Budgets. The mere mention of them can cause entire departments to suddenly come down with the flu.  It can sometimes feel like we are on one endless budget cycle—one that starts 6 months in advance (hey, we need a draft lots of folks can provide input on), goes through 900,000 revisions and scenarios, and then at some point, leads into potentially monthly reforecasts when cash flow doesn't line up to within 3% of initial forecast... No wonder everyone gets so sick!

Many of us may be in budget season as we speak. It's now almost the exception to the rule that someone actually lives on a calendar year.  Trying to keep track of clients’ fiscal years can be a fun mental exercise for some of us consultants to stay alert…

But I digress. The thing about budgets is that as they keep getting more complicated—integrated programs, cross-department planning, multiple vendors, hundreds of affiliates with revenue share to be accounted for, and all sorts of big unknowns like “the economy”,   can make for one complicated spreadsheet (with multiple tabs mind you). And that's just version 1, scenario 1, baseline growth rate, pilot affiliate roll up.

As we swim in the complexities, I thought it might be useful to point to some of the less complicated details that can be easy to overlook, but, when not accounted for, can make a pretty big impact to the bottom line, especially the expense side of things, that, frankly, no one wants to have to explain to the Board.  If you're going to have to build a 97 page deck, you don't want it to be because:

1. You guestimated your expected performance next year.  Sure, sometimes a guestimate is all you have to work with, like when starting up a brand new program from scratch, but, that should never be your go to if you have a program with past performance indicators and are able to understand your file composition.  Know your file, forecast its performance, and understand its dynamics.
   This is what can provide you a realistic expectation of future performance. Ok, so maybe this first point is not a small detail, but rather key to a good budget.
2. You are planning to do testing in direct mail and didn't account for the cost.  Considering throwing in a calendar with that label package you mail? Even if you only mail that to a 50,000 test panel, at the added cost of say $.50 a calendar in a test quantity, and then bigger envelopes, etc, etc, art, etc etc, did you budget that extra $25K you are going to need? The test may be totally worth it, and you could even come out with more cash in hand, but if you didn't plan for it, you're going to have to find that testing money somewhere….Also:
1. Evaluate and plan for an overall increase in the cost of paper, etc, as necessary. The years of cut throat production prices just to stay in business seem to behind us.
2. Speaking of which, if you've got a DM winner from last year you plan to roll out with but it's a more expensive package, don't forget to budget in that extra few pennies per piece 
3. Postage expenses: so, most of us don't live on a calendar year, but postal costs do tend to go up annually…. Even if we stop cowering from the constant threat of an exigent rate case, if you've mailed anything out first class out or first class back you can mostly count on that being more expensive come January 1st. Take a look at your budget—anything going in the mail in the new year with a nice first class stamp on it? Plan for that. A million pieces at an extra $.01/per piece is an extra $10K that has to come from somewhere.
4. It's not just direct mail. Planning to send out more email? Expand your site? Do something integrate mobile? That's great! Even better if you have the in-house talent to do so, so you're not expecting to have to pay someone. But, have you checked if you are nearing your usage limits? Or the number of pages you get? Are you going to have to buy up? Probably a good thing to budget for before it turns out you can't host that special content area, or email out whatever campaign.  And that cool Twitter campaign, possibly using some processor who might charge a higher % than you're used to? Don't forget to discount that from the revenue.
5. Freemiums: man, are those things expensive in test quantities. Think about your testing themes for the year ahead of time. Planning something big offline? Always consider where you could combine and test online, TM, etc. And not in a “hey, we have a bunch of X leftover lying around, why don't we throw it in over here and see if it works” kind of way (well ok, sometimes we all do that), but wouldn't it be great to say “hey, I could never afford to test this as part of my online sustainer acquisition budget, but since offline is ordering 10,000 of these, the vendor is willing to throw in 200 for online for free!”
1. Side note: fulfillment costs for freemiums. The expense that if unplanned for, can be the bane of an otherwise successful campaign.
6. Bonus tip: Always have a slush fund.Stuff happens. Opportunities come along.  Or, gaps appear. Someone leaves. A crisis happens. A slush fund may be the difference in the content for that 97 page deck for the Board….

