Blackbaud Makes a Strategic Investment in UBIQ Education

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May 08, 2024, 09:00 ET

Partnership Will Enable K-12 Private Schools to Create Digital-First Experiences to Modernize the Admissions Process

CHARLESTON, S.C., May 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB), the leading provider of software for powering social impact, today announced a strategic investment in UBIQ Education, innovators in school websites through the introduction of AMAIS, the first digital experience ecosystem (DXE) for schools.

The £4 million ($5 million) investment in UBIQ demonstrates Blackbaud's commitment to supporting K-12 private schools in being able to effectively seek, identify and cultivate the right families for their community—supporting all aspects of their online admissions, fundraising, recruitment, and inclusion initiatives.

The focus of the investment will be on delivering a native integration, extending Blackbaud's Total School Solution to include UBIQ's AMAIS platform, giving Blackbaud customers direct access to a cutting-edge suite of marketing and admissions tools with seamless data integration across the platform. This investment gives Blackbaud customers the ability to leverage UBIQ's immensely powerful first-party AI and ML data platform and strategically positions UBIQ as Blackbaud's premier partner in the delivery of website solutions.

Blackbaud will continue to deliver its own solution, Blackbaud School Website System, as an integrated product within its education portfolio. By partnering with UBIQ to deliver an integration with Blackbaud's products, Blackbaud is offering schools an upgrade option that provides enhanced digital marketing capabilities, without losing out on the power of a connected system enabled through Blackbaud's Total School Solution.

UBIQ was founded in 2021 with the objective of completely transforming every aspect of how a school website could be created, curated and managed. The company's over-arching mission is to democratize data for the marketing, admissions and advancement departments while facilitating data-driven decisions that yield better outcomes.

"In a very short space of time, UBIQ has partnered with many of the most prestigious and significant schools in the world," said Mark Davis, vice president, education products, Blackbaud. "These schools are realizing tremendous value from UBIQ's cutting-edge digital marketing platform that's helping them to modernize their school websites while driving success across the campus by providing an exceptional digital experience for families and the entire school community. UBIQ enhances the value of Blackbaud's Total School Solution while providing schools a compelling choice to manage their school website and digital marketing needs."

"It is no coincidence that many of these forward-thinking schools are Blackbaud customers, so it makes total sense to bring both companies closer together through a strategic investment, partnership and integration of this nature," said Daniel Clarke, CEO and founder of UBIQ. "I am excited to see what this collaboration will bring to provide even more value to our customers."

Blackbaud and UBIQ have already delivered an initial round of integration whereby UBIQ-powered schools can seamlessly pull academic, athletics and directory data automatically from Blackbaud Student Information System™. With this investment, Blackbaud will continue to work closely with UBIQ to modernize the admissions process by empowering Blackbaud Enrollment Management System™ with UBIQ's DXE to enhance the experience with personalized digital content and automated inquiries, allowing schools to build stronger relationships as they direct families through admissions and enrollment.

Ken Hyde, Assistant Head of School for Enrollment Management and Parent Relations at Porter-Gaud School, shared, "By moving our website to UBIQ, Porter-Gaud is seeking to deliver a best-in-class, flagship experience that personalizes the experience for all families and connects their interests with what the school can provide for their children. We are excited to see how Blackbaud and UBIQ working together will help us exceed our school's strategic goals while providing a powerful and unique experience to our school's community."

About Blackbaud
Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB) is the leading software provider exclusively dedicated to powering social impact. Serving the nonprofit and education sectors, companies committed to social responsibility and individual change makers, Blackbaud's essential software is built to accelerate impact in fundraising, nonprofit financial management, digital giving, grantmaking, corporate social responsibility and education management. With millions of users and over $100 billion raised, granted or managed through Blackbaud platforms every year, Blackbaud's solutions are unleashing the potential of the people and organizations who change the world. Blackbaud has been named to Newsweek's list of America's Most Responsible Companies, Quartz's list of Best Companies for Remote Workers, and Forbes' list of America's Best Employers. A remote-first company, Blackbaud has operations in the United States, Australia, Canada, Costa Rica and the United Kingdom, supporting users in 100+ countries. Learn more at www.blackbaud.com or follow us on X/Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.

About UBIQ
UBIQ continues to transform the school website market in education. By giving schools access to cutting-edge technologies in content management, asset management, digital experience, first-party data collection and AI/ML. This allows UBIQ's customers to make data their competitive advantage – ensuring schools have the necessary information to create the right message, at the right time, delivered through the right channel and personalised on a 1:1 basis. This inevitably leads to better outcomes and in turn, a much higher ROI than they have been used to in the past. To learn more about UBIQ visit: https://ubiqeducation.com or follow us on X/Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.

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Forward-looking Statements
Except for historical information, all of the statements, expectations, and assumptions contained in this news release are forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties, including statements regarding expected benefits of products and product features. Although Blackbaud attempts to be accurate in making these forward-looking statements, it is possible that future circumstances might differ from the assumptions on which such statements are based. In addition, other important factors that could cause results to differ materially include the following: general economic risks; uncertainty regarding increased business and renewals from existing customers; continued success in sales growth; management of integration of acquired companies and other risks associated with acquisitions; risks associated with successful implementation of multiple integrated software products; the ability to attract and retain key personnel; risks associated with management of growth; lengthy sales and implementation cycles, particularly in larger organization; technological changes that make our products and services less competitive; and the other risk factors set forth from time to time in the SEC filings for Blackbaud, copies of which are available free of charge at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov or upon request from Blackbaud's investor relations department. All Blackbaud product names appearing herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of Blackbaud, Inc.

SOURCE Blackbaud