Archive

Email Consent on Donation Forms

To make the most of a donor's affinity for your organization while they give, you can now use donation forms to offer email opt-in. To enable the option, select Include consent opt-in from the Get Started tab when you create a Donation Form. In the Opt-in intro text field, enter a description of how you plan to contact donors. Under Opt-in text to display, enter text — such as Opt-in to receive our monthly newsletter — to describe what their consent includes.

Note: Before you can include email opt-in on donation forms, you must enable consent tracking. For more information, see Consent Tracking.

Consent Tracking

To save opt-in and opt-out requests so you can easily report on them, such as for the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), you can now select Enable consent tracking from Integration Options, Consent Tracking in your Account settings. When you enable tracking, a default privacy policy appears on the Email Signup Form.

Note: Online Express records consent from email signup form opt-ins, and opt-outs from unsubscribe links in emails. In future releases, it will also support requests from donations, event registrations, and memberships.

Note: To use consent tracking, map solicit codes to channels in Raiser’s Edge. From Configuration, Business Rules, Constituent options, Consent options, select New Mapping. To add the required mapping, select Email for Channel and Online Express for Category. Map additional solicit codes to channels as necessary.

Note: To enable consent tracking, you must use Raiser's Edge 7.96 Patch 8 or higher.

MasterCard BIN 2 Updates

We made changes to credit card validation to accommodate MasterCard's newly issued card numbers.

Performance Upgrades

• We updated to the Gift Aid text to comply with HMRC regulation on donation forms.

• We revised our email validation to eliminate errors when users enter email addresses ending in .services.

Friendly messaging during maintenance

The update allows web pages with embedded Online Express donation, event, and membership forms to show friendly messaging when planned maintenance to Blackbaud's payment services is occurring. During such maintenance, website visitors to pages with any of these form types embedded see the following message:

Performance Upgrades

• In preparation for Giving Tuesday and the holiday season - which we know can be a busy time of year for your organizations - we've been load testing Online Express to make sure it can safely and speedily handle all the goodness coming your way from constituents!

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where some users were receiving an error while editing emails in Email Marketing.

Performance Upgrades

• To improve performance and speed across Online Express, we now store the images you upload to your email templates in our fast, secure cloud storage!

Performance Upgrades

• We spent some time under the hood and made performance enhancements to speed up email dashboard load times.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where some users were unable to create new lists from the Online Express Email List Management screen in Email Marketing.

• Fixed an issue where existing email addresses for constituents were not appearing when processing transactions on the Download Transactions screen, such as when they entered a new email address on an Online Express form and you need to process the constituent update.

Performance Upgrades

• We spent some time under the hood and made performance enhancements to speed up donation, event, and membership form load times.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where duplicate email addresses were appearing in the Unusable Emails list in Email Marketing.

• Fixed an issue where users were unable to include an email address as a link in an email.

• Fixed an issue where line breaks were not rendering properly in emails on some devices.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where Clicks statistics were displaying inconsistently between the "honeycomb" view of the Email performance screen, and the specific details in the Message clicks screen.

Performance Upgrades

• We spent some time under the hood and made performance enhancements to speed up donation, event, and membership form load times.

Export a List of Unusable Email Addresses

You can now export a list of unusable email addresses as a .CSV file from the Manage Unusable Email Addresses screen in Email Marketing. From the .CSV file, you can view the reasons why an email address is unusable, such as if a hard bounce occurred or if the recipient previously opted out of the email.

To export a list of unusable email addresses, select Export CSV, and the file is automatically downloaded.

Select Recently Used URLs for Buttons in Emails

When you add donation, event, or membership form buttons to email messages, you can now select a URL from a list of the 15 most recently used URLs in previous emails. Alternatively, you can manually enter any URL of your choosing.

Everydayhero Integration

If your organization uses everydayhero, you can now select to include a link to raise funds for your everydayhero charity on event registrations.

On the Extras step of the Event Form Designer, select Allow registrants to fundraise with everydayhero, then search for your charity.

After donors register for your event, the link to begin fundraising with everydayhero will appear on the confirmation screen and thank you letter they receive.

Pledge Options on Donation Forms

When you enable pledge giving on a donation form, you can now set the order in which gift type buttons appear. For example, you can set your single gift button to appear first, and the pledge gift button second so constituents who want to make a pledge gift must make a distinction between the two, rather than simply selecting the first button on the form. You can also set donation forms to only accept pledge gifts, allowing you to offer a more tailored experience for your pledge campaigns.

To set the order in which gift type buttons appear, select either Pledge gift first, Single gift first, or Only accept pledge gifts (do not allow single or recurring gifts) on the Extras tab of the Donation Form Setup screen.

Performance Improvements to the Donation Form Performance Details Page

To improve performance on the Performance Details page for donation forms, the Donations and Transactions grids now load separately from the Form performance grid.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where some membership transactions downloaded from Online Express into The Raiser's Edge set membership expiration dates to the end of the current month, rather than the following year.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where fund names that include apostrophes and ampersands do not display correctly on donation forms.

Copy an Existing Event Form

To quickly create new events in Online Express, you can now copy an existing event form. When you copy an event, all of the same visual styling, form settings, thank you email, and confirmation information is included. The new event is also automatically linked to the same event record in The Raiser's Edge. The event form statistics are not copied, and your new form will begin tracking new stats after it's published.

To copy an event, from Events in Online Express, select Copy on the event form you would like to copy. A new event form is automatically created, and you can edit the event to change any information as necessary, such as the event name or price types to include.

Date Appended to Appeal Names

To help identify the email messages sent to constituents from Online Express, when you select to add email message data into The Raiser's Edge, the date the email was sent is now appended to the appeal name that is created on the constituent record.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where footer text on some email messages would not remain center aligned.

