Thread regarding Blackbaud Inc. layoffs

I think your CEO whose net worth 97 m is falling apart. DUI all over news. Claims out celebrating with family yet only he was in car at am after bar closes. He gets millions but cuts everyone else. Board needs to bounce him. He and his buddies destroyed this company. Stock needs to tumble to drive him out. Take your millions and retire in fl

Doxxing is not ok, no matter how pi---d off you are.

"As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I'd still be in prison."
Nelson Mandela

I you're hurting and angry. I am too. We lost a lot of good friends.
But doxxing isn't the right answer.

Hey folks

The Fiserv group strikes Blackbaud again. How many more Fiserv executives can we hire at Blackbaud? Is there anyone left over there that hasn't latched onto the Blackbaud gravy train yet? Bet they come now that we are lean and mean and on the way to rule of 40 stardom.

Did you effing model 2023 also with another 20% attrition...how about we start at the top if you did. Way easier to make numbers if we start cutting back on the fat executive leadership pay. There is no reason not to cut back in the C suite now. I mean how many C suite members will we actually need when all the layoffs are done in 2023? I would think we don't need quite as much executive leadership if we are now down 14% headcount today. You know they will knock another 5-10% later this year because you know the 14% chop doesn't make up for the attrition numbers.
I mean really, that many less folks to manage and all because we are so lean and well positioned now. So why do we need as much executive leadership.

1 C suite member. What are they $700+k actual salary and 10-15 million in grants. He-l didn't one or more members just get 2.59 million in a grant on Monday?

Lets claw some of that fat pay back and then maybe we don't have do ditch folks every effing quarter.

You cause so much brain drain you will never rebuild it. You cant buy industry knowledge and leadership. You cant chop folks with 20+ years and hope to replace with someone in 6 months with 2 years experience because they are cheap. It just doesn't work. Oh and don't think folks wont be watching to make sure you don't rehire same positions at lower salaries because you know that's not allowed right but I am sure you'll try.

I hope the ELT is really happy. Did you see you all hands call today. Did you see how pi---d your workforce is. We are not just a little unhappy we are seething. Many of us have started to look for new jobs now. So maybe you might get your attrition rate because you pi---d us off so fu----g much.

Go pound sand ELT. You have successfully finally motivated your workforce but not in the way you expected. We are motivated to work less for you, we are motivated to find new jobs we are motivated to make sure you go down in flames at the end.

You will be the first people out when private equity makes their move, they know you suck that's why private equity is hanging around. They don't buy or try to takeover strong performing companies. They smell the blood in the water and pounce. They see the weak a-s leadership team and they lick their chops and drool, because you executive leadership have sunk this ship and they are circling. Waiting for the right moment.

Anyone still at Blackbaud go find your all hands call from today and watch it if you were not on it. Whoops wait can you even find it?!?!? If you can see just how pi---d your colleagues are. Talk about it tell everyone about it, let clients know. Make sure everyone knows just how much top flight talent just got axed by an AI algorithm.

The word is already spreading in the non profit world ELT. You can't hide what you just did. You axed so many people who are so entrenched in the industry you wont be able to hide and you wont be able to rebuild what little good will you had. You will have to answer ultimately. You wont answer with your jobs yet. We know you wont answer your employees. Bet for sure you will have to start answering clients when they come knocking. Just watch as the business Blackbaud built slowly crumbles as more competitors take your clients because other software is just as good and oh now they hired your former top flight talent that they want to work with.

I for one have submitted my resume to 2 competitors and I can't wait for those competitors to start hiring more of the excellent talent you trashed. Then wait for it ELT more business will vanish along the way. This move is going to cause Blackbaud a great deal of pain. Especially as you raise prices and clients say nope.

The lay offs this week and in Q4 were, at least in significant part, due to bad financial modeling and this is being obfuscated by the executive leadership team.

Our financial modeling of 2022 was so off we had to lay people off at the beginning of Q4.... But don't worry, we updated our modeling so we don't have to do this again in the near future.... Except we fu---d up and included 20%+ attrition in our new model so just kidding we have to lay off even more people than we did 3 and a half months ago.... But don't worry, we updated our modeling so we don't have to do this again in the near future....

How is Tony Boor, our CFO, being held accountable? Seemingly by getting a new 1.5 million restricted stock award the same day leaders across the company were being laid off

Do you think that age claim is legit? I wondered that myself as I am 65 and worked 20 hours a week. How did laying me off this past Valentines Day help the company's bottom line? I made $27.00 an hour for 20 hours a week. Keeping me on was going to sink the company?

