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Blackbaud (
NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...
:BLKB) is a
cloud computing Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage (cloud storage) and computing power, without direct active management by the user. Large clouds often have functions distributed over multip ...
provider that serves the social good community— nonprofits, foundations, corporations, education institutions, healthcare organizations,
religious organization Religious activities generally need some infrastructure to be conducted. For this reason, there generally exist religion-supporting organizations, which are some form of organization that manages: * the upkeep of places of worship, such as ...
s, and individual change agents. Its products focus on fundraising, website management, CRM, analytics, financial management, ticketing, and education administration. Blackbaud's flagship product is a fundraising SQL database software, Raiser's Edge. Revenue from the sale of Raiser's Edge and related services accounted for thirty percent of Blackbaud's total revenue in 2012. Other products and services include Blackbaud Enterprise CRM, Altru, Financial Edge, Education Edge, Blackbaud NetCommunity, eTapestry, Luminate Online, Luminate CRM, Friends Asking Friends. In addition, Blackbaud offers consultancy services to nonprofit organizations. Blackbaud was founded in 1981 by Anthony Bakker. The company is headquartered in
Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint ...
. It has regional offices in
Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous cit ...
;
Plano, Texas Plano ( ) is a city in Collin County and Denton County, Texas, United States. It had a population of 285,494 at the 2020 census. It is a principal city of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. History European settlers came to the area near ...
; St. Paul, Minnesota; and
Bedford, New Hampshire Bedford is a town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. At the 2020 census, the population was 23,322, reflecting a growth of 10% from 2010. Bedford is a suburb of Manchester, New Hampshire's largest city. History In 1733, the P ...
. Internationally, Blackbaud has offices in
London, England London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a ma ...
;
Sydney, Australia Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and List of cities in Oceania by population, Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metro ...
and Glasgow, Scotland. Michael Gianoni is Blackbaud's
CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especiall ...
.


History

Blackbaud's history traces back to 1981, when Blackbaud founder Anthony Bakker developed a computerized billing system for the
Nightingale-Bamford School The Nightingale-Bamford School is an independent all-female university-preparatory school founded in 1920 by Frances Nicolau Nightingale and Maya Stevens Bamford. Located in Manhattan on the Upper East Side, Nightingale-Bamford is a member of t ...
in
Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
,
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. By 1982, Bakker's expanded client list allowed him to quit his day job as a banker and he incorporated Blackbaud Microsystems. Bakker's new company was headquartered in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. Blackbaud's first product was Student Billing, an accounts receivable system geared toward private grade schools. The company's flagship product, The Raiser's Edge, was developed from its Student Billing product. The company had 75 employees in 1989, when it decided to relocate from New York City due to high operational costs. Blackbaud relocated to
Mount Pleasant, South Carolina Mount Pleasant is a large suburban town in Charleston County, South Carolina, United States. In the Low Country, it is the fourth largest municipality and largest town in South Carolina, and for several years was one of the state's fastest-growing ...
, with the help of a $750,000 business loan. Of the company's original 75 employees, 30 remained in a support and training office in New York City and 15 relocated to Blackbaud's new South Carolina headquarters. In 1992, the company outgrew its Mount Pleasant headquarters and relocated to
North Charleston, South Carolina North Charleston is the third-largest city in the state of South Carolina.City Planning Department (2008-07)City of North Charleston boundary map. City of North Charleston. Retrieved January 21, 2011. On June 12, 1972, the city of North Charlest ...
. In 1994, Blackbaud converted its software offerings from
DOS DOS is shorthand for the MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS family of operating systems. DOS may also refer to: Computing * Data over signalling (DoS), multiplexing data onto a signalling channel * Denial-of-service attack (DoS), an attack on a communicatio ...
to
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. This decision led to a sales increase from $19 million in 1995 to $26 million in 1996. During this time Blackbaud acquired multiple
DOS DOS is shorthand for the MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS family of operating systems. DOS may also refer to: Computing * Data over signalling (DoS), multiplexing data onto a signalling channel * Denial-of-service attack (DoS), an attack on a communicatio ...
-based competitors, including ACOMS of
Burlington, Massachusetts Burlington is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 26,377 at the 2020 census. History It is believed that Burlington takes its name from the English town of Bridlington, Yorkshire, but this has never ...
; Master Systems Inc. of
Pinole, California Pinole ( Spanish for "cornmeal") is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States. The population was 18,390 at the 2010 census. History The name derives from " pinole", a Nāhuatl word for a kind of flour made from the seeds ...
; and Blackbaud's "chief challenger", Master Software of
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. Blackbaud's acquisition of Master Software doubled its customer base. Blackbaud began using
value-added reseller A value-added reseller (VAR) is a company that adds features or services to an existing product, then resells it (usually to end-users) as an integrated product or complete " turn-key" solution. This practice occurs commonly in the electronics or IT ...
s in 1998, which further expanded the company's customer base. In 2000, Robert Sywolski became CEO of Blackbaud. Sywolski had previously served as CEO of North American operations for Cap Gemini, an international consulting firm. Blackbaud successfully completed its
initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...
in 2004. Sixteen months later, in November 2005, Marc Chardon replaced Sywolski as Blackbaud CEO. Chardon had previously served as
chief financial officer The chief financial officer (CFO) is an officer of a company or organization that is assigned the primary responsibility for managing the company's finances, including financial planning, management of financial risks, record-keeping, and finan ...
of
Microsoft's Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washingt ...
information worker group, which developed
Microsoft Office Microsoft Office, or simply Office, is the former name of a family of client software, server software, and services developed by Microsoft. It was first announced by Bill Gates on August 1, 1988, at COMDEX in Las Vegas. Initially a market ...
among other products. Blackbaud acquired Campagne Associates in 2006. The company added both Target Software and Target Analysis Group in 2007. Target Software developed large-scale database management solutions while the Target Analysis Group focused primarily on data mining for nonprofits. Later that year, Blackbaud also acquired eTapestry, an online donor management tool. Blackbaud acquired Kintera in 2008. In 2012, the company acquired Convio. In early 2013, Blackbaud announced that CEO Marc Chardon would leave the company by the end of that year. Anthony Boor became Blackbaud's interim
CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especiall ...
in August 2013. Boor joined Blackbaud as the company's
chief financial officer The chief financial officer (CFO) is an officer of a company or organization that is assigned the primary responsibility for managing the company's finances, including financial planning, management of financial risks, record-keeping, and finan ...
in 2011. He was credited with leading Blackbaud's acquisition of Convio. Michael Gianoni was named the new president and CEO for Blackbaud in November 2013. Blackbaud acquired MicroEdge in 2014 for $160 million. MicroEdge was a software provider to foundations, with about 2,000 customers. In October 2017, Blackbaud completed a £95m, about $127.4 million, purchase of
JustGiving JustGiving is a global online social platform for giving. The firm's headquarters are located in Bankside, London. History In 2000, Zarine Kharas and Anne-Marie Huby founded JustGiving, (initially clickforaction.com) a company to provide ...
. In April 2018, Blackbaud acquired Reeher, a St. Paul, Minnesota-based predictive modeling platform for colleges and universities, for $40 million. In January 2019, Blackbaud acquired YourCause, a
software as a service Software as a service (SaaS ) is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. SaaS is also known as "on-demand software" and Web-based/Web-hosted software. SaaS is co ...
(SaaS) provider focused on increasing corporate giving and volunteering for nonprofits and causes.


