The Constituent Engagement System - Convio · THE CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT SYSTEM 4 CONSTITUENT...

15
The Constituent Engagement System Cloud Technology for Nonprofits to Maximize the Lifetime Value of Constituents John Stockton Vice President, Product Management, Convio Meg Murphy Director, Product Marketing, Convio Casey Flinn Product Strategy Manager, Convio KEY CONTRIBUTORS

Transcript of The Constituent Engagement System - Convio · THE CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT SYSTEM 4 CONSTITUENT...

Page 1: The Constituent Engagement System - Convio · THE CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT SYSTEM 4 CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT Changing the Technology Outlook for Nonprofits At a time when charitable giving

The Constituent Engagement System Cloud Technology for Nonprofits to Maximize the Lifetime Value of Constituents

John Stockton Vice President, Product Management, Convio

Meg Murphy Director, Product Marketing, Convio

Casey Flinn Product Strategy Manager, Convio

KEY CONTRIBUTORS

Page 2: The Constituent Engagement System - Convio · THE CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT SYSTEM 4 CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT Changing the Technology Outlook for Nonprofits At a time when charitable giving

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Executive Summary ......................................................................................................................................................3

Constituent Engagement ..........................................................................................................................................4

Requirements for Constituent Engagement ..................................................................................................6

Characteristics of a Constituent Engagement System ............................................................................8

The Bottom Line .........................................................................................................................................................13

Additional Resources ................................................................................................................................................15

Page 3: The Constituent Engagement System - Convio · THE CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT SYSTEM 4 CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT Changing the Technology Outlook for Nonprofits At a time when charitable giving

3THE CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT SYSTEM

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Slow fundraising growth and an increasing number of nonprofit organizations

are highlighting the competition for constituent support and the need for

nonprofits to create deeper, longer-term relationships with constituents. A new

breed of technology—the constituent engagement system—is poised to gain

momentum in the nonprofit sector as a more effective technology infrastructure

for driving integrated, multi-channel constituent communications.

This type of system supports the growing need for organizations to deepen relationships with their constituents by understanding and anticipating constituent preferences and interests, and by providing more relevant interactions and opportunities for constituents to support an organization’s mission. It boils down to the ability for nonprofits to engage their supporters in ongoing and relevant conversations, nurturing long-term relationships that maximize the lifetime value of each constituent.

This paper reviews the requirements of an effective constituent engagement strategy and the characteristics of the ideal system to support it.

Total Fundraising

$19.7 Billion1

New Donor Acquisition

23.4% Since 20063

Number Of Nonprofits

43% Since 20012

3000+ Messages Targeting Supporters

Every Day4

1 Adjusted for inflation giving has not grown since 2000 and giving as a percent of GDP is down 16% since 2006. Source: “Fundraising

down from 2007,” Giving USA 2011, The Center for Philanthropy at Indiana University, 2011.2 Increased number of nonprofits—now 1.2 million vs. 800k ten years ago. Source: Giving USA 2011, The Center for Philanthropy at

Indiana University, 2011.3 Target Analytics Donor Centrics Index of National Fundraising Performance: 2011 First Calendar Quarter Results.4 “Advertisers forced to think way outside the box,” USA Today, June 2005.

Page 4: The Constituent Engagement System - Convio · THE CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT SYSTEM 4 CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT Changing the Technology Outlook for Nonprofits At a time when charitable giving

4THE CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT SYSTEM

CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENTChanging the Technology Outlook for NonprofitsAt a time when charitable giving is seeing only modest growth 5 and the number of U.S. nonprofits has increased nearly 31 percent from 1998 to 2008 6, the competition for constituent support is driving the need for nonprofits to engage with constituents to build deeper, longer-term relationships. The philosophy of constituent engagement is logical: by maximizing the value of every constituent relationship through integrated, multi-channel communications, you can increase your return on your investment (ROI) and become more successful in driving much-needed support. But, as you embark on a constituent engagement initiative, your organization must take into account several factors:

