2026 Finalists
The Changemaker Award
You don’t just respond to change; you use tech to embrace it.
Vision Australia
For their partnership with Blackbaud to co-design and embed new accessibility features into Blackbaud Enterprise Fundraising CRM and Blackbaud Integrated Payments, eliminating digital barriers for people who are blind or have low vision, enabling fully accessible web forms and a more inclusive CRM experience—ultimately driving platform improvements that benefited the entire sector.
St. Raphael’s Hospice
For partnering with Blackbaud and Blackbaud partners RedArc and Omatic Software to transform their use of Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT® and Blackbaud Integrated Payments to build a streamlined fundraising operation that saved 60 hours per week, reclaimed £120,000 in Gift Aid, and delivered a 50% increase in donations, ultimately sustaining free hospice care amid a UK-wide funding crisis.
Le Phare Children’s Palliative Care
For using Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT®, Prospect Insights, and Blackbaud Online Giving to transform fragmented fundraising operations into a streamlined, modern operating model—ultimately driving a 31% increase in monthly giving revenue and a 47% rise in fall campaign gifts, ensuring more predictable funding for children with life-limiting illnesses and their families.
Local Office on Aging, Inc.
For unifying five disconnected systems into a single, integrated Blackbaud ecosystem—anchored by Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT®, Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT®, and Blackbaud Integrated Payments, with Ramp and Paycor integrations—eliminating manual reconciliation, reducing month-end close by 10 days, realizing $150,000 in annual labor savings, and earning two consecutive clean audits, enabling them to make more data-driven decisions and become a leading voice among Virginia’s Area Agencies on Aging.
Equality Now
For leveraging Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT®, Prospect Insights and Blackbaud partner Double the Donation to build a smarter, more strategic fundraising operation, identifying untapped major donor potential, personalizing outreach at scale, and consolidating donor data to drive a 26% increase in major donors and 87% retention rate—ultimately fueling the legal advocacy that helped pass 17 new laws and policies and expanded rights for more than 68 million women and girls worldwide.
The Data Strategist Award
Data and intelligent insights are your not-so-secret advantage.
Cash for Kids UK
For leveraging Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT® and Blackbaud partner Zeidman Development to transform 350,000 constituent records into a living data strategy through a new four-part data operations methodology—empowering 22 local fundraising teams to surface dormant giving potential and driving toward a £1 million fundraising target through data-led action by end of 2026.
A Kid Again
For leveraging Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT®, Power BI, and Blackbaud partner Omatic to build a unified national data ecosystem across 12 locations and nearly 7,000 families, enabling an independent peer-reviewed program evaluation with Nationwide Children’s Hospital that equipped every major funder conversation with independently validated data—and surpassing their Q1 2026 fundraising goal by 56%.
Diocese of Toledo
For leveraging Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT, MicrosoftPower BI, and Blackbaud partner Omatic to replace a manual, static Excel reporting process with a live multi-dashboard analytics suite—enabling real-time geographic, parish-level, and appeal performance insights that drove a 63% increase in average gift size and a participation rate jump from 9.6% to 31% in the Annual Catholic Appeal.
Skidmore College
For leveraging Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT®, ResearchPoint, and DonorSearch to build a proprietary 2×2 quadrant model that unified wealth screening and predictive analytics data across prospect records, surfacing hidden giving potential among dormant constituents, and equipping gift officers with a shared prioritization framework—resulting in better identification of constituents with 4.6x likelihood to demonstrate top-giver behavior.
Detroit Catholic Central High School
For leveraging Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT®, ResearchPoint, and Claude AI to build a proprietary Shamrock Priority Score that unified data across 20,000+ alumni profiles, uncovered a critical engagement gap among alumni aged 30–45, and drove a 24% increase in new donors and a 34% increase in overall fundraising, setting a new school fundraising record.
The Fueling Greatness Award
You’ve turned audacious goals into inspiring results.
Mary Immaculate Catholic Parish & School
Before adopting Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT, Mary Immaculate Parish and School ran on disconnected systems, with no shared database, outreach strategy, or fundraising plan between the church and school. In two years, the advancement office built a unified, query-driven fundraising program from that foundation, crossing $1 million on North Texas Giving Day for the first time in school history and more than doubling fundraising revenue in three years.
Paws for Patrick
For leveraging Blackbaud eTapestry® and the Blackbaud Giving Fund to scale a national youth mental health mission—strengthening donor stewardship, expanding corporate giving through payroll and matching gift programs, and growing from a grassroots volunteer group into a professional team of six—driving a 125% increase in golf outing revenue to a record-breaking $450,000 and staying on track to reach more than 17,000 young people and their families across all 50 states by the end of 2026.
Richard Bland College Foundation
For leveraging Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT® to transform donor data into hyper-personalized, segmented outreach for its Debt-Free RBC Degree campaign and surpassing a bold, record-setting $1 million campaign goal ahead of schedule.
