HOUSTON, Sept. 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Craig Group today announced the addition of Ryan Williams as Director, Business Development, expanding the firm’s relationships across the private equity and venture capital ecosystem. In his role, Williams will partner with PE/VC firms and their portfolio companies to identify growth opportunities, make strategic connections, and bring Craig Group’s operator-led go-to-market (GTM) programs to middle-market, PE-backed companies.

Williams has spent his career in sales and business development leadership across private equity, venture capital, institutional investing, enterprise software, and technology. His network spans investment professionals, operating partners, portfolio-company executives, and C-suite decision-makers, and his relationship-first approach has consistently turned those connections into measurable business outcomes.

“Ryan understands that in private equity, growth starts with trust,” said Summer Craig, CEO of Craig Group. “He has spent his career building lasting relationships with sponsors and portfolio leadership, and he knows how to connect the right partners at the right time. That approach aligns with how we support our clients, and helps more sponsors put our operator-led GTM programs to work across their portfolios.”

Most recently, Williams served as Director of Private Equity/Venture Capital at Consero Global, where he worked closely with PE/VC firms and their portfolio companies on relationship development, deal sourcing, and strategic introductions. He previously led a Private Markets practice and managed a team of nine Account Executives, driving the team to exceed its annual target by 160% while increasing average deal size by 22%. Under his leadership, the team generated more than $6 million in net-new ARR and achieved 132% of quota, with his personal attainment reaching 121%.

Williams’ career highlights include securing Cascade Investments, the largest single-family office in the United States, and developing a partnership with a Managing Partner at Madison Dearborn Partners that resulted in a solution implemented across the firm’s portfolio of over 40 companies. Earlier, he was a seven-time consecutive President’s Club recipient, managed a $4 million book of business, and relocated from Chicago to Mexico City to launch his company’s Latin American division.

“Lasting growth comes from relationships built on trust, not transactions,” said Williams. “Craig Group’s operators run the work they scope, and that’s a promise I’m proud to bring to the sponsors and executives I’ve worked alongside for years. I’m excited to help create new opportunities for the firm and connect our clients with the growth partner they need.”

Williams holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from Jackson State University.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Tricia Eaton – tricia@craigmarketinggroup.com

About Craig Group

Craig Group is an operator-led growth partner that embeds with management teams to diagnose, design, and execute end-to-end GTM programs, accelerating revenue and EBITDA growth for lower-middle-market, PE-backed companies. The firm delivers full-spectrum strategy and execution (audits, positioning, infrastructure, and day-to-day campaign management) with no handoffs between consultants and agencies. Craig Group’s teams, former CROs, RevOps leaders, and subject-matter experts run the work they scope, and its Conduit Revenue Platform gives sponsors real-time visibility into pipeline health and marketing ROI. Sectors include industrials, manufacturing, SaaS, healthcare, and B2B services.

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SOURCE Craig Group

New web-based experience delivers personalized installation guidance in seconds

HOUSTON, Sept. 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Replacing a wiper blade should be simple. For many drivers, it is anything but. Today, Rain-X®, America’s #1 wiper blade brand, introduced the industry’s first AI-powered wiper blade web app installation experience, designed to make replacing wiper blades faster, easier and more intuitive through personalized, step-by-step guidance.

As vehicles have evolved and wiper arm designs have become more varied, what should take a few minutes can turn into sorting through adapters, unfolding hard-to-read instructions, or searching for the correct installation video. In fact, installation complexity has become one of the industry’s biggest challenges, with 56% of U.S. wiper blade consumers citing installation and instructions as their top pain point. Rain-X has spent years listening to consumers, giving the brand firsthand insight into one of the most common frustrations in routine vehicle maintenance and inspiring a new approach focused on making installation simple.

Drivers simply scan the QR code on Rain-X wiper blade packaging and point their smartphone camera at the wiper arm. Powered by AI and computer vision, the web app recognizes the wiper arm and delivers personalized, step-by-step installation guidance tailored to the driver’s specific vehicle. Instead of searching for the right video, sorting through instructions or guessing which adapter to use, drivers receive clear guidance in seconds, helping them complete the installation with confidence and get back on the road.

The new experience makes Rain-X the first brand in the category to offer an AI-powered web app for wiper blade installation, bringing a more intuitive approach to a routine vehicle-maintenance task.

“Installing wiper blades shouldn’t require a mechanic’s knowledge or a frustrating trial-and-error process,” said Soroor Rahnama, Head of Marketing at Rain-X. “We built this tool because every driver deserves a clear, confidence-building path to a simple task. That’s the whole idea – take something that’s always felt more complicated than it should be and make it easy and intuitive for everyone.”

Developed in partnership with Saritasa, the tool combines Rain-X’s deep understanding of consumer needs with advanced digital technology to create a more intuitive installation experience.

At launch, the web app supports installation guidance for 220 million vehicle applications, representing 93% of vehicles on the road, with coverage continuing to expand as additional applications are added.

The AI-powered installation experience began rolling out on select Rain-X wiper blade programs in late August, with availability expanding across all Rain-X wiper blade programs in the fall of 2026. By the end of the year, the guided experience will also expand to include uninstallation, giving drivers a complete, start-to-finish walkthrough for the wiper blade replacement process.

The launch marks another step in Rain-X’s ongoing commitment to making everyday vehicle maintenance easier, more intuitive and more accessible.

