# Bridgit wins People’s Choice at Blackbaud’s bbcon

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2026/10/19/bridgit-wins-peoples-choice-blackbaud-bbcon/
- Published: 2026-10-19T03:58:19+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**Bridgit, the data integration platform built for charities and the only startup
from the UK and Ireland in Blackbaud’s 2026 Social Good Startup Program, has won
the People’s Choice Award at bbcon 2026 in Columbus, Ohio.**

Bridgit was one of eleven startups that pitched at Blackbaud’s showcase. [UK Fundraising reported in February](https://fundraising.co.uk/2026/02/02/bridgit-joins-blackbauds-global-accelerator/)
that it had been selected for the accelerator, the only startup chosen from the 
UK and Ireland. Its People’s Choice win brings sponsorship of the 2027 conference,
plus dedicated sales enablement and marketing support.

**Sean Donnelly**, Co-Founder and CEO of [Bridgit](https://www.hibridgit.com/), 
said:

## Advertisement

> “Winning the People’s Choice Award means a great deal to us because it came from
> the people who live with charity data every day. For a small UK team, standing
> on the bbcon stage in Columbus and being chosen by the audience was a moment we
> won’t forget. Fundraising teams everywhere lose hours each week downloading, cleaning
> and re-uploading spreadsheets between platforms, and this recognition tells us
> the problem we’re solving is one the sector feels deeply on both sides of the 
> pond. We’re grateful to Blackbaud’s Social Good Startup Programme for giving us
> this platform and to everyone who voted.”
> ![Sean and Rob from Bridgit at bbcon](https://wfay6x.infiniteuploads.cloud/2026/
> 10/Sean-and-Rob-Bridgit-1200x900.jpg)
> Sean and Rob at bbcon

## Bridgit People’s Choice Award: how the vote worked

After the startups pitched live at Blackbaud’s showcase in September, [Blackbaud](https://fundraising.co.uk/tag/blackbaud/)
customers and the public were invited to vote for the solution they thought had 
the most potential. Voting closed on 30 September, and the winner was announced 
on the main stage at bbcon on 1 October.

A panel of Blackbaud judges chose separate Judges’ Choice winners: DonorAtlas, Apps
NXT and Untapped Solutions, the last with a Corporate Impact distinction.

## What Bridgit does

![](https://wfay6x.infiniteuploads.cloud/2026/10/bridgit-logo-2026@2x-1200x739.png)

Blackbaud describes [Bridgit](https://www.hibridgit.com/) as an AI-powered platform
that helps nonprofits get more from their data by connecting systems, automating
data cleanup and mapping, and making information easier to use across teams.

UK Fundraising’s February coverage reported that Bridgit automates the flow of data
between a charity’s fundraising platforms, CRMs and marketing tools. At that point
the company was preparing to expand to serve American nonprofits, and the bbcon 
win puts it in front of a large US audience.

## Clean data before AI

Donnelly linked the award to the sector’s growing interest in artificial intelligence:

> “Charities are being told that AI will transform how they work, but none of that
> is possible without clean, connected data. That’s the foundation Bridgit builds,
> and this award [shows] how much appetite there is for practical tools that make
> the sector’s data work harder. We’re excited to build on this with Blackbaud and
> all of our fantastic platform partners, and to keep making life easier for the
> teams doing the fundraising.”

## Also at bbcon 2026

![The 2026 Blackbaud 2026 SGSP cohort in Charleston](https://wfay6x.infiniteuploads.
cloud/2026/10/SGSP-2026-Cohort-in-Charleston-1200x900.jpeg)

The 2026 Blackbaud 2026 SGSP cohort in Charleston

Blackbaud’s annual conference also saw the company unveil Platform for Good, a connected
foundation for data, workflows, AI and partners across its ecosystem, and Lantern,
a fundraising-specific language model developed with Databricks. Blackbaud also 
announced the winners of its 2026 Impact Awards.

 * **[Bridgit joins Blackbaud’s global accelerator](https://fundraising.co.uk/2026/02/02/bridgit-joins-blackbauds-global-accelerator/)(
   2 February 2026)
 * **[Highlights from Blackbaud’s bbcon 2020](https://fundraising.co.uk/2020/10/09/highlights-from-blackbauds-bbcon-2020/)(
   9 October 2020)**