Cyber attack

In May 2020, Blackbaud fell victim to a
cyber attack A cyberattack is any offensive maneuver that targets computer information systems, computer networks, infrastructures, or personal computer devices. An attacker is a person or process that attempts to access data, functions, or other restricted ...
. Customer data was stolen and Blackbaud paid the criminals a ransom in exchange for "credible confirmation" that the stolen data was deleted. Customers who were affected include at least twenty universities and charities based in the United Kingdom, the United States, the Netherlands and Canada. Blackbaud externally disclosed the incident in July 2020, weeks after the company learned about the attack. Blackbaud received criticism for paying the hackers' ransom and its delay in disclosing the attack, as large data breaches must be reported to data authorities within 72 hours of learning about an incident under European
General Data Protection Regulation The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a European Union regulation on data protection and privacy in the EU and the European Economic Area (EEA). The GDPR is an important component of EU privacy law and of human rights law, in par ...
s. In a September 29, 2020
Form 8-K Form 8-K is a very broad form used to notify investors in United States public companies of specified events that may be important to shareholders or the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. This is one of the most common types of form ...
filing, Blackbaud CFO Tony Boor admitted, contrary to earlier claims, that customer "bank account information, social security numbers, usernames and/or passwords" were compromised.


Criticism

Blackbaud were criticised in the wake of the
Robb Elementary School shooting On May 24, 2022, a mass shooting occurred at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, United States, where 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, a former student at the school, fatally shot nineteen students and two teachers, and wounded seventeen othe ...
for its links with the National Rifle Association.


Products

Blackbaud creates
software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...
that helps nonprofits with Customer Relationship Management (CRM), marketing campaigns, fundraising, finance and accounting, and analytics. The company has three CRM offerings: The Raiser's Edge NXT, Blackbaud CRM and Luminate CRM. Blackbaud CRM is a
web-based A web application (or web app) is application software that is accessed using a web browser. Web applications are delivered on the World Wide Web to users with an active network connection. History In earlier computing models like client-serve ...
platform that is the company's lead offering for larger organizations that need to handle complex tasks. Luminate is Blackbaud's offering for mid-tier
organization An organization or organisation ( Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is an entity—such as a company, an institution, or an association—comprising one or more people and having a particular purpose. The word is derived fro ...
s and is fully integrated with
Salesforce.com Salesforce, Inc. is an American cloud-based software company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It provides customer relationship management (CRM) software and applications focused on sales, customer service, marketing automation, an ...
. Financial Edge NXT is Blackbaud's cloud based fund accounting system designed to integrate seamlessly with The Raiser's Edge NXT fundraising CRM, manage financial reporting/budgeting, monitor and track grant/program success, and support fundraising efforts. In 2022, Blackbaud added Prospect Insights with Raiser's Edge NXT for better fundraising tools in targeting specific donors.


Philanthropy

Blackbaud has an extensive corporate citizenship and philanthropy program. Volunteer for Vacation is an employee initiative, where the company gives paid vacation to employees who participate in volunteer community service. The company's Reward your Passion initiative allows employees to apply for company-funded grants that help a charity of their choice. In 2013, the company expanded its grant program to include locations beyond its
Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint ...
headquarters. Later that year, Blackbaud launched Business Doing Good, a website that is focused on providing information for small and medium-sized businesses to create their own corporate philanthropy programs. The company also hosts volunteer fairs and other community service events throughout the year.


References


External links

* * {{Official website 2004 initial public offerings Business software companies Companies established in 1981 Companies listed on the Nasdaq Customer relationship management software companies Financial software companies Software companies based in South Carolina Software companies of the United States