Blackbaud is Announced as a 2024 BIG Innovation Award Winner

The award recognizes Blackbaud’s Intelligence for Good® strategy, including achievements in Generative AI 

Blackbaud is excited to announce that it was named a winner in the 2024 BIG Innovation Awards by Business Intelligence Group in the Software category. This annual business awards program recognizes organizations, products, and people that are bringing new ideas to life in innovative ways.  

Organizations from across the globe submitted their recent innovations for consideration in the BIG Innovation Awards, and nominations were judged by a select group of business leaders and executives who volunteered their time and expertise to score submissions. Blackbaud is one of 47 companies recognized. 

“We’re so proud to be recognized and included in this list of innovators,” said Jerry Needel, chief of innovation at Blackbaud. “An important part of our Intelligence for Good strategy is investing in Generative AI that can be leveraged across all parts of the product portfolio. With this innovative approach, we were able to deliver AI features within specific Blackbaud solutions to market in weeks rather than quarters, accelerating impact to customers and public consumers.” 

Blackbaud’s Intelligence for Good strategy focuses on the creation of complete, ready-made AI solutions to address the fundraising, stewardship, corporate impact and education needs of the social impact sector. In 2023, Blackbaud expanded on its trustworthy AI framework and announced seven new, purpose-built AI capabilities that focus on common social impact challenges such as:  

• Making it easier for first-time fundraisers to create an event 
• Personalizing the experience for online donors 
• Assisting educators with AI-driven content for assessments 
• Automating the stewardship process for key donors 
• Identifying major gift prospects 
• Streamlining the review of financial aid submissions 
• Empowering CSR teams with AI-enabled storytelling capabilities. 

Blackbaud’s creation of a Generative AI council and micro-service allowed for rapid use case evaluation as well as technical delivery. This enabled the company to quickly review customer and market needs and establish a technology roadmap. Product delivery was accelerated, allowing both rapid prototyping and experimentation as well as delivery to market. As part of its Intelligence for Good strategy, Blackbaud created a Story Enhancer function for its JustGiving® platform that allows fundraisers to use Generative AI-based capabilities to create a more personal story. This resulted in an 18% increase in fundraising pages being created and a 5% increase in first donations. 

“Humanity relies on innovation to improve our lives and the planet,” said Maria Jimenez, chief nominations officer, Business Intelligence Group. “We are so proud to reward the products, people and companies helping to improve the lives of so many people.” 

See the full list of BIG Innovation award winners here and learn more about Blackbaud’s Intelligence for Good strategy here.