Blackbaud completes its £95m takeover of JustGiving

The fundraising platform has been used to raise more than £3bn in 164 countries for more than 26,000 charities

The US-based software company Blackbaud has completed its £95m takeover of the fundraising platform JustGiving, the two organisations have announced.

The companies said in June that Blackbaud had agreed to buy the fundraising platform, which was founded in 2001 and has been used to raise more than £3bn in 164 countries for more than 26,000 charities.

Blackbaud said in a statement that the acquisition, which was completed yesterday after regulators gave the green light to the deal, would result in more charitable giving.

Zarine Kharas, co-founder and chief executive of JustGiving, and Ann-Marie Huby, managing director and co-founder, will step down, with Huby joining Blackbaud’s consumer business steering committee in an advisory capacity for the next six months to help shape its five-year strategy.

JustGiving will be led by Jerry Needel, president and general manager of Blackbaud Consumer Solutions.

All of the JustGiving’s remaining staff of about 140 will transfer to Blackbaud’s London-based International Markets Group with no redundancies, a spokesman said.

Blackbaud said the acquisition doubled its investment in peer-to-peer fundraising and would add to its TeamRaiser and everydayhero platforms.

JustGiving made a profit of £821,000 after taxation on a turnover of £24.9m in 2016. The previous year it made a loss of more than £3.7m on a turnover of £21.6m.

Huby said in a statement: “We’re passionate about growing the world’s giving and advancing good causes – and I can’t think of a better way to do it than as part of the world’s leading cloud software provider powering social good.”

Mike Gianoni, president and chief executive of Blackbaud, said: “Blackbaud is committed to accelerating the impact of individuals and organisations pursuing global good with modern, mobile-first and integrated cloud software.

“As we marry JustGiving’s leading innovation in social giving with our unmatched cloud solutions for social good, we can power game-changing breakthroughs that strengthen the entire social economy.”

A statement from JustGiving said: “JustGiving will work with the Blackbaud team to develop a roadmap with the aim of providing even greater services to the charity sector both in the UK and across the world.”

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