“The acquisition of Attentive.ly will dramatically accelerate Blackbaud’s ability to integrate critical social media capabilities into our portfolio of solutions while putting new innovation in the hands of customers,” said Blackbaud President and CEO Mike Gianoni. “This addition complements our vision to offer customers even more effective engagement pathways with their supporters through strategic social, mobile and other digital campaigns.”
As a strategic partner within Blackbaud’s partner network, Attentive.ly has been helping nonprofits turn supporters into vocal advocates for years. The social media engagement platform already integrates with Blackbaud’s digital marketing solution, Luminate Online™, which has proven beneficial for the two companies’ many shared customers. Blackbaud plans to more deeply integrate Attentive.ly’s capabilities into the next generation version of Luminate Online and intends to pursue other opportunities to leverage functionality across its broader portfolio over time. Once deeply integrated, Attentive.ly will activate an advanced level of social listening for Blackbaud customers; helping them organically grow campaigns while providing a new level of service and community to supporters.
“Blackbaud has been on an exciting journey to bring customers rapid innovation in the cloud, as evidenced by the thousands of new capabilities we’ve introduced to the market this year alone,” said Kevin McDearis, executive vice president of Research, Delivery and Operations at Blackbaud. “We’re committed to exposing our customers to the best tools available in the market, and sometimes that means rather than inventing or partnering, we seek to more closely align ourselves with providers who have extensive expertise, proven products and deeply satisfied customers. Attentive.ly is one such example because an acquisition allows us to better integrate a market-leading leading platform for social listening and engagement into our portfolio now, while giving us a strong foundation to build on as we continue to push the envelope of innovation for the entire philanthropic community.”
Attentive.ly, which was co-founded by CEO Rosalyn Lemieux, CTO Cindy Mottershead and Cheryl Contee, has been operating in the nonprofit sector since 2012. It is the second successful business venture created and led by Lemieux and Contee. Lemieux and Mottershead, along with the company’s nine employees will join Blackbaud effective immediately, reporting up through McDearis’ Research, Delivery and Operations Group. Contee will serve as strategic adviser to Blackbaud as she continues to lead consulting firm, Fission Strategy.
“We couldn’t be more thrilled about the opportunity this acquisition creates for Attentive.ly to further fuel the rapid innovation already taking place within Blackbaud,” said Lemieux. “We’ll be able to put powerful social engagement and advocacy tools into the hands of more nonprofits—faster and with increased value—which will translate to bigger outcomes across the entire social good movement.”
Contee added: “Today is a great day for Attentive.ly customers, for Luminate Online customers, and for the entire nonprofit community. I look forward to continued collaboration with Blackbaud as we join forces to help mission-driven organizations embrace digital marketing with excellence.”
The acquisition of Attentive.ly allows Blackbaud to offer customers:
Attentive.ly has locations in Atlanta, Boston and Washington, D.C. Blackbaud is headquartered in Charleston, South Carolina, with operations around the globe. For more information, visit www.Blackbaud.com/Better-Together.
