By Cassandra Balentine
Blackbaud, Inc. provides technology solutions to nonprofit, charitable giving, and educational communities. The company offers a range of cloud and on-premises solutions, as well as related services for organizations of all sizes, which aim to help its client base meet goals, such as fundraising, relationship management, eMarketing, advocacy, accounting, payment and analytics, grant management, corporate social responsibility, and education.
Headquartered in Charleston, SC and with additional operations in the U.S., Australia, Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, and the U.K., the company works in more than 60 countries to support over 30,000 customers. A publicly traded company, it ranked number 139 on the 2014 Software 500, with a reported software and services revenue of $494.7M.
The company provides a range of solutions including analytics, direct marketing and data services, finance and accounting, fundraising and relationship management, interactive and online marketing, ticketing, merchant and payment services, professional services, application hosting, training, and maintenance.
Partner Power
In early March, Blackbaud launched the Blackbaud Partner Network, which it describes as the first online marketplace dedicated to the nonprofit, charitable giving and education communities. The Marketplace features products that extend and enhance Blackbaud solutions. Over the course of the latest eight to ten years, the company has developed the network with internal teams within Blackbaud along with partners.
The new platform highlights offerings from across the network, allowing customers to compare and select value-added products based on specific requirements. Customers are able to browse product reviews from peer organizations, rate experiences, and request a follow up from Blackbaud partners.
“The Marketplace was developed to allow for customers to easily find third-party solutions to extend and enhance their Blackbaud solutions, which will in turn help them better fulfill their mission,” says Chris Clinton, VP, Global Channels and Partner Ecosystem, Blackbaud.
The platform encourages Blackbaud customers to innovate with partner solutions through an accessible site that enables the evaluation of options in a confident manner.
The company says the Marketplace features products spanning more than 30 vertical markets, including those by launch partners, ADP, Attend.com, EverTrue, Graduway, PaperSave, Paramount Technologies, PushUp Social, Small World Labs, SmartTHING, Social Tabels, VolunteerHub, WebThriftStore, and Zeidman Development.
“The Marketplace has solutions that span many areas, including volunteer, event, and alumni engagement, to document and invoice management,” adds Clinton.
He explains that partners are selected based on the solutions they provide and how that solution extends and enhances Blackbaud solutions, along with the history and background of the partner.
“At bbcon 2014 we did a soft launch of the Marketplace with about a dozen partners, both tenured ones and brand new ones that were willing to help us test and pilot the storefronts. We do have a partner inquiry process whereby we review Partners based on the solutions they provide and how that solution extends and enhances customers Blackbaud solutions along with the history and background of the partner,” says Clinton.
The Future Marketplace
At its launch, the company said it is already building out phase two functionality and working through a pipeline of new marketplace candidates.
“We anticipate the next round of functionality to be released in mid to late Q3, with additional functionality released throughout the year,” concludes Clinton.
To learn more about the Blackbaud Partner Marketplace, visit blackbaud.com/marketplace. Current Blackbaud customers may log in and experience the new platform at blackbaud.com/partnermarketplace. SW
