Blackbaud Nonprofit Central Helps Community Foundations

Blackbaud recently announced the availability of Blackbaud Nonprofit Central, a solution created specifically for community foundations that enables them to connect nonprofit organizations with donors of similar philanthropic interests. Blackbaud Nonprofit Central gives local nonprofits a central place to highlight their mission and gives donors the information they need to give wisely.

Community Foundation Focus
Blackbaud Nonprofit Central allows community foundations to
connect donors with local nonprofits that meet the donors’
philanthropic interests. The solution contains information about all organizations in the United States that file a 990 return with the IRS. This gives local
nonprofits a central place to better inform donors about their work, add additional profile information, and gives donors a very robust portal to help make giving decisions.

Partnering for Success
Communities Foundation of Texas used Blackbaud Nonprofit Central to create DonorBridge. They partnered with Blackbaud, the Center for Nonprofit Management in Dallas, the Institute for Urban Policy Research at The University of Texas at Dallas, and also received support from The Dallas Foundation. The site is focused on nonprofits in and around the Dallas area.

Big Launch and Big Results
DonorBridge was launched last week and on its first day received 8,400 donations to 353 organizations totaling over $4,000,000. That shattered previous single-day online giving records and sets a new standard among community foundations. That's a credit to the hard work and effort of CFT and the other organizations involved in this project.

APIs, Infinity, Integration, and Beyond
Behind the scenes, Blackbaud Nonprofit Central uses various technologies to make it all happen. Blackbaud is leveraging the Infinity Platform to deliver information about 500,000 nonprofit organzations. Fusion Labs, a Blackbaud Strategic Application Partner, leveraged Blackbaud's open APIs to develop key portions of the solution. Blackbaud NetCommunity drives the content management and email marketing tools. This gives community foundations a fully integrated total solution for their CRM, accounting, grants management, and online giving and communication needs.

This is a great new offering that is getting measureable and sizable results from day one. A big round of applause to everyone who was involved in this project and I'm really looking forward to seeing what's next.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Steve MacLaughlin

Steve MacLaughlin is the Vice President of Data & Analytics at Blackbaud and bestselling author of Data Driven Nonprofits.

MacLaughlin has been featured as a fundraising and nonprofit expert in many mainstream publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, USA Today, The NonProfit Times, Bloomberg, and has appeared on NPR.

He is a frequent speaker at events including the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), Association for Healthcare Philanthropy (AHP), American Marketing Association (AMA), Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), Direct Marketing Fundraisers Association (DMFA), Giving Institute Summer Symposium, National Association of Independent School (NAIS), Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN), Institute of Fundraising National Convention, Civil Society Conference, Resource Alliance’s Fundraising Online, and a keynote speaker at such events as the Crescendo Practical Planned Giving Conference.

Steve serves on the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN) Board of Directors and supports its focus on both the growth and professionalism of the nonprofit technology field as well as building knowledge and information sharing capacity throughout the sector.

He is a frequent blogger, published author of a chapter in the book People to People Fundraising: Social Networking and Web 2.0 for Charities, and is a co-editor of the book Internet Management for Nonprofits: Strategies, Tools & Trade Secrets. His latest book, Data Driven Nonprofits, became a bestseller in 2016.

Steve earned both his undergraduate degree and a Master of Science degree in Interactive Media from Indiana University.