Mike Gianoni
President and CEO, Blackbaud
This episode will air on Tuesday, November 5 at 6:00 pm ET
Life is a never ending journey of learning, and it should never stop… Staying humble, having empty, and being grateful for the opportunities you get presented in life – you can’t separate those things to be successful. Those are all integrated.
Summary
This week on Leadership Matters, Alan was joined by renowned technology leader and philanthropy advocate, Mike Gianoni. As the President and CEO of Blackbaud, Mike has redefined how organizations leverage technology to foster social impact, guiding nonprofits, educational institutions, and corporations in making a measurable difference through cloud-based software solutions.
In their conversation, Mike shared highlights from his extensive career in IT, financial services, and business transformation, offering insights into his strategic leadership in modernizing Blackbaud and his commitment to using technology to drive philanthropy forward. They also discussed his role as co-chair of the Generosity Commission, a collaboration with the Aspen Institute, which recently published an in-depth report on trends in giving and civic engagement across the U.S.
Together, Alan and Mike explored the ways leaders can build a culture of giving and embed purpose within organizations, along with Mike’s personal journey as a leader dedicated to transforming the world of charitable giving.
Mentions & Resources in this Episode
Guest Bio
Mike Gianoni is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Blackbaud, a top 50 SaaS company known for pioneering cloud innovation for nonprofit and education sectors, companies committed to social responsibility, and individual change makers worldwide. He believes in the transformational power of technology and is dedicated to ensuring organizations have the tools they need to turn their visions for a better world into reality.
A first-generation American, Mike Gianoni’s journey in technology began in high school in Bristol, Connecticut. His passion for engineering sparked his career and has inspired him over the last five decades working across IT, financial and cloud services, and business transformation.
Since joining Blackbaud in 2014 as CEO, President, and a member of the Board of Directors, Mike Gianoni has led the company to gain recognition as a Fortune Change the World Company and a Forbes Most Innovative Growth Company, among other distinctions. He brings his deep experiences and insights from his career in tech to guide the company’s operations, teams, and commitment to customers. Today, millions of people in over 100 countries use Blackbaud’s software to power their social impact needs, with over $100 billion raised, granted, or managed through its platforms every year.
A leader in transforming corporate cultures and efficiencies to encourage employees to thrive, Mike Gianoni has led Blackbaud’s transition to a remote-first workplace and built it into one of the most desired tech companies to work at. Today, he also serves as chairman of the Board of Directors for Teradata, having first joined the board in 2015.
Before joining Blackbaud, Mike held major roles at Fiserv, Inc., including leading their Financial Institutions Group and their Investment Services division. He was also executive vice president and general manager of CheckFree Investment Services, and the leader of numerous divisions at DST, where he focused on developing new platforms and ensuring stronger operational controls.
Mike is devoted to driving positive impact inside and outside the tech sector. He supports a number of animal welfare and veteran causes, such as the Charleston Animal Society and Warrior Sailing. Mike is a proud member of the board of the new International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina, which first opened to the public in 2023. He has also served on the boards of LibertyHealth System in New Jersey, the American Red Cross in Massachusetts, and the University of New Haven.
Mike received degrees in engineering and business, as well as an MBA and Honorary Doctorate from the University of New Haven. He’s a father to three sons and lives in Charleston, South Carolina with his wife. When he’s not leading Blackbaud, you might find him exploring the U.S. coastline by sailboat or motorcycle.
Episode Transcript
Alan Fleischmann
I am joined today by a widely respected technology leader who is revolutionizing the way charitable giving is done around the world. Mike Gianoni is the president and CEO of Blackbaud, a company which provides essential software solutions to drive positive social impact worldwide. Since becoming Blackbaud’s CEO ten years ago in 2014, Mike has been on a mission to transform the social impact landscape.
