Blackbaud News : Blackbaud NetCommunity

Press Release: Blackbaud Launches Nonprofit Central for Community Foundations

Melissa Dodge — Wed, 20 May 2009 16:03:00 GMT

Online nonprofit database helps donors make informed decisions and nonprofits share needs

Charleston, S.C. (May 20, 2009) – Blackbaud, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLKB), today announced the availability of Blackbaud Nonprofit Central™, a solution created specifically for community foundations that enables them to connect nonprofit organizations with donors of similar philanthropic interests. Integrated with Blackbaud® NetCommunity™, Nonprofit Central is an online database that provides donors information they need to make informed philanthropic decisions in a single online experience.

Read the full press release.

Press Release: Blackbaud to Deliver National CRM Database and Bilingual Website for The Kidney Foundation of Canada

Melanie Mathos — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 14:38:00 GMT

Charleston, S.C. (January 9, 2009) – Blackbaud, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLKB) today announced that it will develop a custom solution for The Kidney Foundation of Canada that will create a unified national CRM and web presence.
“We selected the Blackbaud solution to support bilingual peer-based online fundraising events for all of our branches,” said Paul Shay, The Foundation’s national executive director. “Additionally, the tight integration will support consistent branding and reporting nationwide.”

Read the full press release.

Blackbaud News Year in Review

Melanie Mathos — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 21:24:00 GMT

It has been an exciting year for us at Blackbaud, both from a technology and growth standpoint. The influence of social media, the election, and the economy have made it an interesting year for nonprofits as well. New strategies and products have been born to support a hybrid of traditional and unchartered fundraising practices taking place throughout the sector.

We started off the year by making The Raiser's Edge API available for free to NetCommunity customers and forming Blackbaud Interactive, a division focused specifically on Internet solutions and services. Version 5.5 of Blackbaud NetCommunity was released in July with Wave social networking along with several other major enhancements. Share your ideas for the NetCommunity roadmap at the idea bank. Stay up-to-date with all NetCommunity news at the Connections blog.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention, we launched 23 blogs this year. You can access them all here. Our foray into new media also included a new format for The Baudcast. Listen to all of our podcasts here.

We also launched NetWits Live, an event series exploring nonprofit Internet strategy that featured a few of our Baudcasters, as well as Holly Ross from NTEN. This was a great collaborative event and we plan on offering more of these sessions in 2009 with the first being held in San Francisco on February 10^th. Register here.

Some big news came in May when Blackbaud announced its intention to acquire Kintera, and in July, when the acquisition closed, our product development teams took off running. The first order of business from a technology side was the launch of a Sphere-RE connector. Once people were beta testing that, the teams moved on to where they could bring the most value to our combined customers--making Friends Asking Friends functionality available to NetCommunity customers. This also happened quickly, and one of the first nonprofits to take advantage of it will be The Kidney Foundation of Canada, who recently partnered with the company to implement a bilingual national website powered by a NetCommunity-Sphere combined solution. 2009 will be another great year of innovation for the Kintera Division and Blackbaud Internet solutions teams.

In July, Blackbaud hit the road in the midst of the US financial crisis, with an interactive seminar series called Blackbaud Delivers, which focused on fundraising during a recession. In 2008, Blackbaud Delivers began its mission to offer practical nonprofit management seminars presented by some of our brightest experts in a variety of major cities and on the Internet. You can download the presentations or view a recorded webinar at Blackbaud.com/blackbauddelivers. In 2009, Blackbaud Delivers will kick off in Houston and Atlanta on February 11^th with the theme of "Worry Less." The content will be geared towards helping nonprofits reduce their worries and putting the steps they need in place to keep fundraising on the upswing in 2009. Register here.

Another issue that is top-of-mind for nonprofits-or should be--is PCI compliance. In June, Blackbaud joined the PCI Security Standards Council and launched a PCI Compliance Blog and newsletter to provide ongoing updates on key issues facing the nonprofit sector. 2009 will be a pivotal year for PCI compliance. On October 1, 2009, everyone who processes credit cards will have to be PCI compliant and/or use PA DSS validated payment products.