Increase List of Existing Messages When Creating a New Email

When you create a new email, the Or start from an existing message list now contains the 30 most recently created emails instead of 5. This allows you to avoid selecting View all messages to find a previous email to use as a template.

Display Fractional Amounts for Suggested Gifts

When you enter fractional amounts for suggested gifts on donation forms, such as $25.50, it now displays as such on the form. Previously, fractional amounts were rounded to the nearest whole number when they were displayed.

Set From Address and Display Name for Givalanche Donations

From the Thank Yous step of a donation form, the "from" email address and "from" display name are now specific to the donation form. Previously, when you set a "from" address and display name, it was applied to all Givalanche donation forms you use.

Email Stats No Longer Display When Searching for Past Emails

To improve performance when searching email message history in Email Marketing, the Recipients, Opens, Clicks, and Transactions statistics columns no longer appear. To view this information, click View stats in the Actions column.

Loading Indicator for Past Emails.

When you select to search for past messages in the Email Marketing section of Online Express, a loading indicator now appears to show you that we're gathering the data you requested. Previously, there was no visual indication that the search was being made.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where membership transactions downloaded into The Raiser's Edge from Online Express were causing the membership Expiration Date field to go blank.

Email Statistics

To improve performance, the Most successful email lists statistics are hidden by default. To view them, click the Show stats link.

Email Marketing Section Loads Immediately

The Email Marketing section of your dashboard now loads immediately, while the Recently Sent Messages section loads in the background. This allows you to work on other tasks, such as creating a new email or managing your email lists while the rest of your statistics load.

Bug Fixes

• (US clients) When using eReceipts, if the gift amount does not equal the receipt amount, text on the receipt indicating that no goods or services were provided has been removed.

• Fixed an issue where transactions were not being counted in email statistics when an email link URL to a donation, event, or membership form was manually entered rather than added using the donate, register, or join button widgets in the email designer.

Gift Attributes for Givalanche™ Gifts

When Givalanche donations are made, you can now view attributes on the gift record in The Raiser's Edge to get a more complete picture of the donation, such as Givalanche ID, parent ID, and root ID. You can use parent ID and root ID to track Givalanche donations back to the original gift, as well as see how the Givalanche built as more constituents donated.

Bug fixes

• Fixed an issue when viewing emails in the Microsoft Outlook desktop application where line breaks were being ignored when placed below sections with text and an image.

• When you add an optional display name to suggested gift buttons, the buttons are now automatically resized to match in size and font.

Givalanche Email Template

We've made it that much easier to get your Givalanche fundraising off the ground! This template is designed to highlight the Givalanche feature and maximize the return on your campaign. When you create a new email, select the Givalanche template from the Featured best practices messages section.

Email Statistics

In order to improve performance of Online Express, the Average email performance statistics on the Email Dashboard are hidden. Click a link to expand and view them when necessary. The statistics will now cover the last two months, rather than the last 12 months.

Bug Fixes

• In situations where the City field is configured to use a look-up table in The The Raiser's Edge, you can now search for constituents by City when downloading transactions in (Undefined variable: BB_Variables.prodname).

Givalanche™ Is Live!

Givalanche, our new social sharing and donor acquisition tool, is now officially available in Online Express and ready for use!

To enable Givalanche, edit your donation forms and check the box on the Thank Yous tab to include Givalanche. For details, see our help video.

For more information, check out this donor-facing video. We encourage you to share it with your donors and supporters to build energy around starting their own Givalanche!

Accessibility Enhancements

Several changes have been made to improve accessibility for users with disabilities. Error messages and the Other Amount field on donation forms can now be read by all screen readers, and you can now tab to the Payment Processed by Blackbaud link.

Time Stamp for eReceipts

eReceipt dates now match the donor's system clock and time zone and we have added a time stamp.

Bug Fixes

• Horizontal alignment now works properly on images that are linked to a URL.

• Spacing issues with the billing address on acknowledgment emails (that occurred only for some email clients) has been fixed.

Start a Givalanche™ of Good!

Givalanche, our new social sharing and donor acquisition tool, is now officially built into Online Express! Using Givalanche, your supporters will be able to leverage their social influence to amplify the impact of their online giving.

We’re doing something a little different with the rollout of Givalanche. While Givalanche is already “in the code”, a small number of early adopter customers are putting Givalanche through its paces first. As soon as we’ve proven that everything is working flawlessly, we’ll turn the feature on for everyone.

Because we finalized this update a few weeks ago, you may already actually have access to Givalanche in Online Express. When it’s enabled, you’ll find the feature by editing any Donation form and clicking the Thank yous tab. Note too that we’ll send a special notification email on the day that we enable the feature in your account.

Until then, check out this donor-facing video. We encourage you to share it with your donors and supporters to build energy around starting their own Givalanche!

UK Clients - Ability to Edit Gift Aid Compliance Text

You can now edit and style the legal verbiage that displays under the Gift Aid checkbox and Label on donation forms.

Introducing Online Help

We're proud to offer yet another resource to help answer any questions you may have, online help, available from the Help menu in Online Express.

Coming Soon – Givalanche™!

Increase your giving by allowing donors to announce their gifts with friends and family through social media. When their friends and family donate, all donors involved will see the total amount their gift grows as a result of sharing with others! Givalanche will be available in time for end-of-year giving.

New Merge Fields

Two new merge fields provide even finer customization for your confirmation messaging, Transaction Date and Billing Address. The Transaction Date is the date the gift was made and the Billing Address is the address provided by the constituent on the form. These new merge fields are available for donation, event, and membership forms.

New Heading for Gift Confirmations

We've made a small change to the Transaction Details merge field - when the details display on the confirmation, it will contain the heading, Gift Details. If you have manually added a similar heading to the text of your confirmation screen or email, you might want to remove it so that it does not appear twice.

