Steve MacLaughlin

Personal life

MacLaughlin was born and raised in Jamestown, New York, where he attended Jamestown High School (New York). MacLaughlin graduated from Indiana University in 1997 with a BA in political science and English. During his undergraduate days he had early experiments on the Web that garnered mentions in Yahoo! Internet Life magazine and Rolling Stone. MacLaughlin later earned a Master of Science degree in Interactive Media from Indiana University. MacLaughlin currently resides in Charleston, South Carolina with his wife, Lynsey, and their two children: Conner and Maverick.

Career

MacLaughlin was a co-founder of Expidant, an interactive agency that produced successful online initiatives for Procter & Gamble, NCAA, Eli Lilly, Finish Line, Dow AgroSciences, Masco Corporation, and Thomson Multimedia. Several of these online sites went on to win industry acclaim and awards.

In 2001, MacLaughlin worked at Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis on the development of the self-assessment for the re-accreditation of a university based entirely on the Web. He also taught a course on "Fundamentals of Managing Internet Development Projects" at Indiana University.

After joining Blackbaud in 2004, MacLaughlin spent time growing Blackbaud's interactive services group and later had product management responsibilities for the company's Internet product lines. Since 2008, MacLaughlin has served on The Nonprofit Technology Enterprise Network (NTEN) Board of Directors. NTEN is an international nonprofit organization with a focus on both the growth and professionalism of the nonprofit technology field as well as building knowledge and information sharing capacity throughout the sector.

In 2010, MacLaughlin became a winner of Charleston SC's Forty Under 40 award.

In 2016, MacLaughlin was invited to be part of the senior faculty of the Georgetown University New Strategies Program. This is an intensive, hands-on program for nonprofit executives and is directed by nationally recognized leaders in the nonprofit and philanthropy fields. Later in 2016, MacLaughlin became the Vice President of Data & Analytics at Blackbaud.

During 2017, MacLaughlin became an adjunct faculty member at Columbia University in the School of Professional Studies' nonprofit management program. He has helped to design and teach a course on data and analytics in the nonprofit sector.

Expertise

MacLaughlin has been featured as a fundraising, online giving, Giving Tuesday, Big Data, and nonprofit sector expert in many mainstream publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, USA Today, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Bloomberg, and has appeared on NPR.

MacLaughlin has been an author and contributor to several reports including the Blackbaud Charitable Giving Report, GivingTuesday Trends, and the Online Giving Report. Several media outlets have used these reports as the basis for stories about giving trends.

Beginning in 2012, the Blackbaud Charitable Giving Report examined overall giving trends in the United States. The report first noted that charitable giving was up only 1.7% in 2012 and there was speculation that tax increases influenced giving. The 2013 Charitable Giving Report once again analyzed overall fundraising and online giving trends in the United States. The 2013 report found that Americans gave 4.9% more to charity during 2013 compared to 2012, while online giving had a double-digit increase.

Since 2012, MacLaughlin has been regularly interviewed and quoted for his analysis of Giving Tuesday trends. In 2015, MacLaughlin helped publish the GivingTuesday Trends report and it was the first in-depth analysis of online donation trends related to Giving Tuesday.

MacLaughlin has also been a featured interviewee in the book Nonprofit Fundraising 101 and acknowledged by the author of The PayPal Official Insider Guide to Online Fundraising .

Writing

MacLaughlin has written, edited, and contributed to three books related to the nonprofit sector, fundraising, and big data. He has also had several original articles published in print and digital publications.

In 2016, Saltire Press published Steve's book, Data Driven Nonprofits, and it went on to be listed as a #1 Best Seller in Nonprofit Organizations & Charities on Amazon.com. Roger Craver of The Agitator reviewed the book and noted: "Data Driven Nonprofits is must reading, because it will not only change your mind, it will inspire you — by fact and example — to start measuring the right things for the right outcomes, and begin experiencing real growth."

In 2010, John Wiley & Sons published a book Steve co-edited and contributed to called Internet Management for Nonprofits: Strategies, Tools and Trade Secrets. In 2007, MacLaughlin served as a contributing author in the John Wiley & Sons book People to People Fundraising: Social Networking and Web 2.0.

He has had original articles featured in many publications, including the Association of Fundraising Professionals Advancing Philanthropy magazine, Philanthropy Journal, Fundraising Success Magazine and Civil Society.

Blogs

MacLaughlin is a long-time contributor to the Blackbaud blog npENGAGE including his annual review of nonprofit email subject lines. In 2015, MacLaughlin became a contributor on The Huffington Post and regularly writes on topics related to the intersection of the nonprofit sector, technology, and data.

Books

Articles

Speaking

MacLaughlin is a frequent speaker at events including the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), American Marketing Association (AMA), Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement (APRA), Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), Direct Marketing Association Nonprofit Federation (DMA), Giving Institute Summer Symposium, Nonprofit Technology Enterprise Network (NTEN), Institute of Fundraising National Convention, Civil Society Congress, Resource Alliance’s Fundraising Online.

Steve has also been a keynote speaker at such events as the Crescendo Practical Planned Giving Conference, The Nature Conservancy, BC Non-Profit Housing Association, and the Do Good Data conference.