Tag Archives: convio

Reporting Across Multiple Systems

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Currently I spend a few days each week generating reports for transmission of information between my organization’s online and offline systems.  Matt McCabe of Orange Leap hosted a NTen webinar this week, Meaningful Reporting: A Holistic Approach to Reporting Across Multiple Systems which highlighted this issue.  While there are no easy solutions, there are some options to consider:

  1. Select vendors and products which connect well with other systems.  Salesforce is an example of a company which has many ways to link its CRM to other software.
  2. Before implementing a new product, figure out how you will synchronize its data with your existing systems.  If you need to spend considerable time running reports and exporting / importing data, you’ll have little time to focus on developing the synchronization.
  3. Consider how much information you really need to have in multiple systems.  Some products will allow you to transfer basic contact information, but may not  be able to handle synchronization of event data or custom fields.
  4. Unless you have a lot of money to spend, it won’t be possible to have a ‘real time’ synch;  decide how often it is practical to have your systems connect with each other.
  5. Make the synchronization run automated, preferably during off hours.  The more manual work you need to do, the more chance there is for error.  (But make sure you look at the error log to determine what didn’t work.)
  6. Confirm that you’re including all activity.  Donations and event registrations may not be available in the same report;  you may need to find a ‘transaction report’ that includes all activity (then confirm this by sampling different types of transactions)
  7. Stick to a schedule – and let your staff know when synchronization is taking place.  (My most common question from staff is why a particular transaction doesn’t appear in another system, and when they can expect it to show.)
  8. If you encourage constituents to fundraise for your organization using a tool like Convio’sTeamRaiser or Blackbaud / Kintera’s Thon, you’ll need to find a way for offline donations to appear quickly on constituents’ personal web sites when developing your synchronization schedule.

In his presentation, Matt described the steps of data extraction, consolidation, reconciliation between systems and presentation, suggesting that you compute the staff hours spent in completing these tasks – and making management aware of the actual price in making integrated information available.  His overall recommendations included:

  • develop standards, e.g. how does your organization define ‘online giving’?  Become familar with APIs (application program interface) and Active Messaging Protocols (XMLs)
  • seek platform independent tools, e.g. using OLAP data storage and a data warehouse
  • empower end users to generate their own reports

The benefit: more time to devote to mission, faster more informed decisions and higher morale, and an increase in staff morale, as they’re freed from tedious reporting tasks.

How are you dealing with this issue?

Help Holly Reach Her Goal for the NTC

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Due to the financial challenges that many of our nonprofit organizations are facing this year, many of us (incuding myself) may not be able to attend the annual Nonprofit Technology Conference in April.  To respond, Nten Executive Director has setup a scholarship fund to help send nonprofit staff who otherwise wouldn’t be able to participate.  This event is always wonderful and provides an opportunity to meet and exchange ideas with colleagues from across the US and beyond.   There are two days left for Holly to reach he goal of $10,000, of which Convio has agreed to match.  I’ve already donated – can you help?

Notes from Convio Summit

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This week I attended my first Convio Summit in Austin, Texas.  Probably the most valuable part was the first day, where I joined many other national accounts for an unusual opportunity to work directly with Convio’s senior management in critiquing the product and discussing future plans.  I was most gratified to hear about the firm’s commitment to improving product usability, both on the back and front end.  Since I train and support staff nationwide for my nonprofit organization, I often get questions about what modules to use for what and why the screens are sometimes difficult to understand.  A good definition for usability was provided by Jim Killion of is7: “make it easier for people to do what you want them to do.”

More highlights:

Convio’s new Common Ground is designed to ease the pain of integration by providing a platform that will support both online and offline transactions.  Although a new offering, Common Ground uses the well established SalesForce platform and is built to interface well with Convio’s online product.  However, the availability of this product does not mean that Convio will stop building integrations for other fundraising software solutions.  I also spoke with Convio’s data integration director – connecting with other systems is clearly something that Convio has devoted substantial resources to.

