Richard Becker Joins Blackbaud as President of Target Analytics

We are excited to announce that Richard Becker has joined Blackbaud as president of Target Analytics. In case you aren't familiar with Target Analytics, it is a Blackbaud company offering solutions for donor acquisition, prospect research, benchmarking, custom modeling, and data enrichment to more than 6,000 nonprofits. (Read more at www.blackbaud.com/targetanalytics.)

Richard will be based at the company’s Cambridge, MA.-headquarters and will lead Target Analytics strategic direction as well as the sales, operations and product management teams.

Richard brings extensive experience in data management, analytics, and marketing services, having held key strategy and general management positions with information technology providers including Equifax, Affiliated Computer Services (ACS), and Bellsouth. 

Richard joins Target Analytics from Equifax, a global information service provider, where he most recently served as vice president – strategy and innovation, responsible for new product innovation, business planning, and market development. Previously, Richard led the product management organization for Equifax Credit Marketing Services, where he was the architect of TargetPoint, Equifax Marketing Service’s most successful and fastest growing product line.

Welcome, Richard!

Blackbaud Reveals Top Trends in Nonprofit Technology

We released a new white paper today focused on top trends in nonprofit technology to help nonprofits reinvigorate their fundraising plans for the coming year.

Highlights from Blackbaud’s Top Technology Trends include:

• Technology is a crucial tool in delivering accurate, up-to-date information about prospects and donors in real-time across departments. Information consumers, both internal and external, will come to expect access to data in line with progressive forums, such as mobile, cloud-based tools.  Nonprofits should expect mobile-powered major giving applications that provide constituent data on the go to become widely used in the coming years.
  
• The web continues to grow as a primary channel for messaging and communicating an organization’s mission. Based on an audience and its needs, nonprofit websites will increasingly offer virtual opportunities for education, conversations, community, and stewardship, tailored to the user’s level of engagement with the organization.
  
• The best fundraisers are those who ask their personal network for support. No one can promote an organization better than those who already believe in the mission and have a built-in network of high-propensity prospects. Tools to localize and personalize fundraising through independent fundraising events and other network-based fundraising tools – while retaining efficiencies and economies of scale associated with centralized systems – will be key. 
  
• Social remains an evolving medium and is best deployed as part of a comprehensive, mission-based strategy, although many organizations have found new constituencies who respond to this channel exclusively. Social networks provide the ability to communicate a mission and message to a large group, serving as a supplementary or primary acquisition channel. Nonprofits can deliver updates and announcements while leveraging a network of supporters for a tangible return on investment.  

Read the full white paper.

The Blackbaud Index Reports Continued Growth in Charitable Giving to Nonprofits

Today's Blackbaud Index release at www.blackbaud.com/blackbaudindex includes the debut of a new index focused on environmental and animal welfare organizations.

Here is a summary:

The Blackbaud Index of Charitable Giving
The Blackbaud Index of Charitable Giving reports that overall giving remained relatively flat with a small increase of .3% for the three months ending November 2010, as compared to the same period in 2009. This trend is based on $2.2 billion in 12 months’ charitable revenue from 1,468 nonprofit organizations.

Blackbaud also releases additional data and analysis that reports on organizations by size. The Index found that three-month overall giving for small organizations (prior year revenue of < $1 million) increased 18.2% in November, while overall giving at medium organizations (prior year revenue of $1 – 10 million) decreased 10.1%, and overall giving at large organizations (prior year revenue > $10 million) decreased 0.3%.

The Blackbaud Index of Online Giving
The Blackbaud Index of Online Giving reports that online giving increased by 8.7% for the three months ending November 2010, as compared to the same period in 2009. This was the first time in 2010 that online giving dropped below double digit percentage growth. This trend is based on $421 million in 12 months’ online charitable revenue from 1,679 organizations.

The Index found that three-month online giving for small organizations (prior year revenue of < $1 million) increased 20.2% in November, while online giving at medium organizations (prior year revenue of $1 – 10 million) increased 4.8%, and online giving at large organizations (prior year revenue > $10 million) increased 8.3%.

The Blackbaud Index – Environmental and Animal Welfare
The Blackbaud Index of Charitable Giving reports that environmental and animal welfare organizations had an overall giving increase of 3.2% for the three months ending November 2010, as compared to the same period in 2009. This trend is based on $259 million in 12 month online charitable revenue from 93 organizations and indicates an increase after three negative months.

The Blackbaud Index of Online Giving reports that environmental and animal welfare organizations had an online giving increase of 15.8% for the three months ending November 2010, as compared to the same period in 2009. This trend is based on $18 million in 12 month online charitable revenue from 109 organizations and continued the double digit percentage online growth trend.

Visit www.blackbaud.com/blackbaudindex for further data on The Blackbaud Index and industry subsets, for monthly updates on the 15th, to view a video about benchmarking and metrics, and to download the latest report.

The Raiser's Edge(i) Adds New Analytics Tools

The latest version of The Raiser's Edge(i), which was released today, now includes analytics tools to help guide nonprofits through every step of the supporter journey. Today's release marked the debut of The Blackbaud Giving Score, which is a new prospect research tool that helps nonprofits target and identify potential supporters, then engage and cultivate them into donors.

The Raiser’s Edge(i) provides a simple, fast, hosted, and affordable solution to track all the details associated with building supporter relationships with powerful online marketing functionality including online donation and registration, email communications, and targeted fundraising campaigns to help nonprofits acquire, engage, and cultivate supporters.

The Blackbaud Giving Score
The Blackbaud Giving Score analyzes supporters based on their capacity and likelihood to give to an organization using information from their financial background and affinity with an organization’s mission. It segments a nonprofit’s contacts into four categories, assigning a score to the constituent records, tagging them with identities, and providing a fundraising strategy.

Learn more about The Giving Score at www.blackbaud.com/GivingScore.

The Raiser’s Edge(i) includes analytics and data enrichment services that will help nonprofits:

• Target and identify supporters, ensuring the accuracy of data to drive successful campaigns, uncover hidden potential in data, and earn greater returns.
• Communicate and Educate, using prebuilt filters and queries to communicate and increase website traffic.
• Engage and Cultivate, managing the donor lifecycle with reporting dashboards and online donation forms. 
• Appreciate and Retain, by efficiently recognizing the contributions of supporters.

For more information on The Raiser’s Edge(i), visit www.blackbaud.com/TheRaisersEdgei.

Read more in the press release.

Boston University and Blackbaud team up for CRM!

We are very excited to announce today that Boston University will use Blackbaud CRM to enhance development and alumni relations.

Boston University has approved a 10-year strategic plan focused on supporting and enhancing a world-class faculty dedicated to teaching and engaging in research, scholarship and their professions. To implement this strategy, the University will help its schools and colleges put in place the plan’s most critical elements, including professorships, scholarships, programmatic funding for all schools and colleges and funds to improve and enhance new facilities and renovations of existing buildings.