Blackbaud® and Diamond Mind Collaborate to Offer Full Cycle Joint Capability for Online Student Billing Payments

POTOMAC, Md., Jan. 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Diamond Mind and Blackbaud have signed an agreement that will make it easier for thousands of independent school parents to pay their child's tuition and related expenses online. Under this agreement, the two companies will integrate and communicate the benefits of Blackbaud's® Student Billing module, the Bill-O-Matic™  plug-in, and Diamond Mind's Tuition Portal application to independent schools nationwide.

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This announcement was made at the Mid South Business Officers (MISBO) conference in Orlando, Florida, at which Katherine Novikov, CEO of Diamond Mind was a guest speaker.

The full-cycle joint offering allows schools to:

• email student billing statements to parents from Blackbaud's Student Billing using Bill-O-Matic plug-in
• link the parent to Diamond Mind's Tuition Portal to make a payment
• import payments as a batch into Blackbaud's Student Billing

"This integrated process will save everyone time and steps," said Ms. Novikov. "Parents will benefit by making convenient online payments from home or office. Schools will benefit by automating and streamlining their back-office procedures with the help of two seasoned vendors who understand their business."

This agreement reflects how more companies are becoming aware of the special needs of independent schools and how generalist providers of payment services are not the most suited to meeting their needs. "Independent schools are our sole focus and their needs drive everything we do," said Ms. Novikov. "So this new, closer relationship with Blackbaud made good sense. It will allow us to serve many of our 600+ K-12 day and boarding school clients even better. "

Blackbaud's existing client base of 800 day and boarding schools have recently learned about this new capability.

The finalization of this new relationship comes at an opportune moment for independent schools and both companies. With the passage of the Durbin Amendment on October 1st, 2011, Diamond Mind is launching a new version of their Tuition Portal. This newest version will allow schools to offer parents a substantially lower convenience fee for debit card transactions.

For information: http://www.diamondmindinc.com or
Contact: [email protected]
Phone: 888-566-0945, ext. 711

About Diamond Mind, Inc.

Diamond Mind, Inc. is the leading provider of electronic payment services to independent K-12 day and boarding schools nationwide. Diamond Mind currently serves over 600 K-12 schools in 44 states, and has proven exceptional value by saving costs, streamlining operations, and increasing the security of incoming payments campus-wide. Diamond Mind also offers a MasterCard Purchase Card program designed specifically for schools.

For more information about Diamond Mind, please visit www.diamondmindinc.com.

About Blackbaud Serving the nonprofit and education sectors for 30 years, Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB) combines technology and expertise to help organizations achieve their missions. Blackbaud works with more than 25,000 customers in over 60 countries that support higher education, healthcare, human services, arts and culture, faith, the environment, independent K-12 education, animal welfare, and other charitable causes. The company offers a full spectrum of cloud-based and on-premise software solutions and related services for organizations of all sizes including: fundraising, eMarketing, social media, advocacy, constituent relationship management (CRM), analytics, financial management, and vertical-specific solutions. Using Blackbaud technology, these organizations raise more than $100 billion each year. Recognized as a top company by Forbes, InformationWeek, and Software Magazine and honored by Best Places to Work, Blackbaud is headquartered in Charleston, South Carolina and has employees throughout the US, and in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Mexico, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.

For more information, visit www.blackbaud.com.

SOURCE Diamond Mind, Inc.