Digicert HCI Blackbaud Luminate SSL Certificate - Jun 22, 2026

Technical Overview & Timeline

Renewal Warning Issued

May 07, 2026

DigiCert sent the initial renewal notice to the internal Point of Contact (Fazil Hussain) highlighting an upcoming expiration date of June 20, 2026.

Blackbaud Escalation

Mid-June 2026

Blackbaud Support (Mary) reached out to notify HCI that organization validation was complete, but domain control validation (DCV) was still pending.

DNS Validation & Approval

June 22, 2026

HCI's IT team deployed the required DigiCert TXT/CNAME token to the public DNS records. DigiCert completed validation and officially approved order #1518277583.

Platform Deployment

June 22, 2026

Blackbaud Support successfully updated the Luminate Online server architecture with the newly issued certificate files, resolving the 2-day gap seamlessly.

The Two-Step SSL Workflow (Historical Record)

Because Luminate Online is a hosted infrastructure, securing the subdomain required a strict split-responsibility workflow:

Phase 1: Domain Control Validation (HCI Responsibility)

To prove to DigiCert that Human Concern International legitimately owns humanconcern.org, the IT team temporary deployed a unique token to our public DNS infrastructure.

• TXT Token: _nmeox57p4pdb2k9xmr4dl1l7uxgdeg7

• CNAME Target: _nmeox57p4pdb2k9xmr4dl1l7uxgdeg7.dcv.digicert.com

Phase 2: Server Deployment (Blackbaud Responsibility)

Because Blackbaud owns and manages the physical and cloud server environments where Luminate Online is hosted, HCI does not have direct access to bind SSL certificates to the network interface. Once DigiCert signed the certificate data, Blackbaud Support had to manually deploy it into their platform configurations to clear the browser security blocks.

📅 Action Items for Future Renewal

Critical Advisory: This certificate has a compressed validity runtime of 199 days. It will expire on January 6, 2027.

To prevent future donation form downtime, set calendar alerts using the schedule below:

• December 1, 2026 (35 Days Out): Verify if DigiCert or Blackbaud has sent an automated renewal intent email to fazil@humanconcern.org.

• December 15, 2026 (21 Days Out): If explicit automated renewal is not flagged, proactively request a new validation token from Blackbaud or via DigiCert Guest Access. Repeat the DNS deployment steps early to ensure zero disruption during the end-of-year giving season.