Blackbaud and Microsoft’s Tech for Social Impact Team Collaborating to Bring Sophisticated Cloud Technology, AI and Analytics to Nonprofits

Upcoming Product Innovations Will Enable Nonprofits to Leverage Innovative Blackbaud and Microsoft Technology to Achieve Greater Impact, Gain In-Depth Insights and Increase Efficiency

Blackbaud and Microsoft announced plans to enhance the value provided to the nonprofit and education markets. Blackbaud customers will soon benefit from deeper integration of Microsoft AI and analytics into software that is purpose-built for the unique business operations of social impact organizations — without the need for costly customizations.

Underpinned by Microsoft technologies, Blackbaud’s industry-leading donor management software, Blackbaud CRM and Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT, are engineered using the world’s most comprehensive fundraising data model. These purpose-built, powerful solutions are proven to enhance data understanding and consistency, helping social impact organizations manage complex fundraising operations and ultimately increase the number of donors, gifts, and amounts raised. By integrating Microsoft Fabric in its architecture to unify data sources, Blackbaud can enable new capabilities like comprehensive productivity dashboards designed for the unique needs of their customers. These dashboards, personalized by role, are designed to enable every user to focus on and prioritize their next actions and critical tasks.

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These capabilities build upon the productivity increases that thousands of Blackbaud customers are already realizing as they use Blackbaud’s Microsoft Power Platform™ connectors, available on the Blackbaud Marketplace, to extend and enhance their solutions. Blackbaud is a leading producer of Microsoft-certified Power Platform connectors, and its customers use this rich Microsoft toolset to create custom apps, automate workflows, build dashboards, and fine-tune reporting for their Blackbaud solutions, helping them save time and ultimately raise more funds for their world-changing organizations.

“A tremendous opportunity exists for our two companies to collaborate on ways to help social impact organizations use AI and automation to address key operational and financial challenges,” said Sudip Datta, Chief Product Officer, Blackbaud. “As a longstanding Microsoft partner and leader in the nonprofit technology space, we’re committed to making sure our customers have access to the latest innovation within a connected ecosystem purpose-built for the social impact sector. We’re excited to be leveraging Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service and Microsoft Fabric within our solutions, helping social impact organizations accelerate impact.”

“Microsoft is committed to empowering social good organizations with the technology and tools they need to achieve more impact,” said Justin Spelhaug, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft’s Tech for Social Impact, part of Microsoft Philanthropies. “We are grateful for the collaboration with Blackbaud who has been a pioneer in applying AI and cloud technologies to the social sector. Together, we are enabling social impact organizations to transform their operations, optimize their resources and amplify their outcomes.”

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Blackbaud and Microsoft have a long history and shared commitment to the social impact space, rooted in Blackbaud’s early adoption of Microsoft Azure as a critical foundation for many of its core products and ongoing adoption of new Azure capabilities. Blackbaud’s leading financial management software Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT® will soon leverage the Microsoft Azure AI Document Intelligence service for invoice and receipt scanning automation. This marriage of Blackbaud’s leading financial management software with Microsoft technology will allow organizations to automate their entire payables process, from start to finish, directly within Financial Edge NXT. Blackbaud also leverages Microsoft AI Services to bring many aspects of their Intelligence for Good strategy to life, making AI powerful, accessible, and responsible for social impact, such as in Blackbaud Impact Edge, the company’s new data and storytelling solution that’s currently under development.

Microsoft is the presenting sponsor of bbcon 2024, Blackbaud’s annual tech conference, taking place Sept. 24-26 in Seattle. Microsoft will deliver several sessions at the conference focused on how nonprofits can use AI with their data to drive mission success around fundraising and campaign planning.

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