Case Study: Special Olympics New York achieves digital transformation and increased fundraising with Blackbaud

Special Olympics New York resolves to reach greater heights with digital transformation

Special Olympics New York (SONY), the largest U.S. program of its kind serving up to 67,000 athletes with 35,000 volunteers and a $10 million annual budget, faced fragmented data systems that made it difficult to communicate with athletes, volunteers, donors, and staff. Leadership and staff pushed for a digital transformation to improve efficiency, engagement, and fundraising potential after going many years without major technology upgrades.

SONY partnered with Blackbaud for an audit and deployed a cloud-based suite—including Raiser’s Edge NXT, Financial Edge NXT, TeamRaiser, Luminate Online, and Advanced Wealth Analytics—to unify fundraising, finance, marketing, and peer-to-peer events. The connected platform enabled targeted communications, smarter donor asks, real-time data sharing across teams, reduced manual work, and immediate productivity gains in beta; SONY expects enhanced individual giving to help recoup upgrade costs within about three years while positioning the organization for ongoing innovation.

Special Olympics New York

Raymond Polikoski

Vice President of Finance and Administration