CEO, Jay Love, and Director of Web Services, Josh Esslinger discuss eVolve. eVolve is a complete online fundraising solution built and managed by the experts at eTapestry.

Listen to the podcast

Find out more [PDF]

What is viral fundraising? Join eTapestry's Melissa Jordan to learn about this growing fundraising strategy and how you can use it to raise more money.

Listen to the podcast

Read this story: http://www.blackbaud.com/customers/humanservices/homefront.aspx

When Make-aWish Foundation became an eTapestry client in 2002, they saw the benefits of having phone, radio, and internet working together during their Request-a-thon. In 2004, they took that combination one step further by incorporating e-commerce with an eTapestry online donation form.

After adding eTapestry's e-commerce module in 2004, the request-a-thon was able to reduce the time it takes to process donations by at least 50% and fulfilled 40 wishes with the $216,741 it received in pledges. Make-A-Wish processed more than 1,900 donations during the radiothon in real time.

The fundraising event saved time because volunteers entered the donor information directly into the e-commerce form. "What's nice about this is that we hit submit and it processes the order," said Robert Auman, a long time volunteer for Make-a-Wish Foundation. “eTapestry has helped the foundation cut onsite staff time for the request-a-thon in half," Auman said.

"I think we were even surprised at how smoothly it went," said Josh Esslinger, Director of Web Services, who was on-hand for tech support. "It was neat to see their reaction about the amount of work eTapestry took off their shoulders."

eTapestry didn't stop there with assisting the Make-a-Wish foundation. Since the implementation of the online donation form, eTapestry staff members have volunteered to be on hand for tech support during the Request-a-thons.

eTapestry staff have also volunteered to man the phones for the past few years. "Volunteering for this event is always a lot of fun," said Mike Rusche, VP of eTapestry Support Services. "Volunteers get to interact with the make-a-wish kids, making it a truly rewarding experience."

eTapestry staff members will volunteer again this Thursday and Friday at the 12 annual WZPL Z99.5 Request-A-Thon to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Greater Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, Indiana Region. WZPL hopes to raise $275,000 to grant wishes of local children with life-threatening medical conditions.

Listeners can call (317) 228-1099 anytime to request a song of their choice in exchange for a gift of $20 or more. In addition to an entertaining music mix, there will be interviews with wish kids, families, volunteers and special guests.

ABOUT THE MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION®
The Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Greater Ohio, Kentucky & Indiana is celebrating 25 years of inspiring lives, one wish at a time. Since the first wish was granted in 1984, this chapter has granted more than 7,000 magical wishes. This milestone year, the chapter will work to fulfill the wishes of a record-breaking 800 local children. There are so many ways that you can help create joyful moments for local wish children. Find out how at www.makeawishindiana.org.

by: Barry Weaver

The Internet is constantly changing. From its infancy about 15 years ago, "Web 1.0" was a place where businesses and organizations could broadcast information to the public. Users in return could then search for related topics based on their needs.

Many churches jumped on the bandwagon, while others are still trying to play catch-up. Some of the problems with the initial Internet were that the message was one-sided, people only tuned in when they wanted and feedback was essentially nonexistent.

As the Web has evolved today into what was first titled "Web 2.0" four years ago by Internet pioneers Dale Daugherty and Tim O'Reilly, churches on the forefront are incorporating their concepts as they move into this new phase. The major difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 is engagement.

The impact on society

Web 1.0 is information directed from the organization to the reader. Web 2.0 is engagement between the two parties. Consider the impact eBay, MySpace and Wikipedia have had on the Web and society. All three necessitate user interaction. Web 2.0 offers the church an opportunity to effectively communicate with its attendees. Here are four ideas to initiate conversation between the church and its community.

1. Blogs: Four out of 10 Internet users read someone else's online journal or blog. One of the greatest arenas for learning what your people really believe and think can be a blog. A blog in its simplest form is an ongoing discussion board where thoughts are presented and reply comments are posted. Unlike chat rooms, users do not have to be present in order to participate. When a new thought is posted, a notice is sent to its author and subscribers informing everyone.

Blogs could provide a way to receive feedback on your sermons. If your ego can handle it, start a sermon blog to get feedback on Sunday's message. Provide a forum for people to ask a question to get clarity on a point you were trying to drive home. Maybe they want to share a personal testimony, but were afraid to come forward after the sermon. Sermon blogs are a great tool for knowing whether your preaching is relevant or not.