Alzheimer Society of Ontario
For leveraging Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT® and Blackbaud Luminate Online® to unify 24 local Alzheimer Societies onto a single data-driven platform—delivering 100+ segmented campaign emails, 30+ automated donor journeys, increasing donor retention from 28% to 31.9%, and raising $3.2 million in the IG Wealth Management Walk for Alzheimer’s for the third consecutive record-breaking year.
The Futurist Award
Thinking inside the box? No way! You’re a master of tech flexibility.
Australian National University
For leveraging Blackbaud Enterprise Fundraising CRM™ and Perplexity AI to build a CASE-aligned 100-point engagement score across 300,000 constituents, drive $70M+ in philanthropic income in 2025, and deliver ANU’s most successful alumni engagement campaign ever.
Durham University
For using Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT® and Microsoft Power Automate to automate gift acknowledgement and receipting—reducing a half-day, two-person manual process to a single click, saving 5 hours per week, and establishing Durham University as a pioneer in Power Platform automation within the UK higher education fundraising sector.
Boston University
For transforming advancement operations through Blackbaud Enterprise Fundraising CRM™—building a custom AI layer that reduces contact report documentation from 40 minutes to 5 minutes, closed 113 staff-submitted ideas and enhancements with a 96% acceptance rate and an average five-day turnaround, and established a reusable AI foundation that empowers gift officers, researchers, and operations staff to directly shape the tools they use every day.
University of Nebraska Foundation
For advancing prospect intelligence through a generative AI-assisted workflow embedded within Blackbaud Enterprise Fundraising CRM™—built in partnership with Blackbaud partner Esgenio and powered by Microsoft Azure OpenAI—helping Prospect Information Managers review contact reports faster and more consistently while maintaining human oversight, and establishing a scalable model for responsible AI innovation in advancement.
University of Manitoba
For building a custom AI orchestration platform on Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT® and SKY API—using six specialized MCP servers with deterministic query execution, semantic retrieval, and layered safety guardrails to deliver reliable, consistent donor insights through natural language, reducing query response times from 15+ minutes to 1–2 minutes and positioning the University of Manitoba as a pioneer in enterprise-grade AI-driven advancement.
ServiceNow
For leveraging Blackbaud YourCause CSRconnect to embed a giving and volunteering experience directly within ServiceNow’s internal employee portal—resulting in eliminating friction between employees and the act of giving, and exceeding both a 50% donation participation goal and a 33% volunteer participation goal company-wide.
The Silo Buster Award
Silos never stood a chance at your org.
Adelaide University
For turning a complex university merger into an opportunity to deliberately design a single, modern Advancement ecosystem—consolidating two deeply embedded Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT environments into one unified platform, achieving 100% pass rates across testing and deployment, and engineering cross-functional collaboration across Philanthropy, Alumni Relations, Prospect Research, Finance, and IT so that two institutions entered Day One operating as one.
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Wesco International
For transforming Wesco Cares from a U.S.-concentrated program into a globally integrated social impact strategy with Blackbaud YourCause and Impact Edge—embedding sustainability leadership directly into EMEA operations, formalizing governance and vetting processes, launching an EMEA Client Engagement Fund, and driving a 442% year-over-year increase in U.K. employee engagement—all by breaking down regional silos and uniting Communications, Sustainability, and business leaders around a single, data-driven global program.
Starfish Family Services
For leveraging Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT, Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT, and Blackbaud Award Management to break down departmental silos across behavioral health, maternal health, early childhood education, workforce development, and home visiting services—creating a unified, shared view of relationships, funding streams, and reporting responsibilities that transformed how development, finance, and program teams collaborate to serve children and families across Southeast Michigan.
East Coast Zoological Foundation
For harnessing Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT, Blackbaud Online Giving, JustGiving from Blackbaud, and Blackbaud partner Omatic to unify fragmented workflows across philanthropy, finance, events, and marketing—achieving a 30–40% reduction in reconciliation and reporting time, fewer duplicate records and misapplied gifts, and faster donor acknowledgments, positioning East Coast Zoological Foundation for scalable growth ahead of its expansion.
Applied Materials
For employing YourCause CSRconnect by Blackbaud to reimagine the Fight Against Hunger campaign from a collection of competing business unit efforts into a single, enterprise-wide “One Applied” movement—introducing participation-based metrics, shared goals, and milestone-driven Foundation contributions that sparked a 33.35% year-over-year increase in employee participation as well as an increase in donated fund, culminating in $1.71 million raised for hunger relief organizations nationwide in 2025.
NSU University School
For dismantling decades of siloed, legacy systems by implementing Blackbaud’s education management suite and leveraging SKY API to automate workflows, saving over 450 staff hours in the first year, achieving 90% family adoption of auto-pay, increasing financial aid applications by 20%, and saving $25K in redundant SaaS vendors—shifting the organizational culture from one that serves systems to one where systems serve people.
The Outstanding Leadership Award
A leader who empowers teams and pushes boundaries.
Anne Posey
Chief Executive Office, Tykes and Teens, Inc.