About Rain-X
Rain-X is America’s #1 Wiper Blade brand. For over 50 years, Rain-X® has provided drivers with products to help them Outsmart the Elements ™. With our Original Glass Treatment™ water-beading technology, Wiper Blades and Glass Cleaners; Rain-X® leads the automotive aftermarket in glass care. In recent years, the Rain-X® portfolio has expanded to include other types of car care products such as our Car Washes, Windshield Repair Kits, Bug & Tar Removers, and Headlight Restoration Kits. All Rain-X® products are designed for effortless car care and deliver visible performance; the Magic You Can See.

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SOURCE Rain-X

The new connected foundation for all Blackbaud products will help organizations identify growth opportunities, expand capacity and move from information to action with greater confidence than ever before

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Sept. 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB), the world’s leading provider of AI-powered solutions for social impact, today unveiled Platform for Good™, Blackbaud’s unified operating system that brings social impact workflows together into a single connected pipeline, all working from the same intelligence.

“Last year, we demonstrated what’s possible when we move our products from systems of record to systems of intelligent action,” said Mike Gianoni, president, CEO and vice chairman of the board of directors, Blackbaud. “This year, we’re showing the transformative possibilities when all our products, data, AI and expertise work as one powerful operating system that learns from every interaction and gets smarter with every product run on it.”

The Platform for Good evolution—which was announced on stage at bbcon, Blackbaud’s annual customer conference—does not require any action from existing customers; it seamlessly unites Blackbaud’s entire ecosystem of products under the surface, powered by a shared architecture:

The Data Core: This layer brings together differentiated data assets including the Blackbaud Philanthropic Dataset, research and industry datasets from the Blackbaud Institute, and Blackbaud Giving Search, creating a uniquely sector-specific foundation for intelligence.The Intelligence Layer: This layer is powered by Blackbaud’s proprietary Social Impact Signal Graph, which connects signals across the social impact ecosystem to surface patterns, relationships, and context, transforming data into intelligence grounded in how the sector works.The Action Layer: This is where Blackbaud’s AI moves from intelligence to execution through AI-powered assistants, agents, and workflows that help organizations take action, with appropriate human oversight and control.

The result is not a single-point solution but a connected operating system for social impact, underpinned by embedded risk management and responsible AI practices and extensible through a connected network of partners, donors and developers.

Blackbaud today also announced a broad portfolio of innovations that will continue to strengthen the compounding value of its Platform for Good, including:

The debut of Lantern™, the first domain-specific language model purpose-built to optimize fundraising intelligence. Developed through a strategic collaboration with Databricks, Lantern is built on more than four decades of experience in fundraising workflows, decisions and results, so that it understands giving behavior rather than buying behavior. Embedded in The Intelligence Layer, Lantern will power tailored intelligence directly where customers already work.An expanding family of Agents for Good™. Blackbaud announced advancements to the Development Agent, which expands fundraising teams’ capacity by identifying and engaging unassigned donors, and introduced the Data Health Agent, a continuous data steward designed to detect and address data issues making high-volume cleanup easier through review-and-approve workflows. Blackbaud also previewed agentic experiences for finance and education.The next chapter of Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT®. Blackbaud unveiled the next chapter of its industry-leading fundraising CRM, rebuilt from the ground up as a native cloud, AI-powered platform with embedded intelligence, automation, and connected data. The platform now includes purpose-built AI that surfaces high-potential prospects and giving signals, plus Strategy Assistant, which delivers benchmarks and AI-powered recommendations directly in the flow of work — drawing on more than $1 trillion in giving history tracked through Raiser’s Edge NXT.The introduction of Blackbaud Marketing™. Built for nonprofit marketers and fundraisers and embedded within Raiser’s Edge NXT, Blackbaud Marketing is designed to help teams plan campaigns, identify audiences, coordinate engagement across channels and optimize performance using connected constituent and fundraising intelligence.More connected, intelligent financial workflows. Blackbaud introduced its vision for an Accounts Payable Agent in Financial Edge NXT®, designed to review invoice details, prepare cash-aware payment runs and stage recommendations for human approval. Blackbaud also announced its next-generation Payment Assistant™ through a strategic partnership with BILL, as well as Deposit Connect™, which automatically brings gift, fee, and disbursement data together across Raiser’s Edge NXT, Blackbaud Integrated Payments, and Financial Edge NXT.A new way to support student outcomes in higher education. Blackbaud unveiled the Higher Education Connected Campus solution, which brings the student lifecycle together with advancement, finance, awarding and payments. A new model made possible through Blackbaud’s partnership with Student First, this solution gives institutions a powerful new way to see the whole institution, act sooner, and connect every dollar to the student outcomes it makes possible.

Together, these announcements demonstrate how Platform for Good connects data, purpose-built intelligence and action across the solutions social impact organizations rely on. Customers can adopt capabilities as they become available while continuing to work within the Blackbaud products and workflows they use today.

About Blackbaud

Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB) is the world’s leading provider of AI-powered solutions for social impact. Serving nonprofits, educational institutions, companies committed to corporate social responsibility, and individual change makers, Blackbaud propels impact at scale with the sector’s most intelligent solutions for fundraising and engagement, education solutions, financial management and CSR and grantmaking. With the deepest expertise powered by the world’s largest philanthropic data set, the most connected workflows, and the most powerful impact network, Blackbaud’s solutions are building a future where resources are unleashed at the speed of need. Blackbaud has been recognized by Fast Company, Newsweek, Quartz, Forbes and more for AI innovation, responsible leadership and workplace excellence. Blackbaud has operations in the United States, Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, India and the United Kingdom, supporting users in 100+ countries. Learn more at www.blackbaud.com 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.

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SOURCE Blackbaud