I got a response from this when I emailed - might be worth checking out

"We are pleased to inform you that we are putting together an exploratory
commission to ensure that all former employees are treated fairly and
equitably at all times. As part of this commission, we are examining the
possibility of age discrimination or other protected characteristics
for potential lawuits for those who were laid off over the last 24
months. We understand that being laid off can be a difficult and
stressful experience, particularly when it is due to factors beyond your
control. That's why we are committed to investigating any potential
instances of discrimination and taking appropriate action to ensure that
former Blackbaud employees are treated with the respect and dignity
they deserve. If you or someone you know was laid off by Blackbaud in
the last 24 months and had a disability or other special work
consideration based on a disability, or was over the age of 35, we
encourage you to get in touch with us. Please send an email to 'num1randomoddthing@gmail.com' with your age or other relevant information, and we will be in touch with you once we have gathered enough trend data."

Just gotta say it, don't want to but just gotta. Too fed up to not get this out. And this may be long.

Fu-k the Blackbaud leadership

You have just turned countless families lives upside down, again! Great job leadership, buy and sell in the recent filings ahead of the earnings call that you essentially laid 200+ off at.

Fu-k you leadership team who don't seem to care about their employees. If they do it doesn't show. Fu-k your guaranteed millions in compensation while families rush to fill wage gaps, pay for college and groceries. Fu-k you for making so many families scramble to figure out how to pay mortgage and health costs. Fu-k your holier than thou our company works for the good. Work for the good, that's a great marketing bit. You are no different than any other corporation masking as one doing good for the world of non profits. You are not a non profit doing actual real good, you just like to make pretend you are like a TV doctor. You are a for profit company where executives hide from their decisions behind an HR wall. Not taking or answering questions. Emailing layoff notices like a bunch of jack offs during an earnings call for wall street. Not even decent enough to have managers tell each and every person affected in personal calls. A company working for good would have more decency but again it's clear, your not working for good your working for shareholders, and fat pockets. This shouldn't surprise anyone, after all a companies job is to make money right? If they don't make money their are no jobs right?

Sure

However, there is making money and balancing your bottom line with corporate responsibility to your employees and community. Then there is greedy hands lining pockets making money. How many more lives will get put in ruins to squeeze every last penny. How many more layoffs will be coming to meet stated goals. We all know revenue and profitability are not growing fast enough to reach stated rule of 40 goals by 2025, you can see it in the earnings it's not hard to follow. So how do you supercharge that, with layoffs. Coincidence the CEO contract comes due in 2025 and now someone wants to fast track rule of 40. We all now assume there will be cutting headcount again. Cutting headcount is easy when you have a contract and it's not your head.

It's far harder to innovate the next exciting product line to create actual growth than it is to layoff. Why bother innovating when you can make bottom lines look better for wall street just by cutting some heads. This company has innovation issues so much that they buy other companies that innovated to gobble up competition because they can't compete. Then they turn around and layoff under the guise of reorganization and removing duplicate roles. Again the easy way out.

One day it may be an executive leaderships turn but it won't matter. Executive leadership making boat loads of coin now. You won't feel the pain an average worker with 2 kids and a sick spouse feel because you are lining your pockets with millions. Ruining lives in your community and around the country for corporate greed. That's all it is, just greed plain and simple ole greed. And while I am not surprised I can for sure be pi---d.

Board of directors it's time to take notice of how the company has lost its way. It's time to take back the company and make it the beacon in Charleston and the non profit software world it should be and not the pariah it's becoming. It's time to do good by your employees the actual rock stars of the company. The ones who get up every day trying to better the company, their community and their family.

It should be clear your leadership team no longer serve your clients or your employees. They serve wall street earnings calls. Why else announce a reduction during an earnings call.

Then we have that not so small monkey hanging around. A private Firm with lots of deep pockets that started sniffing around. Buying millions of shares of ownership a percent at a time. And oh no we can't have that.

In comes the poison pill.

The poison pill language adopted is to protect those who own loads of shares not prevent an actual hostile takeover. A private firm with pockets that damn deep isn't gonna get sacred by a poison pill. They have seen it before. It's a blip to their plans. They have $70 billion in assets they could buy a company with a covid poison pill in force.

Is it possible folks didn't want a company buying too much ownership share because then they might lose a little. So now there is a poison pill to insulate valuable shareholder stakes.
Everyone can see where this is going. Someone got spooked a takeover was inbound and they would lose their cash cow. That takeover is coming, the poison pill language only slowed down the inevitable long enough for folks to protect their pockets while they drool at the idea of making millions is share payouts when the company gets taken private.