What’s the sure fire way to make certain your constituents continue to volunteer for your cause – ensure they are emotionally invested to the organization. Allowing your volunteers to be able to find other volunteers through your online directory, post messages about their upcoming events, blog about their experiences, and share pictures within your community site, empowers them to be more committed to the cause and yields higher fundraising for your foundation!

1. Establishing a Discussion Group - When your volunteers can post and reply to messages to events they have an interest in, it facilitates a type of community in which volunteers feel more connected with their peers and committed to the cause. Through Discussion Groups they can coordinate logistics, share creative ideas, discuss marketing and communication strategies to increase attendance and involvement, share their stories, and receive feedback from their peers leading up to, and after the event. Higher engagement of volunteers yields a more significant commitment to the cause and subsequently higher fundraising dollars for the organization.
2. Creating a Blog within your Community - Why send the traffic back to Word Press and Blogger? You want your volunteers to be able to share their stories of volunteering at a homeless shelter, building homes for their neighbors, and running marathons for great causes within your community. Bring the traffic back to your private online community site that is branded for your organization. This also enhances SEO by allowing new members to search for keywords and having your volunteer’s blogs appear in the search results within your community site. The easier it is for volunteers to be able to share their experiences from the events or their personal story with the organizations, the more likely they are to be engaged and invested in the organizations. Higher emotional investment indubitably yields higher contributions.
3. Enhanced Volunteer Directory - Volunteers want to network with those whom they will be working with. They want to see their profile pictures, learn more about their bio, job history, volunteer history, and see if went to the same Alma Mater.  What better way to do that than to have them search for other volunteers in the communities and events they are involved with, add them as a friend and send them direct messages in advance of the event? This pre-event relationship building, instantly builds stronger connections for the volunteer members and helps foster the sense of community which the organization is trying to instill.
4. Sharing within a Resource Library - Your Volunteer Champions can upload pertinent documents within the community for the volunteering events which can be easily referenced at any time from the volunteers smartphones and community site. This also builds a knowledge repository and archives of the agenda, project management, logistical, and budgetary plans. The easier it is for volunteers to be able to see the relevant documents pertaining to the events, the more likely they are to be engaged and invested to the organizations.

Angelika Lipkin is the Manager of Strategic Partnerships for Higher Logic, a social media and mobile software company for associations and nonprofits. Angelika specializes in fostering relationship development, developing social media engagement strategies, and consulting organizations on launching private social networks.

When you think about someone accessing your nonprofit website from a mobile device, how do you picture them? I can imagine you’re thinking of someone who is in a hurry, maybe standing in line somewhere, at the airport or in a car. While that’s probably the case with a lot of your mobile audience, it’s not always true.

I heard a great talk at the IA Summit a few weeks ago that debunked many ideas and assumptions we’ve made about mobile context. As a designer of mobile experiences, I too am guilty of these assumptions. Josh Clark, the presenter, defined the 7 Deadly Mobile Myths as follows. You can also download the slides from his presentation here.

1. Mobile users are rushed and distracted
   

   Per my illustration above, it’s easy to think of mobile users as always on-the-go but the reality is that people access the mobile web in many contexts like when they’re lying on the couch or trying to kill time on a 3 hour travel layover. Josh cited a statistic that 28% of mobile users in the US are “mostly mobile” users meaning they rarely use a laptop or desktop computer.

   
   
2. Mobile = Less
   

   Because users are not always rushed and distracted, they also don’t need a “lite” or dumbed-down experience from their mobile phone. Another statistic cited was that 85% of users expect your mobile site to be “at least as good” as your desktop site. Josh argued that users don’t like the “View Full Site” option and would rather be able to access all of your content in a mobile-friendly format. He said that omitting certain content on your mobile site is like an author leaving out chapters in a book!

