It’s been awhile since our last posted. Since that time, I’ve been very busy starting my work for Blackbaud. It is exciting just knowing that I’m working for the nonprofit sector again. This time, as a consultant for a publicly traded company (BLKB on the NASDAQ). Since starting, I have been in Charleston, South Carolina for two weeks and San Diego, California for another week for training. I spent last week at home “shadowing” on-going calls by other consultants. I will be working with a product called Sphere.

Sphere is a SaaS (Software as a Service) product based in the cloud. It has everything from online fundraising through events, auctions, and eCommerce, to e-mail marketing, donor prospecting, an online advocacy action center, a fully integrated content management system (CMS), and just about everything you’ll need to engage a supporter of a nonprofit organization.

My job is to help nonprofit clients implement Sphere in their everyday operations. I sit on phone calls and interact with the nonprofit client to gather assets and train them on the Sphere product every day. I feel like my impact is exponentially greater than focusing on one nonprofit mission alone; just knowing that I am helping nonprofits achieve their own respective missions gives me a personal sense of fulfillment that a profit-driven bottom line never will.

Blackbaud is really like a family. Everyone looks out for each other and strives to help each other out. My team has really gone out of their way to help me get up to speed on the product and my job responsibilities. I am truly grateful for their assistance.

My next step is actually performing consulting activities for the Sphere platform. These activities start this week. Wish me luck.

Let the adventure begin…