Stay salty folks get their feet to the fire.

https://twitter.com/TheLayoff/status/1626304919606276098

There is an exploratory commission being put together to see if there is any age discrimination or other protected potential lawsuit for those laid off over the last 24 months. If you or someone you know was laid off by Blackbaud in the last 24 months, had a disability or other special work consideration based on a disability, or was over the age of 35 please have them email 'num1randomoddthing@gmail.com' with your age or other relevant information and we will be in touch once we have trend data. Thank you to all that can participate and share this info across social media!

From a customer point of view this is extremely disturbing. I agree with a previous comment that the company was much better before the Whipple Hill "merger." FE NXT is a joke, not user friendly at all, but it sure has shiny bells and whistles. Try managing a check register in it. Same with K-12, a magnificent downgrade from EE. Using Billing Management has been difficult at best. We're an all-in customer, so I don't really know that we have any option.

Everfi definitely weren't worth 750 million dollars, especially with the revenue they've generated post acquisition. Maybe they propped up their financials prior to acquisition to make it look solid.

And definitely all of that falls to the CEO and ELT who thought it was a good idea to buy them and should have had the business acumen to know if they would be profitable especially at that cost, but Everfi certainly hasn't lived up to the price tag.

And I think the point was more that Blackbaud leadership has a history of buying companies for big bucks that don't pan out and end up costing people jobs...just not those people that made the stupid decisions. And not just jobs where there was always going to be some redundancy after an M&A, but layoffs like happened yesterday and Nov and many times before. Post Kintera, post Convio, etc.

For the timing/need of future layoffs, keep an eye on earnings to track this statement made to shareholders (We expect to add at least 5 points on the Rule of 40 this year). It’s safe to assume Blackbaud will meet it.

The Rule of 40 is growth + profitability, and the ‘5’ can come from any combination of the two, including expense reduction by layoffs.

EVERFI is not a dog sh-t company. Don’t blame the incompetence of the CEO on EVERFI. That’s not fair.

Employees be warned the hot seat is permanent. The leadership starting at the top down do not genuinely care about you as employees. The leadership will lay off to meet their own goals. They need to make up for poor decision making of the past with too many acquisitions too close together that did not need to happen. They have to pay for legal teams bills to defend against the data breach that they wish would just go away. There is no methodology to this layoff round. A lot of high end talent from a business unit GM to multiple other members of the GMT, marketing is a shell of itself, lots of departments took a good hit. Its all over the board not just 1 or 2 sectors. Just follow some linked feeds and you will see just how far reaching this was.

Taken from earnings transcript. talking about reductions

"Yeah, sure. So what you're seeing is we're getting a lot more scale and efficiency in the business. That 14% is from the last year. So it's Q3 of last year to now is the 14%. And those numbers that you mentioned are right on."

also at the end of the call discussing coming year and past previous year

"Thank you. Thanks, operator. I'll just close by reiterating that we had a strong execution in '22 and remain focused on improvements across the business in 2023 as we progress along our Rule of 40 journey. Our plan accelerates in the second half of '23 and carries into 2024. We expect to add at least 5 points on the Rule of 40 this year, demonstrating significant margin expansion. We're confident in our outlook with plans in place to achieve substantial performance acceleration with meaningful improvement starting in the second quarter continuing throughout the year. Thanks, everyone."

also overall business bookings discussion

"Yeah, sure. We saw good bookings year last year. VERFI again slower, but them aside, the rest of the Blackbaud business, we exceeded our original sales quota for the year, finishing up the year, really strong fourth quarter, so across the product portfolio, pretty strong. And we beat the original number we set in our budget in January of '22.

So we feel really good about how the year ended up. We consolidated global sales under Dave Benjamin, who reports to me and is driving our consolidated go-to-market. Pipeline looks good this year. So we feel really good about much lower attrition in sales, really solid leadership team, beating the full year number last year. We didn't see a slowdown in bookings, and we see a good pipeline starting off the year this year."

Its genuinely amazing that the leadership can talk about having a good year beating initial booking numbers and having a strong pipeline out one side of their mouth on earnings call. Then use the other side of same mouth to talk about a 14% reduction in overall workforce. If the company is doing so well beating Jan 2022 goals and is so solid on this coming year with anticipated growth and less attrition why the massive layoff on the same day?