Like sermon blogs, teaching blogs are a great way to engage your students after the class has ended. Whether it is a small group, Sunday school class, or elective course, the blog can be a great way to continue classroom learning as well as sharing ideas for fellowship events, service projects and prayer needs.

When I was in youth ministry full-time, I led many senior high weeks of camp. One of the elective classes offered was titled, "Ask Anything." Students could show up with their Bible and ask a panel of leaders any question about life, the Bible, or religion.
This open forum provided opportunities for students to share their questions, thoughts and concerns and gave leaders a relative thermometer of what their students were wrestling with. An "Ask Anything" blog allows people to ask tough questions they are afraid to ask in a public setting.

2. eNewsletter: The number one use of the Internet is e-mail. Ninety-two percent of all users read and send e-mail. Seventy-one percent read news online. One church I know produced a monthly 12-page color newsletter for $1 a piece. Electronic newsletters on the other hand, can be done for as little as three cents on the dollar when compared to traditional paper newsletters.

Besides cost savings, consider these other factors. Construction of e-mail messages is much easier with e-mail companies. Like the tool bar features with MS Word, you can create an e-mail message with formatted text, pictures, and backgrounds. Most provide numerous templates to help get you started. Links can be added to your e-mail message to send readers to your Web site, blog page and even online giving page.

Many organizations begin an article with the introductory paragraph to get a reader interested and then send them by link to the full article posted on their blog or Web page. This practice keeps the initial e-mail short, allowing readers to skim through to gather the information important to them. Pictures can also be included with links to online photo albums. The next time you write an article about your VBS program, include one picture and a link to your online photo album showcasing pictures taken at the event.

Opportunities for interaction

E-mail can be used to thank guests for worshipping with your congregation. A message can be sent with a simple thank you, concise description of the church's ministry, and a link to a short video message from the pastor posted on YouTube. Again, add a place for them to respond back and links to additional information to get them engaged.

3. Social network sites: MySpace put social network sites on the map, soon followed by FaceBook. Social network sites are online communities where users with like interests share information about themselves and their activities. Users create a profile and invite friends to join their friends list. They can upload photos, favorite videos and music. Discussion forums can be held in the form of a blog and e-mail can be sent between friends. Churches are now getting on board by creating profiles on sites like MySpace, FaceBook, and MyChurch, an alternative site designed specifically for churches to start social networks. Church communities can connect safely, blog, share, get to know other members and learn what other churches are doing. Groups with like interests can be formed within the organization's account.

Amazing concepts in use

On a trip this summer to San Francisco to see our oldest son, my family had the opportunity to attend a service at the Cornerstone Church where he worships. That evening, I visited their Web site to learn more about their ministry to the city. I was amazed at the number of Web 2.0 concepts they were using. Among them were FaceBook and MyChurch accounts. There were groups for the children's ministry, creative arts team, healthcare professionals, singles and people in their 20s. There was a post for someone needing a ride to church, an apartment to rent, and another needing a personal financial advisor.

About 92 percent of people ages 18 to 29 use the Internet. MySpace and FaceBook each have more than 100 million users, the majority of which fall into that age group. Churches and ministers would benefit from having an account where they could engage this generation and they could learn a great deal from them by doing so.

4. eCommerce, eForms and eSurveys: Another area where churches can engage with members is the domain of online forms and accepting tithes and offerings. Many nonprofit organizations recognize it is much more convenient for their donors to give online and set up that gift on a recurring basis. Churches are now offering a method for their members to give online or to have their gifts automatically withdrawn from a bank account, debit card, or credit card. When a regular schedule of giving is automatically set, members who miss a particular Sunday due to illness, travel, or just oversleeping still make their contribution.

Most student ministries of the church have numerous events for which their junior and senior high students need to register. The event is publicized, students may or may not give the flier to a parent, the paper registration form is lost or forgotten at home the day it is due, the parent and teen frantically ask for a new form, the youth minister receives stacks of paper forms and checks, the treasurer deposits the checks into the church's account, and someone calls on Monday morning asking if it is too late to sign up.

With an online registration form, parents can fill out information and pay for the event in a matter of minutes. The money gets processed and sent directly to the church's bank account. The youth minister receives an e-mail notification of the student's registration and the parent receives an e-mail confirmation. Web-based "Software as a Service" companies even provide products and services which integrate both online giving and event registration information directly into the church's database. This automation lessens the data entry duties of the office administrator, financial secretary and the youth minister.

