Blackbaud Welcomes 12 Innovative Startups to its Social Good Tech Accelerator
MWN-AI** Summary
On January 13, 2026, Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB) announced the latest cohort for its Social Good Startup Program, welcoming 12 innovative startups focused on addressing challenges in the social impact sector through technology. This program aims to drive social change by empowering early-stage software ventures that help nonprofits and socially responsible organizations amplify their impact.
Notably, 61% of the cohort's founders have underrepresented backgrounds in the tech industry, aligning with Blackbaud's commitment to inclusivity. According to Rosalyn Lemieux, Blackbaud's Director of Product Management and Strategy, the accelerator acts as a “catalyst for innovation” within the social impact space, connecting visionary founders to resources that can enhance their solutions.
Among the participants are companies like AppsNXT, which enhances fundraising workflows, and CORAA AI, an automation platform for corporate social responsibility and environmental, social, and governance compliance. Other noteworthy startups include DonorAtlas, which simplifies donor intelligence through AI, and Givalgo, which streamlines grantmaking processes. Each of these technologies is designed to optimize operations and improve overall efficiency in fundraising and donor management.
The Blackbaud Social Good Startup Program has previously supported 77 startups across 10 cohorts, with an impressive 86% success rate. This success reflects its tailored access to resources, including promotional opportunities and funding. Each startup develops a customized growth plan and participates in future events to pitch their ideas and gain valuable feedback.
As Blackbaud continues to support socially responsible innovations, the January 2026 cohort promises to contribute significantly to the evolving landscape of nonprofit technology, helping organizations achieve their missions more effectively.
MWN-AI** Analysis
Blackbaud's recent announcement regarding the inclusion of 12 innovative startups in its Social Good Tech Accelerator underscores a pivotal trend in both the philanthropy and technology sectors. By empowering these early-stage companies, Blackbaud aims to enhance the operational efficiency of nonprofits and socially responsible organizations, illustrating the growing intersection of technology and social impact.
Investors should closely watch these developments as they signify not only the rising prominence of tech solutions in the nonprofit sector but also indicate a broader shift towards AI-driven innovations. Noteworthy participants like CORAA AI and DonorAtlas introduce substantial advancements in automating compliance and donor intelligence, respectively. This focus on efficiency could attract investment, especially from venture capital firms targeting socially responsible enterprises. The potential for these startups to scale their solutions across Blackbaud's extensive network presents a lucrative opportunity for stakeholders.
Moreover, the diversity within the cohort—61% of founders from underrepresented backgrounds—suggests a commitment to inclusive growth, aligning investments with emergent social equity trends. Startups like Kindora and Untapped Solutions cater to under-resourced nonprofits, highlighting an increasing demand for tools designed to democratize access to funding resources.
As these companies innovate to solve long-standing challenges in fundraising and donor engagement, the risk of traditional fundraising methods becoming obsolete rises. Blackbaud's accelerator not only mitigates risks by offering tailored growth plans but also positions these startups favorably against competitors—particularly as they develop integrative solutions compatible with established platforms.
In conclusion, the cohort's focus on AI and social equity places Blackbaud and its startups at the forefront of a lucrative and evolving sector. Investors would do well to consider engagement with this space, evaluating the potential for high-return opportunities in socially conscious tech innovations.
**MWN-AI Summary and Analysis is based on asking OpenAI to summarize and analyze this news release.
PR Newswire
January 2026 Cohort Brings AI-driven Solutions to Help Nonprofits and Socially Responsible Organizations Amplify Their Impact
CHARLESTON, S.C., Jan. 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB), the leader in AI for social impact, today announced the newest cohort of participants joining its Social Good Startup Program. This tech accelerator program is designed to empower early-stage software ventures that are tackling meaningful challenges within the social impact sector.
The newest cohort, consisting of 12 participants, reflects Blackbaud's ongoing commitment to fostering solutions that help nonprofits and socially responsible businesses maximize their impact. Notably, 61% of the founders in this cohort come from backgrounds that are traditionally underrepresented in the tech industry, underscoring Blackbaud's dedication to expanding access and elevating diverse voices in social impact innovation.
"The Social Good Startup Program is more than an accelerator—it's a catalyst for innovation in the social impact space," said Rosalyn Lemieux, Director, Product Management and Strategy at Blackbaud. "By connecting these visionary founders with Blackbaud's ecosystem, we're helping them scale solutions that empower nonprofits and socially responsible organizations to achieve more than ever before."
The startups in the January 2026 cohort include:
- AppsNXT is a software development company focused on enhancing fundraising and event management workflows for nonprofits, higher education institutions, and healthcare organizations by building tools that integrate seamlessly with existing Blackbaud solutions.
- Bridgit is the integration hub for charities. They automate data management to give charities more time to focus on fundraising by eliminating spreadsheet wrangling for charity teams and providing self-serve integrations, making it scalable and easy to implement without consultants.
- CORAA AI is an AI-native platform that transforms complex, manual CSR and ESG compliance processes into highly automated workflows. CORAA automates non profit due diligence and compliance management, along with grant spend utilization and impact benchmarking, delivering audit-ready reports in minutes instead of days or weeks. Additionally, its voice and chat agents streamline 24/7 stakeholder communications across champions, nonprofits, and donors in over 30 languages, setting a new standard for speed, accuracy, and accountability in social impact operations.
- DonorAtlas is the first AI?native donor intelligence tool. Their platform turns scattered public/private data into unified donor profiles—searchable via natural language—so fundraisers spend less time researching and more time cultivating prospects.
