2025 Winners and Finalists

The Silo Buster Award

Silos never stood a chance at your org.

Recognizes organizations that have broken down silos and increased collaboration for greater impact.

Winner: Alvernia University

Challenge

Alvernia University, a private Franciscan institution in Pennsylvania, was facing significant challenges with siloed data and disconnected engagement strategies. While some Advancement functions were aligned, other essential teams—like alumni relations and grants—operated in separate systems. Across campus, departments such as Career Services, Adult & Graduate Education, and Marketing were engaging with the same external partners but lacked a centralized view of those relationships. This fragmentation led to missed opportunities for coordinated messaging, inefficient stewardship, and redundant systems that increased costs and complexity.

Solution

Under the leadership of President Dr. Glynis Fitzgerald and VP of Institutional Advancement Tom Minick, Alvernia launched a campus-wide transformation centered on collaboration and data transparency. The Advancement Operations team embedded Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT® into the daily workflows of every department within the Advancement division and began offering support to other divisions across campus, creating a shared system for constituent engagement. Raiser’s Edge NXT became the single source of truth for relationship data, with teams contributing real-time updates, tracking grants, managing events, and coordinating outreach. The university also extended Raiser’s Edge NXT capabilities using Microsoft Power Platform and RedArc’s Engagement Tile—automating workflows, building dashboards, and visualizing engagement metrics to support strategic decision-making.

Outcome

Alvernia’s transformation has been profound. The university raised its initial $45 million capital campaign goal mid-campaign due to early momentum and has now exceeded its new $70 million capital campaign goal ahead of schedule, driven by integrated pipeline tracking and unified messaging. Real-time dashboards now inform leadership decisions, and every team contributes to maintaining clean, actionable data. Silos have been replaced with shared goals and integrated processes, fostering a culture of collaboration across Advancement, Marketing, Career Services, and Academic Affairs. Raiser’s Edge NXT is no longer just a tool—it’s the foundation of Alvernia’s cross-functional strategy, enabling the university to deliver on its mission with greater efficiency, alignment, and impact.

Winner: Dexter Southfield

Challenge

Dexter Southfield, a PK–12 independent school in Brookline, MA, was experiencing a breakdown in communication around student enrollments and withdrawals. These changes—often occurring outside of traditional enrollment cycles—weren’t consistently shared across departments, leading to delays in delivering class schedules, technology access, and welcome materials to new families. Meanwhile, families who had withdrawn continued receiving communications, creating confusion and eroding trust. The lack of a unified process for sharing enrollment updates revealed a deeper issue: siloed data management that impacted both internal coordination and the family experience.

Solution

To address this challenge, Dexter Southfield formed a cross-functional Data Committee to identify gaps and design a solution that would be both efficient and empathetic. The result was a fully automated notification system that pulls real-time updates from Blackbaud Education Management and Blackbaud Student Information System™ and, through an integration with Microsoft Power Automate, delivers standardized weekly emails to key stakeholders. These updates include essential details—student name, enrollment or withdrawal date, grade level, and relevant notes—formatted for quick understanding and action and use thoughtful filters to ensure relevance and accuracy.

Outcome

The automation closed a long-standing communication gap and established a new norm for internal coordination. For the first time, all relevant departments—from Operations to College Counseling to division heads and Advancement staff—received consistent, real-time updates. This eliminated confusion, reduced duplicated efforts, and created a more respectful and responsive experience for families. Faculty and staff were no longer caught off guard by unexpected changes, and families experienced smoother transitions—whether arriving at the school or preparing to leave. The initiative brought a new level of cohesion, professionalism, and empathy to a process that had previously been fragmented—setting a new standard for how Dexter Southfield manages sensitive data and cross-departmental communication.

The Data Strategist Award

Data is your not-so-secret weapon.

Recognizes organizations that showcase how data-informed decisions or problem solving have given them a greater edge.