• DiverseCommunicationPreferences With so many communication channels now available—emails, websites, mobile technologies, social media, traditional direct mail, telemarketing, and face-to-face meetings—constituents’communication habitsandpreferencesvarywidely by demographic and generation. For example, a study by Convio, Sea Change Strategies and Edge Research found that donors receive, and expect to receive, communications from nonprofits across multiple channels, and there are significant differences in channels most popular by generation 7 (see Fig. 1). In addition, a recent article in FundRaising Success magazine cited that many charities are seeing 30-40 percent of direct mail recipients making their gifts online 8. Another study, by Convio and StrategicOne (recently acquired by Convio), proved that an integrated, multi-channel communications approach enhanced donor lifetime value 9. These data points suggest that to drive continued support, nonprofits need to adopt a multi-channel marketing approach that appeals to all constituents.

5 Giving USA 2011: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2010, http://www.givingusa.org6 The Nonprofit Sector in Brief, http://www.urban.org/uploadedpdf/412209-nonprof-public-charities.pdf7 The Next Generation of American Giving, http://www.convio.com/nextgen8 Donor Giving Trends for Today and Tomorrow, Part 4, FundRaising Success,

http://www.fundraisingsuccessmag.com/article/donor-giving-trends-today-tomorrow-part-4-online-giving 9 Integrating Online Marketing (eCRM) with Direct Mail Fundraising: Adding a New Communication and Donation Channel

Increases Donations, http://www.convio.com/doc-intmktgpaper

Gen Y Gen X Boomers Matures

Friend asks for money (eg., walk/run/race event)

87% 89% 82% 76%

Mail from a known charity 77% 79% 74% 77%

Email from a known charity 76% 69% 60% 51%

Message to fans / supporters through a social network

69% 60% 38% 17%

Phone call from a known charity 51% 42% 39% 34%

Text / SMS message from a known charity

38% 25% 16% 13%

BreakdownbyGeneration

Solic

itationCha

nnels

Fig.1—Solicitation channel appropriateness by generation.

Page 5: The Constituent Engagement System - Convio · THE CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT SYSTEM 4 CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT Changing the Technology Outlook for Nonprofits At a time when charitable giving

5THE CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT SYSTEM

•Constituents’DesireforPersonalizedCommunication As people become more accustomed to high degrees of personalized engagement through multiple communication channels—exemplified by retailers like Apple, Netflix and Amazon—constituentsexpectanongoing,personalizeddialoguewithnonprofitorganizations as well. Therefore, you should know as much as possible about your constituents’ interests and preferences so that you can analyze and communicate with them in a way that respects their communication preferences and elicits the desired action. In fact, a recent study commissioned by Convio and conducted by Edge Research found that nonprofits not only need the ability to see a single view of a constituent—across programs and channels—but they also need analytical capabilities to make sense of their constituent data to drive optimal marketing decisions.

• Nonprofits’RelianceonLimitedTools Despite these demands, mostnonprofitshavetheirconstituentdatalockedupinseparatedatabases,analyticstoolsanddirectmarketingsolutions that specifically serve either traditional direct marketing or online engagement—leaving everyone in the organization, from executive director and development officer to marketing director, relying on limited backward-looking data and struggling to gain meaningful insights that can fuel future fundraising, marketing, advocacy and other activities with constituents.

In recent years, chief technologists working in enterprise nonprofit organizations have struggled to aggregate information from separate databases to meet their organizations’ marketing and fundraising needs. Because data typically resides in separate systems, reporting tools have provided limited analytics capabilities. So it has been difficult, if not impossible, for organizations to view comprehensive reports, conduct predictive analysis and make strategic recommendations for campaign management. But this picture is rapidly changing.

A new breed of solution called the constituent engagement system is poised to gain momentum in the nonprofit sector as a more effective and efficient technology infrastructure. This type of system (often called a “customer engagement system” or a “customer relationship management system” in the for-profit arena) enables nonprofits to leverage an integrated multi-channel marketing approach for engaging with constituents to maximize the long-term value of each relationship.

One thing is clear: whether constituent interactions happen on the phone, on the Web, at an event, or in the form of direct response to mail and/or email, they must be relevant and personalized. The practice of building constituent insights into every interaction and listening to the response so the next interactions can keep getting better, is at the core of constituent engagement.

