Higher Education Institutions Trust Blackbaud CRM to Power Growth and Success

Staff Report From Charleston CEO

Tuesday, July 17th, 2018

Blackbaud BLKB, +0.52% the world's leading cloud software company powering social good, reported strong satisfaction rates of Blackbaud CRM among higher education institutions seeking to power their advancement needs, expand campus-wide collaboration and develop the infrastructure needed to support future growth. The company will share the latest innovations within its Cloud Solution for Higher Education as a platinum sponsor of CASE Summit 2018, which is currently underway in New York City.

"With new challenges ranging from dispersed alumni communities to new expectations from donors and shifts in the funding landscape, we understand higher education institutions need trustworthy, end-to-end, secure solutions that scale to meet their unique needs," said Tim Hill, president of Blackbaud Higher Education Solutions. "Blackbaud is committed to providing higher education institutions with the most innovative tools needed to drive digital transformation. By leveraging Blackbaud's powerful cloud capabilities, our customers are equipped to dramatically optimize how they work so they are able to help their students achieve even more."

A growing number of higher education institutions trust Blackbaud CRM as the right solution for managing alumni and constituent relationships with analytics, multichannel marketing and expertise that empower institutions to increase fundraising dollars, retain more donors and advance engagement.

After completing a comprehensive request-for-proposal process, Clemson University Foundation selected Blackbaud CRM to power its growing advancement needs, increase campus-wide collaboration and establish the infrastructure needed to support its future campaigns. "During our selection process, our goal was to find one single solution for constituent demographic and gift data that would strengthen the ability of both academic and athletic fundraising and donor stewardship," said Larissa Kelly, senior director of Advancement Services at Clemson University Foundation. "As an existing Blackbaud customer, we were familiar with Blackbaud's quality of product and customer support, and felt confident in making this choice. Blackbaud CRM will bring us a more sophisticated, flexible, scalable and secure cloud solution to help power the University's mission forward. We look forward to the implementation of the solution and trust that Blackbaud will help us streamline our fundraising process."

Among the users of Blackbaud's flexible cloud solution is the Georgia Tech Foundation, which is aiming to enhance constituent engagement, fundraising outcomes and collaboration across campus units, including the Georgia Tech Office of Development, Georgia Tech Athletics Alexander-Tharpe Fund (A-T), and the Georgia Tech Alumni Association. "All of our project launch metrics are tracking positively," said Dwight Dozier, chief information officer of the Georgia Tech Foundation. "The Georgia Tech Foundation and our related Georgia Tech affiliates are deploying an array of solutions to help us achieve diverse and rigorous goals."

Learning that Marquette University needed to implement sooner than planned, Blackbaud accelerated the implementation schedule and successfully launched Blackbaud CRM in 13 months and significantly under budget. "Implementing Blackbaud CRM has allowed Marquette University to achieve its goals of supporting its growing fundraising needs and empowering users from across all 11 colleges with a consistent, comprehensive user experience," said Missy Egelhoff, senior director, Advancement Information Services at Marquette University. "The solution is successfully bringing together departments across campus and gives us a true 360-degree view of our alumni, donors, and constituents. Blackbaud has been a great partner, working effectively and efficiently to complete our project ahead of schedule and under budget through a smooth implementation."