AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 28, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Blackbaud, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLKB), the leading provider of software and services for the global philanthropic community, wrapped up the second day of its 16th annual bbcon conference with a series of announcements and live demonstrations to help organizations grow their impact.

Following Monday’s announcements such as Blackbaud Outcomes and Givalanche™, the software and services leader shared news of advancements over the past 12 months spanning every market it serves. “It’s been our biggest year of innovation yet, and we’re just getting started,” said Blackbaud President and CEO, Mike Gianoni, as he reflected on the announcements of the day. “This week we unveiled a new cloud, new capabilities across our entire portfolio, new services to support social fundraising, and more. Our clients can expect this sort of rapid, high-quality innovation from Blackbaud from here on out.”

“As a longtime client, I have noticed Blackbaud innovating faster over the last couple years,” said Jennifer Chase of nonprofit, effect:hope. “I’m excited about Raiser’s Edge NXT and its role-based focus, because they clearly worked to understand how nonprofits will use the product. For example, it will help data administrators shift from report creators to data analysts. And, as an Online Express client, we’re really excited about the Givalanche announcement because it will help us empower our constituents to engage their networks in the social sphere, while expanding our brand message. I’m leaving this conference very enthusiastic.”

Blackbaud SKY

The biggest news of the week came with the unveiling of Blackbaud SKY™, the company’s new, high-performance cloud for the global philanthropic community. Blackbaud SKY brings together a set of capabilities that allow clients to experience total, pre-integrated solutions with enhanced services built in, such as analytics, payments, email marketing, crowdfundraising, and more. Also, all solutions delivered in Blackbaud SKY are now developed with SKY UX™, a consistent, anywhere-accessible and always-modern user experience that will translate across the company’s entire cloud portfolio.

Blackbaud’s NXT Solution Line, which is live today with nearly 1500 clients, was the first to be delivered within Blackbaud SKY. The company shared plans to deliver next generation Luminate Online® in 2016.

In conjunction with the unveiling of its new cloud, Blackbaud announced SKY API™, which will provide clients, partners and application developers with access to industry-standard, open REST APIs for all solutions and SKY UX. “Blackbaud is now open,” said Kevin McDearis, executive vice president of Research, Delivery and Operations at Blackbaud. Blackbaud’s SKY UX will be available to developers in November, and Blackbaud’s Sky API supporting the NXT Solution Line will enter the Early Adopter Program in 2016 with APIs for other solutions like Altru™ to follow.

Other Announcements from bbcon

  • The company also announced Blackbaud Nonprofit Intelligence™, a new component of the NXT Solution Line, and soon other cloud solutions, which turns data into actionable insights through advanced reporting and business intelligence capabilities.  Blackbaud Chief Technology Officer, Mary Beth Westmoreland explained “Nonprofit Intelligence will enable organizations to determine where money is coming from and understand meaningful trends of those funding sources, drive accurate forecasts/budgets, measure the effectiveness of services—from both a program and cost perspective—and even predict future behavior of prospects and constituents.”  
  • A new Director Role was rolled out as part of the Raiser’s Edge NXT™ work center, which adds yet another customizable, role-based experience for users that includes Nonprofit Intelligence.
  • New capabilities for Blackbaud Enterprise CRM™ were announced, including event management check-in and payments with Blackbaud MobilePay.
  • Blackbaud released the UAT (User Automation Testing) Toolkit for Blackbaud Enterprise CRM, which brings together industry-standard tools to help clients automate user automation testing for both standard and custom features. This includes an API to interact with common Blackbaud Enterprise CRM elements.
  • Attendees also had the opportunity to participate in product roadmap sessions, where Blackbaud technologists unveiled new capabilities and plans on the horizon for Raiser’s Edge NXT, Financial Edge NXT™, Blackbaud Enterprise CRM, Luminate Online, Altru, Blackbaud’s K-12 solutions, and more.
  • Blackbaud honored three clients with its distinguished annual Impact Awards. Innovation of the Year Award: Feeding America; Most Impactful Digital Strategy Award: Southlake Regional Health Centre Foundation; Fundraising Dynamo Award: The Planetary Society.

The annual event will close today with a keynote by award-winning actress and humanitarian, Ashley Judd, and with a final set of information-rich sessions designed to equip change-makers with new insights and resources.

For more information, visit www.bbconference.com. Follow the conference news on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bbcon or like Blackbaud on Facebook® at www.facebook.com/blackbaud.

About Blackbaud

Serving the worldwide philanthropic community for more than 30 years, Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB) combines innovative software and services, and expertise to help organizations achieve their missions. Blackbaud works in over 60 countries to power the passions of more than 30,000 clients, including nonprofits, K-12 private and higher education institutions, healthcare organizations, foundations and other charitable giving entities, and corporations. 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 support nonprofit fundraising and relationship management, eMarketing, advocacy, accounting, payments and analytics, as well as grant management, corporate social responsibility, and education. Using Blackbaud technology, these organizations 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.

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