Nonprofit Fundraising & Finance Best Practices | The ENGAGE Blog by Blackbaud

Professional Development

Your Staff Are Already Using AI. The Question Is Whether They’re Using It Together.

In most organizations, there isn’t one AI journey… there are dozens of individual AI journeys happening at once: Maybe a [...]

September 24, 2026| 4 min Read

Fund Accounting

What a Complete Nonprofit Agentic Finance System Could Look Like on an Ordinary Tuesday

September 28, 2026| 6 min Read

Data Management

The One Record Myth in K–12 School Software

September 23, 2026| 4 min Read

Budgeting

Building a Culture of Effective Budgeting Practices

September 21, 2026| 4 min Read

Financial Reporting

From Payment Runs to Payment Intelligence: What’s Next for Nonprofit Finance

August 24, 2026| 6 min Read

Latest Posts

Website Design

Is Your Nonprofit Making These 6 Website Mistakes?

Even the savviest nonprofits can sometimes struggle to keep every plate spinning. But your website is often the first introduction [...]

September 30, 2026 | 4 min Read

Process Automation

4 Ways Automation Streamlines AP for Lean Finance Teams

Your AP clerk is out for the day. A vendor has emailed updated banking information. Several invoices are waiting for [...]

September 30, 2026 | 4 min Read

Website Design

What Your Team Should Know About Nonprofit Web Hosting

Picture this: your organization’s GivingTuesday campaign is finally live. Your supporters visit your site in droves, donations begin to roll in, and [...]

September 29, 2026 | 5 min Read

Board Management

Cleared for Takeoff: When Customers Get a Seat in the Cockpit

There’s a specific kind of energy that happens when a room full of people who haven’t physically gathered in years [...]

September 23, 2026 | 5 min Read

Change Management

Why AI Maturity Matters More Than AI Adoption in Financial Reporting

Artificial intelligence has quickly moved from a future-focused conversation to a practical reality for many nonprofit organizations. According to new [...]

September 22, 2026 | 5 min Read

Financial Reporting

Return on Mission: A Framework to Measure Success at Philanthropic Organizations

Our board was debating a large purchase and struggling to balance the ROI of its costs with how it was [...]

September 21, 2026 | 5 min Read

End-of-year preparation

Giving Tuesday

Building Resilience on GivingTuesday: Turning Momentum into Year-Round Impact

November 12, 2025 | 2 min Read

End-of-Year Giving

How You Can Use Social Media Ambassadors to Amplify Your Giving Day

December 23, 2025 | 2 min Read

End-of-Year Giving

Is Your Payment Infrastructure Ready for GivingTuesday’s $3.6B Traffic Surge?

October 22, 2025 | 3 min Read

End-of-Year Giving

The Final Mile: End-of-Year Fundraising

As the year draws to a close, nonprofits and organizations everywhere are putting the finishing touches on their fundraising strategies. [...]

December 23, 2025| < 1 min Read

Featured Experts

Rachel DeMatteo, CPA

Director and NYC Market Leader at Your Part-Time Controller

From Requirements to Relationships: Rethinking Grant Reporting to Strengthen Funder-Grantee Partnerships

Laurene Currie

Responsible AI Research Scientist, Laureate

How Real-World Experience Shapes Responsible AI at Blackbaud

Isa Hasty

Senior Manager of Content & Marketing Communications at Feathr

How Often Are You Sending Bulk Emails?

The Engage Podcast

Tune in to the ENGAGE Podcast to hear experts from across the community share best practices, tips, and must-know trends that will help organizations maximize their impact.
Explore Podcasts

bbcon

Attendee to Advocate: What I Learned from bbcon with Wolf Conservation Center

August 24, 2026 |17 min Listen

Responsible AI

Donor Perspectives on AI, Trust, and Transparency

August 12, 2026 |12 min Listen

Sector Trends

From Transactional Giving to True Partnership with CECP

July 16, 2026 |27 min Listen

Hidden Gems

Crisis Management

As a Disaster Unfolds, Fundraisers Can Do More Than Raise Money

No question that cash is crucial in a catastrophe. But if you’re a fundraiser for a nonprofit organization or school [...]

January 14, 2025 | 5 min Read

Awards and Scholarships

Improving Student Communications in Your Scholarship Process

Communicating with students is a key part of the scholarship process. While it can be time-consuming and occasionally overwhelming, it [...]

May 2, 2024 | 3 min Read

Annual Giving

AI Can Be Your Most Powerful Tool for Growing Midlevel Giving

Midlevel donors don’t always get the love they deserve. This loyal and often overlooked segment of donors represents a significant [...]