   
   
3. Complexity is a dirty word
   

   So we’re now challenged with providing the entirety of what could be a very complex nonprofit site in a mobile format that still feels uncomplicated and easy to use. Making the complicated seem uncomplicated. The nice thing for most of you reading this is that you can leave this challenge up to your designers. For the mobile designers out there, the next myth is really good news…

   
   
4. Extra taps and clicks are evil
   

   When you’re dealing with such a small screen, the best approach is to use progressive disclosure. This means showing the user a little, and then having them click or tap to see more. We use this principle with navigation on a desktop website and it’s even more imperative with mobile. Josh said that the quality of the click or tap is far more important than the quantity.

   
   
5. Gotta have a mobile website
   

   Let’s clarify here… you don’t need a separate mobile website. You still need to offer your constituents a mobile experience but Josh argued the best approach is to make your existing content mobile-friendly. Thanks to Convio CMS and other content management systems, this is not difficult. It does mean that you may have to start thinking a little differently when you create new content though. Perhaps there are additional fields you might need to add for each content item to make your mobile display work better.

   
   
6. Mobile is about apps
   

   Josh stated that app vs. mobile website vs. desktop website are all just containers we use to present content. So apps definitely have a place in the mobile landscape but they’re not the end-all be-all. He played this NFL commercial to illustrate that users expect to access the same content across multiple devices. Again, this boils down to making sure your content is adaptable to all of these devices.

   
   
7. CMS and APIs are for database nerds
   

   Going back to what I mentioned above, content management systems and APIs are the tools that we need to make our content adapt to all devices. Not just the devices we use today but the devices that we’ll be using in the future too. All we need to do is learn how to write content that will scale across multiple screen sizes and then rely on the CMS and API technology to control the display.

Do you agree or disagree with these mobile myths? What are some things you can start doing today to make sure your content is truly future-proof and adaptable to different devices?

After a recent relocation, I'm learning a lot about working remotely from a home office. Well, I don't know if you can call my desk jammed into the corner of my bedroom a "home office", but we'll roll with it.

I've been fortunate that my team, which now covers three time zones and two coasts, has been so flexible and accommodating to the new arrangement. We've been tinkering around with a lot of different settings, options, software systems, and phone arrangements over the past few weeks. It's definitely easier now than ever to work remotely, but that doesn't mean it's easy.

It also got me thinking about organizations, maybe like some of yours, where remote working isn't a product of having people who just happen to live in different areas, but is more a product of a lack of office space. Let's face it, the overhead of having an office can be more than a lot of organizations and companies can justify.

So, I thought I'd take a few minutes to talk about some of the options out there (and I'll let you know if we've tried them). If anyone else has ideas, especially ones you've tried, then let us know!

Google Hangout

When it comes to conferencing software, we already have one that we use as a company. But, for my team, we have a quick, 15-minute meeting every day, and we wanted to use something a little more lightweight. We all gather in a Google Hangout (via Google +), and knock the meeting out with out a lot of software overhead. Also, they seem to be adding a lot of features, inluding screenshare and a few app integrations that we've really been digging.(I've used Skype for personal video calls, and I've always been pleased with their software as well. I can't say I've used it for group calls, but the preference for Google's option is that it just requires a browser window.)

Conference Calls

Though not always the best way to keep everyone engaged, there's certainly something to just gathering everyone on the phone for meetings. It's not as personal as everyone being in the same room, but it certainly allows everyone to end up on the same page better than a slew of emails.

Chat Rooms

We have a chat room that we are all logged into for the majority of the day. Sometimes it's silent, sometimes it's chatty, but it's always there as a way to communicate to a lot of people in a quick way.

Basecamp and Campfire

I can't speak for Highrise or Backpack, but as far as web-based collaboration tools go, the suite from 37Signals is some of the best out there. It's been a long time since I've used Basecamp as an actual project management tool, but it's been an ongoing repository for document sharing for a while in my group of colleagues. The pricing is pretty approachable, and certainly allows for collaboration and visibility into ongoing projects.

