Connect with us

Technology

Blackbaud’s Annual Status of Fundraising Report Reveals Positive Nonprofit Income Trends Despite a Challenging Economic Backdrop

Published

2 years ago

on

Optimising Revenue Streams and Incorporating Modern Technology Drive Growth

LONDON, Aug. 22, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB), the leading provider of software for powering social impact, today released its 2024 Status of UK Fundraising Benchmark Report. This report provides essential data on current fundraising trends in the UK, helping social impact professionals understand the sector and benchmark their performance. With a research focus on emerging innovations and social impact technology ecosystems, the report also helps nonprofit organisations inform their digital fundraising strategies to maximise their impact. 

“The annual Status of UK Fundraising Report gives a comprehensive view of the social impact community in 2024, helping nonprofits understand and benchmark their performance,” said Philip Hunt, Senior Manager, Marketing, Blackbaud International Markets. “The nonprofit sector is in a constant state of change with economic and political uncertainties, and the global pandemic aftermath. Despite this, we are seeing success in more intentional strategies that focus on maximising the potential of technology and driving sustainable growth through income stream diversification. AI, too, is shaping the nonprofit sector. These modern innovations propose exciting new opportunities, but also underline the need for accelerated policy making to ensure responsible and ethical use of AI.”

For this research, over 850 industry professionals completed an online survey, and additional virtual interviews with participants gave more in-depth insight into some of the key findings. 

Key Findings 

Diversified income stream portfolio helps nonprofits grow. 

Growing organisations are more likely to have an evenly spread income stream portfolio.In turn, organisations relying on grants as their main income source are significantly more likely to say that their income decreased.

The current economic situation continues to challenge the sector. 

79% of nonprofits reported feeling challenged by the economic situation, and subsequent fewer donations. 58% of those who struggled to grow rank the wider macroeconomic environment as the main reason behind income decline.Public perceptions of the sector and changing demand for services are also top of mind for participants.

Tech-savvy and innovative organisations are more likely to experience income growth. 

Digitally mature organisations are significantly more likely to say that their income is growing, suggesting that these tech-savvy organisations are better able to capitalise on opportunities that help them grow.

Most organisations use AI, but many wish they had more resources to explore fundraising use cases.

57% of participants use artificial intelligence, and most feel positively about it. Despite this, many say they lack resources to explore how to maximise the true potential of AI in their organisation.While most participants use AI, only 5% have an AI policy in place, but a further 15% say that they are working on one.

Improved data management would bring the biggest value to fundraising strategies. 

Most nonprofits use and are satisfied with their CRM system, but many recognise that additional training could help them realise the full potential of their software.60% of participants agree that improved data management would bring the greatest value to their organisation.

More research results can be found in the full Status of UK Fundraising report. This resource is offered for free as part of Blackbaud’s commitment to accelerating social impact. 

About Blackbaud
Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB) 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.co.uk or follow us on X/Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.

Media Inquiries
media@blackbaud.com 

Forward-looking Statements
Except for historical information, all of the statements, expectations and assumptions contained in this news release are forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties, including statements regarding expected benefits of products and product features. Although Blackbaud attempts to be accurate in making these forward-looking statements, it is possible that future circumstances might differ from the assumptions on which such statements are based. In addition, other important factors that could cause results to differ materially include the following: general economic risks; uncertainty regarding increased business and renewals from existing customers; continued success in sales growth; management of integration of acquired companies and other risks associated with acquisitions; risks associated with successful implementation of multiple integrated software products; the ability to attract and retain key personnel; risks associated with management of growth; lengthy sales and implementation cycles; technological changes that make our products and services less competitive; and the other risk factors set forth from time to time in the SEC filings for Blackbaud, copies of which are available free of charge at the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov or upon request from Blackbaud’s investor relations department. All Blackbaud product names appearing herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of Blackbaud, Inc.

Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/404305/Blackbaud_Logo.jpg

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/blackbauds-annual-status-of-fundraising-report-reveals-positive-nonprofit-income-trends-despite-a-challenging-economic-backdrop-302227848.html

Related Topics:
Continue Reading

Technology

Oracle Introduces New AI-Powered Ways to Execute Work Across Oracle Fusion Applications

Published

17 minutes ago

on

October 26, 2026

By

Fusion Companion and Fusion Agentic Home help organizations achieve business outcomes by enabling employees to execute work across different AI clients while maintaining enterprise security and control

LAS VEGAS, Oct. 26, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Oracle AI World — Oracle today announced Oracle Fusion Companion with Oracle Fusion Agentic Home, two new capabilities for Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications that transform how employees get work done. Fusion Companion provides an intelligent layer that understands business objectives and automatically selects and coordinates the appropriate transactions, workflows, approvals, AI agents, and agentic applications needed to execute work and achieve business outcomes. Users no longer need to know which application to navigate, which transaction to execute, which workflow or approval to initiate, or which AI agent to use. Fusion Companion determines how to get the work done while maintaining enterprise security, permissions, and controls. Users can access these capabilities through supported AI tools such as ChatGPT or through Oracle Fusion Agentic Home, the native AI experience within Oracle Fusion Applications.

“AI is changing where enterprise work begins, but organizations need to maintain control over how that work gets done,” said Chris Leone, executive vice president, Applications Development, Oracle. “Fusion Companion enables employees to define business objectives and execute work through the AI tools they already use, while Oracle Fusion provides the business context, execution capabilities, and enterprise controls needed to get that work done. With Fusion Agentic Home, we’re bringing this same intelligence to the millions of people who work in Oracle Fusion Applications every day, giving them a simpler way to execute work, from everyday tasks to complex business processes, without having to navigate multiple applications or understand the underlying workflows and AI agents.”

Fusion Companion enables users to work with Oracle Fusion Applications through supported AI tools such as ChatGPT. As the intelligent layer for Oracle Fusion Applications, Fusion Companion uses enterprise business context, data, and user permissions to understand what users want to accomplish and determine how to get the work done. It automatically selects and coordinates the appropriate transactions, workflows, approvals, AI agents, and agentic applications, whether completing a simple task or executing a complex business process. Fusion Companion can also leverage data and context from other enterprise systems and coordinate authorized actions across those systems, enabling work to be completed across applications while respecting established security, permissions, and controls. With Fusion Companion, organizations will be able to:

Simplify enterprise work: Helps employees achieve business outcomes by identifying the agents, applications, and business processes needed to complete their request.Accelerate business execution: Executes complex business work by coordinating specialized AI agents, business processes, and Fusion Agentic Applications, including Fusion Claw-powered applications that perform deep analysis, planning, simulation, optimization, and long-running execution across large volumes of enterprise data.Increase flexibility in how employees work: Enables users to work with Oracle Fusion Applications through supported AI tools such as ChatGPT and customer- or partner-built AI interfaces, while maintaining access to relevant business context and capabilities.Connect work across enterprise systems: Helps organizations coordinate activities across Oracle Fusion Applications, other cloud applications, enterprise content, data platforms, APIs, services, and third-party agents.Maintain enterprise security and accountability: Helps organizations execute AI-driven work within established identity, permissions, policies, and approval controls while keeping enterprise execution and accountability within Oracle Fusion Applications.

Oracle Fusion Agentic Home, supported by Fusion Companion, is a personalized, AI-native experience that enables users to define business objectives, delegate work to AI agents and agentic applications, and track progress through completion. With Fusion Agentic Home, organizations will be able to:

Simplify the employee experience: Enables users to express business objectives through a personalized, AI-native experience that automatically identifies and executes the appropriate work, without requiring users to navigate applications, initiate workflows, or select individual AI agents.Increase employee productivity: Helps users complete work faster by bringing together the information, AI agents, agentic applications, and business processes needed to achieve their objectives.Resolve business exceptions: Identifies the root causes of business exceptions, determines appropriate corrective actions, and executes authorized resolutions while escalating decisions that require human judgment.Enable governed delegation: Enables employees to delegate work to Oracle Fusion AI agents and agentic applications that execute within established enterprise permissions, policies, and approval controls, allowing employees to focus on business objectives, exceptions, and decisions requiring human judgment.