Improved Tribute Linking

We've made several improvements for easier processing of Tributes when you download transactions:

• When you link a Tribute to a record, the name of the individual or organization is auto-matched, saving you the time previously spent searching for the record.

• Tributes can now be linked to organizations.

Coming Soon – Social Sharing with Givalanche™!

Increase your giving by allowing donors to announce their gifts with friends and family through social media. When their friends and family donate, all donors involved will see the total amount their gift grows as a result of sharing with others! Givalanche will be available in time for end-of-year giving.

Miscellaneous Fixes and Enhancements

• Improved validation will prevent errors from occurring when processing transactions where the zip code is too long.

UK Service User ID

For UK organizations, you can now add or edit your Service User ID in the Account menu under Organization info. The Service User ID will display on forms that allow direct debits.

Miscellaneous Fixes and Enhancements

• In some instances, clicking the Add this data to RE button for an email resulted in an error. This has been fixed.

• Clicking some links in Online Express caused them to open in Internet Explorer rather than in the users’ default browser. This has been fixed.

• In some cases, Microsoft Outlook added unwanted padding around some images in Online Express emails. This has been fixed.

• The horizontal alignment button is now working properly for social media widgets

Anonymous Donations

To reassure donors who give anonymously, we've added some verbiage to the Thank You email reminding them that the gift will remain anonymous.

Default Organization Name and Email Addresses

For the "from address", Thank You notifications now use the default organization name and email address listed in the Account menu. The default organization name is set under Accounts > Organization info, and the default email address is located under Account > Primary contact information.

Magic Links for Donation Forms

Magic Links allow you to vary the way donation levels and funds display on your donation forms depending on who your email audience is. Select which giving level or fund should be pre-selected, or limit the options to a single giving level and fund. On the That's It tab of the Donation Form editor, click the Magic Links button, copy the parameter for the desired fund or giving level, and simply append it to the form URL on your email or website.

Limit Event Registrations

You can now limit the number of tickets that a single person can purchase for an event. On the Get Started tab, enter the maximum number of tickets that someone can purchase in the Max field.

Best Practice Emails

Need some help designing an email that will maximize your constituent engagement and conversion rate? The new Best Practice emails not only provide professional looking templates, but also offer pointers on what type of content to provide.

In the Email Designer, click Create a New Email, and select an item from the Featured best practice messages section.

More Payment Options for Recurring Gifts

You can now offer recurring gift donors a choice between weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, and annual payment frequencies. Additionally, donors can select multiple payment date options for each of these frequencies.

You will find these options on the Extras tab of the Donation Form editor when you select recurring gifts.

Target Your Email Communications More Effectively

To help you fine-tune the audience for your communications, the email recipient list limit has been increased from 50 to 200.

Direct Debit Card Validation Available for UK

Online Express now validates bank account information entered by donors for direct debit transactions in the UK. This option is available for donation, event and membership forms when you select the Direct Debit payment option.

Better Image Management

To reduce clutter and streamline the email creation process, you can now delete unecessary images in the Image Gallery.

In the message editor, click Choose existing image and hover over the desired image to see the delete icon.

Donation Forms that Allow Only Recurring Gifts

You can now configure your donation forms to only allow recurring gifts if necessary.

In the Form Editor, select Disable single gifts; require recurring gifts on the Extras tab.

Improved eReceipts

You can now disable eReceipts on your donation and event forms on the Get Started tab. If you enable eRecipts, don't forget to add the eReceipt Link and the eReceipt Number merge fields on the Thank Yous tab.

Also, eReceipts for event transactions will now include the name of the event. And, finally, for Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, eReceipts now include a field for an authorized signature, and the name and title of the authorized signer.

Donors Can Now Make Pledges

In addition to monthly recurring gifts, donors now have the option to pledge a gift amount and pay in installments.

On the Extras tab of the donation form editor, you can enable monthly, quarterly or annual payment options and specify suggested gift amounts.

When donors enter a pledge on the donation form, payment amounts are automatically calculated based on the payment duration they select.

Search on Recipient Lists

When you're ready to send you're email, you can now search the Recipient List - no more scrolling through long lists.

Sophisticated Link Statistics

If you have multiple links in an email that go to the same page, when you check the click map statistics for one of the links, the statistics will reflect the activity for that individual link (not the combined activity for them all). This allows you to make better design decisions to maximize clickthroughs.

Email Usability Enhancement

In an effort to remind you to select an email recipient and avoid sending emails to the wrong list, the Recipient List is no longer pre-populated on the Get ready to send tab.

Electronic Receipts for the US, UK, Australia, and New Zealand

Organizations in all countries can now send electronic receipts to constituents for donations and event fees. Two new merge fields allow you to add a link to the receipt and the receipt number to confirmation emails. Configure receipt information such as the starting receipt number in the Account menu (Accounts > Receipt options).

Smarter Direct Debit Payment Options for the UK, Australia, and New Zealand

Direct debit is no longer an option when donors in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand make a one-time gift. Direct debit is available for recurring gifts.

Canadian Electronic Receipts

Canadian organizations can now send electronic receipts to constituents for donations and event fees.

Two new merge fields allow you to add a link to the receipt and the receipt number to confirmation emails. To configure the PDF receipt information, such as the organization name on file with the Canadian Revenue Association, go to the Account menu and select Receipt options.

eReceipting for other countries is coming soon!

Security Update

As part of our ongoing product reviews and improvements, we constantly review security protocols. This release includes improvements to our security protocols, specifically addressing vulnerabilities that might otherwise compromise the integrity of our product. With this release, Online Express has been updated, addressing this issue automatically. No data has been compromised and no additional action is required.