Coworking Space

I'm giving this a shot for the first time next week, but a new crop of businesses out there designed specifically for people who don't have offices. These spaces typically provide some work space, internet connection, outlets, and small kitchen-like areas. They are often open spaces, and basically allow for those people like me, who don't work from an office, to have someplace to work. (If you've ever looked for a coffee shop to work from, you know that that can be hit-or-miss.)

If you're an organization or a person who is dealing with the remote office in a different way, or you want to just talk about one of the options I've already mentioned, then leave a comment and let us know. In the meantime, I'll be in my room...I mean, my office.

Last week an important anniversary crept by — barely noticed. The humble SMS had its 20th birthday. It is now estimated that more than two-thirds of the world’s population have access to SMS. With 4.8 billion mobile phone subscriptions, we are in the startling position of living in a world where it is highly likely that more people own a mobile phone than own a toothbrush (toothbrush owners come in at a paltry 3.5 billion). And as the number of people who own or access a mobile phone increases, so will the penetration of more sophisticated handsets. Today, 1.2 billion phones are internet-connected.

The mobile phone has created a direct, instant connection to the majority of people on our planet. And as the technology increases, that sense and reality of that connection will have a greater impact — both for the user and for the content (and content originators) with whom they interact.

Only a few years ago social media was seen as a passing fad — a distraction. Now it is not only integrated into the lives of people and businesses, but is defining the development of communication. More than half of the 900 million Facebook users use their mobile to access Facebook. More than half of all twitter traffic is also from mobile. Mobile is the growing country in our new world order.

There’s a reason why Facebook just spent $1 billion in acquiring Instagram (the free photo sharing app). And it’s not because of the quality of the filters. It’s all about mobile! Facebook currently has no income from mobile, which considering how many hundreds of millions of people access their account via a mobile phone is astonishing. Instagram (whilst having zero revenue throughout its fledgling history) has a single-minded focus on mobile as a platform, and has the potential to support the primary use case for Facebook — sharing photos. Facebook is not a mobile-first company and has poor location data on its users. Instagram’s single-minded focus provides both of these — arguably to a greater long-term value than $1 billion.

So what are you doing about it? What is your nonprofit doing about it? It is very hard to overstate how crucial it is that the nonprofit sector understands the genuine and seismic shift that mobile technology is bringing to our world. The ability to engage with people, no matter where they are, is the most powerful and effective way of getting donors involved.

Out of those 4.8 billion reasons why you need to have a mobile website you can narrow it down to the one key fact that people are consuming more and more content on their mobile phones. That content (some of which your non-profit might push out as a text messaging campaign, QR code, location-based campaign, app etc.) invariably leads on to somewhere else. Do you really want that content to lead to a web page that was designed to be read on a 12-14” computer screen?

If you’re making the donate ask on mobile you need to keep the user journey within mobile. If you’re not making the donate ask on mobile, it would seem that there are just a few reasons knocking around why you should be.

Go be mobile!

Social media is a great opportunity for your participants to spread awareness, recruit more participants and of course fundraise, ASSUMING they have the right tools and know where to find them. Make this easy for your participants by creating a social media section on your website to serve as the hub for all social media activities. 

To reach optimal results you need to provide the who, what, where, when and why in an easy to find location for your participants to access this information during their online experience. Be sure to make the webpage user friendly and clearly identify the actions steps needed for each opportunity. It is critical that you clearly define which social media channels participants join your online communities compared to the resources available for them to use in their social networks. Today we are going to focus on just resources you want participants to share.

Who: 

Recommend who participants should reach out to by providing a list of the most common social media platforms; Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter and YouTube. Include icons and links. It is important to highlight that while the participant may favor one social media platform, their potential donors may be prefer a different platform and it is a best practice to share their messages across all platforms.

What:

Provide both images and messaging for participants to share to each of their social networks. Customize the messaging for the different types of participants who might be using these images.  For example, If your are going to provide a selection facebook timeline images, try to include a message like "Walk with me!" that would appeal to Team Captains along with a "Volunteer with me!" message aimed at your Volunteers. 