Here are some more company highlights from 2009:

We are very excited to partner with several nonprofits on Blackbaud Enterprise CRM projects, most recently The Salvation Army Southern Territory, the University of Oxford, and The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.
The Financial Edge, The Raiser's Edge and eTapestry won Campbell Awards for User Satisfaction.
Blackbaud was named to Forbes Magazine's 200 Best Small Companies in America list and Software Magazine's Software 500 ranking of the world's largest software and service providers.
eTapestry launched a Spanish version of its on-demand fundraising software and is marketing the solution in Mexico and Spain.
Blackbaud's recent Conference for Nonprofits welcomed more than 1200 attendees for a technology preview of the company's new cloud computing platform code-named "Nimbus" that is currently in development. If you missed that, you can check out a replay here. The Blackbaud Developer Network Challenge saw some great entries, and the winning entry was announced at the conference and was recently posted to Blackbaud Labs. Save the date for next year's conference, which will be held in Charleston, South Carolina from Nov. 15 to 18.

The most exciting news for me, personally, was Blackbaud's increased focus on philanthropy in 2008. After all, that is what we are all here for-to help nonprofits make the world a better place. Our newly formed corporate philanthropy team created some great programs to support employee volunteerism, and as nonprofits continue to face difficult times, the company has really stepped up its efforts. Check back tomorrow to read about Blackbaud's philanthropy year in review.

We have some exciting plans in the works, so throw the Blackbaud News RSS feed in your reader to stay tuned in 2009!

Press Release: World’s Largest Ronald McDonald House Selects Blackbaud NetCommunity to Boost Web Presence and Engage Supporters

Melissa Dodge — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 17:13:00 GMT

Charleston, S.C. (November 10, 2008) – Blackbaud, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLKB), announced today that the Ronald McDonald House of New York has selected Blackbaud® NetCommunity™ with Wave social networking as its Internet marketing and communications solution. The House has also chosen Blackbaud OnDemand Services for application hosting and IT support. The New York City-based nonprofit realized how important an engaged online community is to its success and turned to Blackbaud for help in enhancing its web presence.

Read the full press release.

Press Release: Blackbaud’s Total School Solution Offers Social Networking to Support Interactive Online Communities

Melissa Dodge — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 14:24:00 GMT

CHARLESTON, S.C. (Sept. 22, 2008) – Blackbaud, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLKB), announced that The Taft School is now among the more than 2400 independent K-12 schools partnering with the company. Blackbaud’s Total School Solution, including Online Campus Community™ with Wave social networking, helps schools simplify their operations and improve communication. Read More...

Press Release:Blackbaud Developer Network Challenge Opens Today

Melissa Dodge — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 17:03:00 GMT

Charleston, S.C. (September 16, 2008) – Blackbaud, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLKB) today announced the opening of its first Developer Network Challenge. The developer that creates the most compelling customization for Blackbaud NetCommunity will be awarded an iPhone, and will also win his or her organization a year’s free NetCommunity maintenance.

Press Release: University of Miami Selects Blackbaud’s Higher Education Solution to Streamline Advancement Operations and Build an Online Community for Alumni

Melissa Dodge — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 18:40:00 GMT

CHARLESTON, S.C. (September 15, 2008) – Blackbaud, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLKB) announced that University of Miami (UM) will use The Raiser’s Edge® Enterprise, Blackbaud® NetCommunity™, and Blackbaud Direct Marketing™ to manage its advancement operations and alumni outreach.

With the recent conclusion of its $1.4 billion Momentum campaign, the University of Miami became the first university to reach the record-setting billion dollar milestone in the state of Florida and one of the youngest in the nation

Making Waves with Blackbaud NetCommunity

Melanie Mathos — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:06:00 GMT

Blackbaud recently announced the release of Blackbaud NetCommunity 5.5 and one of the major new features that customers are most excited about is the Wave social networking feature:

“With Wave, Blackbaud has introduced a new way to leverage social networking—both within the application and by integrating to social network services like Facebook—which will add to the viral nature of our work,” said Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Director of Information Technology Michael Sola. “Being able to have an easier way to reach out through social networking channels will help us extend our audience as we move more and more in that direction."