Improved Email Display on Mobile Devices

We've made several improvements to the way emails display on mobile devices including the way table borders display when zooming in and out, better alignment of text and images, and maintaining the correct font, size and color in footer text.

Schedule Email Deliveries!

Won't be around to send your email at the targeted time? You can now schedule delivery for a later date that you specify. On the Get ready to send tab, simply select the Send this message at a later date option and choose the date and time.

On the email dashboard, you can also view, edit, or cancel scheduled emails from the Scheduled messages tab, located next to the Draft messages tab.

Easier Handling of Draft Messages

To better manage your draft messages and increase productivity, we've made several improvements to the way the draft messages list is organized. Drafts are now listed by the "last edited" date instead of the "created on" date and arranged in chronological order, with the most recently-edited draft first. You can click on the email subject to open it in the email designer, and if no subject is specified, the link will simply say (no subject).

Enhanced Form Entry Fields

To further enhance your donors' experience, the word "optional" will display in entry fields that are not required on donation, event, and membership forms.

Important: Check your country ISO names in RE!

To help keep your gift data squeaky clean, Online Express now prevents countries from showing in the address section of your forms for countries whose ISO Name fields are blank in The Raiser's Edge. Take a moment to make sure these ISO names are correct in The Raiser's Edgeunder Config > International. Open each country and if the ISO Name field is set to the right choice (it will be obvious), click Save and Close (as opposed to just closing the window). This will make certain that the right ISO Name is correctly saved.

Hide the Tribute Notification Option on Donation Forms

You can now configure your donation forms so that they do not display the "Please notify the following person of my gift" checkbox. To disable this checkbox, do not select the "Allow donors to notify someone of their gift" option on the Extras tab of the Donation Form Designer.

Free Memberships

You can now offer free memberships on your forms. The labels and required information on membership forms will vary depending on whether or not the transaction requires a payment. For example, if someone is only signing up for a free membership, the name and address fields are labeled "Contact Information" and no billing information is required. But if the transaction requires a payment, billing information fields display and the submit button is labeled "Complete Purchase" instead of "Join Now". Customize the wording for the contact fields and the submit button on the Fine Tuning tab of the Membership Form Editor.

Edit Event Names

You can now change the name of an event that displays on registration forms from the one specified in The Raiser's Edge. Change the name in the Display Name field on the Get Started tab of the Event Form Editor.

New Option for Displaying Donation Levels

In addition to the current options for displaying donation amounts, donation amount buttons and radio buttons, you can now create donation buttons that include both the name of the giving level and the amount. This option is located on the Look & Feel tab for donation forms.

Change the Name and Email Address for Signup Confirmations

By default, when a constituent signs up for email communications, the confirmation email they receive uses the name and email address specified in your organization's contact record. You can now specify a different name and email address to display in the registrant's inbox when they receive their confirmation email. This option is located on the Get Started tab of the Signup Form designer.

Upgraded Email Content Editor

The content editor for the Email Designer has been updated so that it not only has more consistent behavior, but also has an interface that is easier to use.

Improved Email Experience

We've made several improvements to the way emails display across different mobile devices, email clients, and browsers.

Disable the Credit Card Payment Option

You can now disable the credit card payment option to accommodate situations where you only want clients to pay by direct debit or to be billed later.

Display Gift Attributes on Event Forms

On the Extras tab, you can now select gift attributes to display on event forms. This option allows registrants to supply extra information that you have configured in the Raiser's Edge (Config > Attributes > Gift).

Refunds Display on the Transaction Dashboard

When a transaction is refunded, it's status now displays on the transaction dashboard. As usual you can mark transactions as refunded in the Raiser's Edge, but you will need to mark them as refunded in Online Express for the amount to be reflected in the Online Express dashboard.

Event Registrants Can Include Phone Number

Registrants can now include a phone number when registering for an event. Admins can select this option in the Field Options step of the Form Editor.

EFT No Longer Required for US Customers with Direct Debit

Customers using The Raiser's Edge version 7.93 patch 11 or higher and a US-based bank with their Blackbaud Merchant Service (BBMS) can now collect Direct Debit gifts via BBMS. Before this update, using the Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) module in The Raiser's Edge was the only way direct debit gifts could be collected.

Event Registration Merge Fields

Registration Details, Event Name, Event Start Date, and Event Start Time can now be added to your event registration confirmation. These merge fields can be inserted in the Thank Yous step of the Event editing tabs. In addition, event options that are selected by registrants are now included in the Registration Details merge field.

UK Address Modification

The Post Code field no longer displays before the address on all forms; the fields are ordered as Address, City, County, Post Code.

Test Mode Warning

When you publish your forms, you will receive a reminder on the top of the form to switch your merchant account from test to live mode (if necessary).

Add Registrant Date

Because event reports pull registration dates from the General tab of a participant record for an event, event registration dates will now be added to that tab.

Event Organization Registration

Individuals can now register for an event on the behalf of an organization. The organization will receive the credit for the gift, and the organization, the person who paid, and the guests will all be listed on the event record.

Anonymous Group Registration

Individuals can now register groups for an event without having to register each person. Instead, guests can register when they check in. The option to allow anonymous group registration is located on the Field Options tab.

Set the Default Organization Contact Type for Event Registrations

When an individual registers for an event on behalf of an organization, you can specify the default contact type between the organization and the individual. This setting will be saved on the relationship record. Click Account > Integration Options > Event Mapping to configure this option.

Gift Attributes in Thank Yous

Gift attributes are now included in the Transaction Details merge field for donation forms.

Internal Transaction Notifications Now List Email Addresses

Notification emails sent to internal staff now list the email address of the person who made the transaction.

Allow Multiple Funds on Membership Forms

You can now apply a different fund to every membership type on a form.

