Blackbaud buys Kintera May 30, 2008 By Mary Pat Donnellon

At a time of consolidation in the nonprofit software market, we want to reiterate that Mission Research and GiftWorks remain proudly independent.  As CEO Charlie Crystle mentioned in a recent post here, "We're not being acquired, we're growing, we're investing in new features and improvements, we're expanding our support, we're building out our dev team, and we're the fastest growing software company serving nonprofits, hands down". 

With our release of GiftWorks 2008 Standard this spring and the upcoming release of GiftWorks 2008 Premium on June 16, we think you can see that we are putting our money where our mouth is - investing in our products and growing our company.  We now have more than 6,000 nonprofit customers and will soon exceed 7,000.   

The Chronicle of Philanthropy, reporting on Blackbaud Inc.'s (BLKB) buyout of Kintera (KNTA), said "Those mergers and buyouts are part of a wave of consolidation that has swept through companies that serve the nonprofit world. The shake-ups in the industry have left some charities in the lurch, with programs that are no longer supported, and could hurt many others if consolidation cuts into competition, experts say."

GiftWorks customers will continue to enjoy the benefits of a powerful, intuitive, comprehensive and affordable fundraising software solution, regardless of how much the other(s) in this consolidated market charge.  We never want a nonprofit to have to choose between great software and their mission.

Blackbaud and Kintera users, we welcome the opportunity to show you what we have to offer!  Download a trial today and check us out!

-Mary Pat Donnellon

GiftWorks 2008 Premium Coming in June May 12, 2008 By Mary Pat Donnellon

It's been one busy spring here at Mission Research.  My colleague Pat Weaver wrote in a recent letter to consultant partners, "We hope you're enjoying the start of Spring and all the possibilities it brings.  These past few weeks have passed in a blur.  It's been intense, exciting, exhausting and exhilarating...with much more fun to come.  We're busy working on post-launch GW 2008 Standard and pre-launch of GW 2008 Premium.  There's no rest for the weary and we wouldn't have it any other way!"

She really sums up where we are quite well.  GiftWorks 2008 Premium is next on our fundraising software horizon - we're moving at a rapid pace toward a June release that includes all of the enhancements found in GiftWorks 2008 Standard along with four major additional features.  They are:

Enhanced Security:  GiftWorks 2008 Premium will provide nonprofits with the ability to regulate the level of GiftWorks access for each user.  There will be several pre-defined roles, such as Administrator, User, and Guest, but each of these will be flexible and can be defined uniquely too. For example, the GiftWorks administrator can determine whether a user can add or edit donor records, or whether she can view donation information or not.  I can imagine many nonprofits who use volunteers for volunteer management projects or for data entry, and want to let them do their work in GiftWorks without seeing some of the sensitive donation information.  This will now be very easy to manage!

Seasonal Address Managment:  Lots of snowbirds in your area?  Their changing residences will be easy to manage with our seasonal address manager.  Simply specify the dates of the seasonal address and GiftWorks will automatically make that address primary in those date ranges.

More Custom Fields:  GiftWorks 2008 Premium will have 110 custom fields available - 55 for donors and  55 for donations, making it possible to track just about anything! 

USPS Bulk Mail:  Eligible nonprofits (as defined by the USPS) will be able to acheive the best nonprofit mailing rates with ease using GiftWorks to help meet the requirements for Standard Mail Machinable and Standard Mail Automation rates. 

We will continue to finish out Spring of 2008 with more hard work and a new product for the nonprofit sector - GiftWorks 2008 Premium!  Thanks for your continued interest and support that makes it all worthwhile.

-Mary Pat Donnellon