Find out what others think

Online surveys can now be created cost effectively and in some cases free of charge. SurveyMonkey is a "Software as a Service" company which allows subscribers to create various online surveys, e-mail a link to their constituents, collect survey results in the form of reports, and download a summary of the results in a spreadsheet or database format. This format is easy for your members give you their opinion about ministry programs, guest services, building projects, and preaching and teaching series topics.

There are a myriad of other Web 2.0 applications the church can employ: video casting through providers such as YouTube and GodTube, podcasting messages on iTunes, online photo albums with Flickr and Google's Picasa Web Albums, and Donor and Member login options to look up account information or find fellow church members in a database.

Whatever application you decide to use, it must be maintained diligently. For that reason, not all ideas can be implemented at once. Choose one and get started. Once it becomes a part of your life, it becomes fun and contagious. While the Internet should never be used as a substitute for face-to-face relationships, the tools that it offers can supplement existing interaction between people in the church and in the community. The next phase of the Internet is here. Effective use of these tools can profoundly impact the church's efforts to reach and engage the congregation and community.

Barry Weaver is a faith-based account executive with eTapestry, a leading provider of donor management database software as a service to nonprofit organizations. [www.etapestry.com]

About eTapestry

Founded in 1999, Indianapolis-based eTapestry® is the first web-based donor database and communications management system that delivers its software over the Internet, allowing access from desktops, laptops and mobile devices. eTapestry's web site development, ecommerce and advanced email tools give its more than 3,000 customers a fully integrated and maintenance free solution. For more information, visit www.eTapestry.com. eTapestry is a Blackbaud company.

Tech firm is on leading edge because of its relaxed workplace atmosphere

Derek R. Smith
dsmith@greenfieldreporter.com
Mt. Comfort

What began with meetings in a basement has evolved over the past decade into eTapestry, a technology company with a 35 percent growth rate that topped $10 million in revenues last year.

eTapestry provides web-based solutions to the nonprofit sector and has more than 6,000 customers. Its software is designed to be convenient for nonprofit organizations by not requiring maintenance, updates and other information technology work.

The Mt. Comfort-based firm and its parent organization have customers in 55 countries.

Read the full story >>

While nonprofits are not defined by the dollars raised, tools that help them track the success and progress of their fundraising efforts are extremely valuable. But being able to compare themselves with other peer organizations has not been part of the equation. Until now.

eTapestry is pleased to introduce "Benchmark Reporting." For the first time, eTapestry customers can get reports measuring their fundraising activity while also providing comparison to a larger universe of organizations. Based on the aggregate results of participating organizations, you can now see how your efforts and results compare to others. For example, you will have access to the information and the reports that can show you how your average gift compares to other nonprofits of similar type, size, or location. You can compare your quarter to quarter gift volume with the trends of other nonprofits. There is even a report to show how your donor renewal rates compare with other eTapestry customers.

John Moore, Vice President of Development, states "This project is the culmination of an idea that we have wanted to implement for quite some time now. Because of the unique centralized hosting nature of the eTapestry Saas (Software as a Service) application, we are able to easily provide meaningful fundraising performance comparison metrics to the eTapestry customer base. All our clients have to do is opt in to the Benchmark Reporting survey and then click a button to get their reports."

Four new Benchmark Reports provide hundreds of data points that let you focus on the key comparisons and measures to help you analyze and strategize your fundraising efforts, enabling you to raise more money! To learn more about this innovative new tool, click here.

If you are a current eTapestry customer - you have the opportunity to get this incredible new module at remarkable savings. But it is only for a limited time. Contact your Account Executive for details - or simply email us at info@etapestry.com.

3rd Annual 'Best Places to Work in Indiana' List Announced; Company Rankings Given at May 7 Indiana Chamber Dinner

February 25, 2008 (INDIANAPOLIS) — Sixty-six Hoosier companies were designated today as a "Best Place to Work in Indiana" for their ability to create a strong workplace culture in which employees feel valued. The program, in its third year, is managed by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce and presented in partnership with Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield.

Of the 66 honorees, 40 received the same distinction in 2007. A record number of companies – over 120 – from throughout the state took part in the evaluation and were eligible for the ranking process.

The program honors the top companies in the state, as determined through employer reports and comprehensive employee surveys. Winners were selected from two categories: small to medium-sized companies of between 25 and 249 employees, and large-sized companies consisting of 250 or more employees. Out-of-state parent companies were eligible to participate if at least 25 full-time employees are in Indiana.