Faster downloading of Email Stats to Raiser’s Edge

When adding email statistics to the Raiser’s Edge, you will notice that the download speed is much faster.

Improved User Experience for Donations and Giving

When hovering over giving amounts and payment options in donation forms, the options will highlight. This visual cue provides a better experience for donors.

Donation Forms Are Easier to Use

A sleeker design allows constituents to enter an amount directly in the Other amount button, rather than having to click into a different entry field.

Smarter Guest Registration

When someone registers for an event online, the registration fees for all attendees are applied to the record of the person who paid. Any event registrants who are not the payer are recorded as guests of the payer. Guests will have their participation information recorded to their own record (participation-type, name, email).

New Video Play List

Looking for a particular How-To video but don’t want to dig around in the UI? Find all the Online Express videos in one place, the Online Express video playlist.

Improved User Assistance

Bookmark the new Online Express How To page to quickly locate how-to videos, new features, FAQs, and instructions for resolving commonly-encountered issues. If you don’t find the answer you're looking for and would like us to add it to this page, please email us at docs@blackbaud.com.

Display an Interactive Donation Goal and Progress Bar

With the arrival of end-of-year giving season, you can now encourage your donors to give more. After setting a goal amount, you can display a campaign progress bar directly on your donation form. As donations roll in, your donors can clearly see how every gift impacts your organization.

The option to add a progress bar is located on the Extras tab:

Add Email Statistics to the Raiser’s Edge

Use the new Add this data to RE button to download performance statistics for individual emails. After you download the data, it will display on the Appeals tab of each recipient’s constituent record. You can see every email sent to the individual and the result (whether it was received or if it bounced, and if they opened the email, clicked a link, donated, or opted-out).

Send Messages to Relationship Contacts

Select and add relationship contacts included on constituent records to your email lists.

Faster Loading of Event FSorms

Event forms embedded on your site now load faster.

View Performance Statistics for Each URL in an Email

View a Click Map (an image of your sent email) to gauge the performance of individual URLs. Click individual links to see how many times they were clicked and the number of resulting transactions.

View Detailed Statistics for Individual Contacts

When you view the stats for a particular email, drill down to see the performance statistics for individual recipients: the number of emails they received, their open, click and conversion rates, and the dollar amount they have given.

Improved Responsiveness of Forms on Mobile Devices

Online Express now offers more sophisticated rendering for donation, event, and membership forms providing a better user experience for your constituents. A new option to create a mobile version has been added to the form editors on the Extras tab.

Draft Emails Automatically Updated with New Organization Information

If you change your organization’s information, any draft emails will be automatically updated. You no longer need to recreate your emails from scratch when this happens.

Users Can Re-Subscribe after They Opt Out of Emails

Users who have opted out of emails in the past, can now re-subscribe.

New Security Feature for Email Sign-Ups

When constituents subscribe to your emails, they will receive an email confirmation and must click a link within it to be registered.

Email performance links

When working on the Email performance screen – accessed by clicking View Stats on the Email message history page – you can view details about each performance indicator by clicking the linked number associated with the section for which you want to view more information.

For example, if the Recipients indicator displays “15,” indicating 15 recipients of this email message, you can click on the number to access a details screen displaying the email address, name, and action. You can also search for an address or name from this screen. The same is true for the Opens, Clicks, and Transactions indicators.

We also provided links to the Clicks and Transactions details page in the Link URL grid, allowing you to view the details associated with each individual URL.

Access Email performance screen from dashboard

From the Email marketing dashboard, in the Recently sent messages section, select the email for which you want to view performance information. The email name turns into a link. Click this link to open the Email performance screen for this message.

Email message history

This release includes the first in a series of updates to the Email Performance statistics.

We updated the Email message history page, accessed by clicking View all messages on the Email marketing tab. This page now includes the following changes:

• Message label now reads Subject

• Recipients column displays total number of recipients for this message

• Opens column displays total number of recipients who opened the message

• Clicks column displays total number of times someone clicked the link included in the message

• Transactions column displays total number of transactions that resulted from the message

• View Stats link opens the new Email performance screen. This new screen provides a better visual overview of the performance of your email messages, and it includes a new Clicks column, allowing you to see how individual links in your messages performed.

More good stuff in the works

Subsequent releases will include the ability to see which individuals took specific actions, access a visual click map, and send individual email action data to The Raiser’s Edge.

LinkedIn option added

When adding social media links to your email content, you can now include LinkedIn.

Bulk process event transaction

We added bulk transaction processing for event registrations.

Price Descriptions for Event Registrations

You can now add a price “Description” to include with the price types available on your web page. For example, if you include a “Family” price type on your page, you can now include a description of what exactly the “Family” price type includes.

Membership in Online Express

The new Membership feature allows you to manage, promote, and offer memberships on your website. You can design your membership listings; allow memberships to be purchase online; track the progress of your membership forms; track membership activity; process membership transactions; and more.

Membership forms are created in much the same way you create donation and event forms. From the Memberships tab in Online Express click the Create a form button. This opens the Membership Form Setup wizard, which takes you step-by-step through the process. From the Getting Started step, you can name your form, select a fund to use for dues, identify payment methods to include, and add your membership categories. On additional wizard steps, you can select a constituent code to apply to new or existing members, allow gift memberships, collect additional donations, select which membership fields you want to include on the web page, re-caption any form labels, completely style your form, and create notification and confirmation emails.

• Membership dashboard in Online Express: Like the Donations dashboard, the Membership dashboard allows you to track the performance of your online forms without running any reports. At the top of the dashboard, Overall membership form performance summarizes the progress of all of your membership forms, including the number of page views and transactions, the conversion rate, revenue generated from memberships, revenue generated from donations, and the total amount of revenue.