To learn more about Oracle Fusion Applications, visit www.oracle.com/applications

About Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications
Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications are a complete suite of cloud applications that form the enterprise system of record, spanning finance, HR, supply chain, manufacturing, sales, service, and marketing. The suite includes Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Oracle Fusion Cloud Human Capital Management (HCM), Oracle Fusion Cloud Supply Chain & Manufacturing (SCM), and Oracle Fusion Cloud Customer Experience (CX).

Fusion Agentic Applications extend that foundation into a system of outcomes. They can coordinate and execute end-to-end work toward business objectives, and are designed to operate within the policies, controls, and authority each organization defines. With Oracle AI Agent Studio for Fusion Applications, customers and partners can create, extend, and manage these agents and agentic applications combining trusted enterprise data with the security, data governance, and performance needed to operate at scale.

About Oracle
Oracle offers integrated suites of applications plus secure, autonomous infrastructure in the Oracle Cloud. For more information about Oracle (NYSE: ORCL), please visit us at www.oracle.com.

Trademarks
Oracle, Java, MySQL, and NetSuite are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation. NetSuite was the first cloud company—ushering in the new era of cloud computing.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/oracle-introduces-new-ai-powered-ways-to-execute-work-across-oracle-fusion-applications-302919021.html

SOURCE Oracle

Continue Reading

Technology

Oracle Introduces Claw-Powered Fusion Agentic Applications for Customer Experience

Published

18 minutes ago

on

October 26, 2026

By

New Fusion Claw Applications help sales and service teams pursue profitable growth and deliver on customer commitments by continuously adapting and executing complex work with enterprise governance

LAS VEGAS, Oct. 26, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Oracle AI World — Oracle today announced new Oracle Fusion Claw-powered agentic applications for customer experience. Oracle Fusion Claw is a governed agentic execution runtime that enables Fusion Agentic Applications to reason, compute, adapt, and execute specialist-grade work, including deep research, computation, simulation, modeling, and continuous replanning. Built into Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications, the new Claw-powered agentic applications help organizations take on complex, high-value work more autonomously at scale, within established governance controls, from aligning sales territories with growth opportunities and improving customer service journeys to addressing field service demand while controlling overtime costs and protecting quote accuracy as CPQ configurations change.

“Business leaders need to turn growth strategies into opportunities and deliver on customer commitments, but connecting customer demand with enterprise capacity in time to act remains a challenge,” said Kartik Raghavan, senior vice president, Applications Development, Oracle. “With Claw-powered Fusion Agentic Applications for CX, organizations can connect customer needs with the enterprise resources and governed actions required to address them. The applications can reason across trusted Oracle Fusion Applications data, coordinate the work required to meet business objectives, and carry approved actions into execution. This enables organizations to translate business objectives into growth opportunities, reliable service, and stronger customer trust.”

Agentic Applications represent a new class of outcome-based applications that provide Fusion Applications customers with a system of outcomes, where people define the objectives, authority, and accountability and the Agentic Applications coordinate the process to get to an outcome within those parameters. Fusion Claw enables Agentic Applications to take on more complex, specialist-grade work by providing a new execution runtime that supports larger scale and longer-running work, continuous replanning, deterministic execution, and governed automation within organizational policies and controls.

