Nonprofit Giants Make Deals To Improve Donor Data

Three of the most prominent companies in the fundraising business are in the process of growing even further and providing more convincing evidence that data is king at the end of the day. Blackbaud, based in Charleston South Carolina, is a technology firm that markets financial and online fundraising software. The company spent $17.5 million to buy public interest data in Alexandria Virginia, which provides database management services, acquisition list services and data analytics and enrichment services for nonprofits. The Internet fundraising firm Convio, based in Austin Texas, announced that it will be spending at least $5 million in order to acquire Strategic One, an analytics predictive modeling and database marketing services company located in Kansas.

Strategic One touted itself in the innovative terminology of 'business intelligence', which refers to the collection, modeling and integration of fundraising and donor information. In each of these cases the companies agreed to pay as much as $2.5 million more depending on the relevant revenue objectives. In addition to these business developments, WealthEngine, based in Bethesda Maryland, a provider of wealth identification- and information-based fundraising solutions announced that it purchased and will put to use Oracle exit-data database machines. The upgrade is expected to dramatically improve the performance, user-friendliness and scalability of its wealth intelligence solutions. The financial information related to this deal has not been released.

Fundraisers Contemplate Ethical Issues

Making sure that nonprofits use funds in a manner that is consistent with their mission and the motivations of their donors ranks as one of the most common and difficult challenges faced by fundraisers. This is according to a new website poll conducted by the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP). Participants in the poll were asked what kind of ethical challenge they were most likely to face in their fundraising efforts, and they were presented with 7 choices.

Nearly a third of all respondents reported that the use of donated funds was the greatest area of concern. Sixteen percent selected challenges related to privacy and confidentiality, and fifteen percent highlighted the issue of donor control over gifts. Other options included percentage-based compensation/commission and conflicts of interest. According to Paulette Maehara, CEO of AFP, the use of donated funds is one of the key aspects of ethical fundraising practices, particularly as charitable gifts increase in size. Maehara has stated that it's crucial that fundraisers and donors collaborate and develop sound documentation to ensure that disagreements are avoided. The results of the survey are based on the input of 569 people who participated on January 20th.