2008 in Review
2008 seemed to fly by so quickly, but a lot of things happened along the way. I thought that I would pause for a moment and look back a bit before looking ahead to 2009.
Book Club Beginnings
The year started off with copies of People to People Fundraising: Social Networking and Web 2.0 for Charities flying off the bookshelves. I took some of the concepts from my book chapter and used them in presentations throughout the year. It wasn't long before People to People Fundraising became the fastest selling book in the series published by Wiley. As the year closes out I'm working on a new book that you'll hear more about in 2009.
Have PowerPoint, Will Travel
In 2008, I did more than 20 presentations on three different continents. This included sessions at the AFP, NTEN, AMA, and AHP conferences. I also managed to speak at all five of Blackbaud's major conferences this year: The Team Approach User Forum in Boston, the Nonprofit Conference in Montréal, the Asia Pacific Customer Conference in Sydney, the Conference for Not-for-Profits in London, and the Nonprofit Conference in Charleston. Thanks to everyone that attended the sessions and I'm looking forward to some new gigs in the new year.
The Market Has Spoken
More than four years ago, when we first released Blackbaud NetCommunity, it would be fair to say that having an integrated online solution wasn't at the top of a nonprofit's needs list. At the time, getting the basics of email and donations was enough to get the ball rolling for many of these organizations. Today, having a truly integrated solution isn't optional. In 2008, Blackbaud saw a large number of nonprofits choose or move to BBNC because they now understand how important this has become to meeting their goals.
The Big Announcement
The biggest news of the nonprofit technology industry this year was Blackbaud's acquisition of Kintera. It has been great getting to know and working with the team in San Diego these past few months. I've also been able to meet a number of Sphere clients who are encouraged and excited about the where we are going together. This has also meant that Blackbaud now provides online solutions to more nonprofits than any other vendor in the market today. And we continue to invest more than anyone else in constantly improving our Internet solutions.
Social Media Jam Sessions
Last year, a few of us rogue agents did some playing around with social media tools. In 2008, a whole cadre of folks from Blackbaud started using social media to engage with our clients and the nonprofit community. From blogs to Twitter to YouTube to forums and lots more. But by far the most fun this year was doing The Baudcast. About every two weeks Chad Norman, Blackbaud's resident social media guru, would pull together some topics, some people, and then let things fly. It was a great way to talk with people from across the nonprofit world. Look for The Baudcast to get even bigger and better in 2009.
The Day Job
I travel a lot, I present a lot, and I write in between. But my actual day job over the past year has been heading up the product management team for our Internet solutions at Blackbaud. We've been very busy with a lot of improvements and updates this year. How do I make it look so easy? Simple — I work with some amazing and very talented people. I want to thank everyone for putting up with me this year and for bringing their "A" game every day. Despite all of the technology — you still need people to make the magic happen. I can't wait to see what they pull out of the hat next.
Onwards and Upwards
This was a very long year that went by very quickly. Some parts of the year seem like just a blur, and there were moments when a lot of hard work paid off. As happy as I am about what we accomplished in 2008, I'm even more excited about some of the things we have planned for 2009. I'm looking forward to working on the NTEN Board of Directors, getting a new book edited and off to the publisher, catching up with some clients and meeting new ones too, and continuing to improve our Internet solutions for the nonprofit industry. Let's see where things go...