Running on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, powered by industry-leading LLMs, and extending the world’s most complete suite of cloud applications, the new Fusion Agentic Applications move beyond assistance to governed execution, helping organizations to improve business outcomes while maintaining established oversight and approvals. New Fusion Agentic Applications available within Oracle Fusion Cloud Customer Experience (CX) include:

Account Territory Growth Plan: Models and compares scenarios across different territory configurations, evaluates tradeoffs, and optimizes coverage and opportunity allocation within capacity and business constraints before taking authorized action.Service Health Check: Identifies emerging service-performance issues, determines likely root causes, and prepares high-impact actions across knowledge, automation, routing, policy, and process for review and then executes approved actions before these issues become sustained customer or operational problems.Strategic Field Demand Planning: Aligns field capacity with customer demand while managing overtime costs by predicting resource needs, identifying coverage gaps, and preparing resource actions for review before executing approved changes.CPQ Test-to-Production Setup & Configuration Migration: Prepares and migrates configuration changes to production by assembling a migration package’s declared changes and dependencies in a reviewable report, identifying potential issues before deployment, and executing approved migration steps within provided authority.Executive Briefing Document: Facilitates more effective executive meetings by researching account engagement, company news, product footprint, revenue potential, and organizational hierarchy, then assembling an editable, meeting-ready briefing that it can update as account data changes.

The new Claw-powered Fusion Agentic Applications are part of a broader Fusion AI ecosystem anchored by Oracle AI Agent Studio for Fusion Applications. With the Fusion Agentic Applications Builder and AI Studio Skill no-code and pro-code capabilities in Oracle AI Agent Studio, organizations can create and manage agentic applications using reusable Oracle, partner, and external agents. In addition, built-in observability, ROI measurement, and safety controls enable agents to deliver measurable value and operate at scale within approved authority.

To learn more about Oracle Fusion Applications, visit www.oracle.com/applications

About Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications
Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications are a complete suite of cloud applications that form the enterprise system of record, spanning finance, HR, supply chain, manufacturing, sales, service, and marketing. The suite includes Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Oracle Fusion Cloud Human Capital Management (HCM), Oracle Fusion Cloud Supply Chain & Manufacturing (SCM), and Oracle Fusion Cloud Customer Experience (CX).

Fusion Agentic Applications extend that foundation into a system of outcomes. They can coordinate and execute end-to-end work toward business objectives, and are designed to operate within the policies, controls, and authority each organization defines. With Oracle AI Agent Studio for Fusion Applications, customers and partners can create, extend, and manage these agents and agentic applications combining trusted enterprise data with the security, data governance, and performance needed to operate at scale.

About Oracle
Oracle offers integrated suites of applications plus secure, autonomous infrastructure in the Oracle Cloud. For more information about Oracle (NYSE: ORCL), please visit us at www.oracle.com.

Trademarks
Oracle, Java, MySQL, and NetSuite are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation. NetSuite was the first cloud company—ushering in the new era of cloud computing.

 

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/oracle-introduces-claw-powered-fusion-agentic-applications-for-customer-experience-302919007.html

SOURCE Oracle

Continue Reading

Technology

Oracle Introduces Claw-Powered Fusion Agentic Applications for Supply Chain

Published

18 minutes ago

on

October 26, 2026

By

New Fusion Claw applications help supply chain teams achieve critical business outcomes with greater speed and confidence by continuously adapting and executing complex work

LAS VEGAS, Oct. 26, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Oracle AI World — Oracle today announced new Fusion Claw-powered agentic applications for supply chain operations. Oracle Fusion Claw is a governed agentic execution runtime that enables Fusion Agentic Applications to reason, compute, adapt, and execute specialist-grade work including deep research, computation, simulation, modeling, and continuous replanning. Built into Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications, the new Claw-powered agentic applications help organizations take on complex, high-value work more autonomously at scale, within established permissions, from optimizing supply and transportation plans to analyzing procurement spend.

“As supply chain conditions shift, leaders need a connected view across product, planning, procurement, logistics, and cost to make faster, better-informed decisions,” said S.Y. Shenoy, senior vice president, Applications Development, Oracle. “With Claw-powered Fusion Agentic Applications for supply chain operations, supply chain teams can reimagine the way they work by moving to governed action across critical supply chain processes. The applications reason across Oracle Fusion Applications data, evaluate options and trade-offs, coordinate the work required to meet business objectives, and carry approved actions into execution. This will help supply chain leaders drive stronger business outcomes with greater speed, consistency, and confidence.”