Leaning on five decades of experience in IT, financial and cloud services, and business transformation, Mike helps nonprofit organizations and educational institutions leverage technology to maximize their social impact and beyond. In addition to his leadership at Blackbaud, Mike co-chairs the Generosity Commission, a nonpartisan group of cross-sector leaders committed to celebrating and strengthening the American spirit of generosity. Earlier this fall, Mike led the Generosity Commission in releasing a groundbreaking report on the current state of charitable giving and civic engagement, in partnership with the Aspen Institute. It’s a powerful analysis that I’m looking forward to discussing with him today.
I’m so glad Mike could join us for a discussion of his life, his career, and the many lessons in leadership he’s learned along the way. He is a unique, authentic, and humble leader, and I’ve long wanted him to join us on this show. We’re going to have a great conversation. Mike, welcome to Leadership Matters. It is such a pleasure to have you on.
Mike Gianoni
Thank you, Alan, happy to be here.
Alan Fleischmann
Let’s start. Let’s talk a little bit about your early life, your upbringing in Bristol, Connecticut, and the Gianoni family. Tell us a little bit about what life was like around the house growing up. What did your parents do? Did you have any siblings? A bit about your family life in those early years.
Mike Gianoni
Yeah, happy to. A little non-traditional, I guess, if there’s any tradition, mine might be a bit non-traditional.
My father came here from Italy through Ellis Island when he was 15 years old. He already had friends, and his parents had already made the transatlantic move to Connecticut. That’s where I’m from—Bristol, Connecticut, as you mentioned. I grew up as the youngest of seven, and I have a twin brother as well, so I guess I’m technically the youngest because he’s three minutes older than me.
Alan Fleischmann
Are you identical twins?
Mike Gianoni
No, no, fraternal twins. So it was a bit of a unique background. I grew up in Bristol, did the usual things—played sports, and got interested in engineering in high school through some classes. My neighbor, who was several years older than me, had graduated high school, became an engineer, and we continued to hang out. He got me interested in engineering, and I eventually went to school just outside of Bristol, in Waterbury, Connecticut, where I got my electrical engineering degree. That’s where my journey in the technology industry began. I think this is my 43rd year in the tech industry.
Alan Fleischmann
So you knew you wanted to go into tech right from the start?
Mike Gianoni
Yes, right out of school. I started as an electrical engineer in a technology company in Connecticut. About 43 years ago, companies like Microsoft and Apple were just getting started, led by some iconic founders. It was an exciting time with the emergence of personal computers, a big shift from the days when technology was mainly mainframes in back rooms for big companies.
Alan Fleischmann
I think of engineers as people whose DNA drives them to fix things. You see complex challenges and want to solve them. Does that fit for you?
Mike Gianoni
That’s true. You want to fix things, or create things that use technology to solve problems. My first job out of college was with Canby Industries in Meriden, Connecticut, a hardware and software manufacturer in the nuclear space. They developed systems for testing nuclear waste and soil for nuclear components, and did some early work in nuclear medicine. That’s where I started my tech career. We were both acquiring computers for engineering use and creating our own solutions for the industry.
Alan Fleischmann
That’s very cool. Now, you moved from Connecticut to South Carolina. How old were you when you made that move?
Mike Gianoni
Actually, I first moved from Connecticut to Boston around my early 30s for a job change. That’s when I joined DST Systems. Along the way, I earned an undergrad degree in business and an MBA at night. My wife and I just celebrated our 40th anniversary, and you always need a strong partner on these journeys, right? So, at DST, I was initially in Boston, while they were headquartered in Kansas City. They focused mainly on the mutual fund industry, with some work in healthcare and telecom. DST was a big tech company, a public company, and I ended up running a $100 million division there when I was 34.
Alan Fleischmann
What does DST stand for?
Mike Gianoni
I believe it originally stood for Data Assistance, but it later became DST Systems. When I joined, DST was part of Kansas City Southern Railroad. So technically, I joined a railroad company, but I was in their technology division, providing solutions for mutual funds. Little known fact—the software logic for mutual funds at DST actually originated from train-routing logic developed for Kansas City Southern. They adapted it to become the first platform for the mutual fund industry. I spent about 12 years there, and it was an incredible experience, learning what a larger business looked like from the inside.
