Table of Contents
OVERVIEW ... 3
STAFFING ... 4
Your Roles and Responsibilities ... 4
Blackbaud Roles and Responsibilities ... 4
PROGRAM PHASES ... 6
Methodology ... 6
TIMELINE ... 11
SystemDeployment (Two Weeks) ... 11
SUPPORT RESOURCES ... 12 Knowledgebase ... 14 Blackbaud Learn ... 15 eLearning Library ... 15 User Guides ... 16 Forums ... 17
OVERVIEW
Welcome to your Blackbaud Friends Asking Friends implementation. Blackbaud Friends Asking Friends is an online team fundraising solution for nonprofits that ignites your website to reach and communicate with your supporters - not just to them. Blackbaud Friends Asking Friends will help you reach and engage new and existing constituents and provide them a great online service with dynamic tools that build on the power of your fundraising solution. The Blackbaud Friends asking Friends implementation program is comprised of five phases:
This Friends asking Friends Flow equips you with a blueprint for your engagement; it’s a guide to prepare yourself and your organization for the steps ahead. The better prepared you are, the faster we
•Friends asking Friends Event Checklist •Review Graphics Guide
•Review Features Guide
Prepare
•Setup of Event
•Configure Event Options
Configure
•Discussion of branding and design plans •Discussion of graphics being used
•If using Starter Package, choosing of design
templates
•Creation and development of Friends asking Friends
design
Design
•Bookkeeping •Reports •Event ManagementTraining
•Linking FAF site to current site
•Making the site active and ready for transaction
STAFFING
Ensuring a successful outcome requires assembling the right team for the job. To that end, the first thing most a Friends asking Friends customer want to know is, “Who from my organization will need to be involved in the project?” and “With whom can I expect to work from Blackbaud?” Here’s a quick
breakdown of the resources you should anticipate being involved and what their responsibilities will be. Later in the Customer Experience Flow, we provide estimates of their total time commitment to each phase of the engagement.
Your Roles and Responsibilities
Role
Responsibilities
Project Sponsor o Provides primary project sponsorship
o Ultimately responsible for the success of the project
Project Manager o Facilitates customer-side communication and approvals o Monitors the progress of the project
IT Contact o Provides technical information
o Ensures that network meets system requirements
Web Manager o Manages current or future site
o Possess intermediate level HTML & CSS experience o Provides content and style guidelines
RE Administrator (Only if connector is being used)
o Process online activity through the Sphere-NetCommunity interface. o Manages RE records required to support online activities (donations and
registrations)
Event Manager o Provides event details for setup
o Point of contact for the consultant during the implementation
(Roles are not mutually exclusively; one person may wear many hats.)
Blackbaud Roles and Responsibilities
Role
Responsibilities
Internet Solutions Consultant
o Completes the functional design of your site
o Walk through of bookkeeping, event management, and reports
Interactive Designer o Receives your design requirements
Role
Responsibilities
PROGRAM PHASES
Methodology
The System Deployment is structured using the Blackbaud’s Friends asking Friends Methodology. Blackbaud’s Methodology provides a structured approach to managing and delivering your organization’s project. It is a proven guide for how projects are delivered and completed based on industry best practices.
Prepare
Our resource management team will send a detailed introductory email within two business days of the contract being signed that introduces the implementation process and will prompt you for a date and time for the project kick-off call. All of your project stakeholders will be invited to attend this 30 minute call.
During this call, the consultant will review the Friends asking Friends Project Kick-Off Presentation. This
presentation covers the following:
Project Roles (Blackbaud and Customer)
Implementation Methodology
Project Documents and Timeline
Next Steps
After the Kick-Off call, the consultant will send you the Post Kick-Off Follow-Up email and attach the following documents:
Friends Asking Friends Checklist
Friends Asking Friends Graphics Guide
Friends Asking Friends Features Guide
The consultant will ask you to complete the Friends Asking Friends Checklist document and return that to them before the next meeting. You will also be asked to return graphics which you wish to include in your event which consist of a header, logo, and main image for event page as well as participate or team pages.
Configure
Based off the decisions that were made in the Friends Asking Friends Checklist, the consultant will walk you step by step how to configure your event. The consultant will discuss topics such as friendly URLS, fee structures, front page customizations, volunteer information, sponsorship opportunities,
E-Commerce options, and general donation information. The consultant will also discuss basic event information such as location, event time, event date, main contact, event name, and contact information for the main contact.