Agentic Applications represent a new class of outcome-based applications that provide Fusion Applications customers with a system of outcomes, where people define the objectives, authority, and accountability and the Agentic Applications coordinate the process to get to an outcome within those parameters. Fusion Claw enables Agentic Applications to take on more complex, specialist-grade work by providing a new execution runtime that supports larger scale and longer-running work, continuous replanning, deterministic execution, and governed automation within organizational policies and controls.

Running on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, powered by industry-leading LLMs, and extending the world’s most complete suite of cloud applications, the new Fusion Agentic Applications move beyond assistance to governed execution, helping supply chain teams and planners to improve business outcomes. New Fusion Agentic Applications available within Oracle Fusion Cloud Supply Chain & Manufacturing (SCM) include:

Supply Planning Allocation: Determines how to allocate scarce materials and capacity across competing demand by evaluating production lines, work centers, finished goods, components, and business trade-offs; comparing allocation scenarios; and preparing high-value allocation plans for teams to review, refine, and approve.Shipment Load Planning: Works to reduce transportation costs and meet service level requirements by evaluating consolidation opportunities across timing, capacity, service commitments, cost, and other constraints; comparing alternatives; and taking approved action towards execution plans that have been authorized.Procurement Spend: Works to improve spend control by analyzing spend, supplier agreement, and purchasing data; detecting maverick spend and contract leakage; explaining root causes; quantifying savings opportunities; and recommending corrective actions for team review and approval.

The new Claw-powered Fusion Agentic Applications are part of a broader Fusion AI ecosystem anchored by Oracle AI Agent Studio for Fusion Applications. With the Fusion Agentic Applications Builder and AI Studio Skill no-code and pro-code capabilities in Oracle AI Agent Studio, organizations can create and manage agentic applications using reusable Oracle, partner, and external agents. In addition, built-in observability, ROI measurement, and safety controls are designed to help organizations monitor agent activity, apply appropriate safeguards, and enable agents to deliver measurable value and operate responsibly at scale.

To learn more about Oracle Fusion Applications, visit www.oracle.com/applications

About Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications
Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications are a complete suite of cloud applications that form the enterprise system of record, spanning finance, HR, supply chain, manufacturing, sales, service, and marketing. The suite includes Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Oracle Fusion Cloud Human Capital Management (HCM), Oracle Fusion Cloud Supply Chain & Manufacturing (SCM), and Oracle Fusion Cloud Customer Experience (CX).

Fusion Agentic Applications extend that foundation into a system of outcomes. They can coordinate and execute end-to-end work toward business objectives, and are designed to operate within the policies, controls, and authority each organization defines. With Oracle AI Agent Studio for Fusion Applications, customers and partners can create, extend, and manage these agents and agentic applications combining trusted enterprise data with the security, data governance, and performance needed to operate at scale.

About Oracle
Oracle offers integrated suites of applications plus secure, autonomous infrastructure in the Oracle Cloud. For more information about Oracle (NYSE: ORCL), please visit us at www.oracle.com.

About Oracle AI World
Oracle AI World is where customers and partners discover the latest product and technology innovations, see how AI is being applied across industries, and connect with experts and peers. Attendees will gain practical tips and insights to drive immediate impact within their organizations and explore how Oracle is helping unlock the full potential of AI. Join the event to see new capabilities in action and hear from thought leaders and industry movers. Register now at oracle.com/ai-world or follow the news and conversation at oracle.com/news and linkedin.com/company/oracle. 

Trademarks
Oracle, Java, MySQL, and NetSuite are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation. NetSuite was the first cloud company—ushering in the new era of cloud computing.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/oracle-introduces-claw-powered-fusion-agentic-applications-for-supply-chain-302919020.html

SOURCE Oracle

Continue Reading

Trending