• Manage membership links: Magic Links allow you to control which membership displays when a donor clicks a membership link from an email or web page. This is done through the That’s It tab of a membership form by simply appending the membership parameter to the membership page’s URL. You can also use a magic link parameter to pre-select the "Gift of" option when a donor navigates to the membership form.

• Membership transactions: You can download membership transactions from Online Express and link members to constituent records in The Raiser’s Edge. As people submit their memberships, the transaction manager notifies you on the Membership dashboard when new transactions are available for download. Just click Download Transactions to access the transaction manager and download the transactions. You can download transactions one by one or in bulk. You can also delete and export transaction information.

Donation and Event attributes

On the donation form wizard, you can select gift attribute information to include on your form. For example, if in The Raiser's Edge you created a "Motivation" attribute you can include this on your donation form, and your donors can record what motivated them to give. These donation gift attributes are also added to the donation notifications. In addition, the new Event Participant Attributes grid displays columns for the data types of the attribute (for example, whether or not the attribute accepts number or text content).

Additional Addressee/Salutation fields

Additional addressee/salutation fields are available as merge fields in emails. You can also now include secondary and tertiary options in integration settings.

New Payment button

The styling of the Payment method options in the Payment details section of all forms have been improved. Please note that the new default color for these buttons is blue, but, from the Fine Tuning step, you can customize the color to better match the theme of your website.

Display comments in donation notification emails

A Comments field has been added to the header of notification emails that staff receive when a new donation is made.

More merge fields for Thank You emails

To further customize your communications, Title and Last Name have been added to the list of merge fields for donations and events.

Better keyboards for mobile devices

When donors complete donation forms on mobile devices, the keyboard will now automatically adjust to the type of field. For example, when they enter a credit card, only the number keys will display. Fewer clicks will result in improved conversion rates for your mobile donors.

Ability to select new email types

You can now select Newsletter and Membership from the Email Type list. These are part of two new larger features to be implemented later that will allow tracking of email types.

More responsive, mobile-friendly forms

When users view your event forms on their mobile devices, price block fields now adjust to accommodate various screen sizes and provide a better user experience.

Review email before sending

An email confirmation box now displays before your message sends. The confirmation message displays the list name used for the email along with the number of recipients. You then have the option to send or cancel.

Export selected transactions

We’ve improved accessibility to the Export Selected button, which allows you to export all selected online transactions.

Online chat support

Within Online Express, we've modified the Help menu to improve its layout and include a new option for chat support. When you have a question or issue, you can chat online with a support representative for quick assistance. Chat support is available weekdays from 9 AM to 8 PM ET.

More responsive, mobile-friendly forms

When users view your donation forms on their mobile devices, donor and payment fields now adjust to accommodate various screen sizes and provide a better user experience.

Direct Debit compliance enhancements for UK forms

When a web user selects "Direct Debit" as their payment method for UK donation and event registration forms, new text on the form explains that by submitting the form, the user confirms their bank details are correct. After the user submits the form, a completed Direct Debit Instruction PDF is provided on the confirmation screen and in the acknowledgement email as a receipt for the user's records. Additionally, on blank and populated Direct Debit Instruction PDFs, we now include your organisation's registered company name, address, and Service User Number.

Social media widget for emails

From the Content tab of the email designer, you can now drag and drop a social media widget to include links to your social sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. In the edit window that appears, select which social media links to include and enter the corresponding URL and display text. You can also choose whether to display your social media links as large icons with text or as mini icons with no text.

Note: The URL fields for Facebook and Twitter auto-populate with information from the Organization info page, which you can access from the Account menu.

Preview required for partially matched email signups

When you download email signups from the Email marketing dashboard, you must now preview partial matches before they can be processed. From the Partial matches tab, click edit/preview merged record to access the preview window. A data icon displays next to new information obtained from a signup, and identifies differences between new and existing information. Before you save and process the signup, you can edit fields on the merged record as necessary.

Note: If "multiple matches" displays in the matching record column, you must search for a match or click remove match before you can process the signup.

Time stamp and page URL for email signup attributes

When you process email signups, the Online Express Email Signup constituent attribute now includes a time stamp in its Comments field. Constituents from your signup form also receive the Online Express Email Signup Page URL constituent attribute to identify the page they used to sign up for your organization's emails.

Faster data entry for credit card payments

On your payment forms for donations and event registrations, the credit card type is now automatically selected as users enter their credit card numbers. The card type also displays as a credit card icon, rather than text, to help users visually confirm they have entered the correct card number.

Edit/preview option for email signups

In our previous update, we released the Online Express email signup widget, which you can access from the Email marketing dashboard. When you download signups, you can now preview how their records will appear and edit biographical, address, and email fields as needed before you process them. From the actions column, click the "edit/preview record" link to open the Preview record window. New data from your signup form displays in green and has a new data icon.

Online capacity for events

On the Extras tab of the event form designer, you can now enter an online capacity to limit how many registrants are allowed for an event. When you select Limit online capacity, you enter the maximum online capacity and can optionally edit the message that appears to registrants when the capacity has been reached.

Note: The online capacity does not affect the capacity of event records in The Raiser’s Edge.

Email signup widget

This update includes the release of the Online Express email signup widget. From the Email marketing dashboard, click Signup form to quickly design a form to embed on your web pages. When web users sign up for your organization's emails, click Download Signups at the top of the Email marketing dashboard to review the signups and add them to new or existing records in your database. For easy identification, constituents from your signup form are automatically grouped in a query and added to a new Online Express email list.

Direct Debit compliance for UK forms

For UK donation and event registration forms, Direct Debit compliance points now display when users select "Direct Debit" as their payment method. New text appears on the form to confirm the user is the account holder and the sole person needed to authorise debits from the account, or, if those specifications are not met, instructs the user to submit a paper copy of the Direct Debit mandate. The form also provides instructions for the user's bank or building society. The confirmation email for UK Direct Debit payments now includes the payer’s sort code, account number, account name, Direct Debit Guarantee, and reference. In addition, the email provides the scheduled date and amount of the first Direct Debit payment.