Where:

Host all of this information on one page on your website so anyone visiting your page can access it but then link to this page inside the Participant Center. Identify the page as Social Media Resources and link in both your left navigation and home page. Refer to this section in all of your communications and drive participants to this hub for all social media activities.

When:

TODAY! Ideally, These resources should be set-up and ready to go when you launch your campaign, but it is never too late to add them.  

Why:

Peer to peer fundraising is only successful when participants are empowered to reach out to their personal networks to solicit donations.  Each day, more and more of the population is using social media as the primary means of communication to their friends, family, co-workers and acquaintances.  If you are not providing social-friendly tools to your fundraisers or burying those tools in hard to find places on your website, then you are leaving precious fundraising dollars on the table for your organization's mission.

Once you've figured out the 5 W's, you should be well on your way to creating an impactful, easy-to-use social media hub for your participants to promote your event and thier fundraising activities. 

Interested in Learning More?
Sign up today for a free webinar "How to Kick Start Your P2P Event’s Social Media Strategy."

Today's post was prepared by Nancy Palo, a Senior Consultant in Blackbaud's Strategic Services team with an specialty in TeamRaiser and peer-to-peer fundraising. She brings more than 10 years experience in the event fundraising space and is looking forward to helping nonprofits implement solutions to increase their special event fundraising & recruitment.

Prior to joining Blackbaud in April 2012, Nancy worked at the National Multiple Sclerosis Society in California and New York where see oversaw the Society’s largest single day Walk MS and Bike MS events, raising more than $30 million during her 8 years with the organization. She studied Communications and Business at the University of San Diego and works remotely from her home office in New York City.  

A couple weeks ago we released our 2012 Online Marketing Nonprofit Benchmark study. More than a few people have called it a “must-read” and as someone who knows it front-to-back and inside out, I must agree. To whet your whistle, here are just 10 of the interesting insights this bad boy contains:

1. The median growth rate for online fundraising is 15.8%.
2. The median number of online gifts grew by 12.6%.
3. The smallest tier of orgs (less than 10,000 email records) experienced a median of $89,917 in online fundraising.
4. The average online gift for that tier was $105.01.
5. The largest tier of orgs (more than 250,000 email records) experienced a median of $1,993,713 in online fundraising.
6. The average online gift for that tier was $65.49.
7. The percentage of online advocates also making an online donation grew from 6.4 percent in 2010 to 11.9 percent in 2011. 
8. First time donations account for a median 37.27% of online fundraising.
9. Sustained online giving accounts for an average of $25,474 per org.
10. The average online monthly gift amount was $31.96.

Let’s talk about that last one for a second – if the average online monthly gift is $31.96, that means a donor who gives a monthly gift for a full year is worth a whopping $383.52! If you take away one thing from this benchmark, write this one down, you must have monthly giving as an option on your donation form.

For more fundraising goodness, download the full Benchmark study (for free!) or check out our nifty infographic.

Today we embark on our next journey: Convio and Blackbaud together – united to reach new heights.

As a unified company with a common mission, we will make multi-channel supporter engagement a reality at a faster pace than either of us could have achieved separately.

We are excited. We are dedicated. We are committed to delivering the very best products and services in the market.

We've dedicated a page on our website to serve as a resource to you for questions you might have. I encourage you to watch Marc's video, check out the FAQs, and send us any questions or feedback. We want to hear from you.

Most of all, thank you for letting us be part of your mission and for being part of this ride.

Today, Friday May 4, 2012, is my last day at Convio. I struggled as to what I should write, in this, my last public address. In the end I decided to reflect on my favorite quote by Mahatma Gandhi, “be the change you wish to see in the world,” as I feel it encapsulates the Convio story very well.

