The Nonprofit Matrix is an online directory and guide to Application Service Providers (ASPs) and portals offering web-based services for nonprofits and charities.
MATRIX NEWS 
June 3rd, 2008 at 05:12pm
Under Uncategorized
In a major shakeup of the nonprofit platform services sector, Blackbaud has announced plans to acquire the ailing giant Kintera. Kintera has been plagued with poor financial performance in recent quarters, and a buy-out deal was not unexpected.
Under the deal with Blackbaud, Kintera’s primary platform offering, Kintera Sphere with more than 4,000 subscribers, will continue to operate, and will be aligned with Blackbaud’s own online toolset, including Netcommunity, to provide a wider variety of available applications.
According to Blackbaud CEO “Expanding Blackbaud’s online offering in this way further establishes Blackbaud as the leading solutions partner for nonprofit organizations. The online solutions of the two companies have historically served different segments of the market and this acquisition gives us the ability to broaden our addressable market with proven and rich online product functionality.”
Read the press release here.
April 8th, 2008 at 11:16am
Under NEWS
Convio has released the 2nd edition of their rolling report on online benchmarks for nonprofits. As with their first benchmark report last year, this study tracks a set of key indicators of online performance for nonprofits across such as email list growth, online donation growth, email appeal response rates, and related ROI models.
This study was designed to help nonprofit marketers answer the following questions:
- What online marketing metrics should I focus on?
- How is my organization doing?
- What targets should I set for my organization?
In this edition Convio has expanded the cross-sector analysis to include 11 segments, (up from 6 in the 1st edition) including: Association & Membership, Disaster Relief, Disease and Health Services, Human and Social Services, Public Affairs, and Visitation, Performing Arts & Libraries.
A few of the top-level findings:
- Nonprofits’ Web site traffic continues to grow – but not for all verticals.
- Email files continue to grow strongly.
- Email open rates are declining – with some exceptions.
- A lucrative opportunity exists to expand cross-promotion between advocacy and fundraising.
To download the Executive Summary, and request the complete report
> click here
March 31st, 2008 at 10:22am
Under NEWS
Social networking has been a buzzword across the internet for the past couple of years, and over the past 12 months in particular, it has moved into the mainstream, including into the nonprofit sector. Many of the largest nonprofit organizations are now investing resources into the development of their social networking strategies and tools, and the medium and smaller organizations are starting to follow suit as well.
At the same time, online and web service providers have begun offering social networking services and tools that range in scope (and investment) from providing handy widgets and plug-ins to help nonprofits gain access to social networks, to hosting complete private social networking communities dedicated to single causes, organizations or campaigns.
The new Social Networking category on the Matrix allows service providers to promote their own social networking tools and services to the nonprofit sector.
Existing profile holders can update their existing profile to include the Social Networking tag, and new profiles will be able to include this tag when they submit a new profile.
March 25th, 2008 at 02:18pm
Under NEWS
A new research report has been released addressing the role of that internet plays in fundraising for larger gifts. The Wired Wealthy: Using the Internet to Connect with your Middle and Major donors is a joint study by Convio, Edge Research, and SeaChange Strategies into the online behaviors and preferences of major and middle donors. It shows that there is significant room for improvement in the way nonprofits meet their online needs.
This study suggests that an “Internet communications gap” exists between higher dollar donors and charities. In short, most causes are not making the best possible use of their Web and email efforts to connect with this critically important audience.
The report is available for download here.
February 25th, 2008 at 02:01pm
Under NEWS
One of the information challenges that nonprofits commonly face as they monitor and evaluate their online fundraising programs is how their performance compares with that of their peers — other organizations both within their particular theme or sector and across the broad field of nonprofits who compete for the attention and donations of the public.
eTapestry has added a promising feature to their constituent management database service that can help:
For the first time, eTapestry customers can get reports measuring their fundraising activity while also providing comparison to a larger universe of organizations. Based on the aggregate results of participating organizations, you can now see how your efforts and results compare to others.
> Read the announcement (pdf)
February 18th, 2008 at 01:25pm
Under NEWS
Last year Convio’s open platform launch promised expanded integration possibilities with 3rd party service providers in managing constituent data, potentially allowing nonprofits to keep their existing constituent management databases, while using the expanded toolsets available on Convio. It seems now that integration of Convio with the popular Salesforce data management system is now available, according to a release from Convio:
The Database Connector for Salesforce allows nonprofits to:
- schedule daily automatic contact record synchronizations
- capture all pledge, Convio TeamRaiser™ and online gift transactions with the appropriate Salesforce contact record,
- seamlessly merges important campaign designations and segmented lists,
- group recurring online gifts together in Salesforce for better donor management,
- link online and offline campaigns automatically to build a 360° view of a multi-channel marketing initiative,
- map an online group to an offline segment for targeted online communications through email and Web content, and
- minimize duplicates and data integrity challenges by incorporating data management best practices within the product functionality.
> Read the announcement
February 14th, 2008 at 02:15pm
Under PROFILES
A new profile has been added to the NonProfit Matrix:
GiveStream offers a set of free and easy-to-use online fundraising and community-building tools that help nonprofits create their own branded easy giving center.
Charity Shopping Email Broadcast Giving Portals Online Donations Online Communities Social Networking
> More about Givestream
February 14th, 2008 at 02:11pm
Under PROFILES
A new profile has been added to the NonProfit Matrix:
raisin by A.K.A. New Media is the next generation of centralized Event Management and Online Donation Systems.
Services: Event Management Online Donations Website hosting
> More about AKA Raisin
January 17th, 2008 at 12:44pm
Under LIBRARY+ NEWS
Organizations often face data integration challenges as they manage multiple online and offline services, lists and databases in different areas of their activities. Achieving data integration can mean either adopting a single all-in-one platforms with a common database that serves all needs, or creating a complex structure of data updates and lookups that attempt to synchronize disparate data sources. This second option allows for more flexibility but requires more investment and expertise in data management. With newer software systems adopting more open architectures that facilitate data exchange with other systems, this is becoming an easier path to follow.
NTEN, Idealware and Beaconfire Consulting have collaborated on a new report titled “Getting your Systems Talking: A Framework to Evaluate APIs and Data Exchange Features” that looks at data portability issues and provides “an evaluation framework that will help weigh the advantages and trade-offs of the data integration features across different applications.”
The report is available for download from the NTEN website.
> Download Getting your Systems Talking: A Framework to Evaluate APIs and Data Exchange Features
December 20th, 2007 at 03:30pm
Under NEWS
Idealware has published an overview report that will help smaller organizations looking for online service providers who can offer a full range of integrated services such as online donations, email management, membership database, and manage event registrations.
The report reviews service packages provided by 8 leading companies: Wild Apricot,eTapestry, GivenGain, MemberClicks, Z2 Systems Neon, Democracy in Action, Network for Good, and CitySoft, and considers some of the benefits that integrated systems can provide.
“Because all of these functionalities are wrapped up together into one package, there’s no need to synch up the data between different components. For instance, all of an organization’s online donors are stored automatically in the donor-database side, and are easily available for emailing. These online integrated packages can provide a compelling alternative to locally installed applications and custom software — especially for organizations that haven’t already made a sizable investment in constituent software and have a fairly common set of needs.”
> Read Comparing Lower-Cost Online Integrated Applications here
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