Connection Café: Why is Blackbaud so afraid of the Open Boogie Man?

	Why is Blackbaud so afraid of the Open Boogie Man?
	Posted by Sara Spivey at Apr 23, 2009 08:23 PM CDT Categories: Data Integration

I’m hoping that somebody out there can help me solve a mystery. I like to think I’m a pretty smart gal, but I can’t for the life of me figure out why my esteemed colleagues at Blackbaud are so resistant to Open architecture. They seem content on passing business back and forth, rather than on bringing a whole new class of customers to the table. In all my years of high tech marketing (25 + I’m embarrassed to say), I know one thing to be true: The only way you grow is to grow the collective. So naturally, when I see an opportunity to bring disruptive change to an industry, cultivate a whole new class of buyers and help nonprofit organizations be more effective in the process, I’m on board. So my question to Mr. Chardon and his crew down in Charleston is “Why aren’t YOU?”

In every installment of high technology paradigm breakage I’ve observed the following:
1) Open architecture always wins over closed, and
2) A new class of buyers (and therefore real market growth) can only be created with true innovation.

I would add a third rule which is an outgrowth of the first two: True innovation happens a whole lot faster in an open environment.

Convio has embraced this thinking by committing to integrating with other technologies. We have been providing data integration services for years because we recognized that many organizations were going to adopt our online marketing and fundraising platform and want to integrate it with their existing donor DB. We have since enhanced that strategy with our Open APIs and integration to social media to allow non profits to build additional capabilities around the Convio product set. Blackbaud will be happy to help you integrate Blackbaud to other Blackbaud products, but what about helping clients with heterogeneous environments? Sorry.

We’ve extended that hand, only to receive a fist.

We’ve actually tried to buy a copy of Raiser’s Edge so that we could further develop our connector and were told by the people at Blackbaud that they would not sell it to us. I also had one of my folks apply to join their partner program--other than the auto responder email that tells us they are so pleased that he inquired and he will be hearing from them soon, I have heard NOTHING. I have sent personal email to the CTO, and the CEO and I’ve spoken face to face with their VP of Partnerships…NO RESPONSE TO ANY OF IT. Call me crazy, but I don’t think they want to talk to me.
I’m so sure I think this is the right thing to do for our customers (current and future) and for every constituent who’s ever given a donation or laced up shoes for a run, walk, or ride, that I invite Blackbaud to join us at the table and do the right thing not only because we can, but mostly because we should.

What are they afraid of?