Blackbaud Integration Set Up

Halda's Blackbaud integration sends your AI Form submissions straight into Blackbaud Enrollment Management (EMS) as inquiry records. When a family completes a form, Halda creates the inquiry in your admissions list within seconds. There are no CSV files to download and no manual data entry.

You control which forms export, which Halda fields map to which Blackbaud fields, and how each answer choice translates into the values your school uses in Blackbaud. Halda reads your grade levels, school years and sessions directly from Blackbaud, so you pick from your real lists instead of typing IDs.

Before you start, you'll need:

The Blackbaud integration turned on for your Halda account. Ask your Halda Partner Success Consultant to enable it.
A Halda user with permission to manage integrations.
A Blackbaud user with Marketplace admin permissions to connect the Halda app to your Blackbaud environment. Environment admins and organization admins have these by default.
A Blackbaud user with admissions access and the Manager role who signs in to Blackbaud during setup. We strongly recommend a dedicated service account for this (see Step 2).

You don't need API keys, a subscription key or a developer account. Halda handles the SKY API app registration for you.

How It Works

Each time someone completes a synced AI Form, Halda builds an inquiry from their answers and sends it to Blackbaud. Partial submissions are never exported.

Three pieces control what gets sent:

Connection: your authorized link between Halda and your school's Blackbaud account.
Mapping templates: reusable sets of field mappings. A template says which Halda field fills each Blackbaud field and how answer choices translate into Blackbaud values. One template can serve many forms.
Form settings: the list of AI Forms that export to Blackbaud, with a template assigned to each one.

Available Blackbaud fields

Fields marked with * are required. Every template must map them before it can be saved.

Group	Fields
Candidate	First name, Last name, Middle name, Preferred name, Prefix, Suffix, Gender, Birthdate, Email, Home phone, Boarding or day, International student, School program, Religion, Ethnicity, Citizenship
Entering	Entering school year, Entering grade level, Session
Parent / Guardian	Relationship to student, Parent first name, Parent last name, Parent email, Parent mobile phone
Custom fields	Any Blackbaud custom field of type Text, Date or Defined value

Halda only sends the Parent / Guardian details when the parent's first or last name has a value. If you don't map Relationship to student, Halda sends "parent."

Answer choices and Blackbaud values

For fields with set choices, like grade level or gender, you map each Halda answer to the matching Blackbaud value.

Entering school year, Entering grade level and Session: Halda pulls your school's active lists from Blackbaud, so you pick from a dropdown. Ended school years and inactive grade levels are hidden.
All other choice fields: type each value exactly as it's set up in your Blackbaud system.

If an answer isn't mapped, Halda sends the raw answer text. Blackbaud may reject the inquiry if that text doesn't match one of your values, so map every choice.

Setting Up the Blackbaud Integration

Step 1: Connect the Halda app in Blackbaud Marketplace

Blackbaud only lets approved apps talk to your environment, so a Marketplace admin at your school connects Halda first. Halda isn't listed in the Blackbaud Marketplace app directory, so you won't find it by searching. You'll connect it directly with Halda's Application ID instead:

1c795775-e6b0-4d2c-823b-db4809fd70c7

Go to Blackbaud Marketplace and open the Manage page.

Click Connect app.

Paste Halda's Application ID (above) and click Connect.

Halda now appears in your list of connected applications. If Halda later requests new permissions, Blackbaud asks your Marketplace admin to approve the change on the same page.

Not sure who your Marketplace admin is? Environment admins get Marketplace permissions automatically. An organization admin can assign the Marketplace admin role to anyone under Control Panel > Security. See Blackbaud's guides to connecting an application and Marketplace permissions.

Step 2: Connect Halda to Blackbaud

Recommended: use a service account. The Blackbaud user who signs in here is the user Halda acts as. If that person leaves your school, loses their role or has their account turned off, Blackbaud cuts off Halda's access and exports stop. To avoid that, create a dedicated Blackbaud user for the integration, such as halda-integration@yourschool.edu, and use it for this step.

Give the service account:

Admissions access, so Halda can create inquiries.
The Manager role, so Halda can read your grade levels, school years and sessions.

Store its login with your team's shared credentials so anyone on your team can reconnect it later.

In Halda, go to Settings > Integrations.

Click the Blackbaud tile.

Click Connect to Blackbaud. Halda sends you to Blackbaud's sign-in page.

Blackbaud returns you to Halda, and you'll see Successfully connected to Blackbaud.

