Jay Odell Takes Helm of Blackbaud's Enterprise Nonprofit Unit

For more than three decades, Blackbaud has been the leading global provider of nonprofit solutions, serving both emerging and enterprise nonprofits, including Susan G. Komen, American Cancer Society and American Red Cross. The company's vertical solutions for the nonprofit sector span fundraising and CRM, marketing, advocacy, peer-to-peer fundraising, ticketing, grantmaking, financial management, payment processing, analytics and more.

Previously, the company's strategy, operating models, offerings and customer experience practices for large nonprofits were directed out of various groups. With Odell's appointment, Blackbaud makes a strategic leadership realignment to better support the increased R&D investments, rapid innovation and expanded cloud roadmap that the company is driving in the nonprofit sector. Odell will lead enterprise nonprofit strategy, sales and go to market; and will partner closely with Customer Success, Services and Support to ensure a world class customer experience across the engagement lifecycle. 

"Our enterprise nonprofit community deserves a seasoned executive sponsor who deeply understands and advocates for their needs," said Brian Boruff, president of Blackbaud's Enterprise Markets Group. "Over the last 13 years, Jay has worked closely with thousands of nonprofit organizations and led teams to build innovative solutions that exceeded their expectations. He is deeply committed to helping nonprofits expand their mission impact, and as such, the sector can expect continued strides in the Blackbaud partnership experience."

Odell was recruited to Blackbaud to build and lead its first product management organization in 2004. Under his leadership the company significantly expanded its product portfolio in the U.S. and internationally into non-English-speaking countries. In his most recent product management leadership role, Odell served as vice president over Blackbaud's CRM, financial and analytics solution portfolios; during which he led the creation and commercialization of the company's flagship cloud solutions, Raiser's Edge NXT™ and Financial Edge NXT™.

Also, as a vice president in Blackbaud's General Markets Business Unit from 2010-2014, Odell was responsible for building the nonprofit arts and cultural vertical into a high growth business (across sales, marketing, services and support) while introducing new solutions, like Altru™, to meet the highly specialized needs of this audience. As part of his new leadership role serving enterprise nonprofits, Odell will explore new opportunities to establish specialized offerings and solutions to better serve additional nonprofit verticals.

Prior to Blackbaud, Odell directed strategy, business development, product management and product marketing for FreeMarkets, Inc. (acquired in 2004 by Ariba, which was later acquired by SAP), and was instrumental in driving both the company's impressive four-year growth from $13 million to over $150 million and international expansion. Odell also served as an engagement manager at McKinsey & Company where he did merger and acquisition work and consulted with companies seeking to create new businesses within the technology market. Odell has a Master of Business Administration Degree from Dartmouth College, as well as a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering and Bachelor of Arts Degree in Computer Science from Rice University.

"The nonprofit landscape is changing at record pace, and leading organizations are discovering the powerful role that connected, intelligent cloud solutions can play in increasing funding and engagement, driving operational effectiveness, and supporting mission delivery," said Odell. "Our priority is to continue innovating in these areas while delivering remarkable time to value and ROI. Every organization's next great mission accomplishment is within reach, and we're investing even more in the solutions and experiences that get them there."

This announcement comes just days after Blackbaud and Microsoft announced plans to strengthen their strategic partnership to digitally transform the nonprofit sector. For more information about Blackbaud, visit www.blackbaud.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, corporations, education institutions, healthcare institutions and individual change agents—Blackbaud connects and empowers organizations to increase their impact through 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.

Media Contact 
Nicole McGougan                                                                      
Public Relations Manager                                  
843.654.3307                                        
[email protected]                   

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.

SOURCE Blackbaud, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.blackbaud.com