Blackbaud celebrates 20th anniversary at conference event

About 1,000 representatives of nonprofit organizations helped Blackbaud celebrate its 20th anniversary at an event held at the company’s headquarters during the International Conference on Philanthropy. The company, which focuses exclusively on serving the technology needs of nonprofits, marked the occasion by donating a total of $20,000 to three organizations, drawn at random from those attending the conference.

Archmere Academy, an independent school located near Wilmington, Delaware, was one of the winners, receiving a $10,000 donation from Blackbaud.
“The way Archmere likes to do business is to find companies that are customer-service oriented that we can build relationships with,” said Thomas Mallon, Director of Development and Public Relations at the school. “It’s a tribute to the last twenty years that Blackbaud and Archmere have developed such a unique relationship.”

The Portland Art Museum and the Medical College of Ohio also received donations of $5,000 each.

“We had this event — and made these donations — as a way of saying thank you to the nonprofit community,” said Robert J. Sywolski, CEO of Blackbaud. “We exist to help nonprofits manage effectively, and they all need to know how much we appreciate serving them.”

Earlier in the day at the opening general session, Sywolski led the conference attendees in a moment of silence for the victims of last month’s terrorist attack.

In his remarks that followed, he stressed the importance of three key elements —people, workflows and technology — in a nonprofit’s pursuit to meet its mission-critical objectives. He also commented on the role the Internet played in enabling people to make donations via the Web to support relief efforts in New York and Washington, D.C.

“The Internet and e-mail are vital tools in our 21st-Century toolbox,” said Sywolski, speaking to the conference theme of “Cultivating Relationships in the Internet Age. “To call them critical to success is a woeful understatement. We need to make sound judgments about how to use them as a part of our overall, integrated relationship-building efforts.”

Following his speech, Sywolski invited Shaun Sullivan, Blackbaud’s Chief Technology Officer, to join him on stage to demonstrate some of the technology tools the company has developed to help nonprofits cultivate relationships.
An audio Web cast of the general session is available at that company’s Web site — http://conference.blackbaud.com/

Throughout the day, attendees participated in professional development sessions on a wide variety of topics. The conference continues through noon on Wednesday, October 24.

Downloadable photographs of the conference are available at the following link —http://www.blackbaud.com/events/PRphotos.asp.

Blackbaud is the leading provider of relationship-building software, services and e-philanthropy solutions to the nonprofit community worldwide. More than 13,000 organizations use Blackbaud products to achieve success in fund-raising, accounting and education administration. Founded in 1981, Blackbaud is headquartered in Charleston, S.C., and has offices in Glasgow, Scotland, and Sydney, Australia.