The practice of building constituent insights into every interaction and listening to the response so the next interactions can keep

getting better, is at the core of constituent engagement.

Page 6: The Constituent Engagement System - Convio · THE CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT SYSTEM 4 CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT Changing the Technology Outlook for Nonprofits At a time when charitable giving

6THE CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT SYSTEM

Ideally, your organization has full access to data about constituents’ online and offline activities and can use that insight to more effectively engage supporters across multiple channels. Your organization should also have reliable reporting capabilities and powerful analytics that provide the business intelligence needed to plan and execute integrated campaigns. In other words, the aggregation of data fuels predictive analytics and provides insights needed to produce relevant content and interact with constituents across the channels they prefer, when they prefer it (see Fig. 2). Gathering & Aggregating Information About Constituents Across the Entire Organization For years, nonprofits have struggled with their constituent data being locked up in disparate systems—a campaign-centric view of the world keeping valuable constituent data in separate fundraising, advocacy, volunteer, and other databases. This problem often is compounded in multi-affiliate organizations in which each affiliate has their own database. In this scenario, different people across the organization have different views of the organization’s data depending on what database they are using.

With a 360-degree view of constituent data, however, cross-departmental needs within the organization can be addressed even when that means different things to different people based on their function with the organization. For example, your executive director might want a snapshot of where the organization stands on fundraising, with an opportunity to drill down to details about communications with an individual.

REQUIREMENTS FOR CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENTConstituent engagement is centered on the concept of having a comprehensive view of the constituent. This view provides the foundation for building effective marketing, fundraising, and communication strategies. Unlike a typical campaign-focused approach, this approach is constituent-centric, ensuring that constituents’ interests and interactions with the organization drive a more personalized message and marketing channel.

Fig. 2—Constituent engagement ensures that constituent interests, history with the organization, and other factors drive the message, marketing channel and approach.

Keys to Engagement

• Full access to constituent insight or supporter data

• Reliable reporting capabilities and analytics

• An integrated campaign strategy

Communicate Consistently

Across Channels

Personalize Communication:

Relevant Content

Respond Dynamically to

Interactions

Optimize Channel Mix

& Cadence

2 3 4 51Collect Data:

Interests, Passions & Preferences

Page 7: The Constituent Engagement System - Convio · THE CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT SYSTEM 4 CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT Changing the Technology Outlook for Nonprofits At a time when charitable giving

7THE CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT SYSTEM

They also might want to quickly produce reports for review by their board of directors. Your director of development or major gifts officer, on the other hand, might be more interested in gaining quick access to the latest data about a donor and using that information in real-time when they connect with the individual. Your organization must be able to provide for these varied data views while ensuring the data is accurate, timely, and accessible, or else it is of little value to you.

Supplementing Constituent Profiles with Outside Information Sources Even nonprofits with rich constituent data can improve their marketing and communications by supplementing their information with data from other sources. For example, appending third-party demographic information to your organization’s existing data could help you “slice and dice” information and identify selection criteria that separate unresponsive constituents from those that have a higher likelihood to respond. Targeting only those constituents most likely to respond would save you time and dollars while likely achieving better results per constituent than if you broadly targeted the entire list. You should have a system built on an open architecture to allow for the integration of this type of data.

Using Powerful, Accessible Reporting to Uncover Insights About Constituents Enterprise-size nonprofits may have good constituent data, but limited reporting on that data is a common problem. Reporting tools are often disparate and cumbersome. They also often lack cloud-accessible dashboards for quick self-service views of data and prohibit deep dive capabilities to look at campaign results by demographic or marketing channel. For strategic constituent engagement, your organization must have powerful and accessible reporting capabilities on timely, accurate constituent data to make informed, forward-looking decisions about how to approach constituents.

Leveraging Predictive Analytics for More Effective & Efficient Marketing Constituent data holds opportunities for improving donor lifetime value and loyalty through predictive modeling. For example, constituent data can help organizations predict which active donors will disengage, which first-time donors are most likely to become monthly givers, and which donors prefer which communication channels. The ability to apply these types of insights to your marketing efforts can lift response and deepen relationships with your donors and other supporters.

