With Blackbaud Single Sign-On, families and staff log in to Homeroom using the same Blackbaud credentials they already use for your school portal. There is no separate Homeroom password.
There are two ways to set this up. Most schools use option 1. Some schools do both.
Option 1: Families sign in with their email address
This is the standard setup and the simplest one.
What families see
Send families to your school's login page, https://www.homeroom.com/login/<your-school-domain>, for example https://www.homeroom.com/login/yourschool.org. The Sign in with Blackbaud button is there waiting for them.
If they start at the general page, https://www.homeroom.com/login, it works too. They enter their email address, Homeroom recognizes your school's email domain, and the Blackbaud button appears.
How to set it up
In Blackbaud, authorize the Homeroom app for your environment. Homeroom's App ID is 48f730a0-4f8d-4c34-9958-b6c407827374. Blackbaud's steps are here: Connect applications to environments.
Email hello@homeroom.com or your Homeroom onboarding manager and tell us the email domain your families use, for example
yourschool.org.We turn on Blackbaud login for that domain and confirm when it is live.
Once it is on, anyone with an email at that domain is sent to Blackbaud to sign in and can no longer use a Homeroom password. That is the point: one login, managed by your school.
Option 2: A Homeroom tile on your Blackbaud resource board
If you would rather families never see a Homeroom login page at all, you can add a Homeroom tile to your resource board. Families select it from inside your Blackbaud portal and arrive in Homeroom already logged in. No email, no password.
You will need platform manager rights in Blackbaud, and access to school setup in Homeroom. There are three parts: create the SSO entry in Blackbaud, paste the secret key into Homeroom, then add the tile.
Before you start
Email hello@homeroom.com and ask us to create your school's SSO configuration. This is a one-time step on our side and takes a few minutes.
Once it exists, you will find it in Homeroom under Setup > Integrations, in the Blackbaud SSO panel. That panel is where you copy your Redirect URL and where you paste your secret key, so keep it open in another tab. Your redirect URL looks like https://www.homeroom.com/login/blackbaud-sso/your-school-name?sso_token={token}.
Part 1: Create the SSO entry in Blackbaud
Open SSO Settings
In Blackbaud, go to Core > Security > Authentication settings > SSO Settings, then select Add New.
Fill in the form
Leave Allow this SSO to be used checked. If it is cleared, the tile will not work for anyone.
For Name, enter
Homeroom. The Slug field below it fills in automatically when you save, and you cannot type in it. You will need that slug in Part 3.In RedirectUrl, paste the redirect URL from the Blackbaud SSO panel in Homeroom exactly as it is, including the
{token}at the end. Blackbaud swaps in the real sign-in token there, which is why the field says it must contain{token}.Leave Allow Impersonate unchecked unless you are actively testing. It lets platform managers sign in to Homeroom as another person, so most schools leave it off.
Leave Allow All Roles checked so everyone can use the tile. If you clear it, only the roles (security groups) you select can.
Select Save.
Part 2: Paste your secret key into Homeroom
Back on the SSO Settings screen in Blackbaud, select edit on the Homeroom row.
Copy the Secret Key. It is longer than the field it sits in, so triple-click inside the field to select the whole thing.
In Homeroom, go to Setup > Integrations and find the Blackbaud SSO panel with your school's configuration.
Select Edit, paste the key into Secret key, and select Save changes.
Once saved, the field shows a masked value. Leaving it blank later keeps the key you already saved, so you only retype it if Blackbaud generates a new one.
Please do not email the key or paste it into a chat message. Move it straight from Blackbaud into Homeroom.
Part 3: Add the tile to your resource board
First, create the link
Go to Core > Communication > Content > Additional content types > Links. Depending on your role and which products your school owns, you may reach this through School website > Content > Additional content types > Links instead.
Select Add new category, name it (for example,
Homeroom), then select Save & add link.Enter a Title, for example
Homeroom.In the URL field, combine your school's Blackbaud application URL with the slug from Part 1:
https://SCHOOLNAME.myschoolapp.com/app/sso/auth/SLUG. The SSO Settings screen shows you the exact/app/sso/auth/...segment next to your Homeroom entry, so you can copy it from there.Select Save.
Then add the post
Go to Core > Content > Resource boards.
Next to View boards, choose the role (security group) that should see the tile, usually parent.
Select Add post and enter a Title, Description, and a Cover photo.
For Post cover goes to, select Direct link.
Select Category and find the category you made, then select Link and choose your Homeroom SSO link.
Select Save.
Test it
Test with a real parent account. Sign in to your Blackbaud portal as a parent who already has a Homeroom account and select the tile. You should land in Homeroom already logged in.
If you would rather test without a parent's credentials, Blackbaud lets a platform manager impersonate one:
Go to Core > Security > Authentication settings > SSO Settings and select edit on the Homeroom row.
Check Allow Impersonate and save.
Use the persona menu to view the portal as a parent, then select the tile.
Uncheck Allow Impersonate when you are done testing.
If you select the tile as a staff member or admin who does not have a Homeroom account, you will see a message saying the account was not found. That is expected, and it is not a sign that something is broken.
A few things to know
Accounts are matched by email address. A family's Blackbaud email has to match the email on their Homeroom account. If a parent changes their email in Blackbaud, they should use the new one for Homeroom too.
Password resets go through your school. Homeroom cannot reset a Blackbaud password. Families use the "Forgot password?" link on the Blackbaud sign-in screen.
Homeroom accounts are not created automatically. Someone who selects the tile without a Homeroom account sees a message saying their account was not found. We can turn on automatic account creation, but we generally recommend against it: it creates accounts that are not attached to a family, which surprises people later. Use a real parent account to test instead.
This is separate from data sync. Connecting Blackbaud for rosters and attendance is a different setup. See Organizer: Connecting Blackbaud to Homeroom. You can do either one, or both.
Homeroom creates the configuration, you finish the setup. There is no self-serve way to create an SSO configuration yet, so both options start with an email to us. After that, the secret key is yours to manage in Setup > Integrations.
Troubleshooting
A parent enters their email but never sees the Blackbaud button
Their email domain is probably not the one we configured, or they are using a personal address such as gmail.com instead of the address the school has on file. Send them https://www.homeroom.com/login/<your-school-domain>. If that still does not work, email hello@homeroom.com with the parent's email address.
"Account not found" after selecting the tile
That person does not have a Homeroom account under the email address Blackbaud sent us. For a parent, check that the email on their Blackbaud record matches the one on their Homeroom account. For a staff member or admin testing the tile, this message is expected.
The tile opens Homeroom but does not sign anyone in
Check the RedirectUrl on your SSO entry in Blackbaud against the redirect URL shown in Setup > Integrations. It has to match, and it has to end with the {token} placeholder, curly braces included. Also confirm the slug in your resource board link matches the slug shown next to the Homeroom entry on the SSO Settings screen.
Everyone gets an error when they select the tile
The secret key saved in Homeroom may not match the one in Blackbaud. Copy the Secret Key from the Homeroom row in Blackbaud again, then paste it into Secret key in the Blackbaud SSO panel and save, making sure you selected the whole value.
Some people can use the tile and others cannot
Check Allow All Roles on the SSO entry. If it is cleared, only the roles you selected can use the tile.
Blackbaud says the credentials are invalid
That is a Blackbaud login issue rather than a Homeroom one. Have them reset their password through your school portal.
Still stuck
Email hello@homeroom.com with a screenshot of the error and the parent's email address, and we will help you sort it out.