Blackbaud Unveils Lantern AI Model for Fundraising
The fundraising software firm announced a purpose-built language model that will reach select customer products starting in 2027.
Updated on Nov. 4, 2026 in Philanthropy
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Blackbaud unveiled Lantern, a domain-specific language model built for fundraising, at its bbcon 2026 conference in Columbus, Ohio, on 29 September 2026. The model was developed with data and AI company Databricks and will sit in the intelligence layer of Blackbaud's Platform for Good.
Why it matters
Blackbaud says more than $100 billion is raised, granted or managed through its platforms every year, making its AI tools relevant to a large share of global philanthropic activity. The announcement reflects a broader push to apply AI to nonprofit and social impact work, where competitors such as Bonterra also market sector-specific models.
Blackbaud reports more than $100 billion raised, granted or managed through its platforms each year, a figure the company offers without an independent audit. Lantern's performance on these workloads has not been publicly benchmarked, and Blackbaud has not disclosed the base models it combines.
The players
Blackbaud
Blackbaud is a US-based software company that provides cloud tools for nonprofits, schools and philanthropic organisations.
Mike Gianoni
Mike Gianoni is the chief executive of Blackbaud, who discussed Lantern's training approach on the company's earnings call.
Databricks
Databricks is a data and artificial intelligence company whose Data + AI Platform hosts the models underlying Lantern.
The details
Lantern combines leading open-weight models running on the Databricks Data + AI Platform with more than 40 years of Blackbaud sector experience. The model is post-trained on synthetic scenarios modelled on Blackbaud's Social Impact Signal Graph rather than on customer-specific data, according to chief executive Mike Gianoni.
Timeline
29 September 2026: Lantern announced at bbcon 2026 in Columbus, Ohio
2027: Lantern begins powering select Raiser's Edge NXT and Agents for Good capabilities
The Tech Race
Blackbaud's Lantern enters a market where Bonterra has already promoted Que, a nonprofit-trained engine citing 1.16 billion network transactions, as a domain-specific alternative to general-purpose AI. The launch positions Blackbaud in a direct contest over which vendor can credibly claim the deepest sector-specific training data for fundraising software.
Lantern will not reach customers until 2027, and Blackbaud has not announced pricing or which countries will receive it first. Nonprofits using Raiser's Edge NXT should ask their vendor about availability timing, especially outside the United States where the rollout schedule has not been detailed.
The takeaway
Nonprofit leaders evaluating AI tools should ask vendors how their models were trained and whether they use customer data, since Blackbaud says Lantern relies on synthetic scenarios rather than customer information. Organisations should also track the 2027 rollout dates before planning budgets around the new capabilities.
Further reading
Explore more Philanthropy coverage to see how technology is reshaping the way nonprofits raise and manage funds.
Source note: This article includes information reported by UK Fundraising.
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