I also spoke at length with Convio’s new Director of Client Support, who plans major changes in how calls are tracked and handled as well as eliminating the current need for multiple login into multiple systems.

Multichannel fundraising / marketing was a major theme. CARE and Defenders of Wildlife (which won an award for their use of integrated strategies) both spoke about how they’ve seen optimal results from campaigns that span offline and online channels.  While changing your organization to operate across channels may not be easy to implement, the payout clearly seems worth the effort.

Several speakers agreed that social media may not currently result in a large fundraising impact, but that it’s still important to participate because it’s where constituents are spending time and finding a sense of community and like-mindedness.  Beth Kanter is the expert on this topic, leading Nten’s WeAreMedia.

A fascinating session on how to structure your organization for online success reviewed results from a recent survey responded to by over 60 nonprofit organizations to date.  Not surprisingly, ‘insufficient staff’ and ‘budget constraints’ were viewed as the largest barriers, followed by ‘senior management doesn’t understand value of integrated / online marketing.’  Organization structure for online strategy was mixed: 20% centralized, 39% decentralized and 41% hybrid (combination of both).  However, Marketing & Communications was named as the department which most often handles this function, followed by Development and Information Technology (agreeing with what I’ve said previously in this blog).

Many nonprofits were recognized for their innovative use of online strategies.  Particularly noteworthy was the Trisomy 18 Foundation which received an award for best overall use of Convio.

Convio’s Misty McLaughlin discussed building a ‘top notch user experience,’ offering Three Things You Can Do Today:

  1. Use analytics – in addition to Google Analytics, take a look at CrazyEgg
  2. Interview some site visitors
  3. Profile how your nonprofit is perceived by others by regularly searching for your organization on Google, by reviewing blogs, Facebook and Twitter
Judi Sohn of the Colorectal Cancer Coaliton provided a fascinating review of her creation of the microsite Cover Your Butt to spotlight colorectal cancer and to gain support for several legislative initiatives, also using a variety of social networking tools.
Thanks to Gene Austin and the Convio staff for a very rewarding conference.

Next Week’s Presentation at Convio Summit

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For several months, I’ve been managing an implementation to Convio at my current organization first for TeamRaiser and then for other events, donation forms, and email marketing.  To support our nationwide chapter structure, we’ve also decided to use Convio’s MultiCenter, which will allow each chapter to view and communicate with its own constituents.  Next week I’ll be speaking about this project at the Convio Summit, joining representatives from other nonprofit organizations and vendors.

How can your organization successfully manage a transition to a new online vendor?  See my previous post on Tips for Working With an Online Vendor.

For more on my presentation, view the event schedule – my session is From Concept to Finish Line — Getting Results with TeamRaiser™ on Tue, Nov. 18 at 2 PM CST.

Web 2.0 Becoming Mainstream?

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This recent OnPhilanthropy article suggests that Web 2.0 technologies are now in use by all ages of Internet users, not just the young.  More ‘traditional’ email appeals aren’t having the same impact, with open rates dropping to 14% in the latest Convio Online Marketing Nonprofit Benchmarking Index Study.  Facebook Causes and YouTube’s nonprofit channel have started to play a large role in online fundraising and constituent engagement.  Yet Harry Lynch of SankyNet says the email is not dead yet in this AFP article, Isn’t Email Just Like Regular Direct Mail—But on Steroids.

Nten’s WeTheMedia Project offers an interesting challenge this month to Create the Ultimate Nonprofit Social Media Toolbox, categorizing web 2.0 tools by:

  • listening - monitoring conversations, using RSS readers and social bookmarking
  • participating - commenting on conversations
  • sharing your story - using blogs / podcasts and sharing photos / videos
  • spreading awareness, generating buzz - accessing ‘crowd sourced’ news and content, using micro media to broadcast content to targeted communities, and using a ‘life stream’
  • social networking for action and fundraising - using social networks and fundraising widgets / applications.

