Blackbaud’s K–12 User Conference: Your Planning Guide
Blackbaud’s 2026 K–12 User Conference is July 15–17 in Boston! This dynamic event brings together private and independent school professionals throughout the US and Canada for three days of hands‑on learning, practical strategy, and real‑world insight.
To help you register with confidence—and plan an agenda that pays off back on campus—this guide highlights standout sessions by role, plus a few ways to get even more value from the conference. Built for teams across campus (admissions, financial aid, business operations, academics, and advancement), K–12 UC also includes sessions on AI, SKY APIs, and data management.
Whether you’re a super user or new to the products, you will leave the conference having learned something. And you’ll make some friends and connections along the way.
Cheryl Costello
Director of Information Technology, Miss Porter’s School
For Admissions & Enrollment Leaders
If your role sits at the front of the enrollment funnel, these sessions focus on streamlining workflows, improving handoffs, and creating better experiences for families.
Setting the Pace: Streamlining Early Admissions and Enrollment
This session shares practical tips for setting tuition and payment plans earlier, building aligned enrollment contracts, and connecting billing workflows so charges sync smoothly. Attendees will see how schools can reduce downstream confusion and collaborate more effectively across teams.
The Enrollment Handshake: Where Admissions Meets Business
Enrollment doesn’t end with acceptance—it triggers a critical handoff to the business office. This session highlights best practices for ensuring a smooth path from inquiry to contracts, billing, and withdrawals, with a focus on collaboration between admissions and finance.
Admissions Checklist Basics: Set the Pace for Faster, Friendlier Admissions
Learn how automated, customizable admissions checklists help schools reduce missed steps, keep families on track, and create a more consistent admissions experience—without adding complexity for staff.
For Financial Aid Teams
These sessions are designed for schools looking to improve accuracy, alignment, and confidence in financial aid workflows.
Best Practices: Financial Aid Management Integration with Enrollment and Tuition Management
Walk through end‑to‑end best practices for configuring Financial Aid Management integrations so schools can move from awards to invoices with speed, accuracy, and audit‑ready alignment.
Tipping the Scale: Finding Balance Between Full Pay Families and Financial Aid
Learn how Blackbaud Data Intelligence can provide meaningful insights into inquiring families that can help the admissions team ensure there is a balanced pipeline of potential full pay families and families requiring financial aid.
For Business Office & Finance Leaders
If your focus is billing, accounting, and operational efficiency, these sessions zero in on clarity, control, and future‑ready systems.
Connected Contracts: Improving Enrollment and Billing for Families (and Finance)
Discover how integrated contracts connect enrollment and billing, eliminate manual handoffs, and improve accuracy for both families and finance teams.
Beyond QuickBooks®: Future‑Proofing Your School’s Financial Operations
Get a practical look at how K–12 private schools are modernizing financial operations, improving reporting, and saving time with systems designed for school complexity, including Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT.
From Tuition Management to Billing Management: Your Readiness & Adoption Roadmap
Transitioning from Tuition Management to Billing Management is more than a system change—it’s a shift in workflows, terminology, and how families experience billing. In this session, we will walk you through what to expect, how to prepare your school for success, and how to drive the outcomes you care about.
For Advancement & School Leadership
These sessions focus on data‑driven decision‑making and long‑term growth.
Know Where You Stand—Grow Where You Can: Benchmarking for K–12 Success
This session introduces donorCentrics benchmarking and shows how schools use peer data to evaluate performance, identify opportunities, and make smarter fundraising decisions. Attendees will learn how benchmarking helps schools understand performance against themselves and peers—turning insight into confident action.
Prospect Insights to Processed Gifts: A K–12 Playbook for Advancement Teams
Advancement teams are under pressure to do more with better data—without slowing down gift processing or creating extra work. In this session, we’ll explore how prospect data and fundraising workflows work together—from identifying high‑potential supporters to ensuring gifts are processed, applied, and acknowledged correctly. We’ll walk through common K–12 scenarios, highlight practical workflow considerations, and share tips for aligning advancement and finance teams around a single, trusted process.
It’s such an incredible opportunity to not only connect with amazing colleagues and professionals to share ideas and solutions, but to attend informative sessions dedicated to just the K–12 users.
John Neiers
Director of the New Lab for Teaching and Learning, The Dalton School
For Academic Leaders
If you are focused on academic success, enhanced learning, and student data, these sessions are for you.
Drive Impact with Student Success Insights: Configure, Impact, and Innovate
Learn how to transform your data into action with Student Success Insights. We’ll cover everything from initial setup to proven best practices that help schools identify and support the students who need it most. Discover how your data can work for you and how Blackbaud is incorporating insights to help schools make more informed and confident configuration decisions. Join us to explore the future of data and student focused outcomes!
Unlocking the Power of Education AI Chat
Discover how Blackbaud’s new AI Chat in Education brings efficiency, empowerment, and data directly into your school’s workflows. In this session, we’ll explore how AI Chat empowers staff by providing instant, contextual answers drawn from your data, while upholding the strict privacy, security, and governance standards K–12 institutions require. Explore real life use cases, understand how AI Chat interacts with your data, and learn best practices for adoption.
Did you know? LMS/SIS Tools You May Not Be Using!
Running a school is demanding and keeping up with the latest updates in Blackbaud’s Learning Management and Student Information Systems can be a challenge. Join us for a fast-paced session where we’ll explore the newest features including AI-powered Question Generators, Attendance Hub, Graduation Requirements and more. We’ll review the latest releases and functionality updates designed to help schools increase efficiency, access key metrics, and boost satisfaction among parents, teachers, and students.
How to Get the Most Out of Blackbaud’s K–12 UC
There are so many more sessions we could list, including a dynamic “Been There, Done That!” panel of Blackbaud’s K–12 Advisory Board members, keynotes by Priya Lakhani and Peter Baron, peer-led group discussions, and shop talks with Blackbaud’s product managers. Plus, there are endless opportunities to network with and learn from your peers. Here are some tips to get the most out of your conference experience:
- Bring a teammate from another office. Many of the most valuable sessions are built for cross‑functional teams.
- Balance strategy and hands‑on learning. Pair shop talks and roundtables with workflow‑focused breakouts.
- Build time for conversation. Some of the best insights happen outside the session room.
Final Tip
If you’re looking for practical ways to work smarter across teams—and get more from your Blackbaud systems—K–12 UC is worth putting on the calendar.