Delivering Relevant, Compelling Communications Through Multiple Channels Based on Constituents’ Interests, Preferences & Demographics Once your organization has a comprehensive view of its constituent data and the ability to understand what it is telling you, it’s time to shift toward delivering relevant multi-channel communications according to supporter preferences. That could include email, direct mail, telemarketing, social media, mobile technology, or any combination of channels, and could be a fundraising, advocacy, marketing or other type of communication or campaign.

Page 8: The Constituent Engagement System - Convio · THE CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT SYSTEM 4 CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT Changing the Technology Outlook for Nonprofits At a time when charitable giving

8THE CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT SYSTEM

CHARACTERISTICS OF A NONPROFIT CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT SYSTEMBehind every name in your database, there is a story, a relationship, and a clear way to engage your supporters. With a constituent engagement system, you can fully analyze the relationships you have with your donors, volunteers, advocates and other constituents to design tailored, integrated, multi-channel campaigns and interactions that are most beneficial to both your organization and the individuals that support your mission.

FUNCTIONS OF A CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT SYSTEM

To support the requirements of constituent engagement, a nonprofit’s constituent engagement system must provide three functions:

1.Serveasasingledatabaseofrecordthatalsomanagesconstituentrelationships;

2.Alloworganizationstoperformsophisticatedreporting,predictivemodeling,andanalytics, in addition to serving as a powerful segmentation tool to support campaigns; and

3.Managemultiplecommunicationchannelsacross an organization’s online and offline marketing efforts.

ComponentConstituent Relationship

Management(CRM)Reporting/Analytics OnlineMarketing

Function Servesasdatabaseofrecord and manages constituent relationships

Providesmeaningfulinsights for predictive modeling and analysis

Managesmultiplecommunicationchannels across marketing efforts

Key Capabilities Ω Houses all constituent data

Ω Supports key processes such as gift processing, pledges, recurring gifts, planned giving, events, volunteer management and campaigns

Ω Infinitely extensible

Ω Processes large amounts of data

Ω Provides self-serve dashboards, graphs, and reports

Ω Supports predictive modeling and analysis

Ω Supports deep segmentation

Ω Stores historical campaign information

Ω Enables email, content management, online fundraising and advocacy campaigns, and special events

Ω Allows for communication through social media, mobile technologies, and other channels

Ω Integrates with CRM

Ω Tracks online constituent interactions

Ω Handles high interaction volume

Fig. 3—Functions of the ideal constituent engagement system.

Page 9: The Constituent Engagement System - Convio · THE CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT SYSTEM 4 CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT Changing the Technology Outlook for Nonprofits At a time when charitable giving

9THE CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT SYSTEM

Serves as a Database of Record & Manages Constituent RelationshipsAconstituentengagementsystemshouldincludeaconstituentrelationshipmanagement(CRM) component. The CRM should house data about all supporters—from donors and members to volunteers and recipients of services; and manage constituent relationship processes—from gift processing and recurring gifts to planned giving, events, volunteer management and campaign management.

By housing all of this information in one place, it serves key stakeholders across the organization—marketers, gift off icers, event managers, volunteer managers, executive staffers, and operations employees—while ensuring that they all have access to the same data. Because it is the single point of consolidation for information and processes, the CRM also should be infinitely extensible, able to grow and evolve with the organization and store a tremendous amount of data for building segments for targeted, multi-channel marketing in a way that is not cost prohibitive.

Provides Meaningful Insights for Predictive Modeling & AnalysisUsingconstituentdataforinsightsthatinformintelligentmarketing,fundraising,andcommunication strategiesisattheheartofconstituentengagement. So, it makes sense that the ideal constituent engagement system must be able to aggregate and process large amounts of data. It also should support accurate segmentation and provide decision-makers with complete and timely information. Here are some important capabilities to look for:

• PerformSophisticatedReportingforComparingConstituents&ProgramsOverTime The system should be able to quickly pull together large amounts of data about various contacts, campaigns, and processes to allow stakeholders across the organization to recognize trends and dig deeper to determine what factors contribute to the trends.

• ProvideVisualRepresentationofWhattheDataMeans Executives, marketers, fundraisers and other stakeholders in an organization should be able to easily access timely information through dashboards, graphs and reports on demographic, lifestyle, and philanthropic data that provide insights that help improve constituent engagement activities.