My take: when even the value of email communications is being questioned, it’s time to sit up and pay attention to the many new ways a nonprofit can develop ongoing relationships with its constituents.

Addendum 10-15-08
Social networking expert Beth Kanter offers How Much Time Does It Take to Do Social Media, – apparently enough to fill a full time position.

Tips on Working with an Online Vendor

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At my current organization, we’ve just rolled out our first week of going live with Convio for our national walks program, which raised over $6 million in the past year.  Having worked with many online services products, below I offer some tips in maintaining a successful relationship with your vendor:

  1. Take advantage of any training that is available to learn the product.  This enables you to deal with issues more quickly and avoids the situation where support staff impatiently tell you to ‘read the manual’
  2. Develop a rapport with your account manager or whoever has been assigned to handle your relationship.  This includes asking not only what the vendor can do for you, but what your responsibilities are in using the product and dealing with the vendor’s staff.
  3. Document problems over the web;  Convio provides a Salesforce enabled support system which allows me to review calls I’ve placed, and add updates.  If your vendor doesn’t provide this, use your own tracking system, as I did in the past with a product like Elementool.
  4. Be respectful about prioritizing issues.  If a problem is affecting a major application and / or many of your co-workers, make sure the vendor knows this and use escalation procedures.  (Make sure you specifically ask about how to escalate issues.)  If you make every problem into an ‘emergency,’ then nothing will be treated as a high priority.
  5. If you’re dealing with a vendor like Convio that has many modules, learn which products are most actively supported (preferably before you’ve decided on a vendor);  you can find this out by asking which modules are used by the most large clients.
  6. When rolling out a new application, be sure to test exhaustively.  We’re dealing with a problem this week that we might have avoided had we tested a bit more extensively.
  7. Develop a relationship with other nonprofits that are already using the product and take advantage of any online forums (either promoted by the vendor or not) to learn from others and share your own experiences.
  8. Be careful of criticizing your vendor to internal staff.  Even if you’re feeling frustrated on a particular day, don’t vent to your co-workers;  you want them to feel positively about the product you’ve selected despite any occasional glitches that come up. 

More ePhilanthropy Ideas from Around the Web

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Guidestar summarizes recent Giving USA online fundraising survey:

  • while Internet giving is widely used, it still represents a small portion (under 5%) of overall fundraising
  • most common way organizations raise money over the web is through an online donation page
  • best results come from organizations that combine an online donation page with email appeals

Overall, social networking tools aren’t contributing much – yet, but an organization that utilizes online ‘communities’ is likely to improve results.

Care2′s FrogLoop blog interviews Phillip Artez, President of Artez on how to choose an eCRM.  Phillip says that successful nonprofit fundraisers “aren’t afraid to share brand, content and promotion with their supporters” and reminds us that a large portion of funds will come from a small group of fundraisers so we should “treat them differently.”  He mentions three areas where nonprofits should especially pay attention to: potential of social networking sites such as Facebook, donations originating from mobile devices and more organizations utilizing SalesForce (which has excellent connectivity to other systems and provides up to 10 free licenses to nonprofits).

Finally, the Nonprofit Times explains the importance of using multiple channels since many donors will visit the web before making a donation - even if it’s offline and, surprisingly, even more so for constituents 65 and older.  PerDonordigital‘s Nick Allen, “more people are online, more people are doing research online, checking out charities they support or are thinking about supporting.” But NPAdvisor‘s expert Rick Christ warns that “nonprofit’s Web site should try to support direct mail, but not replace it.” and that direct mail is still how many first hear about a nonprofit. Convio‘s Vinay Bhagat adds that while blogs and social networking are getting more attention, the core web site is still the main way constituents will evaluate a nonprofit.

Many contributors to the Nonprofit Times article, including Nten‘s Holly Ross stressed the importance of integrating the web site with email appeals.


