Nonprofits Help Chapters Get Online Efficiently for Fundraising, Advocacy and More with Convio Multi-Affiliate™

Easter Seals Launches Across 90-Plus Chapters; New Software Empowers Local Affiliates, Enables National Office to Establish Consistent Branding, Centralized Database

(Austin, Texas, August 20, 2002) -- Nonprofit groups now can efficiently extend the power of the Internet to their affiliates, strengthen their brands and build a centralized database for more effective marketing by using Convio Multi-Affiliate.

One of the newest product offerings from Convio -- the leading online Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) company for nonprofits, Convio Multi-Affiliate solves common Internet challenges faced by multi-affiliate organizations. This customizable set of Internet tools enables affiliates (e.g., local chapters, community-based centers, different departments or schools within a college or university, etc.) to: create their own Web sites; engage in online fundraising, event promotion, advocacy and email campaigns; and also access information on their constituents, for example, biographical data, donation history and participation in action alerts. At the same time, the national headquarters can ensure brand consistency and view constituent data generated by affiliates in a single, integrated database for measuring the effectiveness of activities across the entire organization.

Easter Seals, among the nation's top 20 nonprofits*, plans to use Convio Multi-Affiliate with its 90-plus community-based affiliates.

"Of all the Internet solutions we considered, Convio was the only one with a complete, efficient and integrated system for all of our Web properties across affiliates, national headquarters and special programs," said Shirley Sexton, Director of Internet Marketing, Easter Seals. "Access to robust yet easy-to-use Internet functionality such as content creation, event promotion and donation processing is mission-critical for our chapters, as it is for virtually any multi-affiliate organization today. Simultaneously, it's important for the national organization to ensure a consistent user experience across our network of Web properties as well as adherence to our brand, privacy, security and accessibility policies."

Typically, local entities of multi-affiliate nonprofits do not have the expertise or budget for creating and maintaining a Web presence, so they are unable to communicate with constituents online. They generally look to the national organization to provide or recommend a solution. When affiliates do create their own Web sites, they may use graphics and messaging that differ from the national office, making it difficult to establish brand consistency and maximize organizational impact.

Also, affiliates who independently purchase software for email and advocacy, for example, usually end up creating silos of constituent data. This prevents the national office from having a single, consolidated view of all online interactions between affiliates and their constituents. Without such a view, it is hard to assess the performance and effectiveness of organization-wide programs and activities. Additionally, when affiliates contract individually for Internet products and services, there are missed opportunities for economies of scale and related savings.

Convio Multi-Affiliate addresses these challenges because it:

Makes online services affordable for local affiliates. It allows the parent organization to provide the affiliate with a defined set of constituent-facing Web pages, content authoring/management tools, and online services for fundraising, advocacy and e-mail.
Supports brand consistency.
Affiliates can customize their Web presence, but the parent organization can set limits. For instance, the parent can preload content onto portions of each page and specify that it cannot be changed.
Allows distributed content. When the parent organization makes changes to master pages, select pages on affiliate portals can be automatically updated, so chapters maintain a fresh Web presence with minimal investment in time and money.
Enables consolidated reporting. The parent organization can review "roll up" reports that consolidate online fundraising and advocacy data across all affiliates for centralized analysis and planning.
Provides for secure delegation of administration. The parent organization can control administrative access to Web pages, online services, and reports, restricting affiliates to only the services designated for their use.

"As Americans move online, nonprofits need to do the same and that includes local affiliates. In today's world, not having Internet functionality is like conducting business without a telephone," said Vinay Bhagat, founder and CEO, Convio. "Because so much of an organization's work is done at the local affiliate level -- from fundraising to advocacy to delivery of services, affiliates must have an efficient way to communicate with as well as market and stay connected to constituents. It's equally as important that the parent organization have efficient and real time methods for pushing information out to the field as well as viewing data and trends system-wide."

About Convio

Austin-based Convio is the leading online Constituent Relationship Management, or CRM, company serving the nonprofit sector. Convio's mission is to increase the effectiveness of how nonprofit organizations attract, engage and retain constituents to provide funding and other forms of support. The ConvioTM software solutions consists of five modules: eFundraising, eMarketing, Advocacy, Content and Events. The Convio Constituent Center provides a robust platform for integrating these modules, and also offers tools for personalization, segmentation and synchronization with offlines databases. Using Convio, nonprofits can send targeted, personalized email communications; conduct fundraising, membership and advocacy campaigns; publish personalized and fresh Web content; manage registrations, RSVPs, ticket sales and other event logistics; tap volunteers and their personal networks for campaigns; track constituent interactions; connect online systems to off-line systems, e.g., donor databases; and more. The Convio platform automatically shares data among all six-product suites, giving nonprofits a unified view of each constituent so staff can conduct more personalized and targeted marketing. Convio also provides services to help nonprofits adopt online marketing best practices.

Convio serves national and regional organizations in all segments of the nonprofit sector including disease and disorder, education, healthcare, human services, advocacy, associations, public broadcasting, museums and other visitation facilities, and political campaigns. In addition to Easter Seals, Convio's clients include American Cancer Society, The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, American Humane Association, Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, National Foundation for Cancer Research, National Trust For Historic Preservation and KCET (PBS, Los Angeles). For more information, please visit http://www.convio.com.

*According to Nonprofit Times' November 2001 "NPT 100," a ranking of the largest U.S. nonprofits based on annual revenues.