Convio Launches a Constituent Engagement Solution for Nonprofits

Convio yesterday unveiled its Luminate cloud-based constituent engagement solution for nonprofits.

Luminate combines Convio's online fundraising suite with the world's most proven CRM platform and leading analytics technologies and expertise to meet the complex needs of large, enterprise nonprofits. It also offers an open, extensible, cloud-based constituent engagement solution that allows nonprofits to analyze and cultivate relationships with donors, advocates, and other constituents.

"The introduction of Luminate in the nonprofit marketplace signals a fundamental shift in the way enterprise nonprofits engage with their constituents," said Julie Butcher, chief information officer at the National Multiple Sclerosis Society of the United States. "In today's connected world, donors, advocates, volunteers, and other constituents engage with the nonprofits through many channels - traditional, digital, and social. Luminate is designed to integrate direct mail, face-to-face and other traditional direct channels with online, mobile, and social, as well as analyze and report results more cost-effectively and efficiently. Luminate eliminates the need for multiple databases, provides access to real-time information across the organization and integrates online and offline channels. With Luminate nonprofit professionals can focus on their mission, relationships and results instead of worrying about technology."

Luminate is comprised of two core suites: Luminate Online, which includes email marketing, fundraising advocacy and events; and Luminate CRM, which includes robust campaign management, moves management, direct marketing capabilities and business intelligence and analytics.

Luminate Online Suite leverages the next generation of Convio's online marketing, fundraising, and advocacy suite for online engagement. It includes the following:

• Email Marketing: Provides nonprofits fully integrated tools to drive membership, increase donations, raise awareness, or improve volunteer participation. Email marketing and newsletter software helps organizations reach new and existing constituents and move them to participate at higher rates. Quickly create and send personalized, interactive emails; create templates with organization's branding; personalize content based on constituent profiles.
• Fundraising: Delivers the online capabilities organizations need to raise money online and increase membership revenue. Easily setup fundraising campaigns; quickly build donations forms; create gift options to match donor preferences; improve performance with comprehensive reporting and analysis.
• Advocacy: Use the Internet to mobilize people quickly around the issues most important to an organization. Helps grow an organization's activist base through Web site and social channels, and by giving activists tools for sharing information with friends and family. Create and publish action alerts to an organization's Web site and send compelling email messages to constituents to inspire them to take action.
• TeamRaiser is an advanced online event fundraising software solution for tapping into the personal networks of an organization's strongest supporters and mobilizing volunteers over the Internet. For special event fundraising, Convio TeamRaiser powers almost 70 percent of online funds raised by the nation's 30 largest fundraising walks, runs, and rides.

The Luminate CRM Suite leverages the Force.com platform from Salesforce.com to provide an extensible CRM suite that allows a nonprofit to consolidate information and business processes into one system. It includes the following components:

• Campaign Management: Plan and execute one-time or ongoing campaigns that include multiple online and offline channels. Manage every aspect of the campaign, including timing of interactions with constituents and personalized messages by channel and by constituent behavior.
• Constituent Relations: Know all your constituents in your database; channel preferences; de-duplication of multiple entries for one person, multiple emails per person, and household/office relationships for more personalized, deliberate and effective engagement.>
• Business Intelligence and Analytics: Apply knowledge about constituent interests and behaviors to any activity (fundraising, advocacy, event participation, etc). Analytics and business intelligence will help organizations effectively attract new constituents, retain existing ones, reactivate lapsed supporters, and nurture existing relationships to higher levels of engagement.

Convio also provides a team to partner with a nonprofit's professional staff to plan, execute and evaluate strategies for acquiring, engaging and retaining constituents across the organization. It offers the following services:

• Integrated Strategy: Use data, experience, and proven practices to help define priorities and goals, as well as analyze and measure success through multichannel campaigns that support organizational objectives.
• Campaign Management: Plan and execute one-time or ongoing campaigns that include multiple online and offline channels. Services include campaign strategy, database segmentation, customized asks and offers based on donor behaviors. Creative design, email and web page production and testing as well as reporting and analysis and project management are also available.
• Data Analytics: Luminate data analytics services help nonprofits apply knowledge about constituent interests and behaviors to fundraising activities — helping more effectively attract new constituents, retain existing ones, reactivate lapsed supporters, and nurture relationships to higher levels of engagement. Whether it is comprehensive analytical support or a one-time predictive modeling solution to improve fundraising campaigns, Luminate offers tailored data analytics services.

"Luminate is intended to be a game-changer in the sector as we shift from more traditional forms of engagement to a combination of traditional, digital, and social," said Gene Austin, president and CEO of Convio. "Like the for-profit sector, nonprofits need to see the entire picture, they need to be able to analyze data across all channels and look forward to better predict giving and other engagement levels. Luminate allows nonprofits to make more informed decisions, to create more compelling campaigns, to engage their constituents in more profound and moving ways. We want to make the nonprofit professional's life easier so they can focus more time and energy on their mission."

Luminate also provides predictive analytics tools that will help nonprofits to forecast future campaigns and initiatives. "Luminate is designed to help nonprofit professionals maximize the value of every relationship," Austin added.

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