Convio TeamRaiser™ Launches New Era for Nonprofits by Extending Fundraising Function to Volunteers

Enables Virtually All Nonprofits To Conduct "A-Thon" Events; Integrates With Convio Software Suite, Supports Cross-Marketing and Relationship Management; Austin Children's Museum Nets 625 Percent More in Fundraising Dollars

(Austin, TX, September 4, 2001) Convio — the leading developer of Internet software to help nonprofits fundraise and manage constituent relationships — today announced January 2002 availability of Convio TeamRaiserTM , which will change the face of philanthropy by extending the fundraising function from in-house development and marketing staff to passionate and motivated volunteers in the field.

Convio TeamRaiser empowers a nonprofit's supporters to easily wage their own campaigns pegged to offline and online events including walk-a-thons and runs, click-a-thons, board appeals, galas, capital campaigns, class agent campaigns and political campaigns. It makes the planning and execution of events highly efficient by giving supporters easy-to-use, enterprise-class Internet tools to support organizing and fundraising. Convio TeamRaiser is ideal for nonprofit groups that already host events and a boon to groups that have not yet done so because of the large up-front investment and heavy administration required.

A nonprofit volunteer uses Convio TeamRaiser, accessed through a Web browser, to create a personal Web page about his or her "story" and the event. Often, volunteers are involved with a nonprofit because of a relevant, moving life experience. The volunteer then sends personalized and targeted emails to relatives, friends and coworkers, leveraging his personal relationship with them to stimulate registrations and donations through the host organization's Web site. Online event registration and automatic fee and donation processing significantly reduce the administrative burden compared to traditional, offline methods. The volunteer also can run reports to chart progress. Nonprofit staff uses Convio TeamRaiser to communicate with volunteer fundraisers before and after the event or campaign. The staff also can create real-time reports to monitor progress, analyze campaign effectiveness and download reports to plan events and manage event-day check-in and registration.

Convio TeamRaiser also helps the volunteer and nonprofit sustain interactions with participants after the event for ongoing constituent relationship management. The volunteer can solicit his circle of supporters for additional gifts, invite them to become volunteer team captains for future events, etc. Convio TeamRaiser works seamlessly with Convio's other products, which comprise a highly integrated software suite. Constituent data captured through a nonprofit's use of Convio TeamRaiser is automatically available to an organization's staff utilizing other Convio modules for ongoing communications and cross-marketing.

"Convio TeamRaiser is ushering in a new day for nonprofit fundraising and event management," said Vinay Bhagat, Convio's founder and CEO. "It enables nonprofits to leverage their most loyal supporters much more effectively and gives them a new, very tangible and high impact way to contribute new donor acquisition, incremental funds and thereby to mission fulfillment. Also, by capturing participant information and sharing it across the organization, Convio TeamRaiser helps all appropriate departments communicate with and involve participants in future activities. No other software provider today -- even those specializing in nonprofits -- even comes close to offering comparable functionality to the entire Convio suite."

Convio's other products enable nonprofits to easily and cost-effectively: publish personalized and dynamic web content; conduct online fundraising, membership and advocacy campaigns; wage e-mail marketing and communications; manage events, including ticket sales and RSVPs, online; and track constituent interactions for more targeted marketing and communications.

Traditional, physical "a-thon" fundraising events require a high, initial investment by nonprofits. These events also have high administrative costs. After administrative, marketing and additional participant support expenses, AIDSRide© netted 53 percent of funds raised during events over a five-year period (based on race data from 1996-2000, according to Pallotta Teamworks Performance Summary 1994-2000). Sixty-one percent of funds raised for Breast Cancer 3-Days© remained with the charity after the same type of expenses (based on race data from 1998-2000, also according to Pallotta Teamworks Performance Summary 1998-2000). While historically these represent good results, Convio TeamRaiser can produce higher return-on-investment.

The Austin Children's Museum achieved strong results from this summer's Convio-powered Click-A-Thon. The museum mailed 5,000 hard copy pieces to members and donors for an annual solicitation around the same time that it conducted a virtual campaign, soliciting 1,300 registers users of its Web site. The email campaign triggered a 12 percent response rate compared to a 2 percent response from the direct mail appeal. The email push generated 34 percent more dollars than the direct mail campaign, which went to 74 percent more people. Because the email campaign had substantially fewer costs (no printing or postage), the actual net to the Museum was 625 percent more than that of the direct mail campaign. More than 50 percent of the online donors were new to the organization.

"These numbers speak for themselves, and any nonprofit certainly would be thrilled to achieve such return-on-investment," said Ken Stein, Director of Marketing at the Austin Children's Museum. "Our direct mail campaign staged during the same time was not as successful as the online event. In addition to exceeding our fundraising and constituent outreach goals, the Click-A-thon set a new standard for ease of event management."

About Convio

Founded in April 1999, Austin-based Convio provides highly integrated Internet software for nonprofit and membership-based organizations to support marketing, fundraising and constituent loyalty. Consisting of nine modules delivered over the Internet, Convio features a technology platform that automatically shares data between the suite's modules, allowing users to build a more unified view of constituents. The product also provides extensive integration with other systems including fundraising and membership databases, eliminating unnecessary data silos.

Convio serves the full spectrum of nonprofit organizations including national and regional advocacy groups, museums, public television and radio stations, educational institutions, healthcare entities and performing arts organizations. Clients include Planned Parenthood Federation of America, The ASPCA (Convio-powered site is scheduled for late September launch), HoustonPBS, Texas Dental Association, and the Austin Children's Museum.