Blackbaud Equips Nonprofits with Cutting-Edge AI Skills and Unveils Vision for Agentic AI at bbdevdays Developer's Conference

Rhea-AI Summary

Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB) launched its annual bbdevdays virtual conference, showcasing its AI strategy and latest innovations for social impact tech developers. The company unveiled its Intelligence for Good® AI strategy, featuring predictive AI capabilities that help identify billions in untapped giving potential and AI-powered donor communications. A key highlight was the preview of Blackbaud Copilot, an AI assistant enabling natural language data interaction. The company also revealed plans for Agentic AI implementation to enhance fundraising operations through personalized donor management and stewardship. The conference demonstrates Blackbaud's commitment to an open ecosystem, offering developers access to SKY UX® and Microsoft Power Platform integrations, enabling both technical and non-technical users to create custom solutions.

Insights

Technology Innovation Analyst

Blackbaud's AI strategy could strengthen its market position by adding significant value to nonprofit clients through automation and intelligence capabilities.

Blackbaud's announcement at bbdevdays reveals a comprehensive AI strategy that could significantly enhance its software offerings for social impact organizations. The company has outlined a multi-phase approach with its Intelligence for Good® AI strategy, showing both current implementations and future roadmap innovations.

The company is already delivering tangible AI value through predictive models that have identified billions in untapped giving potential and generative AI tools that enhance donor communications. These practical applications address core nonprofit needs: identifying fundraising opportunities and improving donor engagement efficiency.

What's particularly notable is Blackbaud's upcoming technical preview of Blackbaud Copilot, which will allow natural language interaction with data. This follows the industry trend of AI assistants but is specifically tailored to nonprofit use cases. The planned expansion into Agentic AI represents a significant technological advancement, potentially enabling autonomous tasks like identifying at-risk donors and suggesting personalized stewardship activities.

The strategic focus on making their ecosystem more open and flexible through APIs, SKY UX®, and Microsoft Power Platform integration creates multiple paths for customization. This approach intelligently balances proprietary technology with platform extensibility, potentially increasing customer stickiness while encouraging innovation from their partner network.

For Blackbaud's market position, this AI strategy could create meaningful differentiation in the competitive nonprofit software space by combining sector-specific data with advanced AI capabilities that directly address fundraising efficiency and effectiveness.

Annual Conference Provides Opportunity for Developers to Grow their Skills and Learn New Ways to Automate and Extend their Blackbaud Solutions to Meet the Unique Business Needs of Social Impact Organizations

CHARLESTON, S.C., June 4, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB), the leading provider of software for powering social impact, has kicked off bbdevdays, its annual virtual conference for social impact tech developers of all skill levels, with highlights on its AI strategy and vision. Over the course of three days, participants explore innovative ways to automate and extend their flexible Blackbaud solutions alongside Blackbaud pros, partners and peers, while hearing about the latest in Blackbaud innovation and seeing examples of Blackbaud customers leveraging this innovation within their own organizations.

"bbdevdays has always been more than a conference—it's a celebration of the rewarding feeling of solving problems, building tools that help people, and the breakthroughs possible in a community that shares a passion for discovery," said Mike Gianoni, president, CEO, and vice chairman of the board of directors, Blackbaud. "This event is designed to strengthen that community, and we're thrilled to share our latest innovations to help the social impact sector go further, faster. We continue to roll out our six waves of innovation with a focus on delivering Blackbaud AI that's powerful, convenient and responsible, with exclusive sector-specific data built in. With this, we're freeing our customers to do their uniquely human work."

At the event, Blackbaud shared an overview of its Intelligence for Good® AI strategy, including innovation already underway, like predictive AI that's helping customers identify billions of dollars in untapped giving potential, generative AI-powered acknowledgements that are speeding and enhancing communication with supporters, and an upcoming technical preview of Blackbaud Copilot, an AI-powered coach and assistant that allows users to interact with their data in natural language, ask questions and gain insights.

