Leading Corporate Social Responsibility Provider, YourCause, Acquired by Blackbaud

YourCause, a market leader in enterprise philanthropy, corporate social responsibility and employee engagement technology, announced that it has been acquired by Blackbaud, the world’s leading cloud software company powering social good.

Blackbaud purchased YourCause for approximately $157 million and the acquisition closed Wednesday, January 2, 2019.

YourCause stands out as an innovative, flexible, and scalable software provider with a diverse customer portfolio, including Fortune 500 companies and small businesses alike. Eight million people can engage with YourCause’s solution, which processes more than $245,000 in donations every business hour and has coordinated, tracked and rewarded more than 30 million volunteer hours.

YourCause’s Plano, Texas-based team of 155 employees will join Blackbaud. “The inspiration for YourCause began in 2007 with the story of a boy in war-torn Uganda who had suffered unimaginable tragedy, my desire to help and my realization that the tools to connect individuals like myself to the causes and organizations needing support across the globe were lacking,” YourCause CEO Matthew Combs said. “Joining Blackbaud, the leader in the social good software space, will enable us to connect enterprises, individuals, and nonprofits to more efficiently support social causes of every size, anywhere in the world.”

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After implementing YourCause solutions, customers show growth as high as triple-digit percentages in volunteers, donations, engagement and more. These reported successes demonstrate a larger trend: overall ability to attract employees and customers alike by strengthening a company’s reputation.

“We understand that business success today is more than finances; it’s also critical to engage on social issues,” said Mike Gianoni, president and CEO of Blackbaud. “In a time where 84 percent¹ of Americans believe businesses shoulder a responsibility to bring social change, providing those businesses with the right tools not only helps attract and retain customers and employees – but it helps to build a better world.”

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The acquisition of YourCause positions Blackbaud as the industry leader in providing solutions to both nonprofit organizations and for-profit companies committed to social issues. “Together, we have a unique opportunity to innovate for the social good space at a larger scale and with greater velocity,” said Kevin McDearis, chief products officer at Blackbaud. “Combining YourCause’s comprehensive solutions for maximizing global social impact with Blackbaud’s unparalleled leadership in delivering cloud solutions for social good will enable companies around the world to create a culture that engages and inspires employees and customers, while driving business success and powering measurable outcomes.”

In the near term, YourCause customers will benefit from Blackbaud’s longstanding connections to the nonprofit community and deep investments in research and development to accelerate innovation of the YourCause solutions they use today. Blackbaud customers will benefit from a marked expansion and acceleration of workplace giving and volunteering while building a source of new donors, volunteers and advocates. In the future, Blackbaud is eager to combine YourCause’s product vision with its own, align YourCause’s capabilities to Blackbaud’s technical standards, and introduce expanded innovation to the market.

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“YourCause is an extraordinary company whose leading SaaS platform has brought together the best product and service offerings to support corporate philanthropy,” said Marco Ferrari, managing director at Providence Strategic Growth (PSG), YourCause’s majority shareholder and the growth equity affiliate of Providence Equity Partners. “We are thrilled to have had the opportunity to partner with the YourCause leadership team to help scale the business over the course of our investment. Under Blackbaud’s ownership, the team is well-positioned to innovate even faster and to continue to make a positive impact on the world.”

Blackbaud is headquartered in Charleston, South Carolina, with operations around the globe. YourCause is headquartered in Plano, Texas.

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Shea & Company, LLC and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP acted as financial and legal advisors to the YourCause shareholders in connection with the transaction.