Rice University: Designing emails 85% faster

Rice University is a prestigious private university in Houston, Texas, known for its strengths in engineering, architecture, and research collaborations with the Texas Medical Center. At the center of its development and alumni relations efforts is Sonja Fulbright, Owl Connect Business Analyst, who manages Rice’s Blackbaud CRM and supports onboarding, training, and problem-solving across campus.

Tied down by an outdated design system 

Implementing Blackbaud CRM in 2018 was a strategic move to unify data across the university. However, the built-in email platform, Blackbaud Internet Solutions (BBIS), that came along with it quickly became a bottleneck. 

While BBIS allowed access to critical data for segmentation and personalization, its design functionality was outdated. Various schools and departments became heavily reliant on Sonja’s team to manage and design emails. “When our Architecture School came on board and wanted to use our platform, I said, ‘I’ll build the templates, no big deal. I worked six hours in BBIS and only made it through half of one newsletter template. It was like coding a whole website from scratch.”

Sonja remembers that as the moment that finally pushed her to search for an alternative. 

Discovering a better way to design 

Searching for a better solution, Sonja found Beefree and has not looked back since. 

In the same amount of time it took Sonja to design half of one newsletter, she created 8 templates with Beefree. Starting with a free account, she demonstrated its capabilities to colleagues—quickly gaining buy-in across the university. They were particularly impressed by how seamlessly Beefree addressed the core issues they faced with BBIS. Sonja explains:

“This was a really nice solution for us to be able to have incredibly good-looking emails and make them so easy to build and so easy to get the code out. We just drop the source code in, the email goes out, and it translates really well. Things don’t change, things don’t get messy. 

For Rice University, Beefree emerged as the perfect complement to Blackbaud CRM: 

• Segmentation & personalization still lived in Blackbaud CRM, which remained the system of record.
• Email design became fast, modern, and user-friendly with Beefree’s drag-and-drop editor.
• HTML code exported cleanly and could be dropped into BBIS without formatting problems or “proprietary weird stuff.”

“It was a very easy adoption for us, which is great. The fact that it’s not storing any data—that it’s just supporting the design of emails—probably makes it a pretty easy adoption for most universities.”

Enhancing collaboration and brand consistency campus-wide

Beefree not only solved the immediate design bottleneck but also created a collaborative ecosystem across a decentralized campus.

Saved and synced rows specifically transformed campaign workflows and email creation speed. “We have these building blocks, and we can just throw them together in a bunch of different ways, which definitely has made their job a lot easier and made it a lot easier for them to produce.” This flexibility proved especially valuable during Rice’s 24-hour challenge day. By relying on saved rows like standard headers, branded footers, and reusable content blocks, teams were able to build and adapt messages throughout the day. 

“There were 12 email pushes that day, and each one wasn’t just one version of an email, but multiple versions depending on the audience. Doing that in BBIS alone just wasn’t possible. We didn’t have the bandwidth to move that fast or adapt on the fly.”

Sonja emphasized that while her team isn’t the official keeper of Rice’s brand, they still see themselves as good campus partners, encouraging schools and departments to stay aligned with the university’s identity. The ability to lock down assets like logos, colors, and fonts provides just enough structure to ensure brand consistency without requiring constant oversight. 

“That’s the nice thing about Beefree—being able to populate somebody’s library with their logo, colors, and fonts, and say, ‘Here are the brand guidelines. Go forth and build emails.’”

Even departments that run independently benefit from this structure. For instance, Athletics purchased its own Beefree license for five users, yet they can still trade designs back and forth. 

Get started with Beefree and empower your school

Many universities rely on platforms like Blackbaud Internet Solutions to manage communications. While these systems excel at database management, their email functionality often falls short. They weren’t built for designing engaging emails, leaving institutions with limited tools for impactful outreach.

Since adopting Beefree, Rice University has transformed its communications strategy. With intuitive design tools and powerful features, the team now creates visually compelling, professional emails that resonate with alumni and students alike. The result: faster workflows, more consistent branding, and a stronger connection with their community.

If your institution faces similar challenges, it’s time to reimagine your email communications. Try Beefree today and discover how effortless great communication can be.