Blackbaud and Almabase Partner to Redefine Digital Engagement and Fundraising for K-12 Schools

Blackbaud and Almabase are proud to announce an expanded partnership that will provide a modern solution for advancement teams to unlock K-12 school engagement and better fundraising. ‍ 

“Our vision at Blackbaud is to put our customers’ needs first and provide innovative solutions for the market by creating the best outcomes across digital engagement, academics, advancement CRM and financials,” said Ashton Szadek, senior director of K-12 at Blackbaud‍. “Partners like Almabase are an integral part of that vision because they enable us to extend the capabilities of our portfolio while keeping the user experience consistent and cohesive. This enables our school partners to stretch, extend, scale and grow.” 

“Our mission at Almabase is to make education affordable by helping every institution increase alumni participation,” said Kalyan Varma, co-founder and CEO of Almabase. “Alumni have been an underutilized asset at independent schools but that is changing rapidly. The best schools understand that maintaining strong relationships with alumni is mission critical, and are therefore proactive in engaging their alumni, and meeting them where they are. Our expanded partnership with Blackbaud and strong integration with Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT® will be a game changer for any school that wants to drive up their fundraising outcomes through alumni.” 

Impact of the Partnership 
In a digital-first world, alumni want more from the relationship with their alma mater—more tailored programs, and engagement that puts value at the front. This partnership puts K-12 school advancement teams in the driver’s seat, letting them take control of their data, craft personalized alumni experiences at scale, and unify their efforts.  

A Digital-First Solution for Advancement Teams 
A digital-first engagement platform, coupled with a strong fundraising CRM for K-12, gives advancement users a 360-degree view of their actionable insights and data that they need to drive value-led alumni engagement and fundraising to help their schools remain sustainable. 

Blackbaud and Almabase have been hard at work creating seamless integrations that enable advancement services professionals to move constituent, gift and event data between systems, without friction. With the expanded partnership, the capabilities of these integrations are only going to grow more powerful. 

Two Intelligent Systems, One Source of Truth 
Almabase and Raiser’s Edge NXT sync bi-directionally, meaning constituent data can move both ways (i.e., from Almabase to Raiser’s Edge NXT, and vice versa). This is applicable to basic data fields like constituent name and date of birth, and also other properties like education/employment information, and even a few custom fields.  

The Future of Alumni Relations and Fundraising 
Advancement teams need to take a value-driven, engagement-first approach if they want to build stronger relationships. Almabase and Blackbaud continue to work towards this objective—unifying advancement teams with modern digital tools that unlock higher alumni engagement and better fundraising.  

Szadek added, “With rising tuition costs, we want to help our independent school partners diversify their donor pipeline with new donors at the top of their funnel. The constituent group to look to is the school’s alumni, and tools like Almabase can provide value to alumni so that they feel connected and engaged to the school’s mission.” 

Learn more about the Blackbaud Partner Network here.