Blackbaud (NASDAQ:BLKB), the leading provider of software and
services for the global philanthropic community, today announced
that six next generation solutions are now powered by Blackbaud
SKY™, the company’s modern, integrated and open cloud. New
solutions and nearly 1000 functionality updates have been made
available to customers since the company announced Blackbaud SKY
just months ago at its annual conference.
“Our goal was to design an unprecedented open
cloud that delivers an ongoing stream of innovation and other
benefits to customers, including better time-to-value, increased
returns, greater choice and flexibility, and a compelling user
experience,” said Mike Gianoni, president and CEO of Blackbaud.
“We’re pleased that within months of announcing our new cloud, both
customers and partners are seeing value from the deep investments
we’ve made to deliver Blackbaud SKY.”
Blackbaud SKY brings together an unparalleled
set of capabilities that power an ecosystem of good™. Designed
exclusively for the global philanthropic community, Blackbaud’s new
cloud combines infrastructure, processes and pre-integrated
services (like payments, analytics, email, online donations and
more) to deliver total solutions that help customers achieve their
highest potential—all with industry-leading security, scale and
performance. Blackbaud SKY also includes SKY UX™ for a consistent,
always-modern user experience, and SKY API™, which offers
industry-standard open REST APIs that allow customers, application
developers and partners to customize or extend
functionality.
Six Solutions, Nearly 1,000 Updates, Thousands of
Customers Powered by Blackbaud SKY
The majority of Blackbaud’s customers already
use at least one of its cloud solutions or services. Due to
Blackbaud’s rapid innovation framework, within just six months of
its debut, more than one-third of Blackbaud’s customers are already
benefiting from Blackbaud SKY’s industry-leading capabilities.
Today, Blackbaud SKY is the foundation for many
of the company’s next generation solutions. Both Blackbaud’s NXT
Solution Line, which includes smart cloud fundraising and
relationship management with Raiser’s Edge NXT™ and best-in-class,
trustworthy cloud accounting with Financial Edge NXT™, and
Blackbaud Outcomes™, a transformational cloud solution which
quantifies the measurable impact of social investments for both
funders and nonprofits, are two examples of this. Among other
capabilities, Blackbaud’s cloud is getting high marks for
pre-integrated services—such as the built-in
analytics that analyze information and prescribe next steps to help
nonprofits boost fundraising and supporter engagement.
- “We really needed the power, flexibility, and expanded features
of Raiser’s Edge NXT. It’s going to make it easier on my team,”
said Amy Good, senior director of development, Habitat for Humanity
of Dane County. “We never realized how many ‘gems’ were hiding in
our donor database until we looked at the potential of Raiser’s
Edge NXT’s wealth ratings and wealth analytics.”
Givalanche™, a recently launched cloud service
that supports viral social fundraising while allowing donors to
track the total value of fundraising through their networks, is
just another example of the many new services Blackbaud engineers
are designing to be pre-integrated within Blackbaud solutions as
part of Blackbaud SKY.
Thousands of customers are benefiting from
Blackbaud’s new common, modern user experience with SKY UX, which
offers customizable, role-based views; with access to Blackbaud’s
Knowledgebase and other resources directly from within the
solution. AngelPoints™, Blackbaud’s integrated cloud solution for
employee giving and volunteering, and eTapestry® , which offers
simple fundraising management for small and growing nonprofits, are
two recent next generation solutions that transitioned to SKY UX.
Also, many Blackbaud partners are already taking advantage of SKY
UX—by leveraging a rich open source library of components that is
publicly available through GitHub—in their own development efforts,
allowing customers to have the same modern and compelling user
experience across their entire solution portfolio.
- “The new AngelPoints dashboard will allow us to present dynamic
content further engaging our employees in our corporate volunteer
efforts. The flexibility of the dashboard along with its updated
design improves our employees’ user experience, making it easier
for them to find events and sign-up,” said Gary Levante, community
engagement officer at Berkshire Bank. “There is no doubt that this
new enhancement will help us deepen engagement while driving
participation in our service activities. We simply could not have
achieved the success or impact we’ve had with our volunteer efforts
without a strong technology platform in place like
AngelPoints.”
Blackbaud’s industry standard, open REST
APIs are already in an early technology preview with
partners, and are receiving strong preliminary feedback in the
areas of ease-of-use and product immersion.
- “Blackbaud’s initial set of modern APIs allowed us to
develop an integration with Raiser’s Edge NXT in a matter of days,”
said Wadih Pazos, senior vice president of
Products, PaperSave. “The APIs were self-descriptive, and the
documentation and code samples helped us understand exactly how to
use each endpoint…We are hooked!”
Blackbaud customers are also applauding the
rapid innovation, which puts frequent updates at
their fingertips and ensures they are always experiencing the best
capabilities available.
