing for end of life. When the announcement came out, I think Blackbaud said that they would allow renewal of contracts for up to one year, through Oct 2023. What wasn't 100% clear was whether that meant the end of the term would complete by Oct 2023, or that the start of the final 1 year term could begin any time prior to Oct 2023.

So, if a current contract ends between Oct 2022 and Oct 2023, can the customer renew for one year from that point? Suppose a customer had just renewed their agreement with Blackbaud in Sept 2022, prior to the end of life announcement, through Sept 2023. Can they renew for one more year, through Sept 2024?

If this is the case, then the end of life for BB ChMS is Oct 2024 (unless there are some 3 year agreements that could potentially go into 2025.)

Elizabeth Perron

@Elliott Wood
Thank you for posting your question. I have forwarded your question to our team working on the timeline. As soon as I have something to share, I'll let you know.

Happy MLK Jr. Weekend!

Elizabeth

Blackbaud Community Team

Elizabeth Perron

Hi @Elliott Wood

The best approach to connect with our staff, would be to ask the customers who you are referring to in your above comment to contact their Blackbaud Customer Success Manager to share their concerns or questions outside of the Blackbaud Church Management FAQs website.

Thank you for all the replies you are providing within the Blackbaud Church Management peer to peer community.

In harmony,

Elizabeth

Josh Heath

@Elliott Wood I asked this question to our BB customer success manager Cooper West shortly after the initial announcement in October, and he said we could remain on BB Church Management as long as we want. However, we received our renewal notice on Nov. 27, and their rates are going up 20% in the first year, 30% in the the second, and 40% in the third. Not that we are planning to stick with BB, but this gave us extra incentive to find a new ChMS ASAP.

Elliott Wood

@Elizabeth Perron - Just trying to get some public clarification on the subject in one place. There seems to be several takes floating around depending on which account rep different clients have into how BB intends to handle the timeline. It would be helpful to have an “official” description posted publicly, so that the goal posts are clear to all parties.

Tara Cain

In case anyone missed the notice this morning, Blackbaud has now given a definitive end-of-support date for Church Management of January 22, 2024, and indicated that clients will not have access to their product or data after that point.

Elliott Wood

@Elizabeth Perron Thanks for getting this to the right people. It's very helpful to have the defined and clear notice sent out this week!

Josh Heath

Does anyone know what BB's hours of customer service operations are? I'm trying to export data and the download button does not work. I tried to chat, but this is the message that I get. Their website says, “Our Support associates are available Monday through Friday 8:30 a.m. through 6:00 p.m. ET, excluding holidays.”

It's 9:12 ET on Thursday