Blackbaud Acquires Donation Database Company

Blackbaud has acquired Noza Inc., the California-based company behind the world's largest searchable philanthropic database.

Noza, which has partnered with black Backbaud since the former's 2006 launch, provides philanthropy data to nonprofits that use it to identify charitable giving prospects. The company's database lists information from publicly available Internet sites and contains nearly 50 million records of donations to U.S. nonprofits, in addition to 2 million Canadian giving records.

Charleston-based Blackbaud designs software targeted specifically at nonprofit corporations.

Terms of the acquisition included cash and debt assumption, but specifics of the deal were not disclosed. Noza's business will be integrated into Blackbaud's existing operations, and it is not expected to have a material impact on Blackbaud's financial results, company officials said in a news release.

In 2009, Noza generated more than $1 million in revenue while basically breaking even, according to Blackbaud officials.

Target Analytics, a Blackbaud company that provides wealth screening and prospect research services to more than 6,000 nonprofits, first brought Noza to market in 2006.

"Blackbaud's acquisition of Noza will enable us to provide enhanced data to nonprofits through our existing best-of-breed prospect research solutions, helping them best target prospective donors while increasing fundraising efficiency," said Chris South, vice president of Target Analytics. "We know that past giving is one of the most significant predictors of future giving, and Noza provides the most comprehensive data available. The Noza database and search technology will augment Target Analytics' ability to provide accurate and actionable data to nonprofits."

Noza's data is used in Target Analytic's WealthPoint full database screenings, which allows fundraisers to see who major donors are giving to and how much they are investing. It also enables fundraisers to better gauge donor interests and tailor donation request sizes, Blackbaud officials said.

Among its products, Noza offers constituent screenings, high-dollar donor mailing lists, foundation 990-PF searchable grants database, and Nozasearch.com, a subscription Web service for nonprofits.

"We are thrilled that Noza's thousands of users will now have access to expanded prospect research and analytics tools as a result of the acquisition," said Craig Harris, Noza's founder and CEO. "Noza's founding mission was to create world-class data products to help nonprofit organizations raise more money more efficiently, and this acquisition serves to amplify and scale the impact of our technology and data for the nonprofit fundraising community."

Harris and Noza's senior executives are working on the launch of HG Data, a new venture that will develop for-profit data products.

The HG Data website currently consists of a single page that reveals what the company's name stands for --- the Holy Grail of Data --- and states that the building process is in "stealth mode."