cMarket Joins Convio's Solutions Partner Program to Provide Leading Online Auction Functionality to Nonprofits; Solution Complements Convio's Robust OfferingConvio Client, National Trust for Historic Preservation, Plans cMarket-Powered Online Auction For "Restore America" GalaAUSTIN, TEXAS (May 5, 2004) -- cMarket -- the leading provider of online auction services that enable nonprofits to create, extend, market and manage their fundraising auctions online -- joins Convio Inc's expanding Solutions Partner Program. This program consists of technology companies that have partnered with Convio to offer a comprehensive, fully-integrated Internet solution for the nonprofit sector. Auctions play a key role for nonprofit organizations in raising critical funds. This new partnership combines cMarket's auction solution with Convio's suite of software and services for managing constituent relationships online. Convio provides software and services that help nonprofit organizations use the Internet to develop a strong base of constituents to donate, advocate, volunteer and offer other forms of mission-critical support. Nonprofit organizations increasingly are using the Internet for auctions to generate stronger revenue results and derive post-auction benefits. With cMarket's solution, organizations create a home page and online catalog for auctions and use email to motivate constituents to participate in the bidding process. cMarket also allows nonprofits to feature sponsors and donors of goods and services on auction Web sites and in emails to constituencies a significant promotional benefit which helps secure more and better sponsorships and donated items. National Trust for Historic Preservation (http://www.nthp.org/), a Convio client, will host a cMarket-powered auction as part of its "2004 Restore America Gala: A Salute to Preservation" on June 15. The online auction begins May 24 and runs through June 12, and the offline auction will be the evening of the gala. Since some items up for bid are offered both online and offline, bids placed online for offline-only items will be entered via proxy the night of the gala. "Our work with Convio, which is the core of our online membership program, showed us the power of the Internet to engage new constituents, build relationships with our members and increase revenue online," said Dolores McDonagh, vice president of membership development at National Trust for Historic Preservation. "Now that we're launching our first online auction with cMarket, we're excited that the cMarket-Convio partnership will allow us to easily integrate these two top-notch products, giving us a complete solution, without creating 'silos' of constituent information." Convio and cMarket will integrate their products so that nonprofit clients can understand a constituent's auction participation in context with other online activity, such as making a gift or signing a petition. This "360-degree view" of online constituent interactions allows a nonprofit organization to understand its most involved supporters, and target constituents based on the types of activities in which they participate. Specific integration will include storing a constituent's auction participation in the Convio Constituent360TM online marketing database. (Learn more about Convio Constituent360 at www.convio.com/constituent360.) "This partnership combines the most complete online auction functionality for nonprofits with the leading solution in online constituent relationship management," says Greg McHale, founder and executive vice president of cMarket. "The integration of these two powerful solutions now creates the best technology available to enable nonprofits to harness the power of the Internet." Convio's Solutions Partner Program is designed to offer choice to nonprofits without sacrificing integration. Convio combines its solution for developing constituent relationships and driving results online with best-in-class products from today's top companies specializing in online auctions, community building and more. (For more information about Convio's Solutions Partner Program, visit www.convio.com/solutionspartners.) "Adding cMarket to our Solutions Partner Program is an important move because it brings the power of online auctions to our nonprofit clients," says Gene Austin, CEO of Convio. "Interest among our clients, including the National Trust for Historic Preservation, indicates that nonprofits are eager to fundraise through targeted, online auctions." About cMarketcMarket of Cambridge, Massachusetts, enables nonprofits to easily create, extend, market, and manage their fundraising auctions online. With the ability to reach the inboxes of their community or targeted customer set, cMarket helps nonprofits maximize auction revenue through increased bidding, added sponsors and donor value. cMarket's solution has helped numerous nonprofits in the arts, healthcare, faith-based and education sectors raise significant funds. For more information about cMarket, including the most current running auctions, visit http://www.cmarket.com/. About Convio, Inc.Convio is the leading provider of software and services that help nonprofit organizations use the Internet to build strong constituent relationships to drive support and participation. Convio has online solution centers for fundraising and membership, advocacy, special events, volunteer fundraising, Web site management, email communications and alumni relations. All centers include the Constituent360TM platform, a sophisticated, online marketing database that centralizes constituent data and integrates with offline databases. This gives nonprofits a unified view of constituent interests and motivations -- key for personalized and targeted outreach and communications. Convio also provides services and consulting to help nonprofits achieve success online. In addition to National Trust for Historic Preservation, Convio's clients include the Pentagon Memorial Fund, Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence United with the Million Mom March, Easter Seals, American Diabetes Association, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, AVON Foundation, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, KCET Community Television of Southern California, Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, Georgetown University and the Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization. For more information, please visit www.convio.com. Whitney Wood Otstott |
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