Alan Fleischmann
That’s amazing experience. So then you moved on to CheckFree, right?
Mike Gianoni
Yes, I went to CheckFree Systems, founded by my good friend Pete Kight. CheckFree essentially created online bill payment. Today, if you pay bills online through your bank, there’s a good chance it’s CheckFree software behind it. Pete started the business in his grandmother’s basement and grew it to a public company with over a billion in revenue. He’s a remarkable leader and entrepreneur, and we’ve stayed connected. I was a business unit president at CheckFree, managing a platform for high-net-worth investment portfolios used by regional brokers and many on Wall Street. We eventually sold CheckFree to Fiserv, and I stayed on there for several years, eventually overseeing seven different businesses.
Alan Fleischmann
Throughout that journey, from DST to CheckFree and Fiserv, were there mentors along the way who helped guide you, even from your time at New Haven for your MBA?
Mike Gianoni
Yes, absolutely. At DST, there were a few mentors. One was the founder of the business I was running. He was still in his earn-out period, so I was fully running the division that impacted his earn-out. He was tough but taught me valuable lessons on both what to do and what not to do. Then there’s Pete, a long-time friend and a visionary who pioneered online payments. He even testified before Congress to get approval for a software company to handle payments, a role traditionally limited to banks. I learned a lot of positive leadership qualities from Pete; he’s an incredible guy. So, yes, I had several impactful relationships throughout my career.
Alan Fleischmann
That’s cool. And then how did Blackbaud come into the picture? You joined Blackbaud from Fiserv, right?
Mike Gianoni
That’s correct. Blackbaud, already a public company, was looking for a new CEO. At Fiserv, I was running a pretty big group of seven businesses, and I was getting a lot of inbound interest for CEO roles, both private and public. I looked at several options over a year or two, and Blackbaud really captured my interest, given where the company was at from a technology and operating standpoint. I saw where I could lead and improve things, especially by moving Blackbaud fully to the cloud, which it wasn’t at the time. I was also drawn to Blackbaud’s mission-driven focus on serving foundations, schools, and nonprofits—at the intersection of philanthropy, social impact, and business giving. It’s a public company, and that combination really intrigued me, so I joined Blackbaud, as you said, 10 years ago.
Alan Fleischmann
Was it a very different company back then compared to today?
Mike Gianoni
Absolutely. Let me give you some numbers. Back then, we were at half a billion in revenue with over 80 products, about 3,000 employees, and we were just beginning the shift from being a legacy software provider to moving to the cloud. Today, we’re at about $1.2 billion in revenue with just 18 products. We’ve streamlined our portfolio significantly, made several acquisitions, and focused a lot on efficiency. Now, we’re fully in the cloud, operating as a SaaS business. We’ve also built a transaction business—about a third of our revenue now comes from transactions, so we have both a SaaS side and a transaction side to our software.
Alan Fleischmann
Were you already focused on the social sector when you joined Blackbaud? That mission-driven DNA must have been appealing.
Mike Gianoni
Yes, it was. I’ve actually been involved with the social sector since my 20s. I’ve served on boards and volunteered for years. In my late 20s, I was on the Red Cross regional board in Massachusetts, and then the board of a nonprofit hospital system in New Jersey when I was working for CheckFree and Fiserv. I’ve also served on two university boards over the years. Today, I’m on the advisory board for the International African American Museum in Charleston and the President’s Advisory Board at the Medical University of South Carolina. I’ve done a lot of board work, especially in the social sector, so the chance to combine my tech career with my social impact interests at Blackbaud was really appealing.
Alan Fleischmann
I love how your eyes light up whenever you talk about Charleston and your purpose-driven work. That passion really shows.
Mike Gianoni
Imagine a visual of my eyes lighting up right now! Exactly.
Alan Fleischmann
Tell us a little more about Blackbaud’s core solutions for educational institutions and nonprofits.