Your connection now appears on the Integrations page. Click it to rename the connection, check its status or reconnect.

Step 3: Build a mapping template

Open your Blackbaud connection and click Manage Forms & Mappings.

Select the Mapping Templates tab, then click New Template.

Give the template a name and an optional description.

For each required Blackbaud field, choose the Halda field that fills it from the Halda field dropdown. The counter at the top of the table shows how many required fields are mapped.

To add more fields, click + Add field and pick from the list. To use a Blackbaud custom field, choose Custom field…, then enter its field identifier (for example, text_field_7), a display name and its type.

For any field with answer choices, click Map Options and assign a Blackbaud value to each Halda answer.

Click Save template.

To reuse a setup, open the menu on a template card and choose Duplicate.

Step 4: Send a test inquiry

Before you go live, click Send test inquiry in the template editor. Halda saves the template and sends one inquiry named Halda Test Inquiry to Blackbaud.

The results show each mapped value with a status:

Accepted: Blackbaud took the value.
Rejected: Blackbaud refused the value. The message explains why.
In your Blackbaud list: the value wasn't sent, but it matches your school's Blackbaud list.
Sent, not confirmed: the value was sent, but Blackbaud didn't confirm it.
Not checked: Halda had no Blackbaud list to compare against.

Important: the test inquiry is a real record in Blackbaud, and Halda can't remove it. Delete it from your admissions list when you're done.

Step 5: Choose which forms export

Select the Configure Forms tab.

Check Sync? next to each AI Form you want to export.

Choose a template from the Mapping Template dropdown for each checked form.

Click Save form settings.

That's it. New completed submissions on those forms now flow into Blackbaud.

Using segment routing

If a form uses segment routing, Halda only exports leads whose segment is linked to your Blackbaud connection. To link one:

Open the segment's settings.

In the CRM Routing card, choose your Blackbaud connection from CRM Connection.

Save the segment.

Leads in segments without a Blackbaud connection are skipped and won't appear in Export History.

Viewing export history

From the configuration page, click View export history. You'll see every export attempt with its status, the student's name and email, the export date, the form, the submission data and the payload Halda sent to Blackbaud. Failed exports show the error in red.

To send a lead again, click Re-sync on its row. Viewing export history requires permission to view personal information.

Frequently Asked Questions

I don't see the Blackbaud tile on my Integrations page.

The integration has to be turned on for your account first. Contact your Halda Partner Success Consultant.

I can't find Connect app in Blackbaud Marketplace.

Your Blackbaud user doesn't have Marketplace admin permissions. Ask your environment or organization admin to connect Halda, or to assign you the Marketplace admin role.

How quickly do inquiries reach Blackbaud?

Inquiries usually arrive within seconds of a completed submission. Forms that use dynamic segment routing can take up to about a minute while Halda assigns the segment.

Does Halda check for duplicate inquiries?

No. Every completed submission creates a new inquiry, even if the same student submits twice. Clicking Re-sync on a row that already succeeded also creates a second inquiry, so only re-sync failed exports.

An export failed. What should I do?

Open View export history and read the error on the red row. Fix the cause, usually a mapping or an unmatched answer choice, then click Re-sync. Failed exports don't retry on their own.

I see "Grade level is not valid" or a similar rejection.

The value Halda sent doesn't match your school's Blackbaud list. Open the template, click Map Options on that field and make sure every answer maps to a current Blackbaud value. Values that no longer exist in Blackbaud show as "(not in Blackbaud)."

The Map Options dropdown is empty or asks me to type values.

Halda couldn't read your lists from Blackbaud. This usually means the person who connected doesn't have the Manager role. Click Reconnect to Blackbaud and sign in with a Manager-role user.

My connection shows as needing attention.

Blackbaud has ended Halda's authorization, often after a password change or a removed user. Open the connection and click Reconnect to Blackbaud. Exports pause until you reconnect. Connecting with a dedicated service account prevents most of these interruptions.

What happens if I delete a mapping template?

Forms using that template lose their mapping and stop exporting. Assign a new template to those forms on the Configure Forms tab before you delete one.

Can I export partial submissions?

No. Only completed submissions are sent to Blackbaud.

How do I stop exporting a form?

Uncheck Sync? next to the form on the Configure Forms tab and click Save form settings. To pause everything, switch the connection off on the Integrations page.

Still have questions? Reach out to your Halda Partner Success Consultant.