Winner: Capgemini Americas

Challenge

Capgemini Americas, a global leader in business and technology transformation, faced a growing challenge in managing its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives. Despite significant community outreach and people engagement efforts by their business and client teams, CSR efforts were often fragmented, with overlapping events and siloed execution across regions. Employees frequently had to choose between simultaneous volunteer opportunities, and without centralized tracking or standardized metrics, it was difficult to coordinate efforts, scale programs, or measure impact. This lack of visibility limited the organization’s ability to optimize resources, amplify success stories, and foster a unified culture of purpose-driven engagement.

Solution

Capgemini implemented Blackbaud YourCause® CSRconnect® to centralize employee giving and volunteering, streamline regional CSR efforts, and transform how the organization engaged its workforce. Using the platform’s Engagement Elements functionality and targeted campaigns, Capgemini categorized initiatives into thematic buckets aligned with its CSR pillars to enable strategic outreach. This allowed for tailored communications to specific business communities, ensuring that employees received personalized outreach aligned with their interests and team focus. A new centralized calendar of events was also introduced, eliminating scheduling conflicts and providing a single source of truth for volunteer opportunities. The volunteer tracking data in CSRconnect also led to the launch of the CSR Awards, an annual recognition program celebrating outstanding contributions. Capgemini additionally leveraged dashboards in leveraged CSRconnect, Blackbaud YourCause® GrantsConnect®, and Blackbaud Impact Edge® to drive data-informed decision-making across CSR initiatives and evaluate ROI, optimize resource allocation and program design, and understand engagement across business units. Leaders could segment data, empowering them to tailor opportunities and recognize Employee Resource Group (ERG) leaders for their contributions.

Outcome

Through this strategic use of data, Capgemini has seen a cultural shift toward purpose-driven participation. Employee engagement tripled and CSRconnect adoption surged from 24% to 54% of total headcount across the region. The success of the platform in the US and Canada led to a worldwide rollout, with adoption reaching 10% of Capgemini’s global headcount. The team leveraged data insights to inform smarter investment decisions when partnering with nonprofits, optimize program design, and enhance recognition efforts. Capgemini now has a clear roadmap for scaling its CSR impact in the future, with goals to increase CSRconnect usage to 50% of global headcount by 2026, build predictive models to forecast volunteer interest and engagement trends, and establish a global CSR Intelligence Hub that consolidates data from CSRconnect, GrantsConnect, and Impact Edge. Capgemini also plans to personalize engagement through behavioral insights and expand the CSR Awards framework using data to identify high-impact contributors. By integrating CSR metrics into broader ESG and business performance dashboards, Capgemini is demonstrating how social impact contributes to its overall sustainability and business goals.

Winner: Deakin University

Challenge

Deakin University, a leading Australian higher education institution with over 360,000 alumni and supporters, set out to deepen alumni engagement across three strategic pillars: nurturing connection, encouraging contribution, and leading celebration. However, the university faced a significant challenge—how to measure engagement effectively at both the individual and programmatic levels. Without a clear way to quantify alumni involvement, it was difficult to determine which programs were most effective, where to allocate resources, and how to identify and celebrate highly engaged individuals. Deakin needed a scalable, data-driven approach to understand and enhance its alumni relationships.

Solution

To meet this challenge, Deakin’s Information Management and Analytics Team developed a Constituent Affinity Score (CAS), a comprehensive scoring system that evaluates alumni engagement across three dimensions: connection, participation, and philanthropy. Built using data captured in Blackbaud Enterprise Fundraising CRM™, the CAS provides a holistic view of each constituent’s relationship with the university. The score is accessible through individual Blackbaud Enterprise Fundraising CRM records and visualized in daily-refreshed dashboards powered by Microsoft Power BI. This system allows Deakin to validate the success of its programs, identify high-affinity individuals for strategic outreach, elevate relationships with engaged supporters, and focus resources on initiatives that deliver the greatest impact. The CAS also enables the university to track changes in engagement over time and tailor programming based on real-time insights.

