Student First and Blackbaud Advance Connected Campus Vision Through Expanded Strategic Innovation Partnership
Palm Beach, FL (July 27, 2026) — Student First, the most advanced student information system (SIS) in higher education, today announced an expanded Strategic Innovation Partnership with Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB), building on the strategic partnership announced earlier this year. The expanded partnership moves beyond a shared go-to-market motion into deeper collaboration across product, sales, and marketing, advancing a shared vision for a connected campus in higher education.
Rising costs, enrollment pressure, and changing student expectations are pushing colleges and universities to rethink how they operate. Yet the systems that run daily operations, admissions, financial aid, billing, advancement, and finance, too often sit apart from one another, leaving institutions with fragmented data and limited visibility into how resources connect to student outcomes.
Student First and Blackbaud designed this partnership to solve exactly that problem, through what the two companies call a Connected Campus: an operating model where enrollment, financial aid, scholarships, advancement, and finance run on a shared foundation instead of a collection of disconnected tools. Rather than asking institutions to reconcile data across systems after the fact, a Connected Campus gives administrators one real-time view of the student and the resources that support them, so decisions about staffing, budget, and student success can be made with the same information at the same time.
The expanded partnership pairs Student First, the Future-Ready SIS unifying the full student lifecycle on a single platform, with Blackbaud's solutions for advancement, finance, and tuition payments. Running on zero legacy constraints and zero downtime, Student First brings together nine core functions, from recruiting and admissions through financial aid and student billing, backed by a leadership team with more than 160 years of combined higher education technology experience. Together, the two platforms extend that connected view from admissions all the way through long-term institutional advancement.
The partnership also reflects a shared point of view on AI in higher education: it should optimize, analyze, and automate the manual work that slows institutions down, while decisions that shape the student experience stay in human hands. Student First's approach, automating repetitive administrative work while keeping people at the center of student-facing decisions, aligns directly with how Blackbaud is building AI into its own platform.
“This Innovation Partnership represents the first collaboration of its kind between two ed tech innovators,” said David Meek, CEO of Student First. “Earlier this year we said the most advanced SIS in higher education belongs alongside the best financial and advancement platform in the market. This expanded partnership is us proving it at scale. Extending our work with Blackbaud into product, sales, and marketing means institutions across their ecosystem get direct access to a connected campus experience, not just the promise of one.”
Institutions are already seeing the value of a more connected approach. Cumberland University, which uses both Financial Edge NXT and Student First, has cited the potential to automate historically manual, time-intensive processes such as degree audits, student billing, and financial aid disbursement.
Blackbaud shares that same vision for what a connected campus can deliver.
“Our Strategic Innovation Partnership with Student First reflects a shared commitment to helping colleges and universities connect the systems and data that matter most,” said Mark Davis, Vice President and General Manager of Education Products, Blackbaud. “As institutions face growing pressure to do more with less, they need technology that helps teams work from a shared view. By bringing together the systems that shape both the student experience and institutional performance, Blackbaud and Student First are helping colleges and universities build a stronger foundation for student success and long-term sustainability through our commitment to execution of a shared roadmap across both companies.”
Student First and Blackbaud will share more detail on the Connected Campus roadmap in upcoming Product Update Briefings and at Blackbaud's bbcon 2026 conference in Columbus, Ohio.
The expanded partnership sales effort broadens Student First's reach, giving more schools direct access to a best-in-class SIS designed to modernize the student experience.
About Student First
Student First provides modern, cloud-based student information systems designed specifically for higher education. The Future-Ready SIS delivers a unified platform that eliminates system fragmentation while empowering institutions to focus on what matters most: student success. Student First partners with colleges and universities to transform the student experience through innovative, mission-driven technology. Learn more at www.studentfirst.com or follow Student First on LinkedIn.
About Blackbaud
Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB) is a leading provider of AI-powered solutions for social impact, serving nonprofits, educational institutions, and organizations committed to driving change. Blackbaud supports fundraising, education, financial management, and grantmaking through connected, data-driven technology. Blackbaud operates in the United States, Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, India, and the United Kingdom, supporting users in more than 100 countries. Learn more at www.blackbaud.com.
