Fundraising

JustGiving to Revolutionize Fundraising with the Integration of Generative AI

JustGiving to Revolutionize Fundraising with the Integration

Blackbaud, the leading provider of software for powering social impact, today announced a groundbreaking AI development for JustGiving®, the world's most trusted platform for online giving. Through generative AI, fundraisers on JustGiving are now able to quickly and easily create personal stories to share with their networks. This update is expected to benefit more than 20,000 charities, as part of Blackbaud's Intelligence for Good® strategy.

On JustGiving, more than 850,000 fundraising pages were created last year, and of these, around 35% of fundraisers chose to use the platform's pre-written content instead of writing their own individual stories.

JustGiving's research shows that pages that include a clear and personal story raise around 65% more than those that don't, highlighting the impact a compelling story can have for a fundraiser. Using generative AI, JustGiving now provides fundraisers with an AI-powered writing assistant that allows them to quickly and easily create personal stories to share with their networks.

"We know it can be difficult for our fundraisers to write up their very personal stories. Yet, those individual stories are the most important part of a fundraising page as they help people across communities understand what they're doing and why they're doing it," said Pascale Harvie, senior vice president, JustGiving from Blackbaud. "By using AI in this way as a powerful force for good, it's our hope that our fundraisers will feel confident to share their JustGiving pages with their friends, family members and across their networks."

Blackbaud recently unveiled a major new wave of its Intelligence for Good® strategy, with a commitment to creating AI for social impact teams that is accessible, powerful and responsible.

"The development on JustGiving is another fantastic example of how we're expanding into new areas to make AI more accessible to fundraisers," said Kevin McDearis, chief technology officer, Blackbaud. "This latest wave of innovation builds on Blackbaud's proven history of building and delivering actionable insights that help nonprofits and individuals raise more money for important causes."

About JustGiving®

JustGiving is the world's most trusted platform for online giving. We help people raise money for the charities and people they care about the most. In 2000, JustGiving.com began with one simple goal – to enable charities to receive donations online from anywhere in the world. Fast forward 22 years and over £6 billion has been raised for good causes in almost every single country in the world. JustGiving became part of Blackbaud in 2017.

About Blackbaud

Blackbaud 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.

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American Camp Association Receives $45.5 Million Grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to Strengthen Character Development Programs for Young People

PR Newswire | February 02, 2024

The American Camp Association® (ACA) is honored to announce that Lilly Endowment Inc. has awarded ACA a $45,535,623 grant to support the creation of a new, multiyear initiative to grow, improve, and celebrate character development at camps across the United States. Character at Camp is an innovative initiative anchored in the belief that summer and year-round camp programs provide an unparalleled opportunity to promote the character development of young people. While camps vary greatly in their mission, size, activities, programming, and location, many are run with an intrinsic focus on youth development and character-building skills and traits. ACA's recent National Camp Impact Study demonstrated that camp experiences support social connectedness among youth and the development of skills and traits such as perseverance, responsibility, and the willingness to try new things. This study also found that these skills and traits last over time. Individuals who attended camp as children demonstrate these skills and traits throughout academic environments and well into their early careers. For more than a century, character development has been foundational to the camp experience, as each camp distinctively offers a variety of opportunities to develop important character skills and traits. Camps provide young people with experiences in less-distracting settings, often surrounded by nature, that can help support character development through social interactions with peers and counselors, time for reflection and other activities. For example, campers learn responsibility as they help set tables in the dining hall, engage in leadership when guiding groups during hikes, and practice empathy when they support fellow campers who are missing home. In today's world, the benefits of building character skills and traits such as gratitude, kindness, creativity, curiosity, perseverance, resiliency, empathy, courage, and teamwork could not be more important. The Character at Camp initiative will be conducted during the next six years. ACA will make available in-person and virtual training opportunities, educational tools, and other resources to camps to strengthen, expand, or establish character development programs at the more than 15,000 year-round and summer camps across the US. As a direct result of this new initiative, ACA will invite camp leaders to participate in educational and peer-learning opportunities, networking, training, other experiences to learn how to help develop character skills and traits at camp. ACA will work with camp professionals, youth-development experts, and others to create new educational resources, training, and assessment tools to provide camps with opportunities to engage in this important initiative. Starting in 2025, all eligible nonprofit camps will have the opportunity to apply for competitive one-, two-, or three-year grants to support their character development programs. Eligible organizations will be able to apply for funding in amounts ranging from $50,000 to up to $300,000 based on the length of the grant period. Funds may be used for staffing, training, curricula, assessment, communications, and/or outreach and partnership efforts to support camps' specific goals related to character development. The initiative will support a broad range of camps serving young people from varied backgrounds and experiences, including under-resourced and underrepresented youth, as well as provide funding for developing character-based programming that is culturally relevant and values the diverse perspectives of youth and families. "We are deeply grateful for Lilly Endowment's support of ACA and our shared commitment to support camps across the country with the funding, tools, resources, and education to expand and prioritize character development programs," said Tom Rosenberg, ACA president/CEO. "This Character at Camp initiative recognizes the diverse needs of children and youth. We know camp experiences build a world of belonging and growth, and we're excited to engage camps as they work to strengthen their character development programs." "Lilly Endowment's founders firmly believed that developing the character of young people was vital to the future of communities and our country, and they supported many efforts to understand how character is formed," said N. Clay Robbins, Lilly Endowment's chairman and CEO. "For decades, well run camps have had a positive impact on the character development of thousands of campers. We believe, with the commitment, leadership, and expertise of ACA, its Character at Camp initiative can meaningfully enhance and expand character development from a variety of perspectives and in a diverse array of young people throughout the nation."

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TIFIN Give expands its reach as a leading technology powered philanthropy platform for wealth enterprises

PR Newswire | February 01, 2024

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