Outcome

The CAS has transformed Deakin’s approach to alumni engagement. With a clear, data-informed understanding of its community, the university has been able to design more targeted and effective programs. The CAS has helped uncover new prospects, re-engage high-profile alumni, and analyze engagement patterns prior to first gifts—insights that now inform segmentation strategies and campaign planning. It has also supported the development of a historical view of constituent journeys, enabling proactive engagement strategies. The tool has strengthened collaboration across departments, encouraging data sharing and fostering a more unified view of alumni relationships. Looking ahead, Deakin plans to integrate the CAS into regular giving and bequest campaigns, enhance prospecting strategies, and develop trend visualizations to further refine its engagement efforts. Through this innovative use of data, Deakin has built a scalable, strategic framework that celebrates connection and drives long-term impact.

The Fueling Greatness Award

You’ve turned audacious goals into inspiring results.

Recognizes organizations that have reached or surpassed ambitious goals.

Winner: University of Indianapolis

Challenge

The University of Indianapolis faced years of fragmented advancement efforts with inconsistent messaging, limited data reliability, and frequent staff turnover. Departments like Alumni Relations and Athletic Fundraising operated independently, diluting the overall impact of advancement strategies. The university struggled with a historically static donor base and an average of only $4.5 million in annual fundraising over the previous 25 years and had focused on transactional giving rather than building a culture of philanthropy.

Solution

The university implemented a comprehensive transformation of their advancement approach, leveraging Blackbaud Fundraiser Performance Management® and Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT® as the backbone of their efforts. They standardized data entry protocols, established clear performance metrics for frontline fundraisers, and expanded their team with key hires. The six-square segmentation model in Fundraiser Performance Management helped focus on high-capacity, highly engaged donors, while Raiser’s Edge centralized donor data and portfolio management. They restructured and integrated Advancement, Alumni Relations, and the Greyhound Club under a cohesive strategy, setting a new baseline goal of $10 million in annual restricted giving and an additional $1 million in unrestricted support, and transformed their annual giving day into a signature, campus-wide initiative with ambitious benchmarks of 1,000+ donors and $250,000 raised annually.

Outcome

The results have been transformational. In fiscal year 2024, the University of Indianapolis raised a record-breaking $16.4 million in cash and commitments—more than tripling its previous annual average. FY2025 continued the momentum, marking the fourth-highest fundraising year in university history and the first time UIndy achieved back-to-back years exceeding $10 million in philanthropic production. Over the past two years, the university secured four multi-million-dollar gifts and now averages three gifts of $1 million or more annually. And, with the cultural shift across campus, UIndy Day has become a celebration of collective generosity, with record participation from academic leaders, athletic teams, and student groups.

The Futurist Award

Thinking inside the box? No way! You’re a master of tech flexibility.

Recognizes organizations that have pursued technological exploration and creativity within Blackbaud’s flexible ecosystem with notable results.

Winner: British Columbia Children’s Hospital Foundation

Challenge

British Columbia Children’s Hospital Foundation faced multiple challenges: fundraising teams were spending too much time on manual data entry, data governance and quality needed improvement, and multiple parts of the organization were not getting their data into Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT®, creating barriers for fundraising staff.

Solution

The Foundation developed a custom integration between Microsoft Teams and Raiser’s Edge NXT using SKY API, low-code tools, and dynamic adaptive cards. This bi-directional integration surfaces key fundraising data directly within Teams, allowing users to take immediate actions—such as updating opportunities—without leaving the Teams interface. The integration was designed to streamline fundraisers’ workflows by minimizing context switching and enhancing responsiveness. By leveraging dynamic cards, the team ensured that the information presented is both interactive and actionable, supporting real-time donor management.

