More than 4600 nonprofits aroundthe world use Blackbaud Sphere and BlackbaudNetCommunity to run their online fundraising andmarketing
Charleston, SC – June 17, 2010 –Blackbaud, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLKB) today announced new releases of Blackbaud®Sphere and Blackbaud NetCommunity™ — two of the key applications in Blackbaud’ssuite of Internet solutions for nonprofits. The latestreleases bring one-of-a-kind advancements to website management that have yet tobe seen in the nonprofit market.
“The Internet is reshaping the way nonprofits are interacting with theiraudiences, and Blackbaud is putting considerable research and development intomaking sure our products can help lead their efforts,” said Steve MacLaughlin,director of Internet solutions. “Each of these new releases not only bringssignificant new technology to the nonprofit marketplace, but also demonstratesBlackbaud’s commitment to support the more than 4600 customers using ourInternet solutions.”
The new versions of Blackbaud Sphere and Blackbaud NetCommunity representBlackbaud’s ongoing investment in helping nonprofits reach, engage, and acquiresupporters through online channels.
Blackbaud SphereEnhancements
Blackbaud Sphere®, featuring Friends Asking Friends®, is a comprehensiveonline solution for email marketing, online event management, websitemanagement, and advocacy. Sphere easily integrates with other databases,third-party applications, and The Raiser’s Edge®.
Blackbaud’s Friends Asking Friends is the first and only event fundraisingsolution that provides mobile versions of personal fundraising pages, donationforms, and on-screen confirmations. Nonprofit websites built with Friends AskingFriends are able to automatically detect mobile browsers and display informationin a format that is easily managed on a wireless device.
“Our online fundraising has continued to grow annually throughexecuting strategies that promote more and continued use of Blackbaud FriendsAsking Friends for our Memory Walk campaign,” said Lynn DeHoyos,
Alzheimer’s Association’s director of constituentevents. “We look forward to leveraging the additions to the platform such asthese that trend with modern technology and appeal to our donors.”
With the new version of Blackbaud Sphere, nonprofits can more easilyuse reporting tools to analyze the success of their online efforts, includingform and transaction conversions, through integration with Google Analytics™,the leading web analytics service. Nonprofits can now also manage GoogleAdWords™ performance from directly within the application, enabling them totrack conversion rates and return on investment for their Google®advertisements. “AddThis” social bookmarking capabilities have also beenincluded in the new Blackbaud Sphere release, which enable website visitors toshare website content with social networks and social media sites, resulting ingreater website traffic and conversions.
Nonprofits can also benchmark their email marketing campaigns byaccessing monthly reports, only available in Blackbaud Sphere. Each month, datafrom more than 2,100 Sphere customers is compiled across 22 standard emailmarketing metrics, which nonprofits can use as a reference tool to compare theirperformance to industry benchmarks.
Blackbaud NetCommunity Enhancements
Blackbaud NetCommunity is a comprehensive Internet marketing solutionthat integrates with The Raiser’s Edge and Blackbaud Enterprise CRM™ for websitemanagement, online community-building, and email marketing. In addition to manyfeature enhancements, the new version of Blackbaud NetCommunity has been builton Blackbaud’s next-generation Infinity platform, making the solution even morescalable, secure, and flexible. The
Infinity SDK provides developers with new optionsfor customization, data access, and extensibility.
In addition, with this release, nonprofits will be able to more easilyrequest for and accept online payments made toward outstanding pledges stored intheir fundraising management solution—whether they use The Raiser’s Edge orBlackbaud Enterprise CRM™.
“We’re really excited about what this new release offers us in terms ofmanaging online pledge payments,” said Stephanie Veatch,
The Basilica of Saint Mary’s database andtechnology administrator. “Given the current economic times, people need to havemore control over when they make their gifts, and the new enhancements inBlackbaud NetCommunity will enable us to deliver that flexibility whileautomating the payment application process and saving valuable stafftime.”
More than 4,600 nonprofit organizations around the world use BlackbaudInternet solutions, including Blackbaud NetCommunity, Blackbaud NetCommunityGrow™, Blackbaud Sphere, and Blackbaud Sphere® Grow™ for content email, andevent management; online fundraising, online community building, and advocacy.For more information about Blackbaud’s Internet solutions, visit
www.blackbaud.com/internetsolutions.
About Blackbaud
Blackbaud isthe leading global provider of software and services designed specifically fornonprofit organizations, enabling them to improve operational efficiency, buildstrong relationships, and raise more money to support their missions.Approximately 22,000 organizations — including University of Arizona Foundation,American Red Cross, Cancer Research UK, The Taft School, Lincoln Center, InTouch Ministries, Tulsa Community Foundation, Ursinus College, Earthjustice,International Fund for Animal Welfare, and the WGBH Educational Foundation — useone or more Blackbaud products and services for fundraising, constituentrelationship management, financial management, website management, directmarketing, education administration, ticketing, business intelligence, prospectresearch, consulting, and analytics. Since 1981, Blackbaud’s sole focus andexpertise has been partnering with nonprofits and providing them the solutionsthey need to make a difference in their local communities and worldwide.Headquartered in the United States, Blackbaud also has operations in Australia,Canada, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit www.blackbaud.com.
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