Convio’s Event Fundraising Benchmark Study Showcases Nonprofit Success

Peer-to-peer Appeals Continue as Valuable Channel for Fundraising

Baltimore, Maryland (October 4, 2011) —

Convio, Inc. (NASDAQ: CNVO) today released the results of its annual Peer-to-Peer Event Fundraising Benchmark™ Study during the Company’s annual Nonprofit Summit in Baltimore, MD. The benchmarks offered in the study reflect in-depth research of 48 different nonprofit organizations and more than 1,800 fundraising events in the United States and Canada which utilize Convio TeamRaiser™. Collectively these nonprofit organizations raised more than $1 billion through event fundraising in 2010. The report provides information that nonprofits can use to measure their success as well as learn about trends and best practices in event fundraising that they can leverage, adapt and use to increase the number of participants and funds raised through peer-to-peer fundraising events.

The full study is available at www.convio.com/p2pfundraising

“Peer-to-peer fundraising events like walks, races and rides have become a staple for nonprofit fundraisers, and often bring in more revenue than any other fundraising campaign throughout the year,” said Noel Beebe, Senior Consultant for Convio and the study’s author. “These peer-to-peer fundraising events rely on supporters to register for, participate in, and fundraise on behalf of the organization as part of the experience. They are creating new and exciting opportunities for organizations to not only raise more money, but engage constituents in deeper, more meaningful relationships with the organizations.”

The advent of online fundraising and tools like Convio TeamRaiser™ have enabled fundraisers to easily register online, set up a personal fundraising webpage, and reach out to friends and family via email and social networks to garner support and solicit donations. As peer-to-peer fundraising continues to evolve, new types of events continue to appear on the fundraising landscape.

This year’s report focused on four main event types and three emerging sub-types:

• Competitive (Single Day Footraces)
• Non-Competitive (Walks, Field Days, Fun Runs)
• Endurance (Cycling, Multi-Day Walks)
• Third-Party
• Marathon and Challenge Programs
• Grassroots Fundraising
• Youth & School Events

Key Findings

• In 2010, traditional peer-to-peer fundraising events (run, walk, and ride events) continued to see growth in both online participation and online fundraising, despite an uncertain U.S. economy and growing saturation of the market.


• In traditional events, team participants continue to out-perform individual participants, with team captains performing best of all.


• In traditional events, participants who registered online for the prior year’s event and returned to register online again for the current year’s event were more likely to fundraise, and fundraised more than those who did not participate online the prior year.


• Because third-party events (grassroots, marathon, and school-based events) often do not support team participation in the traditional sense, team participation is not an indicator of fundraising performance for third-party event participants.


• In marathon events, first time fundraisers out-perform fundraisers who return year over year.


• Marathon participants raised more on average than participants in any other event type, including traditional endurance events.

More findings are available in the full study at www.convio.com/p2pfundraising

Convio TeamRaiser™ is the de facto standard for event fundraising, powering almost 70 percent of online funds raised by the nation’s 30 largest fundraising walks, runs and rides based on 2010 data from the Run Walk Ride Fundraising Council. TeamRaiser is available as part of Convio Luminate™ or as a stand-alone application to empower peer-to-peer fundraising for nonprofits of all sizes.

About Convio
Convio is a leading provider of on-demand constituent engagement solutions that enable nonprofit organizations to maximize the value of every relationship. With Convio constituent engagement solutions, nonprofits can more effectively raise funds, advocate for change and cultivate relationships with donors, activists, volunteers, event participants, alumni and other constituents. Convio offers two open, cloud-based constituent engagement solutions: Convio Common Ground CRM™ for small- and mid-sized nonprofits and Convio Luminate™ for enterprise nonprofits. Headquartered in Austin, Texas with offices across the United States and United Kingdom, Convio serves more than 1,500 nonprofit organizations globally. Convio is listed on the NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol CNVO.

For more information: www.convio.com

Convio, the Convio logo, TeamRaiser, Convio Common Ground, Convio Luminate and certain other trademarks and logos are the trademarks and registered trademarks of Convio, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other product names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.

Press contact:
Andy Prince
andy@ap-comm.com
512-289-4728

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