Integrated Fundraising – No Longer Optional

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Probably the best book explaining the benefits of ephilanthropy I’ve seen to date is Ted Hart’s People to People Fundraising.  Multiple experts from nonprofit organizations and vendors / consultants who service nonprofits offer detailed strategies on why nonprofits must begin to embrace integrated fundraising techniques.  Some memorable takeaways:

  • Traditionally an organization’s web site has been under the control of either IT or marketing.  Whereas their goals and objectives may be well intended, it is fair to say that their core focus is not development  oriented. Development is often shut out from many of the Web conversations…Nonprofit organizations need to take a much more holistic focus of who controls and contributes to the overall online presence;  marketing, IT and development are just three of the contributors.
  • Many organizations hae been quick to jump on the online bandwagon without creating an effective strategic plan.  For example, it’s easy to ask people to visit your web site or leave an email address.  But without an effective plan for how you wil use email addresses and how your online activities will integrate with your offline activities, you may be creating more problems than solutions.
  • To develop integrated campaigns, an organization may not need to restructure, but it will have to to rethink how the departments within the organization interact with each other.

Some of the book’s contributors, many which I’ve heard speak at conferences and other industry events, include Blackbaud’s Steven MacLaughlin, Convio’s Sheeraz Haji, Network for Good’s Katya Andresen as well as Ted Hart, who has long been an expert on this topic since founding the ePhilanthropy Foundation.  Many case studies from nonprofits that have successfully utilized integrated fundraising strategies are profiled, as well as many ways to take advantage of social networking sites.

If you still think that collaborative campaigns won’t work in your organization, take a look at this book and find out why it’s so important.

Report from Fundraising Day NYC

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I joined over 1800 at last week’s Fundraising Day, sponsored by the Association of Development Professionals.   I focused on sessions covering online fundraising;  highlights are below:

  • Many nonprofits are clearly still struggling to coordinate offline and online strategies.  Per Sheeraz Haji, President of Convio, only a handful of their clients are doing this well.  Steve Birnbaum of Jacobson Consulting suggested that the challenges are often not technical but organizational, e.g. getting people to talk to each other.
  • Online fundraising continues to increase dramatically, but overall it’s still less than 1% of total fundraising revenues.  (Some large nonprofit organizations are doing much better than this, however.)
  • Harry Lynch and Paul Habig of SankyNet offered a variety of techniques to accelerate online revenues – their presentation is available online.
  • Tim Lash of International Rescue Committee offered tips on eadvocacy, and also suggested a simple three step approach currently in use by SaveDarfur.org
    1. sign a petition
    2. tell a friend
    3. donate
  • A panel with representatives of Convio, Beaconfire Consulting & Carnegie Hall reiterated the need for synchronization of offline / online efforts, as well as how to make a site visitor ‘known’ by offering multiple reasons to submit an email address.  ASPCA is particularly good at doing this.
  • Using peer to peer fundraising was also suggested since supporters will often prefer to use their own web pages for fundraising rather than an organization’s page created solely for an event or other fundraising initiative.


Convio & GetActive Speak, New Integration Report on APIs

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Listened to an NTen sponsored call today with Sheeraz Haji and Tom Krackeler of GetActive and Gene Austin and Dave Crooke of Convio.  Both companies seemed very optimistic about their planned merger which will aim to take the best from both companies, e.g. online fundraising from Convio and advocacy / CMS from GetActive.  Time will tell how things will play out as current customers learn more about migration.

Meanwhile, the issue of how to connect data in different systems was squarely addressed in a comprehensive report on Open APIs by Michelle Murrain and Katrin Verclas, available free from NTen.  At my current organization, we’re struggling with two separate integration projects, one which involves two products from the same company.  Open APIs are important because then you don’t necessarily have to get everything from the same vendor.  While Convio & GetActive will make a good try, it’s hard for any one company to offer the best of breed for many different applications.