Blackbaud Welcomes 12 Innovative Startups to its Social Good Tech Accelerator
Rhea-AI Summary
Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB) on January 13, 2026 announced a new Social Good Startup Program cohort of 12 early-stage startups focused on AI-driven tools for nonprofits, CSR, ESG, grantmaking, fundraising, events and data analytics. The cohort includes founders from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds (61%) and companies offering integrations with Raiser's Edge NXT, donor intelligence, grant automation, event signup, and strategic planning solutions aimed at scaling social impact.
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News Market Reaction
On the day this news was published, BLKB declined 1.83%, reflecting a mild negative market reaction.
Data tracked by StockTitan Argus on the day of publication.
Key Figures
Market Reality Check
Peers on Argus
BLKB was down 0.48% while key peers were mixed: INTA -2.13%, VERX -0.2%, NCNO +0.55%, BL +1.48%, BRZE +0.8%, suggesting stock-specific dynamics rather than a sector-wide move.
Historical Context
| Date | Event | Sentiment | Move | Catalyst |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 15 | Philanthropy update | Positive | -1.8% | Review of 2025 corporate philanthropy grants, donations and community programs. |
| Dec 02 | AI partnership | Positive | +5.1% | Anthropic partnership and Claude for Nonprofits connector for Raiser's Edge NXT. |
| Dec 02 | Buyback expansion | Positive | +5.1% | Board expanded stock repurchase program capacity to $1 billion. |
| Dec 02 | Buyback correction | Positive | +5.1% | Correction clarifying details of the expanded $1.0 billion repurchase plan. |
| Dec 01 | Brand visibility | Positive | +1.8% | GivingTuesday bell ringing and promotion of tools improving charitable giving speed. |
Recent news, especially AI partnerships and capital return actions, has more often aligned with positive share price reactions, while philanthropy-focused updates saw weaker or negative moves.
Over the last two months, Blackbaud has highlighted philanthropy, AI innovation, and capital return. A Dec 1, 2025 GivingTuesday/Nasdaq event and the Dec 2 Anthropic AI partnership both coincided with gains of up to 5.12%. The board’s move on Dec 2, 2025 to expand the buyback program to $1.0 billion also aligned with positive price action. In contrast, the Dec 15, 2025 philanthropy review saw a -1.84% reaction. Today’s accelerator-cohort news continues the theme of AI-enabled tools for nonprofits within this broader strategic arc.
Market Pulse Summary
This announcement expands Blackbaud’s AI-centric ecosystem by onboarding 12 early-stage startups focused on nonprofit fundraising, compliance, analytics, and grantmaking. The cohort’s 61% representation from underrepresented founders and capabilities like support in over 30 languages extend the company’s social impact reach. In the context of recent AI partnerships and buyback actions, investors may watch how deeply these startups integrate into core products, the traction with Raiser's Edge NXT customers, and any future financial disclosures tied to this accelerator.
Key Terms
csr regulatory
esg regulatory
due diligence financial
grantmaking financial
data warehouse technical
bi platform technical
AI-generated analysis. Not financial advice.
January 2026 Cohort Brings AI-driven Solutions to Help Nonprofits and Socially Responsible Organizations Amplify Their Impact
The newest cohort, consisting of 12 participants, reflects Blackbaud's ongoing commitment to fostering solutions that help nonprofits and socially responsible businesses maximize their impact. Notably,
"The Social Good Startup Program is more than an accelerator—it's a catalyst for innovation in the social impact space," said Rosalyn Lemieux, Director, Product Management and Strategy at Blackbaud. "By connecting these visionary founders with Blackbaud's ecosystem, we're helping them scale solutions that empower nonprofits and socially responsible organizations to achieve more than ever before."
The startups in the January 2026 cohort include:
- AppsNXT is a software development company focused on enhancing fundraising and event management workflows for nonprofits, higher education institutions, and healthcare organizations by building tools that integrate seamlessly with existing Blackbaud solutions.
- Bridgit is the integration hub for charities. They automate data management to give charities more time to focus on fundraising by eliminating spreadsheet wrangling for charity teams and providing self-serve integrations, making it scalable and easy to implement without consultants.
- CORAA AI is an AI-native platform that transforms complex, manual CSR and ESG compliance processes into highly automated workflows. CORAA automates non profit due diligence and compliance management, along with grant spend utilization and impact benchmarking, delivering audit-ready reports in minutes instead of days or weeks. Additionally, its voice and chat agents streamline 24/7 stakeholder communications across champions, nonprofits, and donors in over 30 languages, setting a new standard for speed, accuracy, and accountability in social impact operations.