Design
During this phase, the consultant will assign an Interactive Designer to complete the build. Blackbaud’s Interactive Designer will take the information from the URL and code it into HTML and Custom Style Sheets within the Friends asking Friends site. The design will be based off discussions with the consultant around the website, brochure, or other media provided to Blackbaud and will be inserted into one of the seven best practice designs you selected during the implementation.
Templates for available for Standard Package
Template #1
Template #3
Template #5
Template #7
Training
During this phase, the consultant will train you on the bookkeeping, reports, and event management of your Friends asking Friends site. The bookkeeping will help to you be able to see registrations that come in, moving people from one team to another, or returning charges if needed. The reports will allow you
to see metrics on when people registered, offline versus online, and total amount raised over different events. The training on the event management will show you how to setup the events, make changes to the website, or turning on and off features depending on the specific needs of your organization.
Launch
After training, the Project Coordinator/Consultant will walk back through the Scope of Work (SOW) to make sure all items have been completed. During this meeting, the consultant will show you the proper steps for how to make your Friends asking Friends site active and ready for transactions. The consultant will assist you in doing that if your organization is ready to make the site live. When this step has been completed, the consultant will send you a transition to support document and document online resources which will be available to your organization should any other questions come up.
TIMELINE
While no two customer experiences are identical, you can expect the phases of your engagement to fit the following general timeline. Numerous factors may get us off track. When that occurs, Blackbaud will work with you to get back on schedule. Please note that this timeline only applies once all necessary preceding software implementations are complete. Any additions to the Friends asking Friend site (ie. custom design, stand-alone pages, java script, connector) will lengthen the timeline.
SystemDeployment (Two Weeks)
The System Deployment is structured on Blackbaud’s FOCuS Methodology: Define & Plan, Design, Build
& Test, and Deliver & Support which is broken down over three meetings. The FOCuS (Fast On-time
Customer Success) Methodology provides a structured approach to managing and delivering your organization’s project. For a detailed breakdown of each phase, please refer to the PROGRAM PHASES section, on page 6.
All members of your project team will be involved in System Deployment. We anticipate the following:
Role Time
Commitment Role
Time Commitment
Meeting 1
Define and Plan
Blackbaud project team assembled assigned
Project Coordinator/Consultant sends introductory email Kickoff call
RECOMMENDED EXERCISE
“Complete Friends Asking Friends Checklist” “Review Sphere Graphics Guide” “Review Sphere Configuration Guide” Meeting 2
Build and Test
Walk through the Friends Asking Friends Checklist and setting up the event based of the criteria set forth in the checklist.
Discuss event features such as event name, location, fees, and event contacts.
Discuss unique event features such as sponsorships, booth registrations, volunteers, E-Commerce, and other organization specific topics.
RECOMMENDED EXERCISE
“Watch the Self Paced Course for Events” Blackbaud Internal
Design
The designer will be working on the site while the organization and the consultant are discussing functionality. The organization will not meet with the designer unless there is a specific issue that comes up which needs to be addressed in relationship to the design.
Meeting 3
Deliver and Support
The consultant will train the organization on the topics of bookkeeping, reports, and event management.
The consultant will assist the organization in activating the site and making it available to the general public.
Introduction to Support and resource available for the organization moving forward from the consultant.
Launch & Support Organization Launch their Friends asking Friend site
SUPPORT RESOURCES
Blackbaud Friends asking Friends Technical Support
Blackbaud Friends Asking Friends Support Analysts are available from 8:30 AM- 8 PM EST to assist with product questions and issues. Our Support team can be reached at 1-800-468-8996, on Case Central on the Blackbaud website, or on chat.
Knowledgebase
All Blackbaud customers can use the Knowledgebase on our main website when they have a question or need to troubleshoot specific NetCommunity Spark issues. The Knowledgebase Help page can assist first-time users with demos on how to use this valuable tool.
Blackbaud Learn
You can turn to Blackbaud Learn for ongoing skill development and job knowledge training. This annual subscription provides the widest range of constantly evolving curriculum, including strategy and best practices, exclusive Q&A sessions and new classes every month. The classes are led by real instructors and allow you to participate in an interactive online classroom, giving you the benefits of a traditional learning environment without the costs or time investment.
eLearning Library
The eLearning Library is a collection of online lessons that take you step-by-step through key concepts of Blackbaud software. There are hundreds of up-to-date lessons, providing you with a self-paced training environment that is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
User Guides
Access our User Guides for step-by-step instructions on using your software. The User Guides are broken down by product and version, which helps you find specific instructions with relative ease.
Forums
Blackbaud encourages all software users to access the Forums area of our website to exchange ideas with other members of the nonprofit community.
