Quite a First Year

Jay Love — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 18:48:00 GMT

August 1, 2008, marked eTapestry’s one year anniversary as part of Blackbaud. It has truly been quite a year. So many in the sector wondered just what this merger would mean for our clients, employees and leadership team. My last post mentioned that the partnership has exceeded our expectations. Such a statement is huge when you consider the impact on our customers, prospective customers and staff.

I thought I could illustrate my statement by using the first year milestones I created for our all company meeting last week. Please let me know if you agree via the comment area of our blogs. Here goes:

Payroll/benefits switchover a success (This happened without a hitch and in just a few months. Need I say more?)
Sharing of leads between BB divisions (Such a win for our prospective customers! They now have the vast resources of numerous product lines and add-ons to evaluate and pursue. Obviously, this is neat for all of our sales and marketing teams too!)
Extensive partnership with Blackbaud hosting center (One of our secondary hosting centers is now the vast and extremely state-of-the-art center we share with other Blackbaud product lines in Atlanta. I hope some of you reading this will have a chance to visit. Hardly any possible stone in security and technology has been left unturned!)
Leadership training and mentoring (Superb training and guidance has been part of the first year for many of our team. Resources far beyond what we had as a small company do make a huge difference.)
Public company legal and finance teams (Throughout the past year our use of these outstanding resources made life easier for our customers and partners.)
Establishing a Blackbaud RE support team here (The synergies were abundant as the team was recruited, trained and placed into full gear right here in our expanded offices in Indianapolis!)
Blackbaud grants made to eTap employee-selected charities (As part of the ongoing commitment to philanthropy by Blackbaud many of our employees were able to request and secure grants for the charities they volunteer for.)
Technology upgrades and improvements (The number of items, which result from being part of such a large and vibrant company, are almost too many to mention. Among them were internal system replacements, video conferencing, state of the art phone systems and switches.)
Blackbaud’s MatchFinder became an eTapestry module (Due to the excellent and fast work of our product development teams, this key fundraising tool for our customers became part of our module family almost immediately!)
Blackbaud Analytics/Prospect Research became an eTapestry module (This important fundraising tool became part of the eTap product line even faster than the module above. Then to kick off our new partnership, Blackbaud provided it to many of our current prospect research customers for FREE through the end of their current contract term!)
We convinced 99% of the Non-Profit sector eTapestry will remain a viable solution for a fundraising tool well into the future! (We thank so many of you for believing what all of us so emphatically stated over and over about the future of eTapestry. We are so much stronger and better able to serve our thousands of existing and future customers than we were even a year ago. Maybe that 1% will always be caused by a few of the wacky competitors and the rumors that seem to hatch from within...)

Well, there you have the milestones all in a row. I hope you agree it has been quite a first year. As Tony Hinkle, the great coach of my alma mater Butler University, and many others have stated, the best thing about freshmen is that they become sophomores!

Perhaps our sophomore year of being part of Blackbaud will allow us to achieve even more success for our customers and our team. I personally think it is a safe bet!

When You Wish Upon a Star

Jay Love — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 12:29:00 GMT

Just a few days ago we celebrated our one year anniversary of being part of Blackbaud. I can truly use the term celebrate because it has been a superb year. My next post will outline a few milestones which will outline several of the reasons for celebration. It is neat when something in one’s life exceeds expectations. Our partnership with Blackbaud has done just that!

To kickoff the second year, I thought it would be appropriate to pull out an earlier internal blog post about an early combined meeting with our new partner which occurred shortly after the companies were combined. I hope you enjoy . . .

When You Wish Upon a Star

When becoming part of a larger organization like Blackbaud, one is always delighted when pleasant surprises are part of the integration. Last week was one of the best surprises so far!

Our leadership team participated in Blackbaud’s Leadership Assessment process. My thoughts during the two days drifted at times to the famous lyrics from our old buddy Jiminy Cricket when he sings “When You Wish Upon a Star” in the Disney classic. Yes, I know that is a bit of a reach, but please bear with me as I explain.

When becoming part of a larger organization like Blackbaud, one is always delighted when pleasant surprises are part of the integration. Last week was one of the best surprises so far!

During the session, which was moderated delightfully by LeAnn Logue from Blackbaud HR, we were able to explore all of the hopes and dreams for future careers submitted by virtually every eTapestry employee. To say the least, I was truly moved by all of the talent, achievements and desires of our team. The future ideas and plans for most were exciting and in some cases bold. What else would you expect from some of the very best talent in the tech world, who also just happen to come wired with a burning passion to help the non-profit world!

The unfolding of our first year within the Blackbaud organization will now be even more meaningful. Through the help of our new partner, we have provided a remarkable means for each employee to showcase their talents, ambitions and yes, even their long term dreams. Combine this with the immense number of opportunities a company the size of Blackbaud can provide, and perhaps each and every person will have a career filled with a strong sense of achievement and pride. Why, even Jiminy Cricket would be bursting with anticipation of what the future will bring!

The Jay Love Blog : partnership

Quite a First Year

When You Wish Upon a Star