Blackbaud Wraps Milestone bbcon, the Premier Tech Gathering for Social Good
In its 20th year, bbcon welcomed a record number of attendees, hosted hundreds of innovative sessions and celebrated radical collaboration across the social good ecosystem
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; Catherine LaCour, chief marketing officer at Blackbaud; Kevin McDearis, executive vice president and chief products officer at Blackbaud; and Mary Beth Westmoreland, chief technology 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.
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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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