Blackbaud Culture of Innovation Recognized on Fast Company's 2025 Best Workplaces for Innovators List
CEO Mike Gianoni Puts Employee Passion and Creativity First to Drive Next-Generation AI Capabilities That Are Transforming Social Impact
"At Blackbaud, we don't just see AI as a tool to amplify impact—we see it as a new paradigm that we must help our social impact customers navigate so they can make their inspiring visions a reality," said
"Our culture is built on empowering employees to think creatively and push the boundaries of what's possible for the social impact community," said Margaret "Maggie" Driscoll, chief people and culture officer, Blackbaud. "We've created an environment where bold ideas are encouraged, resources are accessible, and collaboration thrives—so employees feel inspired to experiment and bring forward solutions that truly make a difference."
Employees Innovating for Social Impact
Blackbaud's remote-flexible workforce strategy empowers employees to deliver for customers while staying connected to their communities. In 2024, 70% of employees volunteered—triple the national average—and one in seven served on a nonprofit board. This culture of engagement and connection to social impact not only strengthens communities, but also drives results for Blackbaud customers, including more consistent delivery of new capabilities and improved sales agent efficiency, which ultimately results in better products and higher customer satisfaction.
Innovation Mechanisms
Creating space and stimulus for employees to innovate is core to Blackbaud's business strategy. In 2024 alone, Blackbaud invested
- AI for Blackbaud: A cohort-based approach to bring employees and technology together to experiment, identify use cases, assess their value and look for patterns that can be replicated to deliver value.
- Tech Thursday: A day solely focused on professional development and experimentation for Blackbaud's
Product Technology Group , whether that's working on a side project, experimenting with new AI capabilities or learning a new coding language. - Off the Grid: An event that brings together innovators of all backgrounds from across the company to pitch and build ideas in a hackathon format, then vote on the most promising projects—one of which has now become Blackbaud AI – Chat, an assistant and coach that is turbocharging social impact functions. Organizations using Blackbaud's Raiser's Edge NXT® have seen a 44% average increase in total dollars raised, and with AI integration, they're now able to do even more.
- Blackbaud Social Good Startup Program: A tech accelerator designed to support diverse, early-stage software companies whose innovative solutions are focused on solving the problems that matter to the social good community.
"I'm proud of the way Blackbaud employees live out our value of 'Inspired to Innovate' every day. They're passionate about our customers, and you can see it in the way they are reimagining what's possible through our solutions," said Gianoni. "We're not just building better products, we're building a new foundation for AI-powered social impact."
About Blackbaud
Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB) is the leading software provider exclusively dedicated to powering social impact. Serving the nonprofit and education sectors, companies committed to social responsibility and individual change makers, Blackbaud's essential software is built to accelerate impact in fundraising, nonprofit financial management, digital giving, grantmaking, corporate social responsibility and education management. With millions of users and over
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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; technological changes that make our products and services less competitive; and the other risk factors set forth from time to time in the
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SOURCE Blackbaud