© September 2014 | 2000 Daniel Island Drive, Charleston, SC 29492 T 800.443.9441 E bbms@blackbaud.com W www.blackbaud.com

Belen Jesuit Preparatory School is a private, Catholic institution for young men in grades 6 through 12.

Originally founded in Cuba and later relocated to Florida, Belen Jesuit educates in the Jesuit tradition—a

tradition synonymous with academic excellence and spiritual discipline. The school’s 120 faculty members

are focused on guiding and supporting 1,500 students in their journey to become leaders for the defense of

faith and promotion of justice. Since Belen Jesuit’s inception, more than 5,000 young men have graduated,

and all have advanced to four-year colleges and universities.

Challenge

Over the last 30 years, Belen Jesuit’s enrollment and alumni base have each grown by approximately 50

percent. The organization was in desperate need of a student information system (SIS) that made it easier

to manage student data, including enrollment, attendance, scheduling, grading, and communication.

“Manually scheduling 1,000 students isn’t easy,” explained Carol Ann Vila, director of technology at Belen

Jesuit. “We were already using a SIS, but we weren’t happy with it.” Belen Jesuit was also looking for donor

management software to streamline outreach to its growing alumni. In addition, the increase in student

enrollment prompted the school to require online tuition payments. A reliable, efficient, and secure credit

card payment processor was needed to support this effort.

Solution

After careful consideration, Belen Jesuit selected Blackbaud’s Education Edge™ to assist with enrollment,

attendance, scheduling, and grading. The software’s NetClassroom™ portal provided an easy way for the

school to share student information between administrators, teachers, and parents. Belen Jesuit chose

Blackbaud Merchant Services™, Blackbaud’s end-to-end credit card payment processing solution, to

enable its transition to online tuition payments. The school also took advantage of Student Billing™ to cost-

effectively manage its billing process.

“As Blackbaud solutions have continued to

evolve, so have we,” said Vila. “We’re always

looking for ways to run our organization more

efficiently from a financial, technological, and

operational perspective.”

To assist with alumni outreach, Belen Jesuit

chose The Raiser’s Edge® fundraising and

“As we acquired software to support different areas of the school, it didn’t make sense to look outside of Blackbaud. Our goal has always been to run the organization more efficiently, and we’ve done that with Blackbaud’s integrated software suite.”

— Carol Ann Vila Director of Technology

Belen Jesuit Preparatory School

Customer Story: Belen Jesuit Preparatory School

Continued

Belen Jesuit Preparatory School Improves Efficiency with Blackbaud Solutions

© September 2014 | 2000 Daniel Island Drive, Charleston, SC 29492 T 800.443.9441 E bbms@blackbaud.com W www.blackbaud.com

donor management software. The school also uses The Financial Edge™ for accounting, Blackbaud

NetCommunity™ for website and email marketing, and Blackbaud MobilePay™—which is powered by

Blackbaud Merchant Services™—for accepting credit card payments at theater, athletic, and alumni events.

“We have so many events that we needed to provide our constituents with a quick, easy, and secure way to

make a credit card payment,” explained Vila.

Results

Since implementing Blackbaud solutions, Belen Jesuit has dramatically improved its overall efficiency.

Student scheduling, which used to require significant resource time, has been streamlined, and accuracy has

improved. The effects are also seen in other front-office operations, including accounting. “The woman who

works in our accounts receivable department used to spend eight hours a day posting payment transactions

by hand,” Vila said. “Since we’ve moved to online bill pay, she has cut that time down to two hours—allowing

her to turn her attention to other tasks.”

The detailed disbursement reports, available in Blackbaud Merchant Services, have also saved Belen

Jesuit time, making it easy for the finance department to match individual credit card transactions with bank

deposits. And since Blackbaud MobilePay transactions are disbursed with Blackbaud Merchant Services

payments, the organization can simplify its bank reconciliation.

The school has saved money on payment processing too. “Blackbaud Merchant Services has reduced

our costs pretty substantially,” Vila noted. “One local bank was trying to get our business, and they were in

disbelief when we shared how little we were paying on payment processing with Blackbaud.”

Blackbaud MobilePay has also helped Belen Jesuit enhance its events by allowing the school to accept

credit card payments from an iPhone®, iPad®, or Android™ phone or tablet. “It has given our events a different

complexion,” said Vila. “They’re more modern now.”

Customer Story: Belen Jesuit Preparatory School