AcademicWorks has been sold to Blackbaud

Lincoln International (“Lincoln”), a leading global mid-market investment bank, is pleased to announce that AcademicWorks, Inc. (“AcademicWorks” or the “Company”), a provider of comprehensive scholarship management solutions, has been sold to Blackbaud, Inc. (NASDAQ: BLKB; “Blackbaud”), the world’s leading cloud software company powering social good.

AcademicWorks is the market-leading provider of SaaS scholarship management solutions to higher education and K-12 institutions and foundations. The Company’s cloud-based solutions simplify the scholarship application process for students and eliminate inefficiencies for all stakeholders, including universities, students and donors. AcademicWorks’ customers benefit from significant increases in the number of scholarship applicants and fund utilization, while enhancing donor engagement. The Company was founded in late 2010 and is based in Austin, Texas.

Blackbaud, known for its best-of-breed products for the philanthropic space, already has a strong presence in the higher education, K-12 and grant-making space, where it offers solutions for fundraising and advancement programs, donor and alumni relationship management, digital marketing, advocacy, accounting, payments, analytics and grant management. Bringing AcademicWorks’ capabilities to its solution portfolio will allow it to extend its offerings and drive connection between the advancement and scholarship offices.

Joe Price, Co-Founder and President of AcademicWorks, said, “We were extremely impressed with Lincoln’s execution of this process. The entire team supported us every step of the way, allowing us to focus on running our company.”

Brandon Phipps, Co-Founder and CEO of AcademicWorks, added, “We could not be more thrilled to join the Blackbaud team as we pursue a number of interesting growth opportunities for the business. Blackbaud’s platform and culture perfectly align with our goals of making education more accessible and affordable.”

Jeff Carpenter, Co-Founder and Chairman of AcademicWorks, commented, “Lincoln’s in-depth knowledge of the education technology and services industry, combined with a highly dedicated team of senior bankers, proved instrumental in creating the ideal outcome for AcademicWorks.”

Lincoln acted as the exclusive financial advisor to AcademicWorks, working closely with the management team and shareholders throughout the sale process. This included providing M&A and industry expertise, as well as managing the preparatory, marketing, negotiation and due diligence phases of the transaction.

About AcademicWorks

AcademicWorks provides the only comprehensive scholarship management solution focused on improving access to education through innovative technology. AcademicWorks combines a unique blend of market experience, product innovation, outstanding customer service and cloud-based software delivery to offer its customers benefits that are unmatched in the industry. As a result, more than 500 institutions and foundations have revolutionized their scholarship management process with AcademicWorks. For more information, visit www.academicworks.com.

About Blackbaud

Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB) is the world’s leading cloud software company powering social good. Serving the entire social good community—nonprofits, foundations, corporations, education institutions and individual change agents—Blackbaud connects and empowers organizations to increase their impact through software, services, expertise and data intelligence. The Blackbaud portfolio is tailored to the unique needs of vertical markets, with solutions for fundraising and relationship management, digital marketing, advocacy, accounting, payments, analytics, school management, grant management, corporate social responsibility, and volunteerism. Serving the industry for more than three decades, Blackbaud is headquartered in Charleston, South Carolina, and has operations in the United States, Australia, Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit www.blackbaud.com.

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