Blackbaud

Right before the end-of-year fundraising push, Blackbaud's Brandon Granger examined 105 nonprofit websites to glean data on if responsive design raises more money for nonprofit organizations.

A new report exploring Giving Tuesday published by the Giving USA Foundation and researched and written by the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy finds that an estimated total of $45.7 million was raised through five major donation-processing platforms, including $10.8 million offline donations, on #GivingTuesday.

That estimate is based on contributions tracked by five major donation-processing platforms for nonprofits: Blackbaud, DonorPerfect, GlobalGiving, Network for Good and Razoo.

A senior executive is exiting nonprofit fundraising software maker Blackbaud Inc. Joe Moye notified the technology company on Jan. 7 that he is stepping down as president of the enterprise customer business unit effective Jan. 30 for “personal reasons.” Blackbaud disclosed his resignation in a filing Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Moye will remain an employee of the company until March 15 in a transitional capacity.

(Press release, Jan. 5, 2015) — The Blackbaud Index reported that overall charitable giving to nonprofits increased 0.1 percent and online giving increased 4.4 percent for the three months ending November 2014 as compared to the same period in 2013.

Online giving in December rose nearly 13 percent compared with the same month a year earlier, according to a sample of more than 10,000 groups that use the online-donation processor Network for Good. The total for December — $44.1 million — was boosted by particularly strong giving at the very end of the month. Network for Good, an online-giving platform, said it processed $9.9 million in charitable donations on Dec. 31, more than double the amount given on Dec. 30, the next-most lucrative day that month.

(Press release, Dec. 10, 2014) — MicroEdge®, the leading provider of solutions to the giving community worldwide, recently acquired by Blackbaud Inc., announced the release of GIFTS Online® 5.2, a significant update to the leading cloud-based grants management system. With this update, grantmaking organizations gain capacity for more collaborative grantee relationships, an enhanced ability to track and report on their giving, the introduction of new tools for managing scholarships and more.

Charles Huang partnered with two college friends to develop Charitweet, a start-up that simplifies the donation process to just one tweet. Most donations are typically made on charity websites. Then people share separately on social media. This process is a broken experience, Huang said.

With Charitweet, donors write a tweet with any combination of the charity's handle, Charitweet's handle and the donation amount. Without leaving Twitter, someone can donate money, spread awareness about the cause and share efforts with friends, who can retweet a message to also donate.

The University of Cincinnati Foundation nearly doubled the number of gifts it received this Giving Tuesday. Here are the four online giving best practices it gleaned from the campaign.

At a recent Wake Up Your Fundraising Breakfast Panel presented by FundRaising Success and sponsors Blackbaud and Listen Up Espanol, three fundraising professionals joined me in a discussion on maximizing your return on "big data" to enhance fundraising and relationships with donors.

Giving Tuesday showed strong growth on two fronts in 2014. The amount of cash raised increased 64 percent over 2013, according to one estimate. In addition, volunteerism is becoming an important part of the annual charity event.

Nonprofits raised nearly $46 million in connection with this year’s event, according to early estimates by Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, produced in partnership with the Case Foundation. The event raised $28 million last year, according to Lilly.