Upcoming Product Innovations Will Enable
Nonprofits to Leverage Innovative Blackbaud and Microsoft
Technology to Achieve Greater Impact, Gain In-Depth Insights and
Increase Efficiency
CHARLESTON, S.C. and REDMOND, Wash., Sept. 17,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB) and
Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) today announced plans to enhance the value
provided to the nonprofit and education markets. Blackbaud
customers will soon benefit from deeper integration of Microsoft AI
and analytics into software that is purpose-built for the unique
business operations of social impact organizations — without
the need for costly customizations.
Underpinned by Microsoft technologies, Blackbaud's
industry-leading donor management software, Blackbaud CRM® and
Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT®, are engineered using the world's most
comprehensive fundraising data model. These purpose-built, powerful
solutions are proven to enhance data understanding and consistency,
helping social impact organizations manage complex fundraising
operations and ultimately increase the number of donors, gifts, and
amounts raised. By integrating Microsoft Fabric™ in its
architecture to unify data sources, Blackbaud can enable new
capabilities like comprehensive productivity dashboards designed
for the unique needs of their customers. These dashboards,
personalized by role, are designed to enable every user to focus on
and prioritize their next actions and critical tasks.
These capabilities build upon the productivity increases that
thousands of Blackbaud customers are already realizing as they use
Blackbaud's Microsoft Power Platform™ connectors, available on the
Blackbaud Marketplace, to extend and enhance their solutions.
Blackbaud is a leading producer of Microsoft-certified Power
Platform connectors, and its customers use this rich Microsoft
toolset to create custom apps, automate workflows, build
dashboards, and fine-tune reporting for their Blackbaud solutions,
helping them save time and ultimately raise more funds for their
world-changing organizations.
"A tremendous opportunity exists for our two companies to
collaborate on ways to help social impact organizations use AI and
automation to address key operational and financial challenges,"
said Sudip Datta, Chief Product
Officer, Blackbaud. "As a longstanding Microsoft partner and leader
in the nonprofit technology space, we're committed to making sure
our customers have access to the latest innovation within a
connected ecosystem purpose-built for the social impact sector.
We're excited to be leveraging Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service and
Microsoft Fabric within our solutions, helping social impact
organizations accelerate impact."
"Microsoft is committed to empowering social good organizations
with the technology and tools they need to achieve more impact,"
said Justin Spelhaug, Corporate Vice
President of Microsoft's Tech for Social Impact, part of Microsoft
Philanthropies. "We are grateful for the collaboration with
Blackbaud who has been a pioneer in applying AI and cloud
technologies to the social sector. Together, we are enabling social
impact organizations to transform their operations, optimize their
resources and amplify their outcomes."
Blackbaud and Microsoft have a long history and shared
commitment to the social impact space, rooted in Blackbaud's early
adoption of Microsoft Azure as a critical foundation for many of
its core products and ongoing adoption of new Azure capabilities.
Blackbaud's leading financial management software Blackbaud
Financial Edge NXT® will soon leverage the Microsoft Azure AI
Document Intelligence service for invoice and receipt scanning
automation. This marriage of Blackbaud's leading financial
management software with Microsoft technology will allow
organizations to automate their entire payables process, from start
to finish, directly within Financial Edge NXT. Blackbaud also
leverages Microsoft AI Services to bring many aspects of their
Intelligence for Good® strategy to life, making AI powerful,
accessible, and responsible for social impact, such as in Blackbaud
Impact Edge™, the company's new data and storytelling solution
that's currently under development.
Microsoft is the presenting sponsor of bbcon 2024, Blackbaud's
annual tech conference, taking place Sept.
24-26 in Seattle. Microsoft
will deliver several sessions at the conference focused on how
nonprofits can use AI with their data to drive mission success
around fundraising and campaign planning. Learn more and register
for bbcon here.
About Blackbaud
Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB) is the
leading software provider exclusively dedicated to powering social
impact. Serving the nonprofit and education sectors, companies
committed to social responsibility and individual change makers,
Blackbaud's essential software is built to accelerate impact in
fundraising, nonprofit financial management, digital giving,
grantmaking, corporate social responsibility and education
management. With millions of users and over $100 billion raised, granted or managed through
Blackbaud platforms every year, Blackbaud's solutions are
unleashing the potential of the people and organizations who change
the world. Blackbaud has been named to Newsweek's list of America's
Most Responsible Companies, Quartz's list of Best Companies for
Remote Workers, and Forbes' list of America's Best Employers. A
remote-first company, Blackbaud has operations in the United States, Australia, Canada, Costa
Rica and the United
Kingdom, supporting users in 100+ countries. Learn more
at www.blackbaud.com or follow us on X/Twitter, LinkedIn,
Instagram and Facebook.
Media Inquiries
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, including statements
regarding expected benefits of products and product features.
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;
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.
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SOURCE Blackbaud