- Givalgo is a multi-agent AI platform purpose-built for grantmakers, automating manual and fragmented grantmaking workflows into a cohesive, low-friction experience. With an initial focus on nonprofit due-diligence, Givalgo automates vetting, compliance reviews, and multi-layer risk analysis across the grant lifecycle, enabling grantmakers to make faster, more informed giving decisions.
- Grasshopper Signup provides ad-free, AI-enabled, mobile optimized event signup forms for education, nonprofits, religious organizations, businesses. Explain the form you want to create, AI generates it, you adjust settings, then get links to collect responses and analyze data.
- Kindora is a fundraising technology startup focused on democratizing access to professional grant discovery and application support for under-resourced nonprofits. Their AI thinks like an experienced program officer, analyzing foundation websites, forms, and giving patterns to reduce thousands of potential funders down to the most relevant matches.
- MatchNice is a real-time donation matching platform that helps nonprofits turn any donor into a matcher instantly. Nonprofits embed a plug-and-play matching banner on their website to activate matching funds as donors give through existing fundraising platforms. Organizations that use MatchNice see up to 2X more donations and 2X average gift sizes, and earn as much as 6X campaign revenue, all with no upfront cost.
- NetOutlook
- SwiftGrants is a grant management platform built directly inside Raiser's Edge NXT. It replaces spreadsheets, email chains, and manual reminders with a structured workflow that tracks applications, reporting requirements, assignments, and deadlines in one place. Designed by grant professionals, SwiftGrants follows the natural cadence of the grant-seeking process and provides real-time visibility into every grant through a filterable dashboard and calendar view.
- Aqueduct Analytics delivers a comprehensive Raiser's Edge NXT dataset into a secure data warehouse you control. With a single, consolidated source of truth, teams can build accurate dashboards, reports, and analytics on any BI platform that drive confident, data-informed decisions.
- PlanPerfect equips small to midsized nonprofits with an AI-assisted strategic planning and risk management platform that helps organizations create, manage, and operationalize their strategic plans—transforming them from static documents into actionable, fundable roadmaps that bridge the gap between mission, execution, and measurable outcomes.
- Untapped Solutions provides modern infrastructure for organizations serving untapped and underserved communities—helping workforce, reentry, supervision, and human services teams track progress, coordinate services, and connect people to critical resources like jobs, housing, healthcare, and education. By replacing manual processes and disconnected systems, Untapped increases efficiency, improves outcomes, and enables staff to do more with less—without losing the human touch.
- Vitalcy is a software platform that helps membership-based nonprofits build long-term financial stability through automated community, alumni, and donor engagement. The platform centralizes historical content and relationships, uses AI to power ongoing storytelling, networking, and mentorship, and processes and recognizes donations, all without adding work for already-stretched teams.
"The companies in the January 2026 cohort are seriously impressive, with 12 globally distributed teams collectively bringing decades of lived experience working with and for top nonprofit organizations and technology companies," said Lizzie Schaffer, General Manager of Blackbaud's Social Good Startup Program. "These founders are not just building products, they're shaping the future of how technology serves purpose-driven organizations- and their innovative solutions will delight Blackbaud customers looking to raise more, engage more, and accelerate measurable progress toward achieving their missions."
About the Blackbaud Social Good Startup Program
Since the launch of the first cohort in January 2020, Blackbaud has supported a total of 77 startups through 10 prior cohorts, with these organizations collectively raising upwards of $230 million in funding and contributing 40+ new solutions to the Blackbaud Marketplace. While the average success rate for tech startups is less than 50%, and most startups face a 65% failure rate within 10 years, the Blackbaud Social Good Startup program has seen an impressive 86% success rate, with 66 of the 77 startups still operating today.
Participants in the program gain tailored access to Blackbaud's resources, promotional opportunities, and nondilutive grant funding. Each startup works closely with Blackbaud to create a customized growth plan aligned with its specific objectives. Over time, participants have launched multiple integrations with Blackbaud products, partnered with other ISV collaborators, taken part in Blackbaud-hosted events, and engaged directly with Blackbaud customers for targeted feedback, helping refine their solutions to better meet customer needs.
Founders will be invited to participate in the annual Blackbaud Social Good Startup Showcase later this year, where they can pitch their ideas to Blackbaud leaders for a chance to create networking opportunities and win prizes. Startups in this year's cohorts will also be invited to Blackbaud's annual tech conference happening in Columbus, OH, September 29-October 1, 2026, where the winners of the 2025 showcase will be in attendance as well.
Blackbaud accepts applications for the Social Good Startup Program on a rolling basis. For consideration in the January 2027 or other future cohorts, learn more and apply here.
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, India 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.
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media@blackbaud.com
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; 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
FAQ**
How does Blackbaud Inc. (BLKB) plan to leverage the expertise and innovative solutions from the startups in the January 2026 cohort to enhance its offerings in the social impact sector?
Considering the diversity of backgrounds among the founders, how does Blackbaud Inc. (BLKB) ensure that the solutions developed by these startups effectively address the needs of traditionally underserved communities?
What metrics will Blackbaud Inc. (BLKB) use to measure the success and impact of the startups participating in the Social Good Startup Program over the coming year?
How does Blackbaud Inc. (BLKB) differentiate its accelerator program from other tech accelerators aimed at social good, particularly in terms of resources, mentorship, and market opportunities for the participating startups?
**MWN-AI FAQ is based on asking OpenAI questions about Blackbaud Inc. (NASDAQ: BLKB).
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