In addition, the company shared its vision for what's next, including harnessing the potential of Agentic AI for personalization and agility at scale, to help customers unlock new levels of effectiveness and deeper connections across critical fundraising operations like donor cultivation, stewardship, and sustainer management. This includes AI assistants that could do things like review donors at risk of lapsing and suggest additional stewardship activities, or review gifts and create segments of likely upgrade prospects and generate upgrade offer content specific to each donor, all while keeping fundraisers in control.

The event also highlights the flexibility and openness of Blackbaud's ecosystem, equipping thousands of developers at every level of tech skill to leverage the powerful capabilities of its large and growing partner network, or build their own solutions using Blackbaud's robust APIs. With Blackbaud's SKY UX®, partner integrations feel native to Blackbaud's solutions, and through connections to the Microsoft Power Platform, even non-developers can create their own automations. The scope and accessibility of this array of flexible tools is reflected in bbdevday's growth, originating as a niche gathering of a dozen highly technical developers and becoming the major virtual event it is today.

About the Conference
At bbdevdays, attendees are exploring sessions developed by both industry leaders and Blackbaud experts on topics like:

• Creating better constituent experiences through innovation and entrepreneurship
• Harnessing AI to cultivate a culture of smart innovation
• Learning how to spark innovation through creative insight
• And how to get the most out of their Blackbaud solutions

Keynote speakers include Wendy Bolger, Founding Director of the Simon Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Loyola University Maryland; Shelby Tallent, Founder and Chief Ethical AI Strategist at Ethic.AI; and Jeffrey Davis, Founding Director and Chief Consultant at Tracking Wonder.

The conference will also provide mainstage presentations from Blackbaud executives and product experts, track sessions led by customers and partners, and Skills Labs that offer creators a chance to practice building both low-code and pro-code solutions. And with Braindates—interactions that allow attendees to create, host, and join one-on-one and group conversations on topics they want to discuss—participants have a unique way to network, share ideas, and tackle challenges together.

Premier event sponsors include Print Your Cause, DNL Omnimedia, Orah, Prenger Solutions Group, Sentinel Consulting, SmartTHING and ReportingXpress.

To learn more about bbdevdays and register to access content replays on demand, visit blackbaud.com/bbdevdays.

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 $100 billion raised, granted or managed through Blackbaud platforms every year, Blackbaud's solutions are unleashing the potential of the people and organizations who change the world. Blackbaud has been named to Newsweek's list of America's Most Responsible Companies, Quartz's list of Best Companies for Remote Workers, and Forbes' list of America's Best Employers. A remote-first company, Blackbaud has operations in the United States, Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, India and the United Kingdom, supporting users in 100+ countries. Learn more at www.blackbaud.com or follow us on X/Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.

Media Inquiries
media@blackbaud.com 

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 SEC filings for Blackbaud, copies of which are available free of charge at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov or upon request from Blackbaud's investor relations department. All Blackbaud product names appearing herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of Blackbaud, Inc.

 

 

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SOURCE Blackbaud

FAQ

What is Blackbaud's new AI initiative announced at bbdevdays 2025?

Blackbaud announced its Intelligence for Good® AI strategy, including predictive AI for identifying giving potential, AI-powered acknowledgements, and Blackbaud Copilot for natural language data interaction. They also revealed plans for Agentic AI to enhance fundraising operations.

What is Blackbaud Copilot and how does it work?

Blackbaud Copilot is an AI-powered coach and assistant that allows users to interact with their data using natural language, ask questions, and gain insights from their information.

How can developers utilize Blackbaud's ecosystem announced at bbdevdays?

Developers can leverage Blackbaud's SKY UX® for native-feeling partner integrations, use robust APIs to build custom solutions, and connect to the Microsoft Power Platform for creating automations, regardless of technical skill level.

What are the key features of Blackbaud's Agentic AI for fundraising?

Blackbaud's Agentic AI will help with donor cultivation, stewardship, and sustainer management by reviewing at-risk donors, suggesting stewardship activities, creating upgrade prospect segments, and generating donor-specific content.

How has Blackbaud's bbdevdays conference evolved?

The conference evolved from a small gathering of dozen highly technical developers to become a major virtual event focusing on helping developers of all skill levels automate and extend Blackbaud solutions for social impact organizations.