Mike Gianoni
Sure. All our customers and markets are in the philanthropic space, including some companies. We serve over 40,000 customers worldwide. Our software for nonprofits supports things like fundraising, major gifts, digital fundraising, and financial management—including general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, and fund accounting. For schools, we provide solutions for K-12 private schools and universities, covering everything from fundraising and financials to student enrollment, classroom scheduling, and parent-facing mobile apps.
We also work with many Fortune 500 companies, providing a platform for employee volunteering, virtual volunteering, donations, and matching gifts. This system is integrated with HR and payroll, allowing employees to find volunteer opportunities and donate to nonprofits globally. Our JustGiving platform, popular in Europe, is similar to GoFundMe and is widely used for events like marathons. Across the board, our solutions focus on foundations, nonprofits, and schools with philanthropic missions.
Alan Fleischmann
How global are you, and is philanthropy practiced differently around the world?
Mike Gianoni
We’re all over the world. JustGiving, for instance, has users in over 100 countries, and our B2B software is widely used globally by nonprofits, schools, and foundations. Philanthropy does vary a lot by country—some places have more of a foundation-based model, while others focus on nonprofits. Cultural differences also play a role; in some cultures, people aren’t accustomed to donating or tipping, for instance. And of course, economic conditions impact the capacity to donate and volunteer.
Alan Fleischmann
Given Blackbaud’s focus on technology, do you see increased engagement through your platforms?
Mike Gianoni
Yes, absolutely. We have millions of people using our products daily, which drives a lot of engagement, especially with products focused on volunteering and digital fundraising. We’ve also embedded AI into our solutions over the past eight or nine years. Unlike other companies providing AI toolkits, we embed AI capabilities directly into our products to automate tasks and make our solutions smarter for our clients. This helps nonprofits focus more on their mission rather than getting bogged down in operational tasks, which is crucial since nonprofits are often resource-constrained.
If we can expand their capacity by eliminating tasks, they can address a larger portion of the issues they’re working to solve.
Alan Fleischmann
I mean, I guess in your case, then people are accessing very powerful tools that have AI in its base that they may not even realize, correct? These are advancements that impact their space, but they don’t realize it’s AI.
Mike Gianoni
That’s correct, absolutely. Alan, there’s one quick example. I’m a gift officer at a university. And, you know, I’ve had interactions with, you know, 20 people who are alumni, and I want to create some follow-ups because I spoke to these 20 folks. Some have donated, and some may donate in the future. All of my follow-ups can be AI-generated. I don’t have to type on the keyboard to create a follow-up for all 20—it could be AI-generated. It shows up for me, I review it, and it’s done. So my 20 follow-ups can take three minutes, not three hours. This is just one example; there are lots of others.
Alan Fleischmann
You’re actually creating scale for them, helping them create scale without them realizing it, almost automatically. Right?
Mike Gianoni
You bet. So maybe next time, as a gift officer in this scenario I created for the university, I’m comfortable talking to 40 people, not 20, because I might stop at 20 if I know how much work it takes to do all the follow-ups. So my personal capacity could be doubled or even tripled. That’s just one example; there are many others.
Alan Fleischmann
Very cool. And for board members as well, right? You’re dealing with, as you said, employees across the board. You’re dealing with CEOs and their C-suite, but you’re also dealing with board members too, right? And that’s changing with the times as well, I imagine.
Mike Gianoni
Yeah, it is. The platform I described for companies that handles volunteering and matching gifts also includes a new product we’re bringing to market next year to measure corporate impact. So as companies deploy their capital to drive corporate impact, we have a product that shows what the impact is: How many hours did employees volunteer? How much in donations did the matching gift program generate? Where are these contributions going, geographically and by type of institution?
Now, many public companies include this information in their proxy filings, and many companies produce an annual CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) report. So we’ve created a new cloud solution to help collect the data and report on it. This is super helpful, not just externally for shareholders and others, but also for their employees and prospective employees to see the impact that this particular company has in the world, beyond what they do as a core business.
As a public company, when you produce your annual report or proxy, it’s about what you do—the economics you produce and the products. But when you produce this other data on your corporate social responsibility impact, it talks about who you are, not just what you do. We connect some of that.