The Best Companies Group has overseen similar programs in 18 other states. ModernThink, LLC, a workplace excellence consulting firm, handled the selection process. The basis for this initiative is Fortune magazine’s noted "100 Best Companies to Work for in America."

"'Best Places to Work in Indiana' not only recognizes our state's outstanding employers, but also sets a high standard for other Hoosier companies by encouraging them to realize the importance of evaluating their own workplace," states Indiana Chamber President Kevin Brinegar. "It is clear that a positive work environment makes employees more engaged in their job and in their company, which is a win-win situation for the Hoosier workforce and for every business’ bottom line."

The actual rankings of the top Hoosier companies will be announced at the Best Places to Work awards dinner on May 7 at the Indiana Roof Ballroom in downtown Indianapolis. Winners will also be recognized via a special section of the Indiana Chamber's bimonthly BizVoice® magazine and through Inside INdiana Business with Gerry Dick – both of which reach statewide audiences. Additional program partners are the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, the Indiana State SHRM Council and the Indiana Youth Institute. The 2008 Best Places to Work in Indiana Awards Dinner is open to the public. Individual tickets and tables are available at www.indianachamber.com.

Earlier in the day, a session on what makes a company a Best Place to Work will be featured as part of the Indiana Chamber’s 44th Annual Human Resources Conference. To register to attend the awards dinner or for the HR session, visit www.indianachamber.com.

All companies that participated in the 2008 Best Places to Work program receive an in-depth evaluation identifying strengths and weaknesses according to their employees. In turn, this report can be used in developing or enhancing employee retention and recruitment programs.

For more information on the Indiana Chamber's Best Places to Work program, go to www.bestplacestoworkIN.com.

Program sponsors for 2008, in addition to Anthem, are Baker & Daniels, Ball State University, FedEx, First Merchants Corporation, French Lick Resort Casino, Hill-Rom, Professional Staff Management, Roche Diagnostics and Simon Property Group.

The 2008 Best Places to Work in Indiana companies listed in alphabetical order, no ranking:

Large Companies (250 or more employees)

Company / Location

Angie's List / Indianapolis

Baker & Daniels LLP / Indianapolis

Bingham McHale LLP / Indianapolis

Bose McKinney & Evans LLP / Indianapolis

BSA LifeStructures / Indianapolis

Centier Bank / Crown Point

Cintas / Carmel

Clarian West Medical Center / Avon

Clark Memorial Hospital / Jeffersonville

Columbus Regional Hospital / Columbus

Crowe Chizek and Company LLC / Indianapolis

Duke Realty Corporation / Indianapolis

Edward Jones / Indianapolis

Emmis Communications / Indianapolis

Ernst & Young, LLP / Indianapolis

Fort Wayne Metals Research Products Corporation / Fort Wayne

FORUM Credit Union / Indianapolis

Goshen Health System / Goshen

Indiana Business College / Indianapolis

Interactive Intelligence, Inc. / Indianapolis

LaPorte Regional Health System / LaPorte

Monarch Beverage Company, Inc. / Indianapolis

Shiel Sexton Company, Inc. / Indianapolis

St. Joseph Hospital & Health Center / Kokomo

The Capital Group Companies, Inc. / Indianapolis

Small to Medium-sized Companies (25-249 employees)