- “The change-overs for upgrades in eTapestry are seamless, and
the walkthrough of all the changes is really helpful in outlining
the new benefits and features that we are able to take advantage
of,” said Mark Zurawinski, fundraising coordinator for Red Door
Family Shelter. “I’m confident that Blackbaud has all the bases
covered when it comes to any kind of upgrade. Similar to the
Facebook experience, we don’t have to worry what version we’re on
or lose uptime to get enhancements—Blackbaud handles it for
us.”
“Blackbaud SKY is light years ahead of its
competitors thanks to its open, modern and secure service-oriented
architecture—it has enabled a level of scalability, availability
and continuous updates the philanthropic sector has not yet seen
from a software and service provider,” said Mary Beth Westmoreland,
Blackbaud’s chief technology officer. “We can now light up new
capabilities for customers at breakneck speed without disruption,
which puts the latest innovation in their hands the instant it’s
ready. The innovation to date with our new cloud is just the tip of
the iceberg—we are on a path to make Blackbaud SKY the foundation
for 100 percent of our next generation solutions. As a matter of
fact, development for the next generation of our Luminate Online™
solution is already in our early adopter program and on track for
general availability in 2017.”
Customers are not the only group highlighting
the impact of Blackbaud’s new cloud delivery model. An independent
commissioned Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study conducted by
Forrester Consulting on behalf of Blackbaud found that an
investment in (Blackbaud SKY-powered) Raiser’s Edge NXT can provide
nonprofit customers with positive ROI, cost savings and other
benefits. Specifically, the study showed that one nonprofit
customer achieved a 181% ROI, a four-month payback period, and
other incremental benefits.
Blackbaud SKY is powering innovation at cloud
pace and gaining attention from industry leaders like Microsoft.
“Today’s announcement is evidence that Blackbaud not only
successfully transitioned to the cloud, but has emerged as a leader
in cloud delivery for the philanthropic space,” said Larry
Orecklin, vice president and chief evangelist, Developer
Experience, Microsoft Corp. “We are pleased to have Blackbaud among
the top ranks of the Microsoft Azure ISV ecosystem.”
Westmoreland added, “Blackbaud SKY gives us a
remarkable foundation to architect a new, consistent, and open
generation of cloud solutions that seamlessly integrate via a
common user experience and open REST API’s, while allowing third
party developers to do the same. Blackbaud’s cloud is powering the
future of philanthropy.”
For more information about Blackbaud’s modern
cloud solutions, visit www.Blackbaud.com.
About BlackbaudServing the
worldwide philanthropic community for 35 years, Blackbaud
(NASDAQ:BLKB) combines innovative software, services,
and expertise to help organizations achieve their missions.
Blackbaud works in over 60 countries to power the passion of
approximately 35,000 customers, including nonprofits, K-12 private
and higher education institutions, healthcare organizations,
corporations, foundations, and other charitable
giving entities. The company offers a full spectrum of cloud
and on-premise solutions, as well as a resource network that
empowers and connects organizations of all sizes.
Blackbaud's portfolio of software and services
supports nonprofit fundraising and relationship management,
eMarketing, advocacy, accounting, payments and analytics, as well
as grant management, corporate social responsibility, and
education. Organizations use Blackbaud technology to raise, invest,
manage, and award more than $100 billion each year. Recognized as a
top company, Blackbaud is headquartered in Charleston, South
Carolina and has operations in the United States, Australia,
Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. For more information,
visit www.blackbaud.com.
Forward-looking
StatementsExcept for historical information, all of the
statements, expectations, and assumptions contained in this news
release are forward-looking statements that involve a number of
risks and uncertainties, including statements regarding the
introduction of new products and product features, as well as the
expected benefits of the new products and product features.
Although Blackbaud attempts to be accurate in making these
forward-looking statements, it is possible that future
circumstances might differ from the assumptions on which such
statements are based. In addition, other important factors that
could cause results to differ materially include the following:
general economic risks; uncertainty regarding increased business
and renewals from existing customers; continued success in sales
growth; management of integration of acquired companies and other
risks associated with acquisitions; risks associated with
successful implementation of multiple integrated software products;
the ability to attract and retain key personnel; risks associated
with management of growth; lengthy sales and implementation cycles,
particularly in larger organization; technological changes that
make our products and services less competitive; and the other risk
factors set forth from time to time in the SEC filings for
Blackbaud, copies of which are available free of charge at the
SEC’s website at www.sec.gov or upon request from Blackbaud's
investor relations department. All Blackbaud product names
appearing herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of
Blackbaud, Inc.
Media Contact
Nicole McGougan
Public Relations
843-654-3307
nicole.mcgougan@blackbaud.com
Blackbaud (NASDAQ:BLKB)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jun 2024 to Jul 2024
Blackbaud (NASDAQ:BLKB)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jul 2023 to Jul 2024