Blackbaud Announces 2021 Third Quarter Results

Third Quarter Recurring Revenue Increases 9% Year-Over-Year; Drives 30% Growth in Earnings Per Share  

Charleston, S.C. (November 3, 2021) – Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB), the world’s leading cloud software company powering social good, today announced financial results for its third quarter ended September 30, 2021.

“Third quarter results reflected a fantastic quarter of execution for Blackbaud, exceeding our expectations on a much-improved market backdrop,” said Mike Gianoni, president and CEO, Blackbaud. “We achieved near double-digit recurring revenue growth, a roughly ten-point improvement on the Rule of 40 year-over-year, and we’re on pace to potentially have one of our best years in the company’s history in terms of free cash flow generation. I firmly believe our market and our company is in the midst of an inflection point as the shift to a digital-first world continues to accelerate. Our vision for the SKY platform is becoming a reality, and we’re fueling future growth opportunities through additional investment in innovation, customer success, security, cloud infrastructure and a higher velocity go-to-market motion. We are raising our financial outlook for full-year 2021 revenue, profitability and free cash flow, and we expect to see further acceleration in our full-year recurring revenue growth rate into 2022.”

Third Quarter 2021 Results Compared to Third Quarter 2020 Results:

• Total GAAP revenue was $231.2 million, up 7.5%, with $218.5 million in GAAP recurring revenue, up 9.2%.
• Non-GAAP organic recurring revenue increased 9.2%.
• GAAP income from operations was $11.8 million, with GAAP operating margin of 5.1%, an increase of 40 basis points.
• Non-GAAP income from operations was $50.5 million, with non-GAAP operating margin of 21.8%, a decrease of 60 basis points.
• GAAP net income was $6.2 million, with GAAP diluted earnings per share of $0.13, up $0.03 per share.
• Non-GAAP net income was $37.9 million, with non-GAAP diluted earnings per share of $0.78, up $0.05 per share.
• Non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA was $62.4 million, up $3.0 million, with non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA margin of 27.0%.
• GAAP net cash provided by operating activities was $69.9 million, a decrease of $1.8 million. 
• Non-GAAP free cash flow was $57.9 million, an increase of $16.5 million.

“We expected an acceleration of revenue performance in the second half of 2021, and Q3 not only delivered, but exceeded that expectation, serving as a proof point for what’s achievable as we progress against the growth and margin initiatives laid out at our investor session earlier this year,” said Tony Boor, executive vice president and CFO, Blackbaud. “With three quarters behind us, and a particularly strong third quarter, we have high confidence in our ability to exceed the $920 million high end of our upside revenue scenario for 2021. This may even prove to be conservative depending on our fourth quarter transactional revenue performance. We expect to achieve an adjusted EBITDA margin of at least 26% for full year 2021, inclusive of heightened investments planned for the fourth quarter, and our strong performance year-to-date combined with our outlook for Q4 suggests we should generate at least $150 million in free cash flow.  As we finalize our plans for next year, it is clear the return to at least mid-single digit revenue growth is likely to happen faster than we expected, and we are focused on fueling future growth through additional investments.”

An explanation of all non-GAAP financial measures referenced in this press release is included below under the heading “Non-GAAP Financial Measures.” A reconciliation of the company’s non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP measures has been provided in the financial statement tables included below in this press release.

Recent Company Highlights:

• During the third quarter, Blackbaud repurchased 583,280 shares of its common stock at a total cost of $40.3 million, leaving approximately $111 million remaining under existing share repurchase authorization of $250 million. 
• For the 22nd year, Blackbaud rallied tens of thousands of social good professionals at bbcon 2021 Virtual, the company’s annual tech conference for a better world. Blackbaud announced high-impact product enhancements and provided hundreds of hours of free, best-practice content and inspiration. 
• Blackbaud was featured in Microsoft’s #BuildFor2030 campaign as a company accelerating nonprofits’ missions and impact. 
• In October, Blackbaud hosted its semi-annual Product Update Briefings, sharing details on innovation, new features and product roadmaps. 
• The company shared details on its remote-first workforce approach, which enables Blackbaud to focus on hiring talent and growing careers, regardless of location. 
• Blackbaud was named a finalist in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Citizens Awards—a long-standing program that honors businesses for the impact they make in communities around the world.

Visit www.blackbaud.com/newsroom for more information about Blackbaud’s recent highlights.

