CHARLESTON, S.C., Oct. 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/
-- Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB), the world's leading cloud
software company powering social good, concluded its
20th annual premier tech gathering for organizations and
change agents driving social good, bbcon 2019, which took place
October 15-17 at the Gaylord Opryland
Resort & Convention Center in Nashville, TN. The three‑day tech conference
welcomed over 3,000 attendees, breaking the record as the most
well‑attended bbcon to date, who discussed the latest trends and
innovations driving the social good community forward. At bbcon,
Blackbaud also announced more than 80 product and innovation
updates.
bbcon kicked off with a keynote address from four-time
Emmy® award-nominated actress and humanitarian
Connie Britton, who shared her
experience and passion from her starring roles and efforts as a
United Nations Development Programme Goodwill Ambassador. Attendees
also heard from other featured speakers, including Save the
Children president and chief operating officer, Janti Soeripto, who
discussed how to drive change through empathy, data and
collaboration; Anthony Signorelli
from the Ad Council; Dorri
McWhorter, YWCA Metropolitan Chicago; Mike Gianoni, president and CEO of Blackbaud;
Mary Beth Westmoreland, chief
technology officer at Blackbaud; and Catherine LaCour, chief marketing officer at
Blackbaud. Additionally, bbcon hosted more than 300 expert-led
sessions.
Expanding the Ecosystem of Good®:
Blackbaud's vision is to power an Ecosystem of Good that builds a
better world. That vision was celebrated and brought to life
throughout the three-day event through key announcements and
activations that will expand the Ecosystem, such as:
Microsoft and Blackbaud deepening their
integrations:
At this year's bbcon, Blackbaud and Microsoft
announced their continued investment to further connect Blackbaud's
industry-leading solutions with Microsoft's tools for
transformative productivity, collaboration, automation and
insights. This reaffirmed commitment to digitally transform the
social good community comes on the heels of the Integrated Cloud
Initiative for Nonprofits™, which was announced at last year's
conference.
Blackbaud and Microsoft are integrating their platforms by
creating connectors that make it simpler to connect Blackbaud
solutions with applications on Microsoft's Power Platform and in
Office 365.
Together, they also highlighted the recent Microsoft 365
Business for Nonprofits offer where nonprofits can accelerate their
digital transformation by obtaining Microsoft 365 Business with up
to 10 seats donated, and then pay just $5 per additional user per month.
"Microsoft and Blackbaud are deepening our integrations to
unleash the power of data and drive digital transformation for
social good organizations," said Justin
Spelhaug, General Manager, Microsoft Philanthropies Tech for
Social Impact. "Through our continued investment and innovation in
connected platforms, we're breaking down barriers to enable
nonprofits to focus on what matters most – pursuing their mission
and creating meaningful change in the world."
Continued growth and momentum across Blackbaud's
comprehensive cloud solutions:
Earlier this week, Blackbaud
announced the general availability of its groundbreaking Blackbaud
Church Management™ solution, which is already transforming the
church technology landscape, and the continued expansion and growth
of its Cloud Solution for Faith Communities. Blackbaud now serves
churches in more than half of all 50 U.S. states through Blackbaud
Church Management, representing congregations of all different
sizes and spanning more than 10 denominational
backgrounds.
Also, at bbcon, Blackbaud welcomed nearly 900 attendees from the
higher education community, who heard firsthand about enhancements
to Blackbaud's Cloud Solution for Higher Education, including the
continued growth of the Blackbaud Education Management portfolio
and the introduction of Blackbaud's talent management capabilities.
Blackbaud's talent management capabilities provide the first online
performance tracking tool for fundraising leaders and managers,
enabling transparency, proactive management and peer officer
benchmarking.
Blackbaud's new initiative focused on social good tech
startups:
As part of its commitment to strengthening the
social good tech community, Blackbaud is working with One Million by One
Million (1Mby1M) to launch the Social Good Start-up
Challenge focused on tech startups on a mission to solve the
problems that matter to the social good community. Blackbaud will
sponsor emerging startup leaders in a tech accelerator to provide
access to training and networking, creating new pathways to connect
in the Ecosystem of Good. Blackbaud will also provide opportunities
for funding to some of the most promising startups. Applications
are now open.
The Explorer by The Blackbaud Institute:
The
Blackbaud Institute unveiled The Explorer, the premier online
knowledge base for information and statistics about social good.
The Explorer gives users the ability to easily and quickly search
and access the social good statistics and best practices that
matter to them by pulling the latest data and trends from the
sector's most credible sources. The content is regularly updated
and is available free to the public as part of Blackbaud's
give‑back philosophy.
Blackbaud recognizes partner technology for exceptional
leadership and innovation:
On the eve of bbcon, Blackbaud
announced Doing Good Digital, LLC as its 2019 Fundraising Channel
Partner of the Year, Capital Business Solutions as its 2019 FinTech
Channel Partner of the Year and VolunteerHub as its 2019 ISV
Partner of the Year. Every year, Blackbaud recognizes its partners
that demonstrate exceptional leadership and innovation as part of
the Blackbaud Partner Network. The Blackbaud Partner Network is a
group of leading technology and services firms providing the social
good community with the solutions, applications, and strategies
they need to make a difference in their local communities and
worldwide.
bbcon 2019 Gives Back
To thank Nashville for being the host city of this
landmark bbcon, Blackbaud made a donation to the Second Harvest
Food Bank of Middle Tennessee. Additionally, attendees took part in
a give back pop-up project, where they packed backpacks, which will
be given to underserved children in the region.
Voices of bbcon 2019
"bbcon provides institutions a
great opportunity to network with peers and industry experts while
catching up on the latest trends," said Larissa Riggins Kelly, senior director of
advancement services, Clemson
University. "The session topics covered, like learning about
the innovations being delivered in Blackbaud CRMTM, are
invaluable to Clemson and enrich
our strategy throughout the year."
"Our team comes to bbcon not only to be alongside people that
are likeminded and engaged and enthusiastic about fundraising and
social good, we come to grow as an organization," Linda Rodriguez, director of development,
Alpha-1 Foundation.
"First and foremost, bbcon is a conference that is full of
incredible information," said Scott
Blair, director of information systems, Gonzaga College High School in Washington, D.C. "We also get to network with
peers and meet all these wonderful people from other schools, who
are doing the same things you are doing."
Watch expert interviews with Blackbaud executives, customers and
special guests on Blackbaud's YouTube channel.
bbcon 2020 Planned for the Emerald City
Next year,
Blackbaud will host bbcon 2020 on October
6-8, 2020 at the Washington
State Convention Center in Seattle, Washington. Registration is open now
at a discounted early rate at bbconference.com.
About Blackbaud
Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB) is the
world's leading cloud software company powering social good.
Serving the entire social good community—nonprofits, foundations,
companies, education institutions, healthcare organizations and
individual change agents—Blackbaud connects and empowers
organizations to increase their impact through cloud software,
services, expertise and data intelligence. The Blackbaud portfolio
is tailored to the unique needs of vertical markets, with solutions
for fundraising and CRM, marketing, advocacy, peer-to-peer
fundraising, corporate social responsibility, school management,
ticketing, grantmaking, financial management, payment processing
and analytics. Serving the industry for more than three decades,
Blackbaud is headquartered in Charleston,
South Carolina, and has operations in the United States, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit
www.blackbaud.com or follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn,
Instagram and Facebook.
Media Inquiries
media@blackbaud.com
Forward-looking Statements
Except 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 expected benefits of 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.
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SOURCE Blackbaud