Pre-selected gift amounts

When you set up suggested gift amounts on the Extras tab of the donation form designer, you can now select a default gift amount for donors. Research indicates you can significantly increase your average gift amount by selecting a default giving level.

Ability to include and require Phone on donation and event forms

Based on a suggestion in the Online Express community, we've added the ability to include and require the Phone field on your donation and event forms for donors and paying registrants. On the Extras tab of the form designer, Phone is listed in the additional fields section. As a reminder, we encourage you to exercise caution when adding extra fields to your form. Lengthier forms often coincide with fewer transactions per page view.

Transaction notification email enhancements

Transaction notification emails for donations and event registrations now include the donor's or registrant's first and last name, date, amount, payment card method, and payment card type. You can enter staff email addresses on the Thank yous tab of the donation and event form designers for the users who should receive transaction notifications.

Email type for Online Express transactions

When you download Online Express transactions, web users' email addresses are now added to their constituent records with the primary email type that you select in Integration options, Email mapping. You can access Integration options from the Account menu to view or modify your current selection.

Divider lines to separate email content

From the Content tab of the email designer, you can now drag and drop divider lines to separate sections of your emails. In the edit window that appears, you can select the style, color, and thickness of the line.

Vertical alignment for emails

In response to your Online Express community feedback, we've added the ability to vertically align email content. On the Style tab of an email, you can select a section to style and then adjust the vertical alignment (e.g., top, middle, or bottom) under Spacing and alignment.

Email notifications for donations and event registrations

You can now enter staff email addresses for users who should be notified when you receive new donations and event registrations. On the Thank yous tab of the donation and event form designer, you can enter multiple email addresses separated by spaces, commas, semicolons, or line breaks. The notification emails identify the corresponding donation or event form in the Subject line.

Direct debit payment method

On the Get started tab of the form designer, you can now allow donors and event registrants to pay by direct debit. To include this payment method, you must have the Electronic Funds Transfer module in The Raiser's Edge. If you do not have this module, you can contact your account manager for assistance.

Ability to email all mapped types for each constituent

In response to your Online Express community feedback, we've added the ability to send emails to all mapped email types for each constituent in your recipient lists. To enable this option, select Integration options from the Account menu and then go to Email mapping. When you select Send to ALL mapped email types for each constituent, constituents receive a copy of the same email at each mapped address. For example, if you select “Home,” “Work,” and “Personal” for the three mapped email types, constituents with all three types receive three copies of a message.

Bulleted lists for emails

When you design emails, you can now structure your content with bulleted lists. On the Content tab, click a section of text to edit and then select the Insert/Remove Bulleted List icon from the email editor toolbar.

Email notifications

Within the Account menu, we've added an option for Email notifications. Here you can enter staff email addresses for users who should receive system updates, which include information about system improvements, your Online Express account, and other important notices.

Note: Your primary contact for Online Express automatically receives system updates. To change your primary contact, select Primary contact information from the Account menu.

Recaption donation form payment options

To further customize your donation forms, you can now modify the captions for the Credit card and Bill me later fields. On the Fine tuning tab of the donation form designer, select either field in the Credit Card Details section to edit the field label.

New email message type

On the Get ready to send tab, the Message type values now include "Event" so you can better categorize and identify your event communications. In an upcoming version of Online Express, you will have the option to track and manage emails according to message type.

Events "Bill me later" payment option

On the Get started tab of the event registration form designer, you can now select Bill me later as an additional payment method to allow registrants to make payments at a later time. When registrants select this, registration fees download to the transaction manager as pledges.

Addressee and Salutation merge fields

We've expanded the email editor merge fields to include Addressee and Salutation so you can further personalize your emails. To select which addressee and salutation types to use for the merge fields, access Integration options from the Account menu and then select the Addressee/Salutation option.

Option to copy email messages

When you view all messages from the Email dashboard, you can click Copy this message in the Actions column to create a new email from a copy of a previous message.

Time zone

You can now specify your organization's time zone to have your date and time appear in Online Express. From the Email dashboard Account menu, select Organization info and then select a value in the Time zone field. This affects the dates and times that display in the Transaction History screen for donations and on the Get ready to send tab for test email messages.

Event Management

This update includes the release of Online ExpressEvent Management, which gives you tools to create simple and smart event registration forms that integrate with The Raiser's Edge. Event Management is available to purchase when you have The Raiser's EdgeEvent Management module. If you do not have this module, you can contact your account manager for assistance.

Ability to email organizations

You can now send emails to organization records and include the Full name / Org name merge field to personalize messages. When the queries that comprise your email list(s) contain organizations, those records are included among your recipients as long as they have an email address with one of the email types you specify in Integration options, Email mapping. Email addresses for an organization's relationship records are not taken into account. If an organization does not have the appropriate email type or requests no email, it is excluded from your recipients.

Multiple email types

From the Account menu, you can now select Integration options, Email mapping to specify the primary, secondary, and tertiary email types for your constituents. When you create email lists, Online Express uses the primary email type that you select to pull in email addresses for your recipients. If a constituent does not have that email type, Online Express attempts to use the secondary or tertiary email type instead. To encompass this feature, we've updated the Terms of Service definition of "usable email address" to be one (1) unique subscriber or email address added to an email list.

"Bill me later" payment option

On the Get started tab of the donation form designer, we've added Bill me later as an additional payment method that you can select to give donors the option to submit payment at a later time. When donors select Bill me later on your donation form, their donations download to the transaction manager as pledges.