• ServeasaPowerfulDataModeling&SegmentationToolthatSupportsEmail,DirectMail,Telemarketing&OtherCommunicationChannels Whether your organization works with a full-service bureau or handles direct marketing operations in-house, the system should support deep analytics, predictive modeling, selection of constituent segments, coding of each constituent for offer management, and preparing of this data for campaign production. In addition, the system should give users the ability to access data intelligence as part of the selection process, and store historical communications for future campaign analysis and constituent management.

Manage Multiple Communication Channels Across Marketing EffortsIncorporatingweb,email,social,andevenmobilecommunicationsintoyourorganization’smarketingtoolkitisacriticalpartofgrowinggrassrootssupport, identifying new donor prospects, improving bottom-line fundraising, and driving overall constituent engagement. A constituent engagement system should include the ability to support online fundraising and advocacy campaigns, special events, e-commerce, email marketing and websites through a variety of channels. In addition to supporting these activities, the system must be able to do the following:

Page 10: The Constituent Engagement System - Convio · THE CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT SYSTEM 4 CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT Changing the Technology Outlook for Nonprofits At a time when charitable giving

10THE CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT SYSTEM

• IntegratewithCRMdata to ensure that constituent information collected both online and offline can be leveraged for communications and campaigns, removing the traditional silos between programs and channels to ensure that constituents receive the right message at the right time with the right approach.

• Trackonlineconstituentinteractions—whether it’s making a donation, clicking an email or web page link, or responding to an email advocacy alert—to enrich constituent data and inform strategy for future constituent communications.

• Provideforimmediateresponsetoconstituents even at peak volume times—for example, during a disaster, emergency or other unplanned event.

TECHNICAL CONSIDERATIONS

While it is important that a constituent engagement system provide for CRM, multi-channel marketing, and analytics, there are other important aspects to keep in mind. The following technical considerations should weigh heavily when selecting any system to support an organization’s constituent engagement strategy:

Underlying databases should be integrated and optimized.A constituent engagement system works most efficiently and effectively when built with underlying databases that are optimized for each of their respective functions and exchange only the data required to provide a complete view of constituents for the need at hand. While the idea of multiple databases may seem counterintuitive to the concept of eliminating data silos, it is actually a matter of using the right tool for the right job within the system.

For example, for online marketing functionality, the system should process large amounts of data quickly and accurately, offering high-performance through online transaction processing (OLTP). For CRM functionality on the other hand, the system should have the horsepower of a multi-dimensional data model for online analytical processing (OLAP), allowing for complex analytical and ad-hoc queries on huge amounts of data with a rapid execution time. And, unlike many systems that process batches of data once each night, a constituent engagement system should process data on an ongoing basis to ensure that your organization has the very latest information as you execute data-driven tasks throughout the day.

For efficiency, the underlying databases should not share every piece of data, but only the data needed for each function. For example, online marketing capabilities typically do not need access to the check number from a donor’s previous gift, so there is no need for the system to waste time and bandwidth moving that piece of data from the CRM database to the online marketing database. To the end user—the executive, marketer, or development officer, for example—the databases and the exchange of data between them should be undetectable. However, the result should remain the same: a constituent engagement system optimized to work as efficiently as possible.

Cloud-based technology offers scalability, accessibility and affordability.The combination of readily available software-as-a-service (SaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) tools and the need for scalability, convenience, and affordability is driving an increasing movement to Internet-based tools—for nonprofit and for-profit organizations alike. In fact, in a recent report, Forrester Research

Page 11: The Constituent Engagement System - Convio · THE CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT SYSTEM 4 CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT Changing the Technology Outlook for Nonprofits At a time when charitable giving

11THE CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT SYSTEM

predicted that as companies replace their legacy systems and become more comfortable with cloud-based systems, “the transition from on-premises to SaaS marketing data management and applications will accelerate.” Selecting a cloud-based constituent engagement system allows nonprofit organizations to take advantage of the inherent benefits of cloud technology:

• ReducedCapitalExpenses Cloud-based systems offer a pay-as-you-go model with no hardware purchase required.

