Fundraising technology provider Blackbaud was hacked in a ransomware attack in May. The firm has admitted it paid a ransom to encourage the cybercriminals to destroy the copy of the stolen data. NTEN (Non-Profit Technology Enterprise Network) President Amy Sample Ward says this hack should be a wakeup call: "If this doesn't increase your attention and investment in staff training, password management, and security, I don't know what will," she writes on Twitter. Portland based NTEN “aspires to a world where all nonprofit organizations use technology skillfully and confidently to meet community needs and fulfill their missions.”  
Blackbaud has been criticized for not disclosing this externally until July and for having paid the hackers an undisclosed ransom. Doing so is not illegal, but it goes against the advice of numerous law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, NCA and Europol. "My main concern is how reassuring - impossibly so, in my opinion - Blackbaud were to the university about what the hackers have obtained," commented Rhys Morgan, a cyber-security specialist and former student at Reading University, whose data was involved. "They told my university that there is 'no reason to believe that the stolen data was or will be misused'”. Blackbaud has said it is working with law enforcement and third-party investigators to monitor whether or not the data is being circulated or sold on the dark web, for example. “I can't feel reassured by this at all. How can they possibly know what the attackers will do with that information?" Morgan said.

​Blackbaud added that it had been given "confirmation that the copy [of data] they removed had been destroyed". The BBC has reported that at least eight universities in the UK and Canada have had data stolen about students and/or alumni and Human Rights Watch and the children's mental health charity, Young Minds, have also confirmed they were affected. In some cases, the stolen data included phone numbers, donation history and events attended.
Under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), companies must report a significant breach to data authorities within 72 hours of learning of an incident - or face potential fines. The UK's Information Commissioner's Office [ICO], as well as the Canadian data authorities, were informed about the breach last weekend - weeks after Blackbaud discovered the hack.
An ICO spokeswoman said: "Blackbaud has reported an incident affecting multiple data controllers to the ICO. We will be making enquiries to both Blackbaud and the respective controllers and encourage all affected controllers to evaluate whether they need to report the incident to the ICO individually." 

Blackbaud’s Sales during the first three months of the year totaled $223.6 million, up nearly 4 percent from the same period in 2019, according to results the firm reported last week. The Daniel Island, South Carolina-based technology company also swung to a profit for the quarter, earning $4.6 million compared to a $1.1 million loss a year earlier.
​Blackbaud​ sells recurring subscriptions to its software products to charities, colleges, churches, grade schools and other nonprofits. That philanthropy industry has struggled during the pandemic, as discretionary incomes and donations have cratered. But the turbulence could create an opportunity for Blackbaud. Among other things, its tech platform supports virtual events and meetings. CEO Mike Gianoni told investors during a conference call on Wednesday the company “hasn’t missed a beat operationally,” stating that it’s platform has helped schools, among others, move to the web during the lockdown. 
He said the pandemic could push more organizations to realize they need to adopt cloud software. Obviously not at all phased by the hack.

​According to the latest-available employment data by Johns Hopkins University researchers, for the first time ever, the nonprofit world’s work force is larger than the manufacturing industry work force. Nonprofits had an estimated 12,488,563 workers on their payrolls in 2017, manufacturing companies had 12,456,203 workers. The data in the study includes all workers — full-time, part-time, and contractors.
Hotels, restaurants, and other entities that involve providing lodging or food services have a larger labor pool than nonprofits, at 13.7 million workers, and employees at retail stores number 15.9 million. According to the study, nonprofit workers now account for about 10.2% of the United States national work force, easily exceeding other industries such as construction (7.1 million) and finance and insurance (5.9 million). 
The nonprofit world has been growing faster than the for-profit work force for several years. The nonprofit world’s overtaking of manufacturing is also partly the result of a slow-growing manufacturing industry.  From 2016 to 2017, the number of nonprofit workers increased by almost 2 percent, while the number of employees in the business world increased by 1.5 percent. Another nuance of the study showed that rural areas have higher nonprofit shares of employment than do the smaller urban or metropolitan areas. In smaller metropolitan areas, nonprofit workers account for about 7% of the work force. In rural areas, they account for 8.7%.
However, in a separate study, the repercussions of low pay within the nonprofits themselves, create high turnover and difficulties in hiring employees from diverse backgrounds to carry out their missions. Some nonprofits are taking steps to offer better pay and benefits, sabbaticals, and professional development for all workers, not just senior leaders. But only thirteen people of color and 29 women head the nation’s 100 biggest nonprofits — and all the rest are led by white men, according to an exclusive analysis conducted by Michael Theis for the Chronicle of Philanthropy. 

When donors are asked what charity they would support if they could give to just one, 54% selected one of only 20 organizations, according to a new study.
 
​The findings show that a small number of national and international groups hold a privileged place in the philanthropy of American donors.
 
Even though they were not prompted with a list of charities to choose from, the respondents most often picked a brand-name group such as the American Humane Society, Doctors Without Borders, Feeding America, Goodwill Industries, Planned Parenthood, the United Way, and Wounded Warrior Project.
 
Among the 20 were five that were particularly popular. 36% of donors picked one the following: Alsac/St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the American Cancer Society, American Red Cross, Salvation Army, or Unicef.
 
Donors preferred large organizations, underscoring the challenges small charities face from well-resourced competitors. Only 23% picked a favorite charity with annual revenue of $50 million or less; only 5% picked one with revenue of $1 million or less. 38% picked a charity with annual revenue of $1 billion or more.
 
The favorite charities cited by donors had a median annual revenue — including donations, government support, and earned income — of $399 million.
 
A bright spot for small organizations: The top donors, those who gave $2,000 or more during the 12 months preceding the survey, were most likely to pick a favorite charity with revenue under $50 million.
 
Donors overwhelmingly favored organizations that work globally, as opposed to those that work exclusively stateside: 60% of donors chose a favorite charity that supports programs internationally. However, only 2% picked a nonprofit that works exclusively overseas. Political conservatives, parents with children at home, and Christians were most likely to favor global charities.
 
By cause, health-related charities were the most commonly picked as favorites, cited by nearly one in three donors.
 
Among other findings:
 
Impact matters. The three most commonly cited reasons for selecting a particular charity as a favorite were the organization’s results (32%), the donor’s trust (28%), and the donor’s personal connection to the cause or charity (22%).
 
Overhead spending doesn’t matter so much. 84% of donors picked a charity that spends 10 to 29 % of revenue on administrative costs, according to that charity’s informational tax forms. The average "overhead ratio" for the charities donors favored was just under 19%. But only 12% of donors said that using their money efficiently was the key factor in why they picked their favorite charity, and a February report by the same researchers discovered a charity’s spending on administrative costs had little impact on giving.
 
Religion’s influence is muted. 82% of people who attend religious services at least monthly picked a favorite charity that was not faith-based.

Donald Trump is the last Republican candidate standing and will now go up against Hilary Clinton or Bernie Sanders.