There are a lot of boards, both in the US and Europe, that are very interested in this, especially around driving culture. You can’t have a bad culture and produce good results as a company, right? You need a good culture for employees, for future employees, for energy, creativity, and innovation. And that produces good financial results. CEOs, mostly in the last 15 years, are putting those things together: good, positive culture and good company results. You can’t do one without the other.
Alan Fleischmann
You mentioned corporate social responsibility, CSR, and your strong focus there. How does a company balance the “profit for purpose” part? I mean, you’re working with a lot of nonprofits, but as a public, for-profit company, you have this extraordinary purpose. I’m sure your employees come to work every day because they know they’re impacting the world by being part of this incredible organization.
Mike Gianoni
It’s really something to see at Blackbaud. We’re not a big company, about 3,000 employees. We hire roughly 200 employees a year, and we get over 400,000 applicants for those 200 jobs. I think it’s for three reasons. One, the category we’re in—cloud software, public company—it’s an attractive space for people, career-wise. The second is the customers we serve, who are all philanthropic organizations. It’s at the core of who we are and what we do. We have hundreds of managers on nonprofit boards, and we have a function that helps them get there and trains them to be good nonprofit board members. That’s the second. And the third is that, from the start of COVID, we became a permanently virtual company.
Alan Fleischmann
I wanted to ask about that. It’s pretty amazing. How does that work? Because you’re so culture-focused as a CEO, and the company is so culture-focused for its customers and clients. How do you manage being virtual?
Mike Gianoni
A few things. Before the pandemic, we were 35% remote anyway, which was difficult for a software company. When you’re partially remote at a company, it’s tough. You’ve got a meeting of ten people, and three are remote—it’s difficult to manage that dynamic. Then we were forced into remote work because of the pandemic, and we just started to retrain and change a lot of processes for a fully remote company. We retrained all our managers: how to build relationships this way, how to make connections, how to hold people accountable, how to handle career coaching. We’ve been doing this now for years, so our folks are completely used to it. We changed onboarding for new employees, too. When they start, they’re with a cohort, even if they’re in different departments. Where before, they’d join a team just within finance, for example, now they’re with people from 30 different departments, and that group stays connected.
We also increased the frequency of communication. During COVID, I started a weekly call on Zoom or Teams with the top 180 leaders in the company, a couple of levels down from me. Originally, it was to talk about COVID—like, “We don’t know what’s going to happen. We’re not going in, but we’ll take care of you, and we’re working from home.” It’s evolved, but I’ve never stopped doing it. I had one this morning. So, top 180 people see each other virtually every Monday, and we talk about what’s going on in the company. We have guest speakers, and we try to keep everyone on the same page.
We also hold regional gatherings in person. We’ll go to Boston, D.C., New York, L.A., San Francisco, and London, and people who can commute come in. We’ll have 50 to 200 people spend a half day together, with lunch. No presentations—just updates on Blackbaud, an open Q&A. It’s more about socializing in a work environment than having hours of presentations from managers.
We’ve also eliminated all our real estate except our corporate headquarters in Charleston, which is a great event center. So we do management kickoffs, bring in customers, hold our sales kickoff in January with hundreds of people. We’ve mixed being fully remote with occasional in-person meetings. So, no one’s commuting, even our headquarters, but we use it for specific events, like a customer visit or board meeting. A couple of weeks ago, we had all our sales leaders in from all over the world for a sales leadership meeting.
We’ve been working on this for about five years now, and our productivity—measured in every department—is up significantly. Sales and engineering productivity is way up. The company is almost three times the size it was when I started, with the same number of employees.
Alan Fleischmann
That’s amazing. I mean, I know Blackbaud has grown significantly under your leadership. Tell us a bit about where you started ten years ago to now, and the guiding principles that have shaped the vision. How have the principles evolved, both day-to-day and big picture? That’s an amazing amount of growth in ten years.
