CHARLESTON, S.C., Oct. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Blackbaud
(NASDAQ: BLKB), the world's leading cloud software company powering
social good, today concluded bbcon 2018, the premier tech gathering
for organizations and change agents driving social good, at the
Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center in Orlando, Fla. Approximately 3,000 attendees
shared the latest insights, trends and innovations in the social
good community, from raising resources and delivering programs to
managing operations and measuring outcomes. Over the course of the
three-day event, Blackbaud announced more than 80 product and
innovation updates.
In addition to more than 250 expert-led sessions, bbcon featured
a keynote address from award-winning actor and humanitarian
Blair Underwood, along with featured
speakers including Jeremey Heimans,
co-author of the bestselling book New Power: How Power Works in
Our Hyperconnected World—and How to Make it Work For You;
Michael B. Moore, president and CEO
of the International African American Museum; Mike Gianoni, president and CEO of Blackbaud;
Kevin McDearis, chief products
officer at Blackbaud; and Mary Beth
Westmoreland, chief technology officer at Blackbaud.
New Partnership with Points of Light
In addition to the introduction of Blackbaud's Cloud Solution
for Higher Education and the announcement of the Integrated Cloud
Initiative for Nonprofits™ with Microsoft, the company also
announced a new partnership with Points of Light, the world's
largest organization dedicated to volunteer service. Points of
Light is leading a sector-wide effort to define new uniform
standards that will help the social good community measure and
understand the impact of volunteerism. Blackbaud is a key partner
in the effort, using its experience in constituent engagement and
deep knowledge of nonprofits and volunteer programs to help build
the social good community's ability to collect and manage data,
providing actionable insights to yield improved performance and
outcomes in volunteer programs.
The common taxonomy will enable nonprofit organizations
to leverage standard metrics and benchmarking, use common
measures to calculate the value of volunteerism toward their
program outcomes, and utilize standard reports, driving new insight
into volunteerism that will enable the social good community
to maximize volunteer resources. Blackbaud will
leverage this taxonomy in the enhanced volunteer management
capabilities it is developing, enabling customers to measure
progress and better connect with others across the social good
community to source, engage and maximize the impact of
volunteers.
Blackbaud and Points of Light will also work together on new
research insights that combine the strength, thought leadership and
expertise of the two organizations to better understand how
to measure and explain the value volunteerism
provides across the social good space—and how
to best expand that value through improvements
in volunteer engagement and program management. These efforts aim
to provide insight into the monetary value provided by volunteers,
the impact of volunteerism on overall engagement and fundraising,
and overall program efficiencies gained by using
volunteers.
"Volunteers, through their firsthand experience with the
mission, are nonprofits' greatest asset, representing 58% of the
nonprofit sector's human capital output—yet many volunteer programs
don't have the tools or industry standards to measure, benchmark,
improve and keep pace with societal needs," said Natalye Paquin, president & CEO of Points of
Light. "Points of Light and Blackbaud share a vision of a world
where volunteering and volunteerism are valued, promoted,
and effectively leveraged to drive meaningful change that
motivates social good."
"Volunteerism is a powerful source of strength in the social
economy, driving significant benefit throughout the social good
community," said Mary Beth
Westmoreland, chief technology officer at Blackbaud.
"Despite the overwhelming benefits of volunteerism, our
ability to truly harness the transformative potential of
volunteerism through cross-sector collaboration is slowed by a
lack of data proving the impact of
volunteerism and a lack of meaningful cross-sector
standards for the measurement and tracking of volunteerism. We're
excited to work with Points of Light to help them address this
important need."
bbcon 2018 Gives Back
bbcon 2018 attendees were also active participants in giving
back. For every tweet, Facebook post and Instagram post using the
hashtag "#bbcon" during the event, Blackbaud made a donation to
Tech Sassy Girlz, an Orlando-area organization designed to provide
girls in grades 6-12 with exposure and access to STEM fields
through college preparation, career readiness, events, mentoring
and hands-on learning experiences. Additionally, attendees
assembled hygiene kits with World Vision to be delivered to victims
of Hurricane Florence.
Voices of bbcon 2018
"This is my fourth bbcon. I come back every year because it's a
great opportunity to interact with people who experience the same
challenges and opportunities that we do," said Ann Symmonds, database and stewardship manager,
Central Texas Food Bank. "There's a sense of community—I really
feel like everyone here is invested in each other's mission and not
just their own."
"I love bbcon because it embodies everything about Blackbaud.
It's innovative, it's fun, it's exciting, and it provides different
learning opportunities for people across the social good
community," said Margaret Cox,
treasurer, Florida United Methodist Foundation
bbcon 2019 Visits the Music City
Blackbaud will host bbcon 2019 on October
15-17, 2019 at the Gaylord Opryland in Nashville, Tenn. To register for bbcon 2019 at
a discounted early rate, visit www.bbconference.com.
Click to Tweet: That's a wrap! @blackbaud concludes #bbcon
2018 and announces a new partnership with @PointsofLight
https://blkb.co/bbcon18wrap
About Blackbaud
Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB) is the
world's leading cloud software company powering social good.
Serving the entire social good community—nonprofits, foundations,
companies, education institutions, healthcare organizations and
individual change agents—Blackbaud connects and empowers
organizations to increase their impact through cloud software,
services, expertise and data intelligence. The Blackbaud portfolio
is tailored to the unique needs of vertical markets, with solutions
for fundraising and CRM, marketing, advocacy, peer-to-peer
fundraising, corporate social responsibility, school management,
ticketing, grantmaking, financial management, payment processing,
and analytics. Serving the industry for more than three decades,
Blackbaud is headquartered in Charleston,
South Carolina and has operations in the United States, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. For more information,
visit www.blackbaud.com.
Blackbaud Media Contact
Brian Kosoy
Director, External Affairs
843.654.3004
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 related to
our dividend policy and share repurchase program, including
potential limitations on our ability to grow and the possibility
that we might discontinue payment of dividends; risks relating to
restrictions imposed by the credit facility; risks associated with
management of growth; lengthy sales and implementation cycles,
particularly in larger organization; 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