A little known fact is that, before starting Convio, I was exploring three very different concepts: yield management for airlines; supply chain management for the automotive parts industry; and nonprofit fundraising after participating in a PBS pledge drive. I pursued Convio, because I thought it would be amazing to have a shot at simultaneously building a business whilst positively impacting the world. My wife also wanted me to make an impact in the world and frankly thought the other ideas were boring. I’ve learned it’s not a good idea to be boring in the eyes of your wife!

I believed that you could create a for-profit enterprise whilst realizing social good. I was convinced that we could change the way that nonprofits engaged their constituents by harnessing the Internet. I even boldly predicted the demise of direct mail – although I was wrong about that! Though many thought I was crazy, I persevered with the support of my cofounder David Crooke, our early team members, early adopter clients, investors, and of course my wife.

We were privileged enough to attract some great talent early on, in particular Dave Hart, who became our head of engineering.  We brought our first product to market in July 2000 working with a local children’s museum as our first client.  We recruited a number of early adopter clients who had the patience to work with an immature product, and the vision to understand how to utilize it.  I am eternally grateful for them for making a bet on us.

We realized however that building technology alone was insufficient in order to enact meaningful change in the nonprofit sector and indeed to realize widespread customer adoption. We needed to educate and build capacity in our sector, as in 2000 Internet fundraising/communications was far from the widely understood phenomenon it is today. We built a team focused on Client Success to proactively coach clients and to augment their in-house skills. We engaged in primary research with nonprofits and their donors and became maniacal about data in order to publish educational content. I travelled the country speaking at every nonprofit conference that would have me.

Over the years we faced many highs and lows. Among the highs I count, helping the American Red Cross raise funds for Hurricane Katrina and the Asian Tsunami; supporting the Howard Dean campaign on the first large scale Internet political campaign; working with the ASPCA to conclude that tailoring messages/images to dog versus cat people drove demonstrably different results; our first viral email campaign with Planned Parenthood Federation of America; the thrill of winning contracts at many marquee organizations; ringing the closing bell at NASDAQ after going public; and best of all, the gratitude of organizations large and small who felt that our technology and people had made a difference in their lives. The lows included a painful reduction in force in order to survive the brutal technology sector meltdown in 2001, and battling two frivolous lawsuits filed by a former competitor.

The year 2003 was a big year of change for me personally. I handed over the reigns as CEO to Gene Austin and became Chief Strategy Officer. It has been great to partner with Gene and an excellent team of executives, each of whom has helped Convio mature into the thriving business it is today.

Thirteen years on, I am proud of the business we built, but even more proud of the change we helped drive. We contributed to making online fundraising and constituent engagement a real phenomenon. In 1999, less than $100 million was raised online. In 2011, an estimated $17 billion was raised online.

I am also gratified by the economic impact we’ve had. As our country struggles to come out of recession and politicians debate the merits of different economic policies, I have become a strong advocate of the notion of an “Ideas Economy” – harnessing creativity and innovation to drive economic growth. I believe Convio is emblematic of this model. Through our innovation, we helped to create 1000s of jobs among partners and clients, and created 450 jobs at Convio.

People are the fuel for an “ideas economy” and I am constantly in awe of the passion and talent of our employees. For many, working at Convio has been the highlight of their career. We succeeded in building a culture of mutual respect, strong ethics, and client focus. Just as importantly, we built an environment where people could take risks, change roles, and advance their careers. We made our share of mistakes along the way, but we took measures to correct them as soon as humanly possible. I am very grateful to our leadership team and HR function who worked tirelessly to nurture a positive culture. I am also grateful to each team member who has helped reinforce and add to our culture – be it through organizing volunteer days, giving each other kudos for successfully completed projects, to ensuring the hiring bar was kept as high as possible.

