Almabase & Blackbaud Announce Expanded Partnership to Redefine Digital Engagement & Fundraising for Higher Ed
Read Blackbaud's official statement here.
Ten months into an eventful 2022, we’ve got some big news to share. Blackbaud, the world's leading cloud software company powering social good, and Almabase, the world’s most loved digital-first alumni engagement solution, are here to officially announce an expanded partnership. This will provide a modern solution for advancement teams to unlock higher alumni 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, Advancement CRM, and financials. Our partnership with Almabase is an integral part of that vision.”
Chris Krackeler, President and GM of Higher Education at Blackbaud
| “Our mission at Almabase is to make education affordable by helping every institution increase alumni participation. The education fundraising landscape is evolving rapidly, and the best institutions are proactive in engaging their alumni, using data to drive decisions, and meeting alumni where they are. Our expanded partnership with Blackbaud and strong integration with Raiser’s Edge NXT will be a game changer for any institution that wants to create a constant pipeline of donors and drive more donations.”
Kalyan Varma, Co-Founder and CEO of Almabase
How the expanded partnership will impact our industry
Even before the expanded partnership, both brands have closely worked with each other over the last few years, trying to perfect their industry-leading integration with Raiser’s Edge NXT (more details below).
Here’s why the partnership’s timing is opportune – in the last two decades, alumni donor participation has halved, and the reason is hardly surprising. In a digital-first world, your alumni want more from the relationship with their alma mater – more tailored programs, and engagement that puts value at the front.
Almabase and Blackbaud’s Expanded Partnership, powered by a digital-first solution and a connected Advancement CRM, aims to reverse this downward trend. The partnership puts you in the driver’s seat, letting you take control of your data, craft personalized alumni experiences at scale, and unify your advancement team’s efforts.
A digital-first solution for advancement teams
In a nutshell, we believe that a digital-first engagement platform, coupled with a strong fundraising CRM for higher-ed, is the game-winning combination you need to drive value-led alumni engagement and fundraising.
Blackbaud has a suite of digital tools that are popularly used by advancement teams across the country. Several of Almabase’s partner institutions today use Raiser’s Edge NXT as their Advancement CRM. Both our teams 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’s integration with RE NXT has already received an exciting (and heavily requested) feature that we can’t wait to talk about. Almabase and RE NXT can now sync bi-directionally, meaning constituent data can move both ways (i.e., from Almabase to RE NXT, and vice versa). This is applicable to basic data fields like constituent name and DOB, and also other properties like education/employment information, and even a few custom fields.
We don’t want to bore you with the technical details of how this works (here’s a detailed article if you’re really interested), but all we’d like to say is that this a first-of-its-kind for the industry.
The future of alumni relations and fundraising
Almabase and Blackbaud continue to work towards a larger objective – unifying advancement teams with modern digital tools that unlock higher alumni engagement and better fundraising.
Having inked this partnership, we’re making a bold prediction – the industry is stepping into a new age of alumni relations and fundraising. One where your alumni will be at the heart of your programming. Advancement teams need to take a value-driven, engagement-first approach if they want to build stronger relationships.
Read Blackbaud's official statement here.
Ten months into an eventful 2022, we’ve got some big news to share. Blackbaud, the world's leading cloud software company powering social good, and Almabase, the world’s most loved digital-first alumni engagement solution, are here to officially announce an expanded partnership. This will provide a modern solution for advancement teams to unlock higher alumni 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, Advancement CRM, and financials. Our partnership with Almabase is an integral part of that vision.”
Chris Krackeler, President and GM of Higher Education at Blackbaud
| “Our mission at Almabase is to make education affordable by helping every institution increase alumni participation. The education fundraising landscape is evolving rapidly, and the best institutions are proactive in engaging their alumni, using data to drive decisions, and meeting alumni where they are. Our expanded partnership with Blackbaud and strong integration with Raiser’s Edge NXT will be a game changer for any institution that wants to create a constant pipeline of donors and drive more donations.”
Kalyan Varma, Co-Founder and CEO of Almabase
How the expanded partnership will impact our industry
Even before the expanded partnership, both brands have closely worked with each other over the last few years, trying to perfect their industry-leading integration with Raiser’s Edge NXT (more details below).
Here’s why the partnership’s timing is opportune – in the last two decades, alumni donor participation has halved, and the reason is hardly surprising. In a digital-first world, your alumni want more from the relationship with their alma mater – more tailored programs, and engagement that puts value at the front.
Almabase and Blackbaud’s Expanded Partnership, powered by a digital-first solution and a connected Advancement CRM, aims to reverse this downward trend. The partnership puts you in the driver’s seat, letting you take control of your data, craft personalized alumni experiences at scale, and unify your advancement team’s efforts.
A digital-first solution for advancement teams
In a nutshell, we believe that a digital-first engagement platform, coupled with a strong fundraising CRM for higher-ed, is the game-winning combination you need to drive value-led alumni engagement and fundraising.
Blackbaud has a suite of digital tools that are popularly used by advancement teams across the country. Several of Almabase’s partner institutions today use Raiser’s Edge NXT as their Advancement CRM. Both our teams 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’s integration with RE NXT has already received an exciting (and heavily requested) feature that we can’t wait to talk about. Almabase and RE NXT can now sync bi-directionally, meaning constituent data can move both ways (i.e., from Almabase to RE NXT, and vice versa). This is applicable to basic data fields like constituent name and DOB, and also other properties like education/employment information, and even a few custom fields.
We don’t want to bore you with the technical details of how this works (here’s a detailed article if you’re really interested), but all we’d like to say is that this a first-of-its-kind for the industry.
The future of alumni relations and fundraising
Almabase and Blackbaud continue to work towards a larger objective – unifying advancement teams with modern digital tools that unlock higher alumni engagement and better fundraising.
Having inked this partnership, we’re making a bold prediction – the industry is stepping into a new age of alumni relations and fundraising. One where your alumni will be at the heart of your programming. Advancement teams need to take a value-driven, engagement-first approach if they want to build stronger relationships.
Blackbaud, the leading provider of software for powering social impact, and Almabase, the digital-first alumni engagement solution, have announced the expansion of their partnership to the education sectors of Canada and the United Kingdom. The partnership will provide institutions with a modern, digital-first solution to improve constituent data, drive self-serve engagement, and boost event participation.
A Unified Vision
The partnership aligns with Blackbaud’s commitment to customer-centric innovation across digital engagement, Advancement CRM, and financials.
“Partners bring integrated capabilities that extend capabilities and outcomes for Blackbaud customers. We are thrilled that Almabase’s offering, integrated with Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT® and leveraging Blackbaud’s best-in-class payment solution, Blackbaud Merchant Services™, is now available to even more of our customers around the world.”
- Liz Price, Sr. Director of Global Partners at Blackbaud
