Blackbaud launches in Spain:
eTapestry, a division of Blackbaud Inc. (Nasdaq: BLKB), announced the launch of a partnership with Daryl Upsall Consulting International to offer eTapestry’s Spanish-language version of its on demand fundraising software in Spain. Kicking off this partnership, eTapestry and Daryl Upsall Consulting International (DUCI) will be hosting a free seminar on Nov. 11, demonstrating how nonprofits can use technology to meet their fundraising needs. This half-day event will take place at DUCI, c/ Caleruega 67 in Madrid 28033, Spain. The seminar will be held from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Ok, it’s not really Raiser’s Edge, it’s eTapestry en Español. I wish I knew more about how Spanish nonprofits could use eTapestry but I don’t. I also don’t know much about Daryl Upsall Consulting International except that they seemed to be hiring for positions related to an eTapestry rollout at Idealist in October. What is interesting is that Blackbaud seems willing to have someone other than themselves be responsible for the rollout. Any readers care to fill in here?
UPDATE (11/10/2008): Andrew Mosawi from Blackbaud just sent me an e-mail and filled me in. Thanks, Andrew! :
Spain is a really exciting market for fundraising as it is growing so quickly, with many of the large international NGO’s having a presence here.
We chose to partner with Daryl Upsall Consulting International, DUCI, (www.darylupsall.com) as they are an extremely well respected firm in Spain providing a range of services from Telephone and Face to Face donor acquisition to recruitment services (hence the jobs listed in Idealist). They have a great presence in the market and understand the specific needs of Spanish nonprofits which is why the partnership made so much sense.
Using eTapestry in Spain also made perfect sense as its SaaS nature made it more appealing to Spanish clients as well as being a much simpler way for us to deploy internationally. We have spent a significant amount of time working with DUCI to localize eTapestry for the Spanish market and we continue to work closely with them (we have a team here in Madrid at the moment) as we rollout the solution.
Andrew also gave me a screenshot! eTapestry en Espanol, here it is:
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I know nothing of DUCI but it would seem sensible if Blackbaud are not very big in a country to rely on another organisation that has experience of that country. Isn’t this standard practise throughout where companies rely on affiliates who have more experience than themselves?
I am sure that Blackbaud are not launching The Raiser’s Edge in Spain on the same scale because there is no Spanish language version of RE7. However I imagine that at some point products on the Infinity platform (Blackbaud Enterprise CRM and eventually RE8) will be released in non-English speaking countries as that line of products can be deployed with different languages.
David