Gaining Clarity About K–12 Software: Why Blackbaud Outperforms the Rest

After more than four decades in K–12 education, financial management, and fundraising, Blackbaud understands that software should help teachers spend more time with students and staff spend more time on meaningful work. From alleviating mundane tasks via strategic automation to providing accurate, consistent data and deep insights, Blackbaud’s Total School Solution empowers your school by connecting all of your core operations in one holistic system.

With Blackbaud, each user has a single secure login with role-based access to everything they need. School leaders get a holistic view of enrollment, academic, and financial data; teachers have all student information in one place; students have one login for all assignments and resources; and families use one portal to sign enrollment contracts, pay bills, and check schedules and grades.

The Faculty and Staff Experience

Consider the human costs of having to import and export data, use multiple logins, or manage contracts and integrations with multiple vendors. What time and money could you save by using a single, unified software system?

Blackbaud connects your entire school on one platform. Other vendors outsource key functions—like an outside SIS or LMS for student records or an accounting solution built for corporations. When software isn’t fully integrated and designed for your school’s specific needs, you get disconnected systems, more opportunity for data breaches, inconsistent reporting, time-consuming integration management, and the hassle of juggling multiple vendors.

Other Benefits of Choosing Blackbaud

• Deeper Insights: Connected systems provide powerful, accurate, cross-departmental reporting to guide decision-making, budgeting, and strategic planning
• Extensibility: Our SKY API extends functionality through secure connections with 50+ vetted partners for specialized solutions such as lunch, summer camps, student health, and more
• Expertise: More than 120 team members—many of whom worked in private schools prior to Blackbaud—and 16+ Advisory Board members are dedicated exclusively to our K–12 customers
• Peer Collaboration: 5,000+ private and independent schools trust Blackbaud and are active in our online K–12 Community, collaborating, sharing ideas, asking questions, and influencing our product development
• Ongoing Support: One vendor means a centralized support system including in-person implementation, a Customer Success Manager, phone and chat support, on-demand training videos, and even an AI-assisted search of our online knowledgebase
• Enhanced Cybersecurity: Blackbaud’s Defense-in-Depth strategy includes top-tier certifications, dark web monitoring, insider threat detection, email security controls, and risk-based infrastructure management

While sleek new interfaces, lower up-front costs, or waived fees may be tempting, adopting disconnected products can mean sacrificing the robust connectivity required to optimize your school operations and revenue streams. It can also mean incurring additional costs as you try to supplement the functionality your school truly needs. Use the checklist on the next page to compare other vendors to Blackbaud’s robust capabilities.

The Family Experience

Here are some of the benefits families experience in a fully connected system:

• Integrated Data Flow: Families only have to enter information once. Upon acceptance, the data from their initial application seamlessly transfers to the enrollment contract and populates the tuition payment portal

• Streamlined Financial Aid Processing: Financial aid awards appear on the integrated contracts and as discounts in tuition and accounting systems

• Simplified Payment and Record Creation: Student records are automatically generated in the SIS and LMS when invoices are paid

• Single Secure Login: Each family member uses one login from start to f inish—accommodating split family scenarios, enhancing convenience, and reducing password confusion

• Continuous Recordkeeping: Student and family information remains within a core system, following the student’s journey from enrollment through graduation and into alum status, populating the school’s fundraising CRM