Blackbaud Expands Commitment to Community Foundations
Charleston, S.C., August 27, 2009 — Blackbaud, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLKB) today announced that an increasing number of community foundations are turning to its solutions to build stronger relationships with donors and professional advisors, improve financial accountability, and enhance their web presence.
The San Diego Foundation, Silicon Valley Community Foundation, Minnesota Community Foundation and The Saint Paul Foundation all recently selected Blackbaud’s Community Foundation Solution including The Financial Edge™ for financial management, The Raiser’s Edge® for donor management, Blackbaud® NetCommunity™ for website management, and Fusion Labs’ GrantedGE® for grant management. Serving all of San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, Silicon Valley Community Foundation has $1.5 billion in assets under management and 1,500 philanthropic funds. The Foundation, which serves as a regional center for philanthropy, provides grants through donor advised and corporate funds in addition to its own community endowment fund. “We went through a very thorough selection process and we found that there was only one truly viable vendor to support our long-term goals, and that was Blackbaud,” said Oris Miller, Silicon Valley Community Foundation’s vice president of information systems. “Blackbaud offered us a comprehensive suite of products and services designed specifically for nonprofits with a solution set geared toward community foundations. In addition to the breadth of functionality, Blackbaud also offers robust support, training, and documentation, which is key to ongoing success.”
Blackbaud also announced participation in two upcoming conferences. Blackbaud will be a supporting exhibitor at The Council on Foundation’s 2009 Fall Conference for Community Foundations on October 5 to 7 in San Antonio, Texas. The company is also participating in the Technology Affinity Group’s 7th Annual Conference on November 9 to 12 in San Antonio, Texas. Allison Van Diest, Blackbaud’s senior product marketing manager will present a session at the event focused on making the most of email marketing.
“It has been a pivotal year for community foundations as they work to optimize their financial and stewardship operations, meet their web objectives, and adapt to their changing roles in the nonprofit sector,” said Marc Chardon, Blackbaud’s chief executive officer. “We too have adapted, expanding our commitment to community foundations through new product releases and partnerships, continually deepening our offering to meet their unique needs.”
Nonprofits are already reaping the rewards of Blackbaud Nonprofit Central™,the company’s recently released online nonprofit database developed for community foundations. Communities Foundation of Texas recently helped raise $4 million for 349 Dallas nonprofit organizations through the platform with its DonorBridge site, far exceeding its expectations. The Foundation hopes to build on that success with another campaign next spring.
Blackbaud also announced that Fusion Labs has joined the Blackbaud Connect Partner Network as a Strategic Application Partner. Fusion Labs GrantedGE and PROFFER™ products are widely-used for grants management, online applications, and scholarships, and are complimentary solutions to Blackbaud’s products.
“Our partnership with Blackbaud has allowed us to utilize our technology expertise to achieve unparalleled integration with our Foundation Marketplace products, resulting in better usability and greatly enhanced customer support,” said Mark Hall, Fusion Labs’ chief business officer. “Fusion Labs is committed to staying in sync with Blackbaud’s product development team to continually expand our combined offering for private, corporate, research, and community-based foundations. The opportunity to work side by side with Blackbaud’s technologists ensures our success in the timely delivery of new features and increased functionality needed to support the evolving needs of these organizations.”
GrantedGE enables foundations to maintain an online grants portal that directly integrates with The Raiser’s Edge. “With the Blackbaud solution, including GrantedGE, we will now be able to offer online grant applications for nonprofits, and empower our donors with personalized information and tools they need to make informed decisions on where to invest their funds—all with less paper, and less data entry,” said Amy Strom, Minnesota Community Foundation and The Saint Paul Foundation’s technology manager.
