Blackbaud Raises the Bar Again for Social Good at bbcon 2016
Largest R&D investment of its kind sets a new precedent for innovation at the intersection of big data, artificial intelligence, analytics, technology and expertise
CHARLESTON, S.C., Oct. 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Blackbaud, Inc. (NASDAQ: BLKB), the world's leading cloud software company powering social good, kicked off day two of bbcon 2016 with a series of innovation announcements by Chief Products Officer Kevin McDearis and Chief Technology Officer Mary Beth Westmoreland.
Thousands of change agents, including nonprofits, education institutions, foundations and corporations, gathered at bbcon, Blackbaud's annual conference for the social good community, in National Harbor, Maryland, for a three-day event. "At Blackbaud, our vision is to power an ecosystem of good that builds a better world," said McDearis. "That's why we invest more in research and development than anyone in this space and remain committed to rapid and disruptive innovation."
Twelve Months of Rapid Innovation for Social Good
Blackbaud highlighted its focus on three transformative investments for the social good community: its open cloud, its modern approach to engineering and architecture, and its culture of innovation. The company shared many examples of rapid progress made over the last 12 months in those areas, including:
- More than 2,000 enhancements to its cloud portfolio
- More than 12,000 organizations benefiting from its modern user experience, SKY UX™
- New integrations and capabilities launched in every solution category the company offers
More than 40 Product Announcements to Power an Ecosystem of Good
Blackbaud made more than 40 announcements during the conference, including:
The Next Generation of Online Marketing: bbcon attendees were introduced to the next generation of Luminate Online™, Blackbaud's leading online marketing solution. Following a beta program that engaged more than one thousand users, the solution is now generally available. "With Luminate Online, we're reinventing what digital marketing can do for nonprofits in a multi-channel and supporter-centric era," said McDearis. "Robust and nimble campaign management, built-in analytics, powerful SKY Reporting™ and social listening are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of how we're empowering organizations to make more strategic decisions and execute more effective campaigns."
Open, REST APIs: Delivering on its commitment to embrace an open delivery model, the company shared news about its successful early adopter program for SKY API™ and announced it will be generally available in winter of 2016. "We recognize the importance of integrating our solutions with other systems our customers may use, like those that run their back office," said Westmoreland. "As a result, we're making that easy by offering integrations with Salesforce and Microsoft Office in the near future. These integrations are powered by SKY API, which, when coupled with our open-source SKY UX framework, provides developers with a complete solution to support their innovation."
Sustainable Development Goals: Blackbaud also announced it will be building taxonomy for the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (Global Goals) into its solutions, starting with Blackbaud Outcomes™ in early 2017. "The entire sector is moving toward this taxonomy to better gauge and measure the impact of investments in social good," said McDearis. "Imagine the speed at which we, working together, could advance the entire social good movement by integrating this common language across a common technology platform. Blackbaud is paving the way for the technology sector by embracing the Global Goals taxonomy as part of our solution roadmaps."
Expanded Peer-to-Peer Offerings: everydayhero®, Blackbaud's innovative crowdfunding solution, has expanded beyond its consumer-facing capabilities, now offering nonprofits the ability to deploy branded campaigns and implement virtual events. Blackbaud also announced that everydayhero seamlessly integrates with Raiser's Edge NXT™ and eTapestry™ to provide comprehensive access to supporter and fundraising data.
Blackbaud also announced the addition of new, customer- and best-practice inspired capabilities across its entire solution lineup for nonprofits, education institutions, foundations, corporations, and individual change agents:
- Expanded artificial intelligence, analytics and SKY Reporting capacities available today, and continuously growing as part of an innovation roadmap spanning every portfolio category.
- User experience innovations like new dashboards that are live today, and other capabilities planned for winter release including "fundraiser on the go" in Blackbaud CRM™, new workflows for Gifts Online™, a new events module for AngelPoints™ and more.
- New customer-requested enhancements available today include member-only events in Altru™; with others coming soon like guest passes in Altru, check-printing for Financial Edge NXT™ and more.
- New integrations available today like Raiser's Edge NXT with Microsoft OneNote, Luminate Online with Attentive.ly™; and others coming this winter like contracts integration for Onboard™ and Smart Tuition™, new checkout and payment options in various solutions and more.
bbcon 2016 also featured appearances by special guests from industry leaders like Microsoft, who discussed its commitment to securely powering Blackbaud's leading cloud for the social good community.
In conjunction with this morning's main event, Blackbaud will host an onsite Investor Day. More than 75 investors, analysts and financial advisors will gather to hear from President and CEO Mike Gianoni and Chief Financial Officer Tony Boor about Blackbaud's execution against strategic 2016 objectives and its outlook for 2017.
Blackbaud will wrap its third and final day of bbcon 2016 on Friday, featuring special guests, like humanitarian activist Ronan Farrow, and other exciting announcements. Media interested in attending to hear the major announcements during the conference should contact [email protected]. For more information, visit www.bbconference.com. Follow the conference news on Twitter at www.twitter.com/blackbaud or like Blackbaud on Facebook® at www.facebook.com/blackbaud.
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, 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 relationship management, digital marketing, advocacy, accounting, payments, analytics, school management, grant management, corporate social responsibility, and volunteerism. Serving the industry for more than three decades, 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.
Media Contact
Nicole McGougan
Public Relations
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. 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 related to our dividend policy and share repurchase program, including potential limitations on our ability to grow and the possibility that we might discontinue payment of dividends; risks relating to restrictions imposed by the credit facility; 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, Inc.
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