Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB) today announced the launch of Blackbaud Certification in The Raiser's Edge (bCRE), designed to offer nonprofit professionals an opportunity to validate Raiser's Edge competencies and join an elite community of certified users. In addition, a new version of its flagship donor management software, The Raiser's Edge®, was released today featuring improvements to security and clean data management, user-friendly exports, tools for batch organization and more.

Blackbaud Certification in The Raiser's Edge (bCRE)

Blackbaud collaborated with more than 30 organizations, fundraising leaders and consultants for over a year and a half to create a professional development program for Raiser's Edge users. Consisting of three progressive levels -- Associate, Professional, and Master -- and more than 600 certification exam questions, bCRE helps create professional development opportunities by identifying knowledge gaps and offering training paths to fill those gaps. With bCRE, hiring managers and organizations can find qualified professionals with the right skillset to fill job openings.

"We're excited to launch the new certification program at bbcon, Blackbaud's Conference for Nonprofits, where thousands of nonprofit professionals gather to hone their skills," said Meredith Johnson, Blackbaud's director of educational services. "The progressive levels of certification create a clear professional development path for nonprofit professionals, helping them distinguish themselves and advance their careers while at the same time, making it easy for nonprofit hiring managers to qualify candidates."

Rochelle Sweeney, database administrator with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, is among the inaugural group of bCRE nonprofit professionals. Sweeney pursued bCRE to demonstrate her capabilities, level of commitment and ambition. "Better trained employees means better quality data," she said. "I will seek out Raiser's Edge certification credentials in new hires going forward."

For more information about Blackbaud Certification in The Raiser's Edge, visit www.blackbaud.com/bCRE.

The Raiser's Edge 7.93

"The latest release of The Raiser's Edge was built to deliver value to our customers," said Tom Maszk, Blackbaud's vice president of product management. "Our team works closely with customers to understand their needs or issues and translate those into solutions that save them time and help them achieve their missions."

One of the most-anticipated features in the release allows users to customize export headers.

"Adding the ability to name export column headers is a much-requested feature that will be excitedly received by Raiser's Edge users," said Bill Connors, author of Fundraising with The Raiser's Edge and independent consultant. "The already powerful features of Export in The Raiser's Edge allow a great diversity of information to be exported, and being able to label that data in the most meaningful ways for the database administrators, fundraisers, mail houses and others that use those exports will make their work easier and more efficient, no question."

Additional key features and functionality include:

  • Enhanced duplicate management - The new tool identifies and helps users merge duplicate records, saving time and reducing database clutter.
  • Fuzzy birth dates for donor records - Now, all users need is the month and day to create a query for sending out birthday cards to top donors.
  • User-defined batch categories - To help users organize their work, they can now create batch categories that match the way they work, then drag-and-drop their batches into the new categories.
  • Added security - Database administrators now have more control over what they allow users to edit and access.

To learn more about the latest release and additional new features or to sign up for a web seminar featuring the new release, visit www.blackbaud.com/RE7.93.

About Blackbaud

Serving the nonprofit and education sectors for 30 years, Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB) combines technology and expertise to help organizations achieve their missions. Blackbaud works with more than 28,000 customers in over 60 countries that support higher education, healthcare, human services, arts and culture, faith, the environment, independent K-12 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 services, analytics 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 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. 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.

Blackbaud, Inc.
Melanie Mathos, 843-216-6200 x3307
media@blackbaud.com