Conference Call Details:

What: Blackbaud’s 2021 Third Quarter Conference Call

When: November 4, 2021 

Time: 8:00 a.m. (Eastern Time)

Live Call: 1-877-407-3088 (US/Canada)

Webcast: Blackbaud’s Investor Relations Webpage

About Blackbaud
Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB) is the world’s leading cloud software company powering social good. Serving the entire social good community—nonprofits, higher education institutions, K–12 schools, healthcare organizations, faith communities, arts and cultural organizations, foundations, companies and individual change agents—Blackbaud connects and empowers organizations to increase their impact through cloud software, services, expertise and data intelligence. The Blackbaud portfolio is tailored to the unique needs of vertical markets, with solutions for fundraising and CRM, marketing, advocacy, peer-to-peer fundraising, corporate social responsibility, school management, ticketing, grantmaking, financial management, payment processing and analytics. Serving the industry for four decades, Blackbaud is headquartered in Charleston, South Carolina, and has operations in the United States, Australia, Canada, Costa Rica and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit www.blackbaud.com, or follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook.

Investor Contact:
Steve Hufford
Director, Investor Relations
IR@blackbaud.com

Media Contact:
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 which are subject to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, but not limited to, statements regarding the predictability of our financial condition and results of operations. These statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties. 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: management of integration of acquired companies; uncertainty regarding increased business and renewals from existing customers; a shifting revenue mix that may impact gross margin; continued success in sales growth; cybersecurity and data protection risks and related liabilities; uncertainty regarding the COVID-19 disruption; potential litigation involving us; 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. Blackbaud assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

Trademarks

All Blackbaud product names appearing herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of Blackbaud, Inc.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures 
Blackbaud has provided in this release financial information that has not been prepared in accordance with GAAP. Blackbaud uses non-GAAP financial measures internally in analyzing its operational performance. Accordingly, Blackbaud believes these non-GAAP measures are useful to investors, as a supplement to GAAP measures, in evaluating its ongoing operational performance and trends and in comparing its financial results from period-to-period with other companies in Blackbaud’s industry, many of which present similar non-GAAP financial measures to investors. However, these non-GAAP financial measures may not be completely comparable to similarly titled measures of other companies due to potential differences in the exact method of calculation between companies.

The non-GAAP financial measures discussed above exclude the impact of certain transactions that Blackbaud believes are not directly related to its operating performance in any particular period, but are for its long-term benefit over multiple periods. Blackbaud believes these non-GAAP financial measures reflect its ongoing business in a manner that allows for meaningful period-to-period comparisons and analysis of trends in its business.

While Blackbaud believes these non-GAAP measures provide useful supplemental information, non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered in isolation from, or as a substitute for, financial information prepared in accordance with GAAP. Investors are encouraged to review the reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures.

Non-GAAP free cash flow is defined as operating cash flow less capital expenditures, including costs required to be capitalized for software development, and capital expenditures for property and equipment.

In addition, Blackbaud uses non-GAAP organic revenue growth, non-GAAP organic revenue growth on a constant currency basis and non-GAAP organic recurring revenue growth, in analyzing its operating performance. Blackbaud believes that these non-GAAP measures are useful to investors, as a supplement to GAAP measures, for evaluating the periodic growth of its business on a consistent basis. Each of these measures excludes incremental acquisition-related revenue attributable to companies acquired in the current fiscal year. For companies acquired in the immediately preceding fiscal year, each of these measures reflects presentation of full-year incremental non-GAAP revenue derived from such companies as if they were combined throughout the prior period, and it includes the non-GAAP revenue attributable to those companies, as if there were no acquisition-related write-downs of acquired deferred revenue to fair value as required by GAAP. In addition, each of these measures excludes prior period revenue associated with divested businesses. The exclusion of the prior period revenue is to present the results of the divested businesses within the results of the combined company for the same period of time in both the prior and current periods. Blackbaud believes this presentation provides a more comparable representation of its current business’ organic revenue growth and revenue run-rate.

Rule of 40 is defined as non-GAAP organic revenue growth plus non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA margin. Non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA is defined as GAAP net income plus interest, net; income tax provision; depreciation; amortization of intangible assets from business combinations; amortization of software development costs; acquisition-related deferred revenue write-down; stock-based compensation; acquisition-related integration costs; acquisition-related expenses; employee severance; restructuring and other real estate activities; and costs, net of insurance, related to the previously disclosed security incident discovered in May 2020 (the “Security Incident”).