Blackbaud's Luminate Online Catapults Nonprofits' Digital Marketing and Fundraising Efforts

CHARLESTON, S.C., Jan. 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Blackbaud, Inc. (NASDAQ: BLKB), the world's leading cloud software company powering social good, today announced that customers using Luminate Online™, its digital marketing solution, are reporting some of the industry's strongest digital fundraising results.  

Luminate Online, delivered in the cloud, helps customers grow digital constituent engagement and fundraising efforts by providing the tools needed to build sustainable donor relationships and online fundraising campaigns. "Blackbaud is the backbone to our online giving; they provide the solutions that best support our digital fundraising efforts," said Cyndi Zagieboylo, president and CEO, National Multiple Sclerosis Society. "We've been using Luminate Online, among other solutions, for over a decade and consider Blackbaud a vital partner in our effort to help people living with MS and to end MS forever."

While other industry reports show a continued decrease in the effectiveness of email marketing for fundraising, Blackbaud customers saw positive growth during their end-of-year campaigns, defined as the last three days of the year. Specifically, customers saw a 4 percent year-over-year increase in return-on-investment, as measured by dollars raised per email sent, with their email campaigns. "Our end-of-year campaign incorporated several of Blackbaud's Luminate Online components and we anticipate results to be up more than 25 percent from 2015," said Matt Keller, database administrator at Riley Children's Foundation. "We used the email tools to send targeted messaging at specific giving levels, as well as combined a separate online giving page with the survey tool to solicit hospital employees. The tools worked flawlessly and the increase in funds generated to help the kids at Riley Hospital was an incredible end to our year."

Powered by Blackbaud SKY™, the company's modern, integrated and open cloud, Blackbaud customers are leveraging the power of integrated business intelligence with SKY Reporting™ and bucking industry trends. "It's exciting to see the full impact of how our advanced cloud solutions are helping customers create dynamic end-of-year digital fundraising campaigns," said Kevin McDearis, Blackbaud's chief products officer. "Our Luminate Online solution allows key donor data to be translated into actionable campaigns that are getting bigger results than we're seeing in the overall industry."

A diverse set of organizations, such as Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Canine Companions for Independence^® and Hydrocephalus Association, agree that Blackbaud has the right solutions to help advance their missions. "As a former Blackbaud legacy solution customer, we transitioned to Luminate Online as part of a recent decision to upgrade our financial, development and CRM products, with the goal of improving our effectiveness across all programs," said Diana Gray, chief executive officer of Hydrocephalus Association. "Not only did we determine that Blackbaud provides the best solutions in the nonprofit space, we were genuinely impressed by Blackbaud's attention to customer service. Our executive sponsor visited with us personally to better understand our needs, and our customer success manager has been a highly responsive, tremendous asset to us. We believe we have the best tools and resources available for nonprofits through Blackbaud."

For more information about Luminate Online, visit www.blackbaud.com/online-marketing/luminate-online. Learn more about the nonprofit industry's latest online engagement trends by downloading the 2016 Luminate Online Benchmark Report.

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.

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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. 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.

SOURCE Blackbaud, Inc.

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