Blackbaud Technology Supports COVID-19 Research and Innovation

Blackbaud is supporting key higher education and health care institutions around the world with the technology needed to effectively fundraise for COVID-19 research and essential equipment, including potential vaccine breakthroughs, low-cost ventilator production and methods to treat the virus and slow its spread.

“Throughout the world, many of our customers are on the frontlines of COVID-19 relief and having the cloud software in place to support their missions has never been more critical,” said Mike Gianoni, president and CEO, Blackbaud. “We have been continually amazed by our customers globally and their ingenuity during this time and are proud to support their efforts through reliable and highly effective technology.”

Fundraising for COVID-19 Vaccine Research in Australia

Blackbaud recently helped the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia launch a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign for COVID-19 vaccine research. Blackbaud’s leading peer-to-peer fundraising solutions enable social good organizations to quickly create fundraising campaigns driving current and new supporters to share their passion for an organization’s mission. UQ researchers need to raise $4.5 million in addition to the support they’ve received from the government and philanthropic partners to help them develop a vaccine to end COVID-19.

“We are incredibly grateful for Blackbaud’s support in our efforts to facilitate philanthropic giving to accelerate COVID-19 vaccine development at UQ,” said Jennifer Karlson, pro-vice-chancellor of advancement, University of Queensland. “The technology has been a critical gateway for the UQ community to give to this important cause.”

Learn more about the approach the UQ COVID-19 vaccine researchers are taking to quickly develop and manufacture a vaccine for the world.

Pushing Toward Bioscience Breakthroughs in Manhattan

Within a month, supporters of The Rockefeller University donated more than $16 million for COVID-19 research, a testament to their confidence in the abilities of Rockefeller’s scientists and the relationships the university has built through its advancement team, which relies daily on Blackbaud fundraising and relationship management solutions, including Blackbaud CRM and Blackbaud Internet Solutions. Beyond the total, the speed of the donations has been critical in this moment of world crisis, when time is of the essence, and federal grant funding could take months to secure.

The Manhattan-based university — a research-driven institution that has seen 25 of its scientists receive the Nobel Prize — closed campus early on in the crisis, except for critical operations laboratories, which currently include 20 labs doing COVID-19 research. The labs are not only collaborating with each other but also across the scientific community, and in some cases internationally, to advance ideas to slow the momentum of the pandemic and identify new therapies.

At the same time, Rockefeller’s advancement team members have used Blackbaud cloud-based solutions as they’ve worked remotely to educate their donor network on the university’s COVID-19 research and related needs. This falls in line with the informative way the university seeks to introduce new friends — providing lectures, seminars and community events to build an appreciation of their scientists’ work and the greater institution. While recent events have been canceled, postponed or shifted to virtual gatherings because of the pandemic, supporters have been encouraged to direct their table and ticket purchases to research, and to consider making an additional gift to support COVID-19 research, as well.

Learn more about Rockefeller’s fundraising success in the wake of COVID-19 and donation opportunities.

The Race to Create Lifesaving Ventilators in Canada 

In March, Blackbaud customer, the Montreal General Hospital Foundation and the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Center announced the Code Life Ventilator Challenge, a two-week sprint among engineering and scientific communities to gather the best ideas from around the world to design low-cost and easy to produce emergency ventilators. The challenge received hundreds of submissions from 94 different countries. Nine concepts were selected for an intensive round of testing and three finalists have emerged. The three finalists will receive $200,000, $100,000 and $50,000 CAD in compensation for their design and for sharing it with the world in the fight against COVID-19. Montreal General Hospital Foundation relied on Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT to power the fundraising component that has made this challenge possible. Montreal General Hospital Foundation is currently preparing a second challenge specifically to expedite refinement, cost-reduction and regulatory compliance of the final designs.

Stay up to date on the Code Life Ventilator Challenge by following updates here.

Editor's Note:  This press release was provided by a company unaffiliated with NonProfit PRO. The views expressed within do not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of NonProfit PRO and its staff.