INDIANAPOLIS, IN - eTapestry.com has broadened its nonprofit software market to the United Kingdom and Ireland through its new partnership with UK consultant and reseller Minerva - www.minerva-computers.com.

"Except for Canada, the United Kingdom and Ireland are the biggest marketplaces outside of the United States," said eTapestry CEO Jay Love. "Philanthropy began in the United Kingdom. That's where our American tradition of giving and helping others started."

The agreement broadens eTapestry's market by about 10 percent, Love said.

Minerva will have exclusive rights to resell eTapestry, a Web-based donor database and communications management system for nonprofits, in the United Kingdom and Ireland and non-exclusive rights to the remainder of Europe.

By late June, eTapestry.com will be modified for these markets, allowing users to enter their home country currencies and addresses into eTapestry's system. eTapestry.com also will be modified to handle the United Kingdom's unique tax deduction donation process.

"Minerva is one of the premier suppliers to the marketplace," Love said. "Minerva is very well known and it has many customers in this market. We have held off selling in the United Kingdom and Ireland in the hope that we could find a partner like Minerva."

Charles Bagnall, Minerva manager of eTapestry products, said his company discovered eTapestry when it was searching for a way that it could offer Internet functionality and online fundraising capabilities to the many charities that had requested those services from his firm.

After conducting a survey of 1,500 nonprofits in Western England, Bagnall said Minerva discovered that 97 percent had Internet connections and only 17 percent were using software created for fundraising.

"While not all nonprofits with Internet connections are actively involved in fundraising, those figures spell out a huge market potential," Bagnall said.

Minerva is a successful, independent computer software and services provider based in the UK. The company, which has implemented more than 400 systems, has been helping clients with all aspects of IT for more than twenty years. Minerva is an acknowledged leader in providing system solutions to charities, membership organizations and institutions. For more information, go to http://www.minerva-computers.co.uk.

Founded in 1999, Indianapolis-based eTapestry.com is the first Web-based donor database and communications management system that rents its software to customers who access it over the Internet. Nonprofit organizations of all types and sizes using eTapestry.com do not pay the large upfront purchasing costs or the ongoing maintenance and support contracts typically paid in the purchase of more traditional software. For more information, go to www.eTapestry.com.