Independent Study Affirms Positive Impact for Hospitals and Healthcare Systems Utilizing Blackbaud CRM

Benefits include increase in fundraising, cost reductions, improvements in workforce productivity, and improved data quality and reporting

CHARLESTON, SC –Blackbaud, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLKB) announced the results of a commissioned Total Economic Impact study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Blackbaud, quantifying the impact of Blackbaud CRM™ to hospitals and healthcare systems over a five-year period. Forrester’s interviews with the four existing customers and subsequent financial analysis found that a composite organization experienced an increase in funds raised, cost reductions, productivity improvements, better data quality, and the ability to create and track key performance indicators across all offices.

Drawing on research associated with commercial CRM deployments, the study was constructed using Forrester’s Total Economic Impact (TEI) methodology providing a comprehensive view of the economic impact of purchase decisions related to nonprofit CRM technology. Although this study analyzed the economics of a multi-hospital healthcare system, the majority of benefits and costs will also apply to a single hospital.

For this study, Forrester conducted interviews with representatives from four North America-based Blackbaud customers whose, composition, and software needs varied. The composite organization created from the results of these four companies has the following characteristics: a large US-based healthcare system consisting of 37 nonprofit hospitals plus another 23 ancillary sites, 35 separate 501c3 fundraising organizations, 35 separate data instances across multiple CRM vendors and a staff of 48,000 employees. Over a five year period, the composite organization experienced a 141 percent return-on-investment, and total cost savings and benefits of $10.6 million.

According to the study, prior to deploying Blackbaud CRM, the interviewed hospital systems utilized various fundraising technologies to meet their fundraising objectives. However, all customers interviewed stated similar challenges with previous installations and felt these limitations caused long-standing issues, including the concern that annual fundraising levels were persistently hamstrung by legacy technology.

Upon implementation, key benefits of Blackbaud CRM identified in the study include:

• A lift in fundraising with Blackbaud CRM – after Blackbaud CRM is fully deployed, organizations should expect an annual improvement in fundraising levels
• Cost reductions at subsidiary organizations – the deployment of Blackbaud CRM across a large healthcare system should allow subsidiary 501c3 fundraising offices to eliminate various site-specific technology costs
• Improvements in workforce productivity – staff time savings are a result of three components: less time spent manually matching records, less time spent manually processing donor mail, and less time spent undertaking searches for data
• Better information and reporting – Blackbaud CRM delivered time-saving new reports across the healthcare system, saving the staff between 1,000 and 2,000 hours per year
• Create and track KPIs – while not quantified in this study, interviewees noted another important benefit of Blackbaud CRM; it allowed managers to have greater visibility over staff performance. Half of those interviewed also said it allowed them to more efficiently create and track key performance indicators (KPIs) across all offices.

“We continue to concentrate our efforts on providing the absolute greatest value to our customers,” said Joe Moye, president of Blackbaud’s Enterprise Customer Business Unit.  “Part of this is to help our clients understand the impact of Blackbaud CRM solutions on their missions. Through these Forrester studies, we are able to leverage an industry expert, proven methodology, and external view to validate all the reasons organizations invest in Blackbaud technology.”

Blackbaud CRM brings industry-leading fundraising, online applications, actionable prospect research and analytics, and multichannel direct marketing together in one platform to enable an integrated view of the constituent experience, across your organization.

To learn more about Blackbaud CRM and to download the Forrester Total Economic Impact study, visitwww.blackbaud.com/forresterstudy.

About Blackbaud
Serving the nonprofit and education sectors for more than 30 years, Blackbaud (NASDAQ:BLKB) combines technology and expertise to help organizations achieve their missions. Blackbaud works with more than 30,000 customers in over 60 countries that support higher education, healthcare, human services, arts and culture, faith, the environment, private K12 education, animal welfare and other charitable causes. The company offers a full spectrum of cloud-based and on-premise software solutions and related services for organizations of all sizes including: fundraising, eMarketing, advocacy, constituent relationship management (CRM), financial management, payment solutions, analytics, education solutions, and vertical-specific solutions. Using Blackbaud technology, these organizations raise more than $100 billion each year. Recognized as a top company by Forbes, InformationWeek, and Software Magazine and honored by Best Places to Work, Blackbaud is headquartered in Charleston, South Carolina and has operations in the United States, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Ireland and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit www.blackbaud.com.