Convio Announces Innovator Award Recipients at 3rd Annual Convio Client Summit

Austin, Texas (November 19, 2008) —

Convio announced today the winners of its second annual Innovator Awards, recognizing clients’ creative use of Convio’s online marketing, fundraising and advocacy solutions to reach, inspire and manage supporters.

“Our clients continue to lead in the implementation of technology and the Internet to more efficiently and effectively move people to support their missions and help dreams come true,” said Gene Austin, chief executive officer of Convio. “By integrating online and offline communication with their creativity, passion and technology they are taking relationships to new levels while engaging millions of people in their causes.  They are changing the world. “

Twenty one nonprofit organizations received awards and recognition in nine categories: advocacy campaign or program; best Web site; email communications (newsletters and other email engagement techniques); integrated (online and offline) fundraising campaign or program; list growth; online fundraising campaign or program; special events fundraising  with Convio TeamRaiser™; constituent empowerment 2.0 and best overall user of Convio. The awards were selected from nominations submitted by Convio clients, partners and staff.

“Recognizing the continued success of the Convio community of clients is a vital part of our mission and the Summit experience,” said Vinay Bhagat, Convio co-founder and chief strategy officer. “We strive to listen to and learn from our clients’ unique, personal techniques so that we can all progress and evolve the nonprofit community together.”

Winners by Category

Advocacy Campaign or Program

Free Press received the Innovator Award for its “Stop Big Media” campaign where the organization took on the Federal Communications Commission to change a ruling that would allow for media monopolies.  The core of the campaign harnessed a traditional online eCRM campaign targeting the Senate and House, as well as sending over 200,000 comments to the FCC. “The Wall” photo petition brought in over 5,000 activists who added their photo to the wall that was then delivered to Congress. Because of the campaign, the Senate unanimously overturned the FCC ruling.

Web Site

United Nations Foundation received the Innovator Award for its sleek new Web site design with a rotating homepage story cube which has attracted 9,000 new registrants since September. The new design offers multiple opportunities to engage viewers including online pledges, polls, quizzes, take action links and unique donation programs. The United Nations site also connects constituents with the organization’s various social media sites such as Facebook, MySpace, blogs, YouTube, webcasts and podcasts.

Email Communications

KQED received the Innovator Award for its QED up email newsletter. With a goal to choose just five stories per newsletter to drive traffic across the entire Web site, KQED implemented the strategy to keep newsletters short and all above the fold, going against broadcasting best practices. This alteration to the newsletter style and content drove the list growth and results that are being implemented by other broadcasting stations. 

Integrated Fundraising Campaign or Program

Defenders of Wildlife received the Innovator Award for its cross-channel, calendar cover photo voting contest campaign. This campaign used an innovative approach to convert activists to first-time donors using their yearly calendar premium as both an incentive for membership and as an opportunity to solicit engagement through the voting of the photos used in the calendar. The campaign took a truly integrated approach by using both online and offline channels to promote a single action.

List Growth

National Relief Charities received the Innovator Award for its email list growth in changing its Web site from a “brochure” to an interactive tool. By taking a holistic approach to building their housefile, the organization developed a multi-faceted campaign that, rather than using a one time push, focused on continued housefile growth. Integrating multiple components into the campaign – a premium (rubber magnet), survey-based pledge, branded eCards, fundraising and campaign promotional widgets, branded donation forms and rewards-based tracking and constituent feedback – National Relief Charities acquired over 1,000 email addresses per month and converted one percent to donors within six weeks. 

Online Fundraising Campaign or Program

Ploughshares Fund received the Innovator Award for its “Peace Primary” campaign, which tied into the launch of the 2007-2008 primary season and offered a $100,000 grant to one of 12 organizations dedicated to working to build peace, security and a nuclear weapon-free world. Constituents were allowed to vote for their favorite organization’s “peace plank” by making a donation to them via the Peace Primary site. Each dollar contribution counted as one vote, and constituents were able to promote nominees on social networks by posting buttons and banners provided by Ploughshares in these online locations. A $100,000 donation was awarded to TrueMajority, the winner of the Peace Primary, and the other participating organizations were granted the amount of money their pages raised. In turn, the campaign also helped the organizations develop online engagement tools and strategies to build an online peace community.  

