Blackbaud’s fundraising, financial and CRM solutions are the core of its nonprofit business. Blackbaud’s annual report calls Raiser’s Edge NXT its flagship fundraising and relationship management solution and describes Financial Edge NXT as its market-leading solution for fund and sub fund accounting.[1] They are sold as SaaS Subscriptions: the customer has the right to access and use a Solution for a term under an Order Form.[2] Blackbaud also names Blackbaud CRM, Luminate Online, TeamRaiser, Altru and Fundraiser Performance Management among its solutions.[1]
Editions and products
Blackbaud does not publish edition ladders for these products. Each is a separate Solution on the Order Form, and its modules and quantities are set there.
| Product | How Blackbaud describes it | Storage default | Catalog row |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raiser’s Edge NXT | Flagship fundraising and relationship management solution[1] | Unlimited[3] | Raiser’s Edge NXT |
| Financial Edge NXT | Fund and sub fund accounting for nonprofits[1] | Unlimited[3] | Financial Edge NXT |
| Blackbaud CRM | Configurable fundraising and relationship management for enterprise-level organisations, described as Enterprise Fundraising CRM[1] | Set by the CRM Subscription Description and Order Form | Blackbaud CRM (Enterprise Fundraising CRM) |
| eTapestry | Listed in the Subscription Description storage table[3] | Unlimited[3] | eTapestry |
| Altru | Cloud solution for arts and cultural organisations[1] | 20 GB[3] | Altru |
| ResearchPoint | Listed in the Subscription Description storage table[3] | 20 GB[3] | ResearchPoint |
| Luminate Online and TeamRaiser | Online fundraising and peer-to-peer event solutions[1] | Not stated | Luminate Online, TeamRaiser |
Metrics
Users
The general sizing metric is the User. The Agreement defines Users as the customer’s employees, its affiliates’ employees and its contractors who are permitted and itemised to Blackbaud.[2] Blackbaud’s pricing page lists the number of users among the factors that set pricing, alongside organisation size, selected solutions or modules and the level of support and services.[4] The documents do not say whether a User is named or concurrent for Raiser’s Edge NXT or Financial Edge NXT, nor how many Users a base subscription includes. Those details are in the Order Form. The catalog row is User.
Concurrent licences (Blackbaud CRM)
Blackbaud CRM is the one product where a concurrent measure appears. The CRM Subscription Description says the customer has the same number of concurrent licenses available for each Non-Production Environment as for the Production Environment.[5] The description does not define a concurrent licence or say how a session is counted, so counting rules come from the Order Form and the product documentation. The catalog row is Concurrent license (Blackbaud CRM). The Description says only that non-production environments carry the same number of concurrent licenses, so whether a non-production environment is separately charged is an Order Form question.
Storage
Each Subscription has a default maximum storage space, including backup and off-site storage and tape retention, calculated from the production database size.[3] Blackbaud monitors disk usage and increases the allocation in 5 GB increments when utilisation passes the next threshold.[3] Published defaults are 20 GB for ResearchPoint and Altru, 100 MB per user for the Files Folder, and unlimited for eTapestry, Raiser’s Edge NXT and Financial Edge NXT.[3] The row is Storage space.
Site ID for payment-enabled solutions
Raiser’s Edge NXT, Blackbaud CRM, Altru, Luminate Online, eTapestry, TeamRaiser and other solutions are listed by Blackbaud as payment-enabled, and customers pay one payment enablement fee per organisational site ID however many such solutions they hold.[6] See Blackbaud payment services and fees.
Counting and floors
Blackbaud publishes no minimum number of users, concurrent licences or records. The Billing FAQ says contracts renew automatically on the standard three-year term and renewal pricing is subject to an annual adjustment.[7] For support, a customer can assign up to three Authorized Support Contacts and needs an annual investment of USD 10,000 to be considered for enhanced support benefits.[8]
Virtualization and partitioning
SaaS products run in Blackbaud’s hosting and carry no processor or virtualisation rules. Where Blackbaud supplies a locally installed instance, support applies only if the Subscription is licensed and sold that way. If Blackbaud hosts the Subscription, locally installed instances are not supported.[8]
Blackbaud CRM environments, upgrades and customisation
The CRM Subscription Description sets conditions that affect cost and effort:
- Non-production environments. Blackbaud provides optional non-production environments in addition to production for Blackbaud CRM purchased by the customer, in accordance with the Order Form.[5] Non-production availability is 99.0% monthly with no service credits and no backups, and refresh requests are limited to one a month, with self-service refresh also available.[5]
- No development environments. Blackbaud does not currently offer Development Environments for purchase, so development work is done on local machines with the Blackbaud CRM SDK and Blackbaud’s published APIs.[5]
- Current version required. The customer is required to be upgraded to the highest current version of the Solution, and a delay in upgrading on schedule may cause an increase in fees.[5] If the customer has not begun an upgrade in production within 90 calendar days of general availability, Blackbaud has the right to implement it automatically in all environments.[5]
- Security upgrades. For a potential security concern the customer may be required to upgrade within a shorter period, and refusal may lead Blackbaud to terminate access.[5]
- Code review. Blackbaud reserves the right to review functional specifications and code for configurations developed by or for the customer and to reject them if they may harm the Solution or fail compliance requirements, and deployment of SQL or custom code needs written approval from both parties.[5]
- Payment testing. Non-production environments may not test live Primary Account Numbers and must use test or demo mode of the merchant account.[5]
For other SaaS products, the Subscription Description says customer-built or third-party-built configurations are not supported unless certified as compliant with Blackbaud’s development and security standards.[3] It also states that Blackbaud provides a single administrator user account, with tools to create other users, and that a customer may ask for one copy of its production database backup each month.[3]
Programs
| Program | Catalog row | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Standard subscription term | Blackbaud standard subscription term | Three-year initial and renewal terms[9] |
| Blackbaud CRM non-production environments | Blackbaud CRM non-production environments | Optional; same concurrent licences as production[5] |
| Availability commitment | Subscription availability commitment | 99.9% for production; credits of 10% and 20%[3] |
| Payment enablement fee | Payment enablement fee | One fee per site ID[6] |
Compliance
Compliance questions for these products turn on the User itemization, the number of concurrent licences, the version currency and the use restrictions. A customer should be able to show Blackbaud which contractors and affiliate employees are itemised as Users, since the Agreement conditions their use on that itemization.[2] The Subscription Description bars leasing the Subscription or its capacity to third parties.[3]
Out of scope
This article does not cover Blackbaud’s education and school management products, corporate giving products, payment services, AI features or professional services, which are in other articles. Third-party apps from the Blackbaud marketplace are governed by the third party’s agreement.[2]