SPF Action Required by Sept. 25

@Bobby Steurer, I imagine the exact steps will depend on what type of DNS administration platform you use. You might reach out to someone on a forum/community for your DNS software.

Just to be clear for other users: this change does not just affect you if you use OLX or NXT email marketing. It also affects you if you use automated form receipts or gift batch e-receipts.

@Karen Diener @Faith Murray Was trying to say that it will impact those systems and processes both. It is a change that should be made.

@Mary Cummings Here is what you should enter. “include:outboundmail.blackbaud.net ~all” Make sure there is only one record that looks like the below.

Here is our DNS record:

v=spf1 ip4:X.XX.XXX.XX include:spf.protection.outlook.com include:servers.mcsv.net include:spf.constantcontact.com include:spf.fundraiseup.com a mx include:epbfi.com ~all

We would need to add the “include:outboundmail.blackbaud.net ~all” at the end of that. This will help all emails sent out be more likely to land in an inbox. We have had issues with bounces before, and this should help. It is definitely worth it if you send any emails from a BB platform.

@Faith Murray:

@Karen Diener, yes, what @Lee Grisham kindly explained. It affects BOTH - email marketing and e-receipts. I just wanted to mention it because one person I know had forgotten about e-receipts, and not everyone uses OLX/NXT marketing features.

I think my brain was fried yesterday, and I wasn't writing clearly!

No problem!

I hadn't considered the e-receipts so that is helpful to confirm. Our internal person was in agreement too, and I'm wishing Blackbaud would have been more explicit. I think many organizations would glance at the email, think “I don't send emails using Blackbaud” and not make the change.

I'm not sure how many would be using other email functionality but it all makes sense!

Karen

@Lee Grisham Has anyone done a complete security risk analysis of having Blackbaud send emails on behalf of their domain? Generally, most organizations wish to avoid being in this situation, but in this case it seems we have few options. I would like to provide to our Executive team a risk analysis that they can compare to the operational gain. Just wondering if anyone else has done the due diligence. Blackbaud's past security vulnerabilities are strong considerations for this position.