Outcome

The low-code integration between Microsoft Teams and Raiser’s Edge NXT delivered measurable improvements in productivity and user engagement. Fundraisers were able to manage donor opportunities more efficiently by receiving real-time updates and taking immediate action within Teams, eliminating the need to toggle between platforms. The streamlined workflow led to faster response times, improved data accuracy, and increased adoption of digital tools among fundraising staff. By reducing friction in daily tasks, staff are able to focus more on strategic activities and relationship-building, enhancing the overall effectiveness of fundraising operations. Looking ahead, the Foundation plans to expand the integration’s functionality to support donor stewardship and campaign tracking. This innovative approach exemplifies how Blackbaud’s tools can be used to creative innovative, user-centric solutions that enhance productivity and donor engagement.

Winner: Georgia Tech Foundation

Challenge

Historically, donors to Georgia Tech relied on mailed statements to view giving history, points, or tax documents, and profile updates were handled manually via email, creating inefficiencies and limiting engagement. The Georgia Tech Foundation had an ambitious goal of creating a centralized self-service portal that would provide all university donors with real-time access to giving history, annual giving status, athletic point totals, and profile updates. The challenge was to build a modern, scalable portal using only the technology and expertise already available within the organization.

Solution

The team leveraged React to build a modern and dynamic donor portal interface that allowed for rapid iteration, real-time updates, and scalability for future needs. This fully integrated and user-friendly experience was developed entirely in-house in just six months using the Foundation’s existing Blackbaud Enterprise Fundraising CRM™ and Blackbaud Internet Solutions™ platforms, enhanced by Power BI for interactive giving history dashboards that pull data directly from the Foundation’s data warehouse. Integration with Georgia Tech’s single sign-on (SSO) system ensured secure access for both alumni and guest users. The donor portal’s capabilities also allow the Foundation to meet additional needs across campus, such as alumni profile updates and class reunion surveys. Bio update forms from Blackbaud partner Zuri Group are utilized with Blackbaud Enterprise Fundraising CRM to process donor contact updates submitted through the portal via a custom Blackbaud Internet Solutions page, streamlining the review and approval process and ensuring efficient and accurate data management.

Outcome

Since launching in September 2024, over 2,300 users have accessed the Donor Portal. It has significantly improved efficiency for the Stewardship team, especially during high-volume periods like tax season and year-end giving. Donors can now independently access key information such as gift history, endowment balances and designation details at any time without needing to contact staff, which has reduced support requests and enhanced the donor experience. The profile update form alone has reduced manual data entry time by 30–40% and serves as an effective alumni outreach tool. Looking ahead, the Foundation plans to continue to build out the Donor Portal, such as including fund-specific student thank-you videos.

The Outstanding Leadership Award

A leader who empowers teams and pushes boundaries.

Celebrates exceptional executive-level leaders who empower their teams and organizations.

Winner: Vanessa Longacre-Wilcox, Senior Executive Director, Data Philanthropy, Fred Hutch Cancer Center

Mission Impact

Vanessa has had a transformative impact on Fred Hutch’s philanthropic mission through her exceptional leadership in enhancing the donor experience and modernizing digital fundraising infrastructure. She led the development of the center’s Obliteride registration experience, ensuring a seamless and engaging journey for participants. She supported the PCI4-compliant donation forms with advanced payment options and pioneered a customized peer-to-peer giving platform. Her strategic leadership during a critical PCI 4 compliance update prevented disruption to digital donation forms while simultaneously improving user experience and system security and reinforcing Fred Hutch’s reputation for operational excellence and donor trust. As Executive Director of Project Management and Planning, she oversees a team managing over 30 projects annually that directly contribute to growing the donor base, increasing revenue, and enhancing the overall giving experience.

