Why I'm Optimistic About Blackbaud's Acquisition of Convio

By Jeff Shuck

Fourth, there's enough market pressure to control prices. I think the concerns about "monopoly pricing" are vastly overexaggerated, for several reasons. One, if the new Blackbaud prices too high, it's going to encourage many nonprofits to look to low cost and open source alternatives. The strategists at Blackbaud are too smart for that. (And as a side note, to my friends at smaller technology companies — this acquisition is great news for you, too. One of you is going to become the new best alternative.) Two, my sense is that Blackbaud is more concerned about the Salesforces, Oracles and Microsofts of the world than the CiviCRMs. The market will shift, new alternatives will emerge, new standards will be created — but I don't think every NPO CFO needs to reach for the wallet.