Blackbaud Newsroom

Higher Education Institutions Drive Campus-Wide Collaboration and Set New Bar for Fundraising Success with Blackbaud CRM

Software leader continues to achieve growth in adoption among enterprise institutions seeking
a powerful yet adaptable fundraising and relationship management solution

Charleston, S.C. (July 17, 2017) – Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB), the world’s leading cloud software company powering social good, today reported strong adoption and satisfaction rates of Blackbaud CRM™ among higher education institutions seeking to advance their engagement efforts, boost fundraising outcomes, and improve collaboration and efficiency across campuses. The company will share latest innovations for higher education institutions as a platinum sponsor of CASE Summit 2017, which is currently underway in San Francisco.

“We knew Blackbaud CRM was the right solution to support Marquette University’s growing fundraising needs and would allow us to empower our users from across all 11 colleges with a consistent, comprehensive user experience,” said Paul Milakovich, associate vice president, advancement services at Marquette University. “Our goal is to make this truly a university-wide solution that provides a complete view of our alumni and enables a self-service model for users. It has been wonderful to watch our staff light up as they see how this solution will streamline their day-to-day activities.”

Blackbaud CRM is a comprehensive, customizable fundraising and relationship management solution for enterprise-level nonprofits seeking a powerful, yet adaptable solution for fundraising, marketing and program management.

“Implementing Blackbaud CRM has allowed the University of Nebraska Foundation to achieve our goals of providing users across all four University of Nebraska campuses with a uniform experience and access to information anytime, anywhere,” said Christina Provost, senior director advancement CRM at University of Nebraska Foundation. “The solution supports our growing advancement needs and gives us a true 360-degree view of our alumni, donors and friends. Blackbaud has been a great partner, working efficiently and effectively to complete our project on time and under budget for a smooth implementation.”

University of Georgia Achieves Record-Breaking Fundraising Growth with Blackbaud CRM

University of Georgia (UGA) selected Blackbaud CRM to create a unified view of all constituent communications and activities. Its goal was to support strategic planning and management, and increase efficiency using a single, cohesive system. Upon implementation in 2013, UGA has the ability to track and measures fundraising activity across the entire organization with greater insight into overall fundraising capacity of constituents. Blackbaud CRM also enables advanced coordination of fundraising efforts and increased visibility into the overall communications plan.

“Adopting Blackbaud CRM throughout the campus has allowed us to redefine business processes and work more efficiently than ever before — UGA finished its 2017 fiscal year by setting new fundraising records again with three consecutive years of record-breaking fundraising,” said Derek Clark, senior director of advancement services at University of Georgia. “Four years after implementing, we have doubled our revenue from our preceding eight-year average. The results speak for themselves.”

Recently completing its fourth year using the solution to manage its fundraising programs, UGA experienced the following benefits from fiscal year 2014 to 2017 attributable to Blackbaud CRM:

  • A fundraising lift of $18.9 million
  • 94 percent growth in fundraising
  • 22 percent compound annual growth rate
  • 192 percent return-on-investment
  • Avoided labor costs of $3.4 million and IT costs of $400,000

“For over 35 years, Blackbaud’s software innovation, industry expertise and value-added services have helped higher education institutions excel in fundraising and constituent relationship management,” said Tim Hill, president of Blackbaud Higher Education Solutions. “We are more committed than ever to bringing the latest innovation through our flexible, scalable and secure CRM solutions. Blackbaud CRM allows enterprise-level organizations to build strong and productive relationships with supporters so that they can increase fundraising dollars, retain donors and engage more effectively with constituents. We continue to invest in Blackbaud CRM and extend the solution through new capabilities powered by Blackbaud SKY and best of breed analytics solutions to drive fundraising success for our customers.”

Blackbaud CRM powers a diverse community of higher education institutions with the goal of driving outcomes and achieving improved results. Georgia Tech Foundation, Queensland University of Technology, Brown University, USNA Alumni Association and Foundation, University of Guelph, Portland State University Foundation and University of Arizona Foundation, are among the long list of higher education institutions that recently selected or went live on Blackbaud CRM.

To learn more about how Blackbaud CRM is helping higher education institutions advance their missions, connect with Blackbaud in person during CASE Summit 2017 by visiting the company’s booth located in the Grand Ballroom Foyer. For additional information about Blackbaud CRM for higher education institutions, visit www.blackbaud.com/products/blackbaud-crm  or email CRM@blackbaud.com.

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 and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit www.blackbaud.com.

Media Contact
Nicole McGougan
Public Relations
843-654-3307
media@blackbaud.com

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 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.