Country for PR: United States
Contributor: PR Newswire New York
Tuesday, March 31 2020 - 06:24
AsiaNet
Blackbaud Announces New Measures to Support Customers and Global Community in Response to COVID-19 Pandemic
CHARLESTON, South Carolina, March 31, 2020 /PRNewswire-AsiaNet/ --

    - CEO of social good software leader voluntarily forgoes paycheck; releases 
free resources to customers; gives donation to fight virus; expands employee 
matching gift program


Blackbaud [ 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2764275-1&h=1370392765&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blackbaud.com%2F&a=Blackbaud 
] (NASDAQ: BLKB), the world's leading cloud software company powering social 
good, announced new measures to support its customers and the broader social 
economy as many organizations are thrown into crisis mode in the wake of the 
COVID-19 pandemic. 

As the COVID-19 crisis evolves around the globe, social good organizations are 
experiencing unprecedented challenges, and even disruptions to their 
operations. The need for funding, support and resources is significant as 
organizations work to pivot their models, activate supporters and minimize 
disruptions to their services and work. 

When addressing Blackbaud's global workforce this morning, president and CEO 
Mike Gianoni outlined a series of measures to support customers, fuel critical 
innovation and help employees. Among the measures outlined, Gianoni announced 
he would stop taking a paycheck until the business stabilizes. 

"At Blackbaud, we believe the world will be a better place when good takes 
over," said Gianoni. "And, that higher purpose has taken on entirely new 
meaning and importance during this unprecedented time. We are taking measures 
to ensure business continuity while remaining critically focused on the success 
of our customers. We want to empower them to not only survive this pandemic, 
but to thrive. We also want to do our part to help bring the global economy 
back to a powerful place. And, most importantly, we want to do our part to help 
save lives." 

Blackbaud is seeing the needs and impact of COVID-19 manifest in many ways for 
its customers depending on the organization type. Many private K-12 schools 
across the U.S. are benefitting from Blackbaud's cloud solutions by being able 
to swiftly move classes online. Food banks are receiving record high donations 
through Blackbaud Merchant Services(TM) - up more than 500% year-over-year. 
Meanwhile, other nonprofits like arts and cultural organizations face entirely 
different challenges, which Blackbaud is working diligently to support through 
resources and guidance. Blackbaud is helping churches recapture weekly offering 
by quickly setting up virtual platforms. Blackbaud solutions support virtual 
events, so as organizations around the world are having to cancel important 
in-person events—even marathons—they're able to quickly move fundraising 
aspects online and recapture revenue. For example, Blackbaud's JustGiving 
platform is experiencing a rise in COVID-19-related virtual events, individual 
crowdfunding and direct donations from charities, individuals and celebrities. 
In support of this, Blackbaud's team is working hands-on with organizations and 
redeploying resources to accelerate the "go live" of all COVID-19 campaigns.

Below are some of the announcements that Blackbaud made today to further 
support its customers. 

Blackbaud to Now Offer Customers Free, Universal Access to All Recorded 
eLearning Resources
Many social good organizations—nonprofits, higher education institutions, K-12 
schools, healthcare organizations, faith communities, arts and cultural 
organizations, foundations and companies—are relying on software in an 
unprecedented way to fuel communications, fundraising and more during this 
crisis. To make it easier for its customers to get the training and education 
they need, the company announced free universal access to its entire curriculum 
of recorded eLearning resources through Blackbaud University. Customers can 
learn more here [ 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2764275-1&h=1286814124&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blackbaud.com%2Ftraining-support%2Ftraining%2Fblackbaud-university&a=Customers+can+learn+more+here 
]. 

Blackbaud Releases More than 100 New Resources at No Cost to the Social Good 
Community
Social good organizations are seeking best practices and advice on how to 
operate and pivot amidst the unforeseen challenges of COVID-19. To help arm 
these organizations with the knowledge and resources they seek, Blackbaud 
created new webinars, virtual user groups, community forums, podcasts, e-books 
and more over the last two weeks; making them available at no cost. Topics 
include change management, managing a global remote workforce, virtual 
fundraising, financial management, donor communications and more. Blackbaud's 
resource library is being continually updated and can be accessed at 
Blackbaud.com/COVID-19-Resources [ 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2764275-1&h=4190362120&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blackbaud.com%2FCOVID-19-resources&a=Blackbaud.com%2FCOVID-19-Resources 
]. Additionally, Blackbaud launched job boards and a COVID-19 discussion thread 
as part of its Blackbaud Communities platform to help customers further connect 
and share best practices with each other during this time. 

Blackbaud Donates to World Health Organization and UN Foundation's COVID-19 
Solidarity Response Fund
Blackbaud's mission is to empower and connect people through technology to 
drive impact for social good, which is especially critical during these times. 
Throughout all major disasters, Blackbaud is on the frontlines with its 
customers and supporting the social good community globally. Blackbaud will be 
making a donation to the World Health Organization and the UN Foundation's 
COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund [ 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2764275-1&h=43212118&u=https%3A%2F%2Fcovid19responsefund.org%2F&a=World+Health+Organization+and+the+UN+Foundation%27s+COVID-19+Solidarity+Response+Fund 
]  to put technology in place to fight the spread of the virus. This technology 
will help track the virus and provide powerful insights into how it is 
spreading, ensuring patients are getting the care they need; improving the 
buying and shipping of essential medical supplies; and accelerating efforts to 
develop a vaccine.  

Blackbaud Employees Empowered with New Programs and Expanded Employee Gift 
Matching Program
Blackbaud's employees are committed to social good professionally and 
personally - as evidenced by employee participation in the company's matching 
gift program being consistently more than two times the national median [ 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2764275-1&h=370816785&u=https%3A%2F%2Fcampaign.blackbaud.com%2Fsocial-responsibility&a=more+than+two+times+the+national+median 
] , according to company data. To continue to empower employees' drive to 
support causes they care about, Blackbaud today increased its employee matching 
gift program for the second time since January, bringing the increase to 30% in 
2020. The company also began rolling out "virtual volunteerism" programs, which 
will augment the more than 100,000 hours its employees physically donate each 
year. 

Learn more about the resources and measures that Blackbaud is taking for its 
customers here [ 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2764275-1&h=2197511552&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blackbaud.com%2FCOVID-19-resources&a=here 
]. 

About Blackbaud
Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB) is the world's leading cloud software company powering 
social good. Serving the entire social good community—nonprofits, higher 
education institutions, K-12 schools, healthcare organizations, faith 
communities, arts and cultural organizations, foundations, companies and 
individual change agents—Blackbaud connects and empowers organizations to 
increase their impact through cloud software, services, expertise and data 
intelligence. The Blackbaud portfolio is tailored to the unique needs of 
vertical markets, with solutions for fundraising and CRM, marketing, advocacy, 
peer-to-peer fundraising, corporate social responsibility, school management, 
ticketing, grantmaking, financial management, payment processing and analytics. 
Serving the industry for more than three decades, Blackbaud is headquartered in 
Charleston, South Carolina, and has operations in the United States, Australia, 
Canada, Costa Rica and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit  
www.blackbaud.com or follow us on Twitter [ 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2764275-1&h=292853238&u=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fblackbaud&a=Twitter 
], LinkedIn [ 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2764275-1&h=1734933907&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fcompany%2Fblackbaud%2F&a=LinkedIn 
], Instagram [ 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2764275-1&h=1962009187&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.instagram.com%2Fblackbaud%2F&a=nstagram 
] and Facebook [ 
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].

Media Inquiries
media@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 
expected benefits of 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 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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SOURCE  Blackbaud