July 19, 2024 | 6 min Read

Giving Tuesday

GivingTuesday Email Examples, Subject Lines, and Schedule for Sending

No matter your cause, GivingTuesday is the biggest fundraising event of the year for nonprofits and schools. Planning ahead for [...]

July 15, 2025 | 7 min Read

Online Giving

8 Common Donation Page Mistakes (and Simple Solutions!)

A poorly designed donation page will make you miss out on supporters' donations. Here are the 9 mistakes to avoid so that your page is optimized for giving.

June 12, 2024 | 5 min Read

Digital Marketing

How to Turn Annual Reports into Donor Engagement Tools

For many nonprofits, annual reports are often treated as a retrospective exercise: an obligation to summarize the past year’s activities [...]

June 11, 2026 | 4 min Read

Volunteer Management

Ideas for Youth Volunteer Programs

Are you looking for fresh ways to energize your nonprofit, attract new supporters, and ensure long-term organizational growth? Implementing youth [...]

February 25, 2026 | 2 min Read

Event Planning

A Quick Event Checklist for First-Time Fundraisers

Hosting your first fundraising event can feel overwhelming. You’re worried about everything from simple logistics, like finding a venue and [...]

November 21, 2025 | 5 min Read

View All Fundraising Posts

Change Management

Signs Your Systems Are Broken (And You’ve Just Learned to Live with It)

We all know that CFO. Sharp, experienced, good at their job, and the crown jewel of their department is a [...]

May 26, 2026 | 3 min Read

Fund Accounting

Best Practices for a Stress-Free Fund Accounting System Implementation

You’re done with juggling multiple spreadsheets just to track your restricted funds. You’re finished with manual approval processes for expenses. [...]

May 15, 2026 | 6 min Read

Manager Skills

From Gatekeeper to Trusted Advisor: How Finance Becomes a Thought Leader

Let’s be direct: the phrase “thought leader” is a little uncomfortable, especially for nonprofit finance people. It sounds like something [...]

April 28, 2026 | 4 min Read

View all Finance & Accounting Posts

Direct Marketing

Phonathon Best Practices for More Confident Donor Outreach

A phonathon gives fundraisers a way to connect donor outreach and engagement with fundraising calls in one coordinated campaign. Meaning, [...]

June 15, 2026 | 3 min Read

Alumni Engagement

From Prospective Student to Active Alum—Engagement Fosters Lifelong Support

When you hear the name of your alma mater, what feelings bubble up? What keeps you engaged? In our family, my husband, daughter, [...]

May 14, 2026 | 5 min Read

Awards and Scholarships

5 Strategies to Strengthen Your Scholarship Process

Is your scholarship process outdated, difficult for students to navigate, and a challenge for you to manage? These are common [...]

June 5, 2025 | 3 min Read

View all Higher Education Posts

Annual Giving

Community-Building Through Student-Led Fundraisers

The most successful school fundraisers go beyond simple student participation to deep student engagement, empowering active student leadership that results [...]

May 1, 2026 | 4 min Read

Change Management

People-Powered, AI-Enabled: Effective K–12 Fundraising

Development leaders at private and independent schools of all sizes are asking the same question: “As AI becomes embedded in [...]

April 22, 2026 | 3 min Read

Tuition and Financial Aid

Improve Your Student Billing Process

Are you struggling with an inefficient student billing process? You are not alone. Many educational institutions face the challenge of [...]

April 1, 2026 | 4 min Read

View All K-12 School Posts

Grants Strategy

How to Scale Your Rapid Response Grants

When crisis strikes, communities can’t wait months for funding. Rapid response grants bridge that gap by helping organizations act quickly [...]

March 11, 2026 | 5 min Read

Grantee Partnerships

Bridging the Empathy Gap: Fueling Collaborative Impact in the Social Sector

Most of us enter the social impact space with a fervent desire to change the world. We meticulously build solutions, [...]

September 2, 2025 | 6 min Read

Data Insights

How Grantmakers Can (and Should) Get Started with Research

Now is an important time for small and mid-sized foundations to engage in research activities. Institutional foundations are fighting to [...]

June 17, 2025 | 6 min Read

View All Grantmaking Posts

Board Management

5 Core Essentials for High-Impact Board Orientation

The board of directors is arguably one of the most important parts of any nonprofit organization. After all, they serve [...]

April 30, 2026 | 4 min Read

Community Engagement

How to Offer More Enticing Volunteering Opportunities

When you find that your nonprofit’s volunteer opportunities are no longer drawing the interest they used to, it’s time to [...]

April 15, 2026 | 4 min Read

Crisis Management

How Savvy Organizations Weather Uncertain Times

Preparing for the unknown is a tenant of leadership in today’s ever-changing economic, political, and cultural landscape—and those who know [...]

June 11, 2025 | 4 min Read

View All Leadership Posts