Mike Gianoni
We never strayed from our core, which is supporting people doing good in the world from a philanthropic standpoint. That core brought us into companies with the platform I described because there’s so much going on there. Companies have a huge role to play with their employees, volunteering and donating. But we kept our focus on the philanthropic core.
Operationally, we changed the company from a legacy software provider to a full cloud business, which took about five or six years. We also rationalized our product portfolio—from over 80 products down to roughly 18 today—and made several acquisitions to expand into areas that were close to our core but a bit adjacent. Some of those were to grow our addressable market; others were to displace older products and move customers onto new solutions.
The overarching strategy has always been about modernization and moving to the cloud, and that’s no small task. When you do that, it’s not just about products—it’s the entire operation. A legacy software company ships and installs software on a computer, while a cloud software company is a service business, not a product business. All your operations—accounting, commissions, performance metrics, executive compensation—everything has to change internally. It’s a big hurdle to move from A to B when transitioning a legacy company to the cloud.
We also expanded into areas that align with our core, adding transactions to the portfolio. Ten years ago, we didn’t have a transaction business. Now we have three transaction-like products integrated with our cloud products to better serve our customers. It’s been quite an operational and product journey.
Alan Fleischmann
Is there a certain product that you are most proud of, I guess, that kind of helps clients with their milestones?
Mike Gianoni
I don’t know if there’s just one, Alan, because we have some products that travel across the different vertical markets we’re in, like our fundraising products, in which we’re a world leader. And then we have other products that are specific to customer types. For example, I mentioned our K–12 school solutions; we also have similar solutions for performing arts centers and museums, where we provide products tailored to run those kinds of institutions. They’re very different—you think about a school, and the revenue model is mostly tuition and donations. But for a museum or performing arts center, it’s donations, tickets, and memberships. So the economic models vary, and so do the software solutions.
I wouldn’t single one out, but I’d say I’m most proud of the modernization of our products—moving them to the cloud and making them mobile-first. Ten years ago, we didn’t have any mobile capabilities, and now our most complex products are intuitive, mobile-first, and new customers can start using them on day one. They typically take our virtual classes and get additional education, but it’s intuitive, so they can start right away. That definitely wasn’t the case ten years ago.
Alan Fleischmann
As young people get more involved in social impact, they’re doing it differently. They’re obviously more technology-focused and have different priorities than other donors. They’re much more transparent and want different kinds of outcomes. How do you adapt the tools you offer to meet new expectations from younger donors without diluting what you’re doing so effectively at scale for, I would argue, older donors?
Mike Gianoni
Sure. You know, it’s all moving digital—well, not entirely, but it’s heavily shifting that way. What’s interesting about younger donors, which we also saw in the Generosity Commission study, is that in many cases, a high school or university grad, in their first job, is having their first exposure to volunteering and donating. They might not have had that growing up. Now, in some families, they get that exposure through religious institutions or through parents who are involved, but in many cases, starting a full-time career is their first exposure. So we have software that facilitates that for them, showing them they can donate and connect with other employees locally or globally who share their interests.
For young people, they want choice. They don’t want the company to tell them, “Donate to these four things”—that used to be the case, years ago, right? But now they want the freedom to donate to, say, the local animal society or something in Europe or whatever cause they choose. They want it to be mobile, intuitive, and accessible, and they also want to understand how it works. That’s why it’s important for companies and CEOs to stay well-connected to this, for their existing and future employees, whether hiring executives or recent college grads. You can connect them to your company’s purpose by offering access and education around this. I think volunteering, donating, and everything related to social impact should be part of the new employee onboarding program—not just the job details, medical benefits, or 401(k). Social impact should be integrated because it makes purpose a part of the company’s culture. Often, that’s the first exposure a college grad has to this kind of work.
