Blackbaud

So with all these great, new outreach and engagement tools at its disposal, how can your organization harness this still-new medium to empower constituents on your behalf? There are many strategies and 
initiatives already playing out all over the fundraising sector — with plenty more new and unforeseen ideas still to come. Here, FundRaising Success highlights some creative and successful ways organizations are using social media to raise awareness and funds.

Blackbaud announced the launch of BlackbaudTV, a new resource for the nonprofit community, with videos featuring nonprofit news, technology tools and tips, philanthropy in action, Blackbaud customers, partners, and events.

Blackbaud is holding the BlackbaudTV Inspire Contest to encourage nonprofit professionals to submit videos in response to the question, “How do you inspire supporters to take action?” The two winners receive free registrations to the 2010 Blackbaud’s Conference for Nonprofits – North America.

Blackbaud announced the launch of The Blackbaud Index of Online Giving, an online fundraising index that reports revenue trends of 1,787 nonprofit organizations, representing $399 million in 12-month online revenue on a monthly basis. The index reports that online revenue increased by 23 percent for the three months ending May 2010 as compared to the same period in 2009.

The fundraising technology "industry" is alive and well in 2010. Many of the most successful business enterprises that profit from the fundraising sector are in essence technology companies.

Nonprofit technology provider Blackbaud will be the exclusive nonprofit sales channel for ThePort social-networking solutions.

Fewer people gave money to colleges in 2009, and those who did gave less than usual, a study of annual funds has found.

Participation in annual funds has been on the decline for a few years, but 2009 marked the first time that annual-fund revenue dropped as well, according to the 2009 Index of Higher Education Fundraising Performance. The report examined donations to 61 public and private colleges during 2009. Although the negative trends were more marked at public colleges, there were few positive signs for either group.

The study was done by Target Analytics, which is part of Blackbaud, a provider of software to nonprofit groups.

The Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Awards Program (a.k.a. The Taggies), the world’s largest collection of nonprofit taglines, opens its third award season this week with the addition of three new categories.

Blackbaud announced it has opened an office in Hong Kong to better serve its international customers. The decision to open Blackbaud Asia Ltd., a Hong Kong corporation, was customer- and market-focused, as the company has seen an increased demand for services from nonprofit organizations in the Asia-Pacific region.

Charleston, S.C. (June 15, 2010) – Blackbaud, Inc. today announced the launch of the Blackbaud Index of Charitable Giving, a broad-based fundraising index that reports revenue trends of 1400 nonprofit organizations representing $2.2 billion in yearly revenue on a monthly basis. The Index is based on actual revenue statistics from nonprofit organizations of all sizes representing arts, culture, and humanities; education; environment and animals; healthcare; human services; international affairs; public and society benefit; and religion sectors. (Read more about the methodology at www.blackbaud.com/blackbaudindex.)

During their presentation, “30 Ideas in 60 Minutes: Your Hour of Creative Power," at the Association of Fundraising Professionals Fund Raising Day in New York held last Friday, Jeff Brooks, creative director at TrueSense Marketing; Moira Kavanagh Crosby, president of MKDM; and Dennis Lonergan, president of Eidolon Communications, provided direct-response and online fundraising strategies to make your fundraising solicitations stand out from the crowd. Here, Crosby outlines her 10 strategies from the session.