For transforming a children’s mental health organization in crisis into a flourishing $8.5 million operation with 390% philanthropy growth, $500,000 in reserves, and innovative Walk-In Assessment Centers serving 500+ children—all through steady, compassionate leadership and strategic use of Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT.
Jennifer Sniderman
Vice President, Corporate Communications, Wesco International
For transforming Wesco Cares from a localized giving program into a globally scalable, data-informed social impact strategy—using Blackbaud CSR Connect and Impact Edge to embed measurement and drive $600,000+ in 2025 donations across 490+ charities, while securing a 5x increase in the matching gift cap, launching an EMEA expansion with 442% U.K. engagement growth, and rallying cross-functional leadership around a shared vision of employee-driven community impact.
Michelle Edgerton
Executive Vice President and Chief Advancement Officer, YMCA of the North
For leading one of the most complete advancement teams in the YMCA movement to raise $36.4 million in 2025—exceeding the endowment goal by 25%, engaging 10,893 active donors, and achieving 100% board participation—while leveraging Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT, real-time grant dashboards, and Blackbaud partner Gratavid to deepen donor relationships and position the YMCA of the North as a leader in philanthropic innovation.
Sherrie C. Snipes,
Chief Executive Office, Charleston Promise Neighborhood
For leading a place-based community organization, since 2012, which serves one of South Carolina’s most historically underserved neighborhoods — serving 20,000+ students, growing school-based healthcare visits by 62%, connecting 121 middle schoolers with career development opportunities, offering thousands of hours of enrichment programs, and increasing organizational profitability by 150%—all while building the long-term infrastructure to ensure the community’s most vulnerable children and families thrive for generations to come.
Leah Markham
Executive Director, Community Relations, Mizuho Americas
For leading the transformation of Mizuho’s community impact program — championing Blackbaud YourCause and Blackbaud Grantmaking to replace manual processes with scalable, secure workflows, expanding the platform, and driving record employee participation across a workforce of 65,000 — all through relentless self-direction, persistence, and a deep commitment to making giving work at scale.
The Rising Star Award
A go-getter with exceptional potential in their field.
Taha Bhatti
Data Analyst and BI Developer, Skidmore College
For demonstrating exceptional initiative and leveraging Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT® and ResearchPoint to develop and operationalize a quadrant-based prospect scoring framework that is now used by all gift officers, while earning recognition as a trusted thought partner across Skidmore Advancement.
Leah Cooper
Program Manager, MillerKnoll Foundation
For transforming employee engagement through YourCause CSRconnect, GrantsConnect, and Impact Edge—driving a 25% increase in employee engagement within six months, expanding platform adoption across global manufacturing and operations teams, developing multilingual resources and instructional content to reduce barriers to participation, and serving on the YourCause Customer Advisory Board to shape product development and advance more accessible, employee-centered corporate social impact worldwide.
Jenni Cornella
Donor Data Specialist, Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver
For embodying the quiet, steady leadership that transforms teams while leveraging Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT to resolve a 20-year data integrity issue, build real-time dashboards, and drive a record-breaking $7 million fundraising year, while earning the trust of staff, volunteers, and donors alike through her reliability, generosity, and passion for the mission.
Lauren Gooley
Head of CRM Implementation, Imperial College London
For leading a complex, large-scale Blackbaud Enterprise Fundraising CRM implementation, with no prior higher education experience, rapidly building expertise and cross-functional relationships across Advancement, IT, and external suppliers, while driving consistency, data quality, and strategic decision-making—and becoming the recognized model for excellent delivery and collaborative working across Imperial College.
Hayley Kenward
Individual Giving Manager, St. Wilfrid’s Hospice
For transforming fundraising operations through Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT—restructuring Campaign, Appeal, and Fund architecture, modernizing donation experiences, improving data governance and GDPR practices, and helping colleagues generate approximately 30% more income while supporting end-of-life care for more than 340 people across West Sussex.
Lynn Kenyon
Database & Insights Manager, Neurological Foundation of New Zealand
For proactively driving the adoption of Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT unified view—redesigning workflows, consolidating a 65,000-record database, and empowering her team to work with confidence—and founding a peer-led data community across New Zealand and Australia that supports more than $11 million in annual neurological research funding.
James MacGraw
Database Assistant, St. Raphael’s Hospice
For championing Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT and Blackbaud partner solutions Importacular and Letter Box Premium, and taking ownership of critical data, reconciliation, event registration, and payment workflows while helping save 60 hours per week, maintain operational continuity, and strengthen fundraising operations during a period of significant organizational change.
Sam Ovais
Fundraising CRM Manager, Vision Australia
For championing accessibility as a core principle across Blackbaud Enterprise Fundraising CRM™ and Blackbaud Internet Systems—bridging technical expertise with deep fundraising business acumen to drive inclusive system design at Vision Australia, while proactively advocating for platform improvements that are actively shaping how Blackbaud’s technology evolves for disability-focused organizations everywhere.