Convio Releases Annual Study of Nonprofit Sector’s Online Trends

Austin, Texas (June 8, 2010) —

Convio, Inc., today announced the results of its annual Convio Online Marketing Nonprofit Benchmark Index Study. This year’s study shows that online giving is growing steadily, there has been an increase in the number of online gifts and nonprofits are continuing to grow their email files. The full study is available at www.convio.com/2010benchmark

The study is designed to help nonprofit professionals evaluate beneficial online marketing metrics, evaluate the effectiveness of their organization compared to similar organizations and determine strategies for future success. The study focused on key areas related to online success, including:

• Website traffic and registration
• Email file health
• Online fundraising
• Online communications
• Advocacy

Key findings of the study include: 
Online giving grew 14 percent despite a difficult economy. Overall, 69 percent of organizations raised more in 2009 than 2008, while 31 percent saw declines in their online fundraising.

An increase in gifts drove fundraising gains. Of those that grew fundraising in 2009, 92 percent saw an increase in the number of gifts in 2009 compared with just 43 percent of organizations seeing an increase in their average gift amount.

Small organizations grew fastest. Organizations with fewer than 10,000 email addresses on file, many of which are participants in the Convio Go! program, grew online revenue by 26 percent, and gifts by 32 percent.

Web traffic growth continued for most, but at a slower rate. 60 percent of organizations grew their website traffic from 2008 to 2009. Web traffic growth in 2009 was in the single digits at 6 percent compared with double digit growth seen in previous years.

Web traffic was strongly correlated with email file growth. 38 percent of an organization’s success building large email files could be directly attributed to the amount of traffic to the organization’s website.

This year’s study analyzes data compiled from 499 nonprofit organizations that have at least 24 months of data to compare. The study aggregates results into benchmarks that nonprofit organizations can compare against their peer group and the industry as a whole. In addition the study provides separate benchmarks for 15 nonprofit industry sub-groups, or verticals across 19 key metrics. In total Convio’s clients raised more than $920 million online in 2009.

About Convio
Convio is a leading provider of on-demand constituent engagement solutions that enable nonprofit organizations to more effectively raise funds, advocate for change and cultivate relationships with donors, activists, volunteers, alumni and other constituents.

Forward-looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements intended to convey expectations as to the future based on plans, estimates and projections.  Although we believe that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, future circumstances might differ from the assumptions on which such statements are based. In addition, these statements can be affected by inaccurate assumptions and a variety of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in this press release including, among others: unfavorable economic and business conditions, in particular with respect to the nonprofit market in which we operate; our ability to attract new customers; the loss of significant customers or a substantial reduction in orders from our existing customers; the reduction in usage of our systems by our customers or their clients and a corresponding reduction in usage revenue, the inability of customers to pay for our solutions and services; our continued success in sales growth; our ability to develop new or enhanced solutions to meet the needs of our clients; technological changes that make our products and services less competitive; risks associated with successful implementation of multiple integrated software products; and the ability to attract and retain key personnel. Other risks that could impact our business adversely are those risks generally  associated with management of growth; lengthy sales and implementation cycles; intellectual property infringement claims and other litigation; reliance on certain third-parties, including hosting facilities, software and application providers; the ability to access sufficient funding to finance desired growth and operations; legislative actions which could reduce the effectiveness of our solutions and increase the costs of our business. These factors and other risks and uncertainties are described in more detail, from time to time, in Convio’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission which are available free of charge at www.sec.gov or on our website at www.convio.com/investor. Should one or more of these risks materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. Convio does not undertake to update or revise any of these statements as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Press Contact:
Karoline McLaughlin
Director, Corporate Communications
Convio, Inc.
kmclaughlin@convio.com
512-652-7865