Championing the Use of Technology

Vanessa consistently champions innovative technology solutions to advance Fred Hutch’s philanthropic goals. She implemented Blackbaud Integrated Payments during the PCI4 compliance updates, expanding payment options and improving the security and accessibility of their donation forms. She supported the integration of Blackbaud partner solution Chariot DAFpay across all donation forms, resulting in increased donor-advised fund contributions, a broader donor base, and streamlined gift processing. She also led the launch of Fred Hutch’s donor portal, collaborating across teams to implement new features and design enhancements. As a member of the Blackbaud Luminate Online® and Blackbaud TeamRaiser® Product Advisory Group, she brings valuable insights back to Fred Hutch while also contributing her expertise to the broader nonprofit sector. Internally, she established a Philanthropy AI User Group that introduced tools like Microsoft Copilot and Teams AI features to increase digital fluency across the department.

Impact on Organizational Culture

Vanessa has cultivated a positive organizational culture rooted in inclusivity, accessibility, and continuous learning, with a deep commitment to ensuring that every donor and team member feels seen, valued, and empowered. As an inclusivity activist, she champions accessible design in the donor experience to ensure all supporters can engage meaningfully with their mission. She encourages dialogue and helps inform team practices to align closely with the communities they serve as a Fred Hutch Workforce Experience Delegate and through leading employee book clubs focused on health equity and diversity in the nonprofit sector. Her forward-thinking approach to project management values adaptability, strategic foresight, and sustainable solutions—rather than approaching projects with a narrow focus, she encourages her team to consider how systems might evolve, helping Fred Hutch stay ahead of industry changes.

The Rising Star Award

A go-getter with exceptional potential in their field.

Celebrates ambitious individuals at manager-level or below (non-executive or director level) who demonstrate exceptional potential in their field.

Winner: Liam Castellan, Development Operations & Database Manager, Shakespeare & Company

Mission Impact

Liam Castellan approaches his work at Shakespeare & Company, a nationally recognized theater company based in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, with exceptional curiosity and a commitment to continuous improvement. This mindset has led him to take initiative and make significant improvements to the organization’s fundraising operations and take on projects that expand his role. He transformed their annual gala’s payment collection system in 2024, which played a critical role in their ability to increase on-site pledge collection to 56%, process 13% more transactions than the previous year, and achieve a record-breaking post-Gala collection rate of over 99%. For the 2025 gala, Liam created their first Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT® event registration form, allowing them to eliminate the need for their third-party event platform and saving more than $2,500 annually. Beyond the gala, Liam has increased cost-efficiency by bringing more printing in-house and increasing the use of digital letterhead, improved PCI compliance, decluttered legacy filing systems, educated donors about donor advised funds, and is helping ensure long-term sustainability by revitalizing the organization’s planned giving program. His systems-thinking approach has elevated the team’s capacity while reducing organizational risk.

Championing the Use of Technology

Liam has been a true champion of Blackbaud technology at Shakespeare & Company, proactively helping maximize the organization’s technology investment through key initiatives and ongoing learning. He independently researched and implemented the “Blackbaud for Outlook” add-in for the Development team, enabling seamless conversion of email conversations into Actions in Raiser’s Edge NXT, and importantly, encouraging staff to build a stronger habit of logging all types of donor interactions. As the organization’s Finance team migrated to Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT®, Liam proactively prepared to lead the project connecting it with Raiser’s Edge NXT to reduce discrepancies and increase efficiencies. One of Liam’s most significant contributions is related to Blackbaud Integrated Payments—it had never been fully implemented prior to his arrival at the organization, and he took charge to change that and start leveraging the platform for the organization’s benefit, and is leading a pilot project for the rollout of Blackbaud’s Optimized Donation Form across their website to save staff many hours of manual data entry each month.

Leadership Potential

Though not in a formal leadership role yet, Liam demonstrates leadership through clarity, curiosity, and methodical problem-solving. His collaborative approach includes deep listening and respectful consideration of diverse perspectives, helping build consensus across departments. He leads with precision in communication, humor, humility, and accountability, setting high standards while encouraging others to meet them. His persistence in getting things right rather than being right reflects a values-driven leadership style that aligns with Shakespeare & Company’s mission. Liam’s systems-thinking, combined with his technical skills and strategic vision, positions him as an emerging leader who elevates the entire organization’s effectiveness.