Primary contact information

To view and modify the primary contact information for your organization, you can now select Primary contact information from the Account menu. We periodically email your primary contact to share critical product information about Online Express.

Donation fund options

On the Get started tab of the donation form designer, you can now select Allow other funds to give donors the option to enter in a different designation for their gifts. By default, this option is not selected. When you select it, "Other" is included in the Designation menu of your donation form. Donors can select "Other" and enter their designation preference in the text box that appears. When you download transactions, you can then search for the corresponding fund to link to the designation or create a new fund from the transaction manager.

Unusable email addresses

From the Email marketing dashboard, you can now select Unusable emails to view email addresses that hard bounced or resulted in unsubscribes. On the Manage unusable email addresses screen, these addresses display with the hard bounce or unsubscribe dates. To view and edit the corresponding constituent records, click view record.

New options for donation form comments

On the Extras tab of the donation form designer, you can now select whether to allow donors to leave comments. If you include them, you can also reorder sections on the Look & feel tab to change where the comments section displays.

General availability of Online Express

Following its successful beta program, Online Express is now available to all Raiser’s Edge users in the United States and Canada. After installing Online Express, you can access it within The Raiser’s Edge to sign up and get started in minutes!

Email editor improvements

When you design an email in Email marketing, you can now adjust the padding and text alignment for a particular section of your message. From the Style tab, hover over a section of your message and click Click to style to make changes to the spacing and alignment under Selected column style.

Email message type

The Get ready to send tab includes a new field for Message type. Under What is the purpose of this message?, select a Message type value, such as Fundraising or General communication, to track and manage emails accordingly in an upcoming version of Online Express. For example, you may want to review performance data for all of your Fundraising messages.

Auto update improvements

The latest update to Online Express allows you to temporarily skip the auto update screen if there are issues when you run the update. The auto update will attempt to run again the next time you return to Online Express.

Navigation improvements

Navigation for the Online Express dashboards has been improved in subtle but important ways. The Account and Help menus now display at the top of the dashboards with sub-menu modifications for better usability.

Color management enhancements

Donation Forms includes several enhancements to the color selection functionality. When you edit the style of a form, you can now select from some of the most common donation form colors. The color palette also remembers your last six color selections.

Email marketing

This update features the release of Online ExpressEmail marketing. With this new set of tools, you can quickly and easily create desktop and mobile friendly email messages, and track the performance of each message. Email marketing is currently available only to customers who have agreed to participate in its beta program.

Appeals

You can now associate your Online Express donation forms with Raiser's Edge appeals. On the Get started tab of the form designer, you select an appeal so that you can measure the success of the solicitations for the donation form.

In addition, you can also use appeals to filter your transaction assignments in the transaction manager. After you assign appeals to donation forms, you just select to filter transaction assignments based on appeal and then select the appeal to use as your filter criteria. Then when members of the security group for that transaction assignment open the transaction manager, they only view transactions for the donation forms that are associated with the appeal you used as your filter criteria.

Security permissions

In the configuration options for Online Express, you can now manage the security groups that are able to access Online Express. Previously, only Supervisor users could access the feature. Now you select Integration options from the Account menu and select security groups on the Security tab of the Online Express Options screen. Only users with Supervisor rights and members of the security groups that you select will be able to access Online Express.

Confirmation screen

You can now edit the confirmation screen that appears after website users submit donations on your Online Express donation forms. On the Thank yous tab of the form designer, a preview now appears for the confirmation screen. To edit the confirmation screen, just click this preview. You can edit the default text as necessary, and you can use the options in the toolbar to format it or to include merge fields that display personal information for donors.

Code table entries

You can also now select the code table entries that are available to donors on your donation forms. For example, you can limit the countries that appear in the dropdown list for the Country field or the titles that appear for the Title field. Just access Integration options from the Account menu and then select the General option. Then, select the checkboxes for the code table entries that you want to make available to donors on your donation forms.

Auto update

You can now install new features and other updates for Online Express directly from the Online Express landing page. When upgrades are available, a new features page now automatically appears when you access Online Express. To install the features, just click Restart Now.

Tributes

On the Extras tab of the form designer, you can now include a tributes checkbox on your donation to allow donors to designate gifts in honor of someone. You must set up the Honor/Memorial Tracking module in The Raiser's Edge to use this option.

• On the Extras tab, you select whether to set up a tribute for a specific individual or to allow donors to honor anyone they want. When a donor selects the tribute option on a donation form, they can enter the name and address for a person to notify.

Transaction history

With the new Transaction History screen, you can now manage donations after you process them. From Online Express, click Transaction history to view a list of processed donations and details about the donors and gifts.

• To search for donations, enter search criteria in the fields at the top and click Search. All gifts that match your criteria appear in the Transaction history grid.

• If donors do not receive their thank you emails, you can locate the donations and click Send thank you email again to re-send them.

• If donations are incorrectly deleted from the transaction manager, you can locate the donations with a “Deleted” status and click Return gift to transaction manager. After you return to the Online Express landing page, you can click Download transactions to access the transaction manager and process the donations.

Corporate gifts

On the Extras tab of the form designer, you can now include a corporate gifts checkbox on your donation forms.

• When you select this option, a Make this gift on behalf of an organization checkbox appears on the donation form, and donors can designate donations as corporate gifts. You can edit the checkbox label as necessary on the Fine tuning tab.

• When donors select the checkbox, an Organization field appears on the donation form.

Anonymous gifts

Also on the Extras tab of the form designer, you can now include an anonymous gifts checkbox on donation forms.

• When you select this option, an I prefer not to be recognized for this donation checkbox appears on the donation form, and donors can indicate that they do not want gifts to be publicly recognized. You can edit the checkbox label as necessary on the Fine tuning tab.