Agreed, Mike should be held accountable. Not with words, but with compensation loss or removal. Something that actually hurts. But the board has proven they don't have the stones or the will. And even if they did, with his recent extension he'd likely have millions coming to him as severance versus the paltry three months pay many of us were given, so still a win for him.

Not sure what the right answer is. I'm sure the status quo will continue. BB execs will spout meaningless platitudes about how well they're doing, they'll keep buying dog sh-t companies like Everfi to make the company look good to the 'street' while their homegrown products grow less competitive, and real people like the 500+ between Nov and Feb rifs that don't make millions a year will be left to pay for their lack of leadership. Many who were the sole paycheck for their households.

So pop the champagne Mike and Tony. You really are the poster boys for clueless corporate executives.

This travesty is a clear indictment of the CEO. I hope the Board does something about it. It's a disgrace.

What would you like to know? It happened to me.

Sounds like they took a page from the other tech companies this go round. At least in Nov the first mention to me it was happening came via a Teams call rather than reading an email...not by my manager though. They didn't bother to reach out for several days afterwards, so based on previous comments there is some parity on that front.

I feel sorry for those affected. I can personally say I have been there (only a few short months ago) in a round that was meant to "set them up for the future". I guess the almighty shareholder didn't see it that way. And it sucks, especially with all the recent talent dumped on the market by other tech layoffs. It's a very tricky market to navigate, but keep your head up.

Blackbaud used to be (talking 8-10+ years ago) a good place to work, but since Mike G came on board it has slowly gone down hill. It's unfathomable that his contract was renewed until 2025. Does the board just not see his inability to lead or not care? But then again it's always the workers that pay for the executive's ineptitude and poor decisions. They are well protected by contracts and millions of dollars in severance if let go outside of that. While workers are left to complain anonymously because God forbid we disparage their sh---y leaders publicly or else we get no severance.

Wish all affected the best. Wish Mike G would go play on the Don Holt along with Tony.

Seems like Blackbaud is paying for their data breach by having near constant reductions in force. Maybe shave some compensation from the C suite for a change. They continue to get contract extensions, raises and fat share bonuses all the while they are ruining families through reduction in force. But the C suite doesn't know what that kind of pain actually is because they live in their own country club world of high guaranteed salary, loads of shares and iron clad contracts. Maybe it's time for the workforce to get term contracts with the perks that come with that.

If your affected my heart goes out to you and your family. If you are still at Blackbaud just look at how they are treating your colleagues. Then ask yourself if it's still worth it for you. Take the time now to find your next landing spot before Blackbaud forces it on you. Remember unlike the C Suite contracts you are at will and I bet they will cut more head count in 2023. It could come again sooner than you think. Did anyone think this would happen months after the last round. The only way they will reach their goals with slowing growth is reducing more salary. They can't get out of another building lease. They aren't going to sell the main HQ they just bought from lease. They aren't going to pull back bonuses to upper level c suite. They can't stop legal costs from data breach. They cant make folks want outdated products. They can't make customers come back that are leaving. They can only do 1 thing, cut you and your colleagues. Protect yourself and your livelihood. Plan 2 steps ahead of them.

Yes, I received the layoff email during yesterday’s earnings call. H.R. call happened at 2pm. It’s been more than 24 hours and my manager has not yet spoken to me. Don’t kid yourself that this company cares about you. Oh, and you have to love the HR document entitled “Frequently Asked Questions for BB Employees”, especially the caring response to ‘What should I do if an affected employee approaches me after being notified?’ Do they not realize that affected employees are also reading this document?

Who are the laying off? Tech? Managers? Salesmen?

Blackbaud is on a downward train. Worked there for 20 years - only above glowing reviews but held back and down by management both mentally and physically drained by the commitment they expected. I have a friend working there that has talked about su----e and he knows it's the job but feels like he owes it to the world to work there. They indoctrinated so many people into their "Making the world a better place" marketing schemes. I felt the same way until I left this sh-t hole. Good riddance. Mike and leadership can go play in traffic. Oh and RENXT is a waste of money and time, built like a 5th grader put it together, and, is as flexible as my grandma Sally 2 days after her hip replacement surgery. Crash and burn with your false advertising of what NXT is and does and hiding the truth behind the schema and architecture, the api limitations or straight up failures, and will die like your old gen products. Blackbaud will lose everything soon (FBI).

It’s not a new layoff, it’s the same layoff spread over two years. If you got laid off today, you were the walking dead in November even if you didnt know it. Feel bad for people who xferred to roles within the company and got laid off, could have been safe at the old job.