• InvestmentProtection Unlike on-premise software or hardware, updates and enhancements are made regularly and automatically, so the system is never outdated.

Open architectures allow technology to change as needed.When selecting any technology, consider how it will grow with your organization over time. To ensure the technology is “future-proof,” opt for technology built on an open platform that allows you to add readily available and custom-built applications to the constituent engagement system via application programming interfaces (APIs). For example, organizations using systems built on open platforms such as Salesforce.com Force.com can readily access and use thousands of applications from Salesforce.com’s AppExchange to extend the functionality of their system as their needs evolve.

Technology vendors’ expertise directly affects an organization’s success. When selecting a constituent engagement system, do not underestimate the importance of the technology vendor’s service model. In particular, you should consider the value of a long-term partnership with your technology vendor.

Here’s why: A constituent engagement system is not an out-of-the-box solution—it must be planned and implemented to meet each organization’s specif ic needs. Therefore, your technology vendor’s expertise—in assessing your organization’s needs, scoping the system implementation project, and adding value through experience with CRM, business intelligence and constituent engagement—will directly affect your organization’s success with a constituent engagement system.

Another consideration: your organization might need a full-service bureau for your marketing and fundraising activities today. But you may anticipate becoming self-sufficient with some or all aspects of your marketing and fundraising over time. Or, maybe you already operate all marketing and fundraising operations in-house. Regardless, your constituent engagement system and your technology vendor’s services should offer support for your marketing and fundraising needs now and for years to come.

• ReducedMaintenance The technology vendor maintains the software and the platform.

• Scalability The ability to scale up or down meets an organization’s evolving needs.

• Anytime,AnywhereAccess Organizations can access all constituent engagement system data and functionality at any time via the Internet.

Page 12: The Constituent Engagement System - Convio · THE CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT SYSTEM 4 CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT Changing the Technology Outlook for Nonprofits At a time when charitable giving

12THE CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT SYSTEM

Nonprofits cannot afford to overlook security.In many ways, a nonprofit’s constituent data is the lifeblood of its organization. Protecting it is in the best interest of the organization, its mission, and its constituents. Nonprofits should look for a constituent engagement system that has designed their infrastructure and selected their operating platforms with security as a first priority to ensure that sensitive data, such as credit card, checking account and social security numbers, are handled in a manner that minimizes risk of malicious access and meets regulatory compliance. This implies selecting a constituent engagement system that has a dedicated IT staff that continually evaluates potential threats and the impact new features and functionality will have on information security and constituent privacy. Companies confident of their security measures will often, upon request, provide in depth information as to their security practices, compliance standards, operating history, significant deliverables, system reliability and service level agreements. With cloud-based solutions, the security strategy should not only encompass its systems and software but also implement best practices for monitoring the network, managing bandwidth, establishing data backup and/or recovery procedures, maintaining physical security and supervising the human element.

Yourconstituentengagementsystemvendorshouldanswerthefollowingquestionsabout cloudsecurity:

Is your data physically safe?

Will you have control over user access to your data?

Does your current database store financial data that would necessitate compliance with hacking disclosure legislation?

Was the infrastructure designed for security first, leveraging secure operating systems and procedures?

Is network access to the cloud secure?

Is your data replicated, backed up and recoverable?

Are those data centers providing appropriate administrative, physical and technical safeguards to protect the security, confidentiality and integrity of your data?

Is the company applying system deployment best practices and evolving with the technology?

Page 13: The Constituent Engagement System - Convio · THE CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT SYSTEM 4 CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT Changing the Technology Outlook for Nonprofits At a time when charitable giving

13THE CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT SYSTEM

THE BOTTOM LINEAs nonprofit organizations face variations in constituents’ communication habits and preferences and an ongoing need to increase long-term value of each constituent, it’s time to employ the more strategic approach of constituent engagement to understand constituents and provide more relevant interactions with them.

