Blackbaud is one of the largest software companies serving the nonprofit and philanthropic sector, with products spanning fundraising, financial management, donor management, and education administration. In the grantmaking space, Blackbaud offers Grantmaking (formerly known as GIFTS and prior to that, GrantedGE) as part of its nonprofit software suite.
For foundations that are evaluating Blackbaud's grants management capability — or that are already using Blackbaud for fundraising and considering extending to grants — this guide covers the relevant capabilities, limitations, and alternatives.
Blackbaud's primary strength is in the large nonprofit market: major national charities, large foundations, universities, and educational institutions. Its grants management product has historically been used by corporate foundations, operating foundations, and larger grantmaking organisations that are already in the Blackbaud ecosystem for fundraising or financial management.
The Blackbaud value proposition for grantmaking is primarily integration: if a foundation is already using Raiser's Edge NXT for donor management and Financial Edge NXT for accounting, adding Blackbaud Grantmaking creates a single-vendor suite with data connections between systems.
Organisations already using Blackbaud for other functions. The integration argument is strongest for foundations where grants management is one component of a broader Blackbaud implementation. Adding Grantmaking to an existing Raiser's Edge + Financial Edge environment avoids additional vendor complexity and provides native data sharing.
Large corporate and operating foundations. Blackbaud's enterprise customer base means its product assumptions tend to match large-scale, professionally staffed organisations rather than community foundations or small charitable trusts.
US-centric programmes. Blackbaud's compliance and support infrastructure is US-focused. For foundations operating primarily in the US, this is not a limitation. For funders outside the US or with significant international programmes, the fit weakens.
Cost and complexity. Blackbaud's products are enterprise-priced and often require significant implementation investment. For organisations that are not already in the Blackbaud ecosystem, the total cost of ownership — including implementation, configuration, and training — can be high relative to purpose-built alternatives.
Suite lock-in. The integration benefit of Blackbaud is also a strategic dependency: organisations deeply integrated into the Blackbaud suite face high switching costs that limit their ability to evaluate newer or more specialised tools.
Product evolution. Blackbaud has gone through significant product transitions — from GIFTS to GrantedGE to the current Blackbaud Grantmaking cloud product — that have created migration overhead for existing customers. Understanding the current product's maturity and roadmap is important for new evaluations.
Assessment and panel management depth. Blackbaud's grants product has historically been stronger on grant tracking and financial management than on the pre-award assessment side — structured multi-criteria panel scoring, COI management, and probity documentation. For funders where assessment infrastructure is the primary requirement, purpose-built assessment-focused platforms may provide better fit.
Post-award monitoring. For funders with active milestone-based post-award management requirements, checking whether the current product's post-award capabilities meet the need is important. This is an area where product depth varies significantly across the Blackbaud grants product history.
For organisations not in the Blackbaud ecosystem:
Purpose-built grants management platforms that cover the full grant lifecycle — application, assessment, award, post-award — without requiring an existing software suite relationship are generally more cost-effective for organisations that don't have a pre-existing reason to be in the Blackbaud environment.
For community foundations:
Platforms built specifically for community foundation requirements — multi-fund management, donor-advised fund administration, community grantmaking — will typically provide better functional fit than a general-purpose foundation management product.
For government programmes:
Government grant programmes with specific probity, audit trail, and freedom of information requirements may need more accountability-specific infrastructure than general foundation management products provide.
For international funders:
Platforms purpose-built for non-US markets (Australia, NZ, UK, Canada, South Africa) will have better local regulatory fit, support time zone alignment, and reference customer networks relevant to the programme context.
"What is the implementation timeline and cost, and what is required from our staff?" Understanding the total cost of ownership including implementation is important for cost comparison.
"Show me the COI declaration and management workflow for an assessor." This tests the assessment governance infrastructure specifically.
"What does the post-award dashboard look like for 40 active grants?" This tests post-award management depth.
"What reference customers do you have in our specific programme type — community foundation, corporate foundation, government grants — and in our geography?" Genuine market presence in your context is more informative than a generic reference list.
"What is the product roadmap for Grantmaking over the next 18 months?" Understanding Blackbaud's investment priorities for the grants product helps assess long-term fit.
Tahua provides purpose-built grants management for government agencies, community foundations, and charitable trusts in New Zealand, Australia, and internationally.