Alan Fleischmann
Yeah, you’re listening to Leadership Matters on SiriusXM and at leadershipmattersshow.com. I’m your host, Alan Fleischmann. I’m here with Mike Gianoni, the President and CEO of Blackbaud, and we’re discussing his life journey, his leadership at Blackbaud—an amazing global company. And I want to get into something you mentioned as well. In addition to serving as CEO of Blackbaud, you also co-chaired, as I mentioned, the Generosity Commission with the Aspen Institute and with Jane Wales, who’s a very, very highly regarded vice president there and known in the philanthropic community as a leader. For our listeners unfamiliar with that work, tell us a little bit about the Generosity Commission.
Mike Gianoni
Yeah, so the Generosity Commission was established in 2021, and the objective was to bring together business leaders, government, and nonprofits to sponsor a research program over a couple of years to analyze giving, volunteering, and civic engagement in the U.S. It’s U.S.-focused, and the U.S. is, you know, by far the largest in this space—there’s over $500 billion a year donated in the U.S. It’s massive, and we wanted to study all the sub-sectors: performing arts centers, religious philanthropic organizations, foundations, companies—all the sectors. We wanted to really study the trajectory to make that information more accessible and to look at the trends. That was the genesis of this, and we just recently concluded it with a report that’s available on thegenerositycommission.com. It’s a free report that talks about what’s been going on related to these topics in the U.S.
Alan Fleischmann
And have you gotten a good reception? I know you have. It really does touch on the core of what makes us a good society. This commission actually highlighted areas where we’re lagging, right? Tell us a little about that—what is it that we need to do better?
Mike Gianoni
Yeah, if you think about just society and the culture of the U.S., it is to be generous—generous with your time, and, if you can, generous with your money. It happens in a lot of ways that are unmeasured and unrecorded, like shoveling your elderly neighbor’s driveway in the winter. It’s measured in lots of ways that no one’s going to know about, but it’s part of our culture to be generous. It’s important to us on the commission that that is pointed out and continues. But we’ve also had to shift over the years. Although the total donations—which are a little over $500 billion—continue to go up, and that number has pretty much tracked U.S. GDP for over 40 years, there’s been a shift where growth is coming from wealthy donors, and there’s much less coming from everyday donors and volunteers. The number of donors, volunteers, and households engaged in participating has been going down every year. We wanted to point that out.
Alan Fleischmann
You knew that before?
Mike Gianoni
Yes, we knew that before, but we wanted to drill down, collect a lot of data, and also examine it by the sectors I mentioned. Folks on the commission are so involved in this that we knew this before. It’s still very, very big, but we wanted to have a substantial study and gather input from experts in each sector to collect, collate, and produce a report anyone can access. So what we’re doing is bringing attention to something that’s a part of our culture and society, with fewer people involved over time. Hopefully, creating awareness is the start of turning the tide on fewer folks participating.
Alan Fleischmann
You’ve authored several powerful op-eds recently in Time and Fortune. For the CEOs and leaders listening today, what would be your call to action? What are some things leaders can do to help create a culture of giving and foster a charitable environment within their companies or organizations?
Mike Gianoni
Yeah, so, you know, for me, Blackbaud kind of sits at the intersection of all this because we’re a public cloud software company solely focused on the space. We get to see both sides of this, which is great. I’d say for leaders, CEOs, and their senior teams, the call to action is this: the opportunity is right in front of you. Whether you’re in the U.S., Europe, Asia, or anywhere, there’s an institution nearby making a difference—be it in education, homelessness, or other areas. If you connect your company and people to that, you not only increase the chance to do well by doing good, but you also improve your culture and business. There’s a direct correlation between companies with positive cultures and positive economic outcomes. It improves your ability to attract and retain employees, and it builds camaraderie and relationships within the company.
Alan Fleischmann
You’re doing something great; you’re having an impact, but you’re also building culture in a non-transactional way. It’s like rolling up your sleeves together with purpose, co-creating.
Mike Gianoni
Yeah, absolutely, that’s a really good point. You’re co-creating, and it’s all employee-driven, too. Employees choose the institution and mission, and, as a company leader, you make it available—the time to volunteer, the ability to donate, whether you decide to fund a matching gift or not. These are important opportunities for every company.