Tosupportthisapproach,yourorganizationmustbeableto:

• Aggregateinformationaboutconstituents from across the entire organization, including any affiliate organizations

• Enrichconstituentprofiles with outside information sources to supplement existing information

• Easilyaccessadvancedreports and dashboards online to uncover insights about constituents

• Leveragethoseinsights through predictive modeling and analytics for more effective marketing

• Responddynamicallytoconstituentinteractions by their interests, where they live, what they do, who they are, and how they prefer to communicate

Whenlookingforaconstituentengagementsystemtosupportyourconstituentengagementstrategy,youshouldlookforaconstituentengagementsystemwiththefollowingcharacteristics:

• CRMFunctionality Serving as a database of record and managing constituent relationship processes to give your organization a complete view of its constituents and interactions.

• PredictiveModeling&BusinessIntelligenceCapabilities Providing for high-powered, complex reporting, predictive modeling, and analytics that deliver relevant insights on constituents’ interests and preferences to fuel more effective marketing and fundraising approaches.

• Multi-ChannelMarketingFunctionality Managing websites, email, social networking, mobile communications, direct mail and in-person events to improve fundraising and drive overall constituent engagement.

• Integrated&OptimizedDatabases Underlying databases should be integrated and optimized for their respective functions to ensure that the constituent engagement system works efficiently.

• Cloud-BasedPlatform System should be built in the cloud to offer the inherent benefits of scalability, convenience, and affordability.

• OpenPlatform System should be built to integrate with both readily available and custom applications via APIs.

• FlexibleServiceModel Vendor should provide strategic consulting and full service when needed, while the constituent engagement system should allow your organization to become self-sufficient with some or all aspects of marketing and fundraising campaign operations over time.

By employing an ideal constituent engagement system, your organization will be well positioned to drive stronger fundraising results, improve donor retention, and drive longer-term value from each constituent. As the constituent engagement system gains momentum in the nonprofit sector, organizations have

Page 14: The Constituent Engagement System - Convio · THE CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT SYSTEM 4 CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT Changing the Technology Outlook for Nonprofits At a time when charitable giving

14THE CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT SYSTEM

an unprecedented opportunity to move beyond the challenges of their old technology and campaign-centric approach to a constituent-focused approach supported by a more effective, efficient technology infrastructure that will help drive success today and for years to come.

Convio offers innovative products and services to help enterprise nonprofits fully

understand and engage their constituents through any channel – traditional,

digital, or social. Convio Luminate™ is a complete, cloud-based constituent

engagement solution for enterprise nonprofits. To learn more about Luminate or

to find out if a constituent engagement system is right for your organization, visit

www.convio.com/luminate.

Page 15: The Constituent Engagement System - Convio · THE CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT SYSTEM 4 CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT Changing the Technology Outlook for Nonprofits At a time when charitable giving

15THE CONSTITUENT ENGAGEMENT SYSTEM

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 1,450 nonprofit organizations globally. Convio is listed on the NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol CNVO. For more information, visit www.convio.com.

Copyright © 2011 Convio, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Convio, the Convio logo, Convio Go!, Common Ground, Luminate and TeamRaiser are 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. V09.12.11

ADDITIONAL RESOURCESConvio Research

• TheNextGenerationofAmericanGiving, http://convio.com/nextgeneration

• TheConvioOnlineNonprofitBenchmark™Study, http://www.convio.com/benchmark

• TheWiredWealthy:UsingtheInternettoConnectwithYourMiddleandMajorDonors, http://convio.com/wiredwealthy

Convio Best Practice Guides

• UsingtheInternettoRaiseFundsandBuildDonorRelationships, http://www.convio.com/fundraising

• NonprofitWebsiteFundamentals, http://www.convio.com/websiteguide

• BasicsofEmailMarketingforNonprofits, http://www.convio.com/emailguide

• ToolboxfortheModernNonprofit:DonorManagementMadeEasy, http://convio.com/donormgmtguide

• GoingSocial:TappingintoSocialMediaforNonprofitSuccess, http://www.coonvio.com/socialmedia

• HolidayGivingGuide, http://www.convio.com/endofyeargiving

More Convio Resources

• On-DemandWebinars, http://www.convio.com/webinars

• QuickTourVideos, http://www.convio.com/quicktour

• Signupforournewsletter: Convio Connection, a free bimonthly newsletter for nonprofits on how to attract constituents, drive action, and build loyalty through online relationship management. http://www.convio.com/newsletter