- DonorAtlas is the first AI‑native donor intelligence tool. Their platform turns scattered public/private data into unified donor profiles—searchable via natural language—so fundraisers spend less time researching and more time cultivating prospects.
- Givalgo is a multi-agent AI platform purpose-built for grantmakers, automating manual and fragmented grantmaking workflows into a cohesive, low-friction experience. With an initial focus on nonprofit due-diligence, Givalgo automates vetting, compliance reviews, and multi-layer risk analysis across the grant lifecycle, enabling grantmakers to make faster, more informed giving decisions.
- Grasshopper Signup provides ad-free, AI-enabled, mobile optimized event signup forms for education, nonprofits, religious organizations, businesses. Explain the form you want to create, AI generates it, you adjust settings, then get links to collect responses and analyze data.
- Kindora is a fundraising technology startup focused on democratizing access to professional grant discovery and application support for under-resourced nonprofits. Their AI thinks like an experienced program officer, analyzing foundation websites, forms, and giving patterns to reduce thousands of potential funders down to the most relevant matches.
- MatchNice is a real-time donation matching platform that helps nonprofits turn any donor into a matcher instantly. Nonprofits embed a plug-and-play matching banner on their website to activate matching funds as donors give through existing fundraising platforms. Organizations that use MatchNice see up to 2X more donations and 2X average gift sizes, and earn as much as 6X campaign revenue, all with no upfront cost.
- NetOutlook
- SwiftGrants is a grant management platform built directly inside Raiser's Edge NXT. It replaces spreadsheets, email chains, and manual reminders with a structured workflow that tracks applications, reporting requirements, assignments, and deadlines in one place. Designed by grant professionals, SwiftGrants follows the natural cadence of the grant-seeking process and provides real-time visibility into every grant through a filterable dashboard and calendar view.
- Aqueduct Analytics delivers a comprehensive Raiser's Edge NXT dataset into a secure data warehouse you control. With a single, consolidated source of truth, teams can build accurate dashboards, reports, and analytics on any BI platform that drive confident, data-informed decisions.
- PlanPerfect equips small to midsized nonprofits with an AI-assisted strategic planning and risk management platform that helps organizations create, manage, and operationalize their strategic plans—transforming them from static documents into actionable, fundable roadmaps that bridge the gap between mission, execution, and measurable outcomes.
- Untapped Solutions provides modern infrastructure for organizations serving untapped and underserved communities—helping workforce, reentry, supervision, and human services teams track progress, coordinate services, and connect people to critical resources like jobs, housing, healthcare, and education. By replacing manual processes and disconnected systems, Untapped increases efficiency, improves outcomes, and enables staff to do more with less—without losing the human touch.
- Vitalcy is a software platform that helps membership-based nonprofits build long-term financial stability through automated community, alumni, and donor engagement. The platform centralizes historical content and relationships, uses AI to power ongoing storytelling, networking, and mentorship, and processes and recognizes donations, all without adding work for already-stretched teams.
"The companies in the January 2026 cohort are seriously impressive, with 12 globally distributed teams collectively bringing decades of lived experience working with and for top nonprofit organizations and technology companies," said Lizzie Schaffer, General Manager of Blackbaud's Social Good Startup Program. "These founders are not just building products, they're shaping the future of how technology serves purpose-driven organizations- and their innovative solutions will delight Blackbaud customers looking to raise more, engage more, and accelerate measurable progress toward achieving their missions."
About the Blackbaud Social Good Startup Program
Since the launch of the first cohort in January 2020, Blackbaud has supported a total of 77 startups through 10 prior cohorts, with these organizations collectively raising upwards of
Participants in the program gain tailored access to Blackbaud's resources, promotional opportunities, and nondilutive grant funding. Each startup works closely with Blackbaud to create a customized growth plan aligned with its specific objectives. Over time, participants have launched multiple integrations with Blackbaud products, partnered with other ISV collaborators, taken part in Blackbaud-hosted events, and engaged directly with Blackbaud customers for targeted feedback, helping refine their solutions to better meet customer needs.
Founders will be invited to participate in the annual Blackbaud Social Good Startup Showcase later this year, where they can pitch their ideas to Blackbaud leaders for a chance to create networking opportunities and win prizes. Startups in this year's cohorts will also be invited to Blackbaud's annual tech conference happening in
Blackbaud accepts applications for the Social Good Startup Program on a rolling basis. For consideration in the January 2027 or other future cohorts, learn more and apply here.
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
Media Inquiries
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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 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
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