Blackbaud, Inc.

What does Blackbaud own?

Blackbaud owns a portfolio of software product brands for the social good sector: Raiser's Edge NXT, Financial Edge NXT, Blackbaud CRM, Luminate Online, JustGiving, YourCause, Blackbaud Grantmaking, and education products including Tuition Management. It sold its EVERFI education business in December 2024.

Is Blackbaud publicly traded?

Yes. Blackbaud trades on the Nasdaq under the ticker BLKB and is a component of the S&P 600 index. It has been public since its 2004 IPO.

Who founded Blackbaud?

Anthony Bakker founded Blackbaud in New York City in 1981 after building a billing system for a Manhattan private school. The company moved to South Carolina in 1989 and is now headquartered in Charleston.

Where is Blackbaud headquartered?

Blackbaud is headquartered at 65 Fairchild Street in Charleston, South Carolina, on Daniel Island. The company adopted a remote-first work model in 2021 while retaining its Charleston headquarters.

Who owns Blackbaud?

Blackbaud is a widely held public company with no controlling shareholder. Its stock is held primarily by institutional investors, and it is led by CEO Mike Gianoni and a board chaired by Andrew Leitch.

What is Blackbaud's revenue?

Blackbaud reported $1.13 billion in revenue for fiscal year 2025, down 2.3% from 2024 primarily due to the divestiture of its EVERFI business. Organic revenue grew 5.5% and adjusted EBITDA was $405.3 million.

Did Blackbaud have a data breach?

Yes. In 2020 Blackbaud suffered a ransomware attack and data breach affecting thousands of nonprofit customers. It later paid a $3 million SEC fine in 2023, a $6.75 million multistate settlement, and entered an FTC settlement requiring stronger data security practices.

Anthony "Tony" Bakker founded Blackbaud in New York City in 1981 after building a computerized billing system for the Nightingale-Bamford School in Manhattan. The first product, Student Billing, was an accounts receivable system for private schools, and its evolution into fundraising software produced The Raiser's Edge, which became the company's flagship product and remains the best-known name in nonprofit fundraising databases.

By 1989 the company had grown to 75 employees and relocated from New York to Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, to escape New York operating costs. It went public on Nasdaq in 2004. Growth after the IPO ran heavily through acquisition: Target Software in 2007, Kintera in 2008, Convio in 2012 for $325 million, MicroEdge in 2014, crowdfunding platform JustGiving in 2017, and corporate giving platform YourCause in 2019 for approximately $157 million.

Mike Gianoni became CEO in 2014 and pushed the portfolio toward cloud delivery, sunsetting legacy on-premise products in favor of the NXT product line. The company also began pruning non-core assets: it sold its FIMS and DonorCentral NXT products in 2022, and on December 31, 2024 it disposed of its EVERFI education business to a private investment firm for nominal consideration after recording an impairment charge of roughly $390 million. Blackbaud retained the YourCause corporate social responsibility business, which had been managed inside EVERFI.

In 2021 the company shifted to a remote-first operating model, closing regional offices while retaining its Charleston, South Carolina headquarters on Daniel Island. Fiscal 2025 results showed the refocused business: revenue of $1.13 billion, adjusted EBITDA margin of 35.9%, and share repurchases of roughly 8% of outstanding stock during the year.

Blackbaud's defining controversy is a 2020 ransomware attack and data breach that exposed donor and organizational data across thousands of nonprofit customers. The company paid a ransom and stated the attacker destroyed the stolen data, but the breach exposed information including Social Security and bank details in some cases.

The regulatory fallout was substantial. The SEC fined Blackbaud $3 million in March 2023 for misleading investors about the breach's scope in public filings. In October 2023 the company agreed to pay $6.75 million to resolve a multistate investigation by US state attorneys general. In 2024 it settled Federal Trade Commission charges without a financial penalty, agreeing to delete unnecessary retained data and maintain a stronger security program.

The episode damaged trust with a customer base of nonprofits that depend on donor confidence, and it remains the most cited governance criticism of the company.