AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 14, 2002 (PRIMEZONE) -- The American Cancer Society -- the nation's leading voluntary health organization -- is picking up the pace in the fight against breast cancer by partnering with Convio on fundraising and promotion efforts for its "Making Strides Against Breast Cancer" walks.
Since 1993, Making Strides, a non-competitive walk, has been the American Cancer Society's rallying cry to raise awareness and dollars to fight breast cancer. Last year, 325,000 walkers across the country collected more than $26 million. Making Strides pledges are dedicated to life-saving American Cancer Society research, education, patient support and advocacy programs to defeat this disease.
This year, The American Cancer Society will conduct more than 70 Making Strides walks throughout the country. Convio, the leading provider of online Constituent Relationship Management software and services for nonprofits, will power the online portion of Making Strides events throughout New York and New Jersey.
"The American Cancer Society is already home to one of the most reliable and accessible cancer information Web sites used by millions of people each year," said Donald Distasio, CEO, American Cancer Society, Eastern Division. "It was a natural next step to turn up our use of the Internet several notches to attract and engage even more volunteers, walkers and donors for our Making Strides events. Convio will enable us to significantly increase our constituent communications and more efficiently engage an even broader audience in our fight against breast cancer."
The American Cancer Society is using Convio's Special Event Management and Participation Relationship Management tools to cultivate potential walk participants, enable walk participants to register and raise funds online and communicate with participants to foster their success at fundraising. These easy-to-use tools do not require technical skills so they are ideal for use by constituents and staff alike. Walk participants are able to create personal fundraising Web pages to explain why they are involved -- often because breast cancer has affected them in some way. Each participant is able to send emails to relatives, friends and coworkers to drive them to his or her personal campaign Web page where, with a few strokes of the keyboard and mouse clicks, they can donate or join the participant as a walker and fundraiser.
All donations are processed immediately and funds are transmitted directly to American Cancer Society. Donors are acknowledged online with valid tax receipts from the organization. The system automatically communicates with walk participants as they achieve fundraising milestones, e.g., it sends an email congratulating them on reaching the halfway point and encourages continuing strong performance. Also, American Cancer Society event administrators are able to encourage participation by sending targeted, personalized emails. For example, an administrator might send an email reminding late starters to launch their campaigns or congratulating the top quartile of fundraisers. To keep participants excited and involved, event administrators also can easily update content on their event Web site, including the latest news and stories about top fundraisers.
After the walk, American Cancer Society administrators can keep participants engaged by continuing to communicate through the organization's Web site and email system. For example, an administrator might post photos in an online photo album on the event Web site; or update walk participants and their sponsors (donors) on how the organization is using funds raised from the walk.
As part of its work for the American Cancer Society, Convio is integrating to the organization's back-office constituent management and financial systems for seamless data transfer. Such integration helps ensure that important information captured online is shared and accessible across the organization versus stored in data silos.
"The Internet is a very powerful medium for nonprofits to use for engaging constituents," said Vinay Bhagat, founder and CEO, Convio. "Using Convio, American Cancer Society will be able to improve net income by efficiently cultivating and recruiting more walk participants, and enabling participants to raise more funds through fun and user-friendly Internet tools. The organization also will be able to reduce the costs of administration, data processing and communication. Additionally, all participant information will be stored in a single database that both volunteer team leaders and American Cancer Society staff -- at the national and chapter levels -- can use for sustaining communications with these supporters after the event to convert them to loyal, lifetime donors, volunteers or activists."
About American Cancer Society
The American Cancer Society is the leading nationwide, community-based, voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem by preventing cancer, saving lives and diminishing suffering from cancer, through research, education, advocacy and service. For information about cancer 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, call the American Cancer Society at (800) ACS-2345 or visit www.cancer.org. For information about Making Strides in New York and New Jersey, please visit http://nynjstrides.acsevents.org/making_strides.htm.
About Convio
Austin-based Convio is the leading online Constituent Relationship Management, or CRM, company serving the nonprofit sector. Convio's mission is to increase the effectiveness of how nonprofit organizations attract, engage and retain constituents to provide funding and other forms of support. The Convio(tm) software solution consists of six product suites: Special Events, eFundraising, eMarketing, Advocacy, Content Management and Constituent Center. Using Convio, nonprofits can send targeted, personalized email communications; conduct fundraising, membership and advocacy campaigns; publish personalized and fresh Web content; manage registrations, RSVPs, ticket sales and other event logistics; tap volunteers and their personal networks for campaigns; track constituent interactions; connect online systems to off-line systems, e.g., donor databases; and more. The Convio platform automatically shares data among all six product suites, giving nonprofits a unified view of each constituent so staff can conduct more personalized and targeted marketing. Convio also provides services to help nonprofits adopt online marketing best practices.
Convio serves national and regional organizations in all segments of the nonprofit sector including disease and disorder, education, healthcare, human services, advocacy, associations, public broadcasting, museums and other visitation facilities, and political campaigns. Convio's clients include Easter Seals, The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, American Humane Association, Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, National Foundation for Cancer Research, National Trust For Historic Preservation and KCET (PBS, Los Angeles). For more information, please visit http://www.convio.com.