Combines leading software, analytics, professional services, and expertise to support world-class fundraising, relationship management, alumni engagement and more

CHARLESTON, S.C., May 23, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In conjunction with its annual Higher Education and Hospital Forum event, Blackbaud, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLKB), the leading provider of software and services for the global philanthropic community, today announced a new solution offering that combines 35 years of software innovation and industry expertise with value-added services to help higher education institutions excel in fundraising and constituent relationship management.

Blackbaud Success Assurance™ for Higher Education brings together industry-leading fundraising and relationship management software, analytics, services, and expertise to help colleges and universities build relationships and generate support for their missions. With measurement, outcomes and customer success at the center of the implementation framework, higher education institutions are best positioned for a lower total cost of ownership and improved results.

“This offering was designed to bring a modern, end-to-end solution approach to higher education institutions,” said Brian Boruff, president of Blackbaud’s Enterprise Customer Business Unit. “We take a very personalized approach to planning, implementing and managing a total solution that leverages best practices and provides each customer with the tools and expertise they need to manage and grow their advancement and alumni relations functions with agility.”

Blackbaud Success Assurance for Higher Education offers:

• A comprehensive technology solution that combines industry-leading fundraising and relationship management with embedded analytics, integrated payments and other value-added capabilities like moves management to support alumni engagement.
• The opportunity to experience a world-class customer success management program with designated resources to assist in driving business outcomes
• A results-driven approach that puts goals at the core of customer operations, processes and technology while measuring and managing performance against those goals
• Exclusive access to the largest source of philanthropic data to help organizations reach and activate alumni and unprecedented scale
• End-to-end service and support provided by one partner, from tailored discovery and planning with customized scorecards, to implementation by Blackbaud’s professional services organization, to on-boarding and ongoing support managed by a best-in-class customer success organization. 

Blackbaud’s customized, yet comprehensive approach to solution design starts with identifying the right foundational fundraising and relationship management solution that matches the institution’s unique operating model and development goals. Boruff added: “Higher education customers are demanding choice from their partners. With Raiser’s Edge NXT™ to Luminate CRM™ and Blackbaud CRM^® (also known as Blackbaud Enterprise CRM), we offer the widest range of industry-leading fundraising and relationship management solutions. We collaborate with customers to carefully select and customize the right solution and then integrate value-added capabilities, services, and expertise that allow higher education customers to see immediate progress and growth.”

Jeffrey Lang, vice president of Finance at Ball State Foundation commented on the organization’s recent choice to switch to Blackbaud solutions. “As the Ball State Foundation reviewed various options to replace its aging systems, Blackbaud emerged as the vendor most aligned with the foundation’s strategic goals.  Specifically, Blackbaud offered an integrated solution that provides tools across the entire foundation as a whole. We look forward to leveraging the newly implemented system to streamline workflow, automate historically manual tasks, improve metric tracking and ultimately move forward with increased transparency and unity.”

For more information about Blackbaud’s enterprise advancement solution for higher education institutions visit www.blackbaud.com/education or email ecbusolutions@blackbaud.com.  To learn more about Blackbaud’s fundraising and relationship management solutions, visit www.blackbaud.com/fundraising-relationship-management.

About Blackbaud
Serving the worldwide philanthropic community for 35 years, Blackbaud (NASDAQ:BLKB) combines innovative software, services, and expertise to help organizations achieve their missions. Blackbaud works in over 60 countries to power the passion of approximately 35,000 customers, including nonprofits, K-12 private and higher education institutions, healthcare organizations, corporations, foundations, and other charitable giving entities. The company offers a full spectrum of cloud and on-premise solutions, as well as a resource network that empowers and connects organizations of all sizes. Blackbaud's portfolio of software and services supports nonprofit fundraising and relationship management, eMarketing, advocacy, accounting, payments and analytics, as well as grant management, corporate social responsibility, and education. Organizations use Blackbaud technology to raise, invest, manage, and award more than $100 billion each year. Recognized as a top company, Blackbaud is headquartered in Charleston, South Carolina and has operations in the United States, Australia, Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit www.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 the introduction of new products and product features, as well as the expected benefits of the new 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 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.

Media Contact
Nicole McGougan
Public Relations
843-654-3307
nicole.mcgougan@blackbaud.com