Here at Blackbaud, we're even more excited to see how NetCommunity users will leverage this new feature as part of their social networking strategy. In a video statement, Vice President of Blackbaud Interactive Shaw Drummond said:

"Thanks to innovations like Wave, NetCommunity's new social networking platform, you can have confidence that Blackbaud is going to work with closely with industry leaders to see around the corner and ensure that you have everything you need in a website solution for years to come."

You can also hear from Steve MacLaughlin, Director of Internet Solutions why Blackbaud chose to "build" a native social networking component over the "partner" or "do nothing" options. He says, "The resounding response from the customers that we interacted with and spoke with was that they wanted Blackbaud to build a social networking component that would be part of Blackbaud NetCommunity, that would be out of the box as a part of the overall solution."

Finally, Blackbaud Interactive Marketing Manager Allison Van Diest discusses the top two questions she hears from nonprofits about social networking:

1) How am I going to control my brand?

2) Is social networking a panacea for everything that is difficult in fundraising today?

Check out the answers to these questions, all three videos and additional feature information that has been posted online.

Press Release: “Wave” Social Networking and Enhanced Open Platform APIs Included with New Blackbaud NetCommunity Release

Melanie Mathos — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 13:48:00 GMT

Charleston, S.C. (July 31, 2008) – Blackbaud, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLKB), today unveiled a new release of Blackbaud^® NetCommunity^™ that includes major enhancements in both function and features. From improved site design features to enhanced web accessibility and a native social networking feature called “Wave,” it will provide nonprofits with an opportunity to further engage their constituents in the vital Internet channel. Additionally, the company unveiled a new set of NetCommunity Open Platform APIs for creating custom parts, integrated web services, and custom transactions.

Building an Online Wish List with Blackbaud NetCommunity

Melanie Mathos — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 15:20:00 GMT

Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital and Spectrum Health Foundations were recently featured in The Chronicle’s fund-raising column, Prospecting.

Here is an excerpt from the article “Hospital Wins Online Gifts by Mimicking One of the World's Hottest Charities”:

Through the new Web site, donors can purchase fetal heart-rate monitors, phone and gas cards for families whose children are being treated at the hospital, equipment for the rehabilitation department, and other items.“Some donors really like to know where their gifts are going,” says Vicki Weaver, president of the Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital and Spectrum Health Foundations.The new Web site also allows supporters to set up personal pages that they can use to encourage friends and family members to give to the hospital. If they want, they can raise money for a particular department or an item on the wish list.

Read more here.

Press Release: Nation's Largest Community Foundation Partners with Blackbaud

Melanie Mathos — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 14:36:00 GMT

Tulsa Community Foundation will use Blackbaud solutions to manage 650 funds and more than $3 billion in assets

Charleston, S.C. (June 9, 2008) – Blackbaud, Inc. (NASDAQ: BLKB) announced today that Tulsa Community Foundation (TCF) has entered into the first phase of a long-term partnership with the company. The Foundation selected a combination of software and services from Blackbaud including The Raiser’s Edge^® Enterprise (for constituent management) and The Financial Edge^™ (for financial management) with a longer term vision of incorporating Blackbaud NetCommunity.

Read the full press release here.

Press Release: Blackbaud NetCommunity for Foundations Incorporates New Web Portals

Melanie Mathos — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 13:57:00 GMT

Blackbaud NetCommunity for Foundations Streamlines Grant Applications and Enables Superior Donor Service with Integrated Web Tools
Donor and grant portals unveiled to support community foundations’ increasing focus on web strategy

Charleston, S.C. (June 3, 2008) – Blackbaud, Inc. (NASDAQ: BLKB) announced the launch of Blackbaud® NetCommunity™ for foundations, which incorporates new online tools developed to meet the specific needs of community foundations. The enhanced functionality will enable community foundations to streamline the grant application process, provide an unparalleled level of service and accountability to donors, and ultimately make a greater impact on their communities and the nonprofits
they serve.

Read the full press release here.