Jan 10, CEO Mike named as one of the 50 most influential hall of fame Charleston area companies executives.
Feb 14 CEO Mike reduces workforce (for the 2nd time in 2 quarters) to meet shareholder goals.

The executive leadership and CEO are far from Hall of Fame anything except for ruining company morale, and laying people off to line their own compensation rich packages. Another quarter another round of layoffs. When does this stop. When the board realizes that laying off talent after talent doesn't help the bottom line because you won't be able to rehire and rebuild the talent loss. Then CEO Mike won't be able to layoff enough people to make them happy.

Can't wait for the day a good SaaS company buys Blackbaud and shows the door to this leadership. A good merger and acquisition would do this company good. Let's hope someone buys Blackbaud.

This company is on a downward trend. They blame the single highest overhead expense of employee overhead for some of their problems. It's not the workforce or the overhead cost of the employees. It's the executive leadership. A company for good does not lay off people to make every extra cent. The executive leadership is stepping over $1 to find and rub 2 dimes together. Maybe they want ClearLake to buy and take the company private to line their pockets even more. That's why they put the poison pill in affect after all. To allow them to negotiate a better deal.

You are and will always only be as good as your workforce and at this point your workforce is fed up, tired and done with your leadership. You are losing your company, you have lost workforce morale, you aren't delivering on value to shareholders just look at the stock price. What exactly is this leadership good at.

Top 50 hall of fame lay off CEO that's what you are good at.

It's time for me to search for another job because I may be next.

I joined the company 6 months ago and I got the email this morning, despite getting a good performance review for my first quarter here(not like that sh-t even matters). Really upset that I left a good company to join this sh-t show in search for "thought provoking" work. My manager is on PTO and when I asked him if he knew what's going on he texted back "yes.". Fu-k this entire piece of sh-t company. Buying puts once I find a new role.

At this stage our CEO and leadership team cannot be taken at their word. We have heard from them time and time again after "reductions in force". They have said many times in the past we are now set to be lean and efficient going into the future. That this will set us up and there will be no layoffs in coming years. How many times have we heard this. Yet mere months after 200+ lost their jobs we are hearing another 250-350 are out to make 14% since Q3 2022. 14% is roughly 504 people with families now out of work since Q3 2022. Blackbaud before trying to monopolize the non profit software market through too big for their own good mergers and acquisitions use to be a great company to work for. That is just no longer the case. If you are a "rule of 40" specialist maybe you stand a chance at survival because that's all the C-suite cares about.

The CEO can sit back and push his rule of 40 attaining 33 in 2023 on earnings calls because he will continue to shrink the workforce to attain his own goals. He doesn't have to worry about losing his job after getting a 3 year contract extension in late 2022. I am sure if he was reduced by the board the golden parachute would open and he would have a huge severance and loads of options.

Blackbaud does not even see fit to pay out folks full long term investment plan stock fully and only what is vested by March 1. Even though they grant long term investment options for 3 years at a time.

Buckle up folks this will surely not be the last reduction for 2023. Do not take the executive leadership especially not the CEO at their word. Until the CEO and his team meet their own rule of 40 goals they will reduce workforce to make up for outdated products, lackluster results, acquisitions they could not afford and a a management style not fit for 2023.

If you are still employed look at the writing on the wall. They said in late 2022 they were done for the foreseeable future with reductions. Now in early 2023 here we are again. That's one short foreseeable timeline. For your own financial survival look for another job before you become another cap hit to their bottom line.

I was informed via email this morning at the same time the earnings call was happening. So yes this was timed for the earnings call. I will no longer have a job starting March 1. HR meeting to find out severance to happen at 2pm eastern. Sounds like between 250-350 people are affected. This round is larger than the Q3 round of layoffs that I survived.

Per internal documentation 14% reduction since Q3 2022. That means this round will amount to over 200 people. Most have been told by now. Not only long tenured high salary are being cut many other also. Reductions likely to help make company more attractive to a full ClearLake takeover in 2024. All the whole CEO had contract renewal.

Blackbaud should be ashamed.

Heard 14% overall since Nov 2022, each layoff in the range of 200-250 from Nov22 and today. Also heard some were notified via email and it was indeed mentioned on the 8am Eastern time earnings call today.

Yes, word is 200+. In lovely fashion the reduction was announced on today's earnings call and then those impacted got notified by email. Not by managers.

Yes, I hear 10% and people being told now

Is there anybody who can provide some details outside of "it's happening?"