Blackbaud

and financial stability.

I had five, I had to go through five of these companies like Flex and Blackbaud and, and all of these groups.

And I thought, you know, if I were sending money to an organization, especially a new organization, if I, if I found out that they were approved by five different companies, I think I would want to know that.

So I sent it out and sure enough, I got responses back and one ended up in a grant, um, that I wasn't expecting.

[upbeat music] Welcome to the Engaged Podcast from Blackbaud, the podcast for people dedicated to purpose-driven work.

From nonprofit fundraising and finance to grant making, education and corporate social responsibility, we're talking with sector experts and thought leaders about the best practices and latest trends that will help you grow your impact.

Welcome to the Engaged Podcast.

I'm Kristen Belanger, director of marketing for events at Blackbaud.

I'm excited to talk today about BBCon, Blackbaud's annual conference for the social impact community.

Each year, BBCon brings together thousands of nonprofit, education, healthcare, foundation, corporate social responsibility, and faith leaders to learn, connect, share ideas, and discover practical ways to advance their mission.

Today, I'm joined here by Topher and Robin from the Wolf Conservation Center to talk about their BBCon experience and the values they found in being part of this community.

What were your expectations heading into your first BBCon experience?

You can go from anywhere from very inexpensive like Little Green Light or DonorDoc or really good resources up to the more mid-tier ones like Neon One.

And then really, if you have the audacity to have something like Blackbaud and you just really don't want to sleep at night and you want to have that as a thing, It's the worst, but you can have it, I guess.

But get yourself a CRM system and it's going to automate a lot of stuff for you and you don't have to worry about it.

You can actually segment kindly.