Migrate from Blackbaud to Nutshell

Blackbaud Constituent records map to Nutshell People with a direct field-level correspondence. Every constituent attribute including name, address, email, phone, employer, and giving summary maps to the corresponding Nutshell Person field. The original Blackbaud constituent ID is preserved as a custom field on the Nutshell Person record to maintain traceability and enable delta-run deduplication.

Blackbaud household constituents split into the household head as the primary Nutshell Person and the household as a Company record with the household name. Other household members become related Person records. Nutshell does not have a native household model — this is the closest approximation using existing entity types.

Constituent records typed as Organization in Blackbaud migrate as Nutshell Company records. Organization name, address, industry classification, and other organizational attributes map directly to the corresponding Nutshell Company fields. When the Blackbaud constituent record includes a primary contact designation, that individual is created as a related Nutshell Person record and linked to the Company via the standard contact association mechanism.

Blackbaud Gift records have no direct Nutshell equivalent. We extract gift date, amount, fund, appeal, payment method, soft credit, and pledge balance, then write these as a formatted Note on the corresponding Nutshell Person record. Gift metadata (fund name, appeal code) preserved as a custom currency field if the client requires structured gift amounts.

Blackbaud Campaigns migrate as Nutshell Campaigns. Campaign name, start date, end date, goal amount, and status map directly. Note that Nutshell Campaigns track marketing campaign membership and email performance — fundraising campaign ROI reporting requires custom fields and is handled separately.

Blackbaud Fund records track restricted and unrestricted giving at a granular level that Nutshell cannot model natively. We preserve fund codes and fund names as text fields appended to each gift Note. If fund-level reporting is required in Nutshell, we create a Fund custom field on the Person record and flag fund assignments for manual reconciliation.

Blackbaud Appeals track the specific solicitation that generated a gift. Appeal codes and descriptions map to a custom text field on each gift Note. Value-by-value mapping is applied where Blackbaud uses coded appeal identifiers — the full appeal name is resolved from the Blackbaud appeal table.

Blackbaud Actions (tasks, calls, meetings logged against a constituent) migrate as Nutshell Tasks. Action type, due date, status, description, and owner map directly. The constituent link is preserved as the Task's associated Person. Completed date maps to the Nutshell Task completed timestamp.

Blackbaud Events track constituent participation in fundraisers and programs. Event name, date, type, and attendance status migrate as Notes on the constituent's Nutshell Person record. If the client uses Blackbaud Event modules heavily, we create a custom Event Type pick-list field on the Person to support filtering.

Blackbaud custom attributes (called 'categories' in the SKY API) create a custom field in Nutshell on the applicable entity type (Person, Company, or Lead). Field data type is inferred from Blackbaud's attribute type field: Boolean → checkbox, Text → text, Number → number, Date → date, CodeTableEntry → pick-list. Nutshell's Settings > Custom Fields UI is used to create each mapped attribute before migration.

Blackbaud Pledge records track multi-year commitments with installment schedules. We migrate the pledge ID, total amount, start date, and installment schedule as a structured Note on the Person. Outstanding balance is preserved as a custom currency field so the team can see open pledge exposure without querying Blackbaud.

Blackbaud Recurring Gift schedules migrate as Notes with the frequency, amount, next payment date, and status. Nutshell has no native recurring gift object — this is a reference migration preserving the schedule details so the finance team can rebuild recurring gift tracking in their payment processor or Nutshell's task-based reminder model.