Alan Fleischmann
So for CEOs and aspiring CEOs, or just those who have the wonderful opportunity to actually help transform their companies around culture, purpose, and serving—partnering sounds like a great, natural way to build culture in an organic way, rather than in an artificial way that never works.
Mike Gianoni
If you’re an up-and-coming CEO running a part of the business and you want to get noticed in your company, you’re likely going to get noticed for the outstanding business results you produce. And to produce those, you need a really good culture on your team, whether it’s 100 people, 5,000 people, or 10,000. So if you’re an up-and-coming CEO, this is a wonderful way to create a positive, you know, force of a culture that helps drive your business unit forward. And it’s all connected—it’s all connective tissue in running a business.
Alan Fleischmann
Yeah, that’s very, very cool. So, in the next couple of minutes, the lessons or principles that have guided your leadership over the years—we’re hearing them throughout this incredible interview. But are there certain ones you’d want to crystallize and share with someone who’s leaning in right now and wants to know what Mike thinks as they try to build their own future, their own leadership?
Mike Gianoni
I think an important thing is that from a leadership and personal development standpoint, life is a never-ending journey of learning, and it should never stop. I mean, I still read books on leadership. Just because I’m a CEO doesn’t mean I can’t learn something tomorrow about leadership that I can do better. So I think staying humble, having empathy, and being grateful for the opportunities you get presented with in life are key. Take advantage of the opportunities but also be grateful. Always learn. We talked about philanthropy and culture—there’s a lot to learn there. The pandemic taught us things. When things happen in the world, you learn more. I learned more in the last year about global conflicts than I knew a year ago. So, I think never-ending learning, having a curious mind about things, and then being empathetic and focused on the business are all connected. You can’t separate those things to be successful—they’re all integrated. It’s not like they’re in separate categories.
Alan Fleischmann
I love when you talk about service, the way you mentioned your wife and you doing things in Charleston. You bring people along sometimes—your customers, sometimes your employees and colleagues. As you say, it’s all integrated as one big part of your robust life, rather than being bifurcated and creating artificial divides.
Mike Gianoni
Years ago, people would say you have to completely separate your work from your personal life, like at 5:30, you just shut it all off. In today’s never-ending, mobile-first communication world, you have to integrate it. Now, you shouldn’t work 24 hours a day, but it has to be integrated. So if you can integrate volunteering and culture, and integrate spending time with employees and with customers and nonprofits, then you can pull it all together. You can’t separate the categories, because they’re all part of each other.
Alan Fleischmann
I love this. We need two books at the same time right now, as we end—one called The Pursuit of Happiness, and the other Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: The American Dream. When I hear you talk, so much of what makes us happy is our sense of purpose. If we have a sense of purpose… all the founders of our country were doing well financially. They had big houses like Monticello and Mount Vernon. They didn’t need more money. What they needed was a voice in their community, to add to their communities in a way that would lead, transform, and co-lead, to be part of it. And when I think of Blackbaud, I don’t know any other company quite like Blackbaud. When I think of your leadership, I think of that sense of purpose, mission, and building together. It’s been such a pleasure—I knew we were going to hit an hour too soon. Just curious, one last part—your family as committed to this as you are? I know your wife is. Is your whole family as involved in community life in Charleston as you are?
Mike Gianoni
Yeah. Well, they don’t all live here because they’re older. The three boys are older. One of them lives here. And, yeah, my youngest son that lives here participates in some of the things that we do with wounded veterans, for sure, and the other two are, their interests are over in animals and animal societies and things like that.
Alan Fleischmann
Very cool. Well, I urge our listeners to get involved, to actually check out the Generosity Commission report that Blackbaud co-chaired with you and Jane Wales at the Aspen Institute, and find ways that you can bring that sense of generosity and purpose to your organizations, your companies, and your communities. It’s been such a pleasure on Leadership Matters to have you today, Mike, and I’m looking forward to having you back on. We’ve learned a lot today, and I’m looking forward to many more times. Thank you.
Mike Gianoni
Thank you, Alan, thank you for having me. I appreciate it. Real pleasure.