Special Events Fundraising

National Philanthropic Trust received the Innovator Award for its Breast Cancer 3 Day event. After migrating to Convio for this year’s event, the organization set out to push the boundaries of Convio TeamRaiser and Personal Events tools to grow event participation, increase fundraising and improve the overall user experience. NPT, working with Event 360, helped pioneer the use of Convio’s Open APIs by creating an online event check-in process that allowed participants to review their registration and fundraising information, watch and instructional video and take a safety quiz in preparation for the event. Participants could also commit to complete their fundraising if they did not meet the minimum requirement before the event. In addition to the unique use of Convio TeamRasier and APIs, NPT was also an early adopter and innovative user of the Personal Events module which has allowed event participants to host and lead training walks in their areas and allow volunteers to sign up for event-day shifts.

Constituent Empowerment 2.0

Children International received the Innovator Award for its LiftOne project which uses TeamRaiser as a social networking tool to reach out to and recruit new children sponsors. Since its inception in 2005, Children International has grown this constituent empowerment project to 5,000 sponsors, supporting over 65,000 children worldwide.  In addition to the unique use of a peer-to-peer fundraising tool, Children International has remained dedicated to coaching their sponsors through the Web site, via video, direct dialog and social media such as Facebook and blogs to empower them to reach out to others.

Best Overall Use of Convio

Trisomy 18 Foundation received the Innovator Award for the best overall use of Convio.  Using Fundraising, Tributes, TeamRaiser and Advocacy, the use of Convio is essential to the small organization’s extensive Web presence and growth and has provided the critical capacity for the organization to serve nationally.  In one year, the Trisomy 18 Foundation has tripled online donations and doubled its email housefile, averaging 400 new registrants per month.  The organization has leveraged Convio to: make frequent updates to the Web site by non-technical staff, use conditional content to customize messaging to constituents and empower constituents to create Web sites that share personal stories with friends, family and the community as part of the grieving and healing process. By using Convio to its fullest extent, Trisomy 18 Foundation has increased monthly donations from $2,000 to $10,000 and increased unique Web site visitors from 8,000 to more than 20,000 in one year. Segmentation capabilities have also helped define, build and meet the diverse needs of an ecosystem of constituents without adding personnel to the organization, and the robust use of Convio software has freed up staff resources to pursue other organizational goals.

Notable mentions for the 2008 Convio Innovator Award included: the National Parks Conservation Association and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network for advocacy campaign or program; Unicef United States Fund and Canadian Wildlife Federation for Web site; Natural Resources Defense Council for Email Communications; Human Rights Campaign for Integrated Fundraising campaign or program; The Humane Society of the United States for List growth; Freestore Foodbank and Planned Parenthood Federation of America for Online Fundraising Campaign or Program; CauseForce and Project Bread for Special Events Fundraising; Sierra Club for Constituent Empowerment 2.0; and ASPCA for Best Overall Use of Convio.

For more information on the 2008 Summit Innovator Award Winners and Notable Mentions, visit www.convio.com/2008innovators.

Convio Summit

The awards were presented during Convio’s third annual Client Summit, where more than 650 nonprofit clients, partners and industry thought leaders gathered as a community to share common experiences and effective strategies for nonprofits.

About Convio

Convio is the leading provider of on-demand constituent relationship management (CRM) software and services that give nonprofit organizations a better way to inspire and mobilize people to support their organization. The company’s online marketing suite offers integrated software for fundraising, advocacy, events, email marketing and web content management, and its Convio Common Ground™ CRM system helps organizations efficiently track and manage all interactions with supporters. All Convio products are delivered through the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model and are backed by a portfolio of best-in-class consulting and support services and a network of partners who provide value-added services and applications focused on the unique needs of nonprofit organizations.

Convio clients include nonprofit organizations, Institutions of Higher Education, Associations and Faith-based organizations around the world such as American Red Cross, American Diabetes Association, American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Humane Society of the United States, Easter Seals, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

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