Efficiency Metrics, Management, and Consolidation - Tony Boor’s CFO Playbook for Scaling Blackbaud
In this episode, CJ interviews Anthony “Tony” Boor, Executive Vice President and CFO of Blackbaud, who shares the unique path ...
Executive Vice President of Corporate Development & Strategy, Blackbaud
Search every verified Anthony Boor interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Anthony Boor, Executive Vice President and CFO of Blackbaud, has discussed the company’s financial performance and strategic initiatives in several recent interviews. He stated that Blackbaud has approximately 40,000 nonprofit and corporate customers and generates about $1.1 billion in annual revenue. Boor noted that the company is 97% recurring revenue and has shifted from annual to multi-year contracts, which he said has been successful. He reported that Blackbaud improved its rule of 40 metric—a combination of growth and profitability—by 600 to 700 basis points over the prior year and a half, and guided that the company would reach the rule of 40 in the fourth quarter of 2024 and for all of 2025. Boor also mentioned that the company increased prices due to inflation and saw renewal rates improve. Boor has emphasized operational efficiency and consolidation efforts at Blackbaud. He described reducing the company’s portfolio from about 70 solutions to 18 core solutions and cutting the finance and accounting staff by roughly half while the business grew to three times its size. He highlighted that over $100 billion passes through Blackbaud’s platform annually, with about a third of revenue now coming from transactions, a business that largely did not exist 11 years ago. Boor also discussed the importance of soft skills for executives, stating that technically qualified people often fail due to a lack of communication and relationship-building abilities. He reflected on his early career, including running a motorcycle shop in New Mexico, and noted that building relationships and treating customers well drove growth in that business.
“If you're a leader in a business and you were doing a great job, how do I get comfortable giving you a promotion if you haven't built the right team underneath you and have the right succession plan? Because if I move you out, your area is going to crumble.”
“We do over a hundred billion dollars passing through our platform each year, and about a third of our revenue now comes from transactions, which largely didn't exist 11 years ago before we built out our payments capability.”
“If you can get your hands on that transaction volume, it adds real value because it adds value especially in our case to the customer, automating data flow into their systems and saving a lot of time.”
“Margins on credit card processing are typically 30 to 35 percent, but with the new tip model we're bringing to the US, margins can improve to 50 or 60 percent because people give a higher percentage as a tip.”
“You have to have the right skill set and people on the team to handle payments because it comes with a lot of risks like KYC, OFAC screening, anti-money laundering, and compliance.”
“One of the efficiency metrics I use is ARR to OT, which is annual recurring revenue per total earnings of a sales rep. A good benchmark is about 4 to 1, meaning for every dollar paid to a rep, you want about four dollars in ARR.”
“Return on Invested Capital (ROIC) and Economic Value Added (EVA) are still important for resource allocation decisions, especially when evaluating acquisitions, even though software businesses have different cash cycles than distribution businesses.”
“We consolidated our portfolio from about 70 solutions down to 18 core solutions, and organized them into pillars like fundraising and financials, each with product leaders running P&Ls to focus on performance and resource allocation.”
“We undertook a major back-office consolidation journey over 11 years, reducing over 100 point solutions down to about 10 to 12, including implementing Workday for HR and building a subledger on steroids for transaction business.”
“One of my biggest mistakes was a large acquisition at a previous company where I wasn't vocal enough about my concerns, and after the economy fell apart, I had to lead a major restructuring for two and a half years.”
“We've been in the nonprofit social impact space for 40 plus years. We have 40,000 plus nonprofit and corporate customers under contract about 1.1 billion this year in revenue. We make what are critical solution software solutions and analytic services for the nonprofit space and social impact corporations from a CSR pe...”
“We've actually been moving our customer base away from what has historically been annual contracts to multi-year contracts, which align more with where the overall software industry has gone. Most of the vendor agreements I'm signing now are three to five to seven year agreements. We've started shifting from those sing...”
“We've had to increase our prices this year. Inflation means all of us are paying more for things, so we've seen a fairly significant price increase. It's actually held really well. We've seen renewal rates improve and they're running ahead of plan.”
“Giving was down slightly last year during the pandemic. Certain nonprofit organizations really struggled because they were shut down wholly, like museums and zoos. But supporters and donors came out in droves and continued to donate money to help those organizations stay open. We saw overall giving exceed 500 billion f...”
“We sell into a broad set of customers including higher education institutions, private K-12 schools, normal charities and nonprofits, plus corporations for-profit businesses, including Fortune 500 for corporate social responsibility. That diversification really helps.”
In this episode, CJ interviews Anthony “Tony” Boor, Executive Vice President and CFO of Blackbaud, who shares the unique path ...
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