Over the past 13 years, I have been privileged to meet many change agents: social entrepreneurs leading their own charities, innovators inside existing nonprofits, creative service providers, and indeed change agents within Convio. I encourage each of you to “be the change you wish to see in the world” and believe there are a few key success factors to pay heed to:

• Have a clear vision for where you want to go, but listen intently to feedback and adapt as you get new information
• Be intellectually honest – don’t believe that you always have the right answer
• Persuade others to join you for the journey – change is not a solo endeavor
• Hire great people, as they will in turn hire other great people
• Communicate openly and regularly - combining facts with inspiration
• Take calculated risks – it is ok to fail, as long as you learn from it
• Be patient – change does not (usually) come over night

I leave with pride knowing that Convio has left an indelible mark on the nonprofit sector and was a catalyst for real change. I leave knowing that there are many competent and passionate people who will continue to innovate and drive change now as part of Blackbaud. While I am sad to leave this major chapter of my life behind, I am excited to test my entrepreneurial chops for a second time. Convio has set the bar high in creating a business where employees love to come to work, and you can feel really good about the impact you’re having, so I have my work cut out. This time around, I am founding a company outside of the nonprofit sector, but I believe it has the potential to be positively transformative in its own way. Stay tuned!

Anyone who would like to connect with me can do so at http://www.linkedin.com/in/vinaybhagat

Editor’s Note: This week the Convio team has reflected upon our journey: funny times, client successes, company progress and our future. We've enjoyed including you with Gene's post Monday, Sara's post Tuesday and Gary's post yesterday. And now a little more as we continue to share, in our own words, our Convio.

First from Angie McDermott, VP of Human Resources

For me, it takes the form of a love letter.

Dear Convio,

When Gene asked me to serve as your VP of Human Resources in 2006, you were such a kid – so scrappy, so brave, so eager to please, so eager to learn. You stole my heart early on in our relationship. It turns out you are the best company I have ever worked for and with. You’ve set a standard that will be hard to replace. I am filled with gratitude and appreciation for this very special experience.

Now look at you….You’ve come so far, so fast. You’ve been blessed by fabulous caretakers - with Gene, Vinay, Jim and the rest of the leadership team. You were carefully and attentively nurtured through all your awkward growth phases. You weren’t always easy, but you were always loved.

When I joined you, there were 133 Convions. We are now about 450 strong. When I joined you, we occupied one small office Austin. You are now thriving in 7 locations across the US and the UK. We added three wonderful companies to help you mature faster – GetActive, StrategicOne, and Baigent. (What an impact each new team made!) Your revenues grew from $21M to $80M. Your impact on the world grew from nothing to $1.35 billion for fuelling the noble work of our clients.

So as I say “Goodbye” to Convio I say “How’s it going, Blackbaud? How can I help?” I’ll be staying on as the VP of Leadership Development and Culture. 

And second from Marc Cannon, VP of Services

My first introduction to Convio was a Friday afternoon meeting with Gene. ‘Con’-vio, as I was incorrectly pronouncing it, intrigued me. I was coming out of Adobe and the Silicon Valley environment and this was a big change for me. Gene and I talked intently for the next hour plus and he made such a positive impression on me that over that weekend I spent a fair amount of time getting a lot smarter about the nonprofit market and Convio. I was also looking for a company with a leadership team that had been around the block in terms of growing companies, as well as one I really clicked with. I got to experience a Vinay interview which absolutely made my head hurt with Vinay’s incredibly insightful questions. After several more meetings, and Gene’s demand that I correctly pronounce the company’s name, I joined Convio. That was a little over three years ago and it has been a wonderful journey ever since. 

Convio was a first for me on a number of fronts; first foray into a company serving the nonprofit market, first Austin-based company after living in Austin for 15 years, first company I could go on a Saturday morning motorcycle ride with other Ops team members where we covered some serious Hill Country territory and certainly the first company where the head of HR wrote a note to my wife Mona welcoming us to the Convio family.

Of course it wasn’t all positive and carefree; there were challenges of all shapes and sizes, including running out of bread at the end of the month when you really needed that PB&J to make it through the day. I am filled with wonderful experiences and memories of all that we have accomplished over the years. 

Although this week marks the end of many Convio traditions, it also marks the beginning of some great opportunities for all of us and our clients. I look forward to what lies ahead and know I am in great company as we all take that step.