Company / Location

AIT Laboratories / Indianapolis

ANGEL Learning, Inc. / Indianapolis

Aprimo, Inc. / Indianapolis

Ash Brokerage Corporation /Fort Wayne

Bamberger, Foreman, Oswald and Hahn, LLP / Evansville

Bowen Engineering Corporation / Fishers

Brotherhood Mutual Insurance Company / Fort Wayne

Colliers Turley Martin Tucker / Indianapolis

Cripe Architects + Engineers / Indianapolis

Double-Take Software / Indianapolis

Elwood Staffing / Columbus

Employment Plus Bloomington

eTapestry / Greenfield

ExactTarget, Inc. / Indianapolis

Fusion Alliance / Indianapolis

G & S Research, Inc. / Indianapolis

Gregory & Appel Insurance / Indianapolis

Hall, Render, Killian, Heath & Lyman, PC / Indianapolis

Heartland Community Bank / Franklin

Indiana Organ Procurement Organization / Indianapolis

Jackson Systems, LLC / Indianapolis

Katz, Sapper & Miller / Indianapolis

Keystone Construction / Indianapolis

KPMG LLP / Indianapolis

Krieg DeVault LLP / Indianapolis

Lake County Convention and Visitors Bureau / Hammond

Matrix Integration, LLC / Jasper

Morales Group, Inc. / Indianapolis

Network Solutions, Inc. / Granger

RW Armstrong / Indianapolis

Safety Management Group / Indianapolis

Schmidt Associates / Indianapolis

Somerset CPAs / Indianapolis

Sommer Barnard PC / Indianapolis

T2 Systems, Inc. / Indianapolis

The Estridge Companies / Carmel

The Heavyweights, Inc. / Indianapolis

TLS.net, Inc. / Columbus

United Consulting / Indianapolis

VMS / Indianapolis

WestPoint Financial Group / Indianapolis

###

The Indiana Chamber of Commerce has been the state’s largest broad-based business advocacy organization for over 85 years. Today, it serves more than 26,000 members and customers.

Do you know of another organization that might benefit from eTapestry? If so, you may be eligible for a financial incentive simply by referring them to us!

What is the Customer Referral Program?

The Customer Referral Program rewards our customers for sharing information about other nonprofit organizations that they feel would benefit by learning more about eTapestry. Many of you do this every day, so we want to show our appreciation. The referred organization must be someone who has not previously expressed interest in eTapestry to qualify.

If the organization you refer becomes an eTapestry client, you receive a referral credit to apply toward your existing eTapestry services.

Who can participate?

Any current eTapestry client can participate in this program. Referral credits cannot be honored in conjuntion with special customer offers and may not exceed the investment of the referring client.

How do I earn the reward?

If you know of a nonprofit organization that would benefit from eTapestry software or services, simply share their information with us by registering it on our Client Referral Form.

If we are not already working with the organization as a prospective customer, an eTapestry representative will follow up with them to determine whether our software or services fit their needs. If the organization then becomes a client within 6 months of the date you submit the referral form, your organization will recieve a credit on your next eTapestry invoice equal to 10% of the new client's first year recurring investment!

Your credit can apply to any of the following services:

• Annual or Monthly Service Fees
• Training
• eTapestry Consultant
• Additional Modules
• Additional User Licenses

How do I learn the outcome of my referral?

We will communicate with you at every step. When we receive your referral form, we first email an acknowledgment to let you know we got your information. If we are already working with the organization you referred, and therefor they do not qualify, we will notify you of this situation.. If the organization does qualify and purchases our products or services within 6 months, you receive the reward credit (credit rewarded once new customer payment is received)!

If you have questions, please contact us at 1.888.739.3827 or email leads@etapestry.com

The following interview with Blackbaud's president and CEO Marc Chardon and Jay Love, president and CEO of eTapestry was recently featured on the Baudcast, Blackbaud's recurring podcast. Having taken place one month after Blackbaud announced its acquisition of eTapestry, the discussion focused on the progress of the partnership.

This is a condensed transcript; to listen to the full podcast, visit www.blackbaud.com/baudcast or www.etapestry.com.

Will eTapestry continue as a separate product and company, or will clients be required to migrate to a new system?

Marc: Blackbaud acquired eTapestry precisely because they are the leader in serving customers who want an on-demand fundraising solution. When Jay and I were talking about this combination, we were really clear that we wanted to have the product continue on and the company managed independently as a wholly-owned subsidiary, based in Indianapolis. I fully expect both solutions will serve important market needs for many years to come.

Jay: Let me begin by stating that for the eTap customers, there's no plan at all in the future for asking them to change anything. We are delighted to be a part of the Blackbaud family of companies. Blackbaud brings so much to the eTapestry customers and to our hundreds of partners. Some of the key things that come to mind for me are: immense resources; financial stability; top notch products to integrate to, and I might add perhaps that will work in both directions; economies of scale for our hosting centers; and the ability perhaps to allow eTap products to be sold and supported in other locations around the world.

And I understand, you've also seen some progress with this partnership already with some of your customers converting to the WealthPoint solution?

Jay: We had a solution for allowing our customers to access prospect research information online, and when we found out there was a need in a very short time period to bring the Blackbaud WealthPoint offering into the fold for us, we actually saw both of our technical teams jump into action and bring that product and the full integration with the eTapestry application to fruition in less than a week.

Marc: I think it is great proof of the quality of both of our technical teams that we could get the Wealth-Point offering integrated to eTapestry within a week—that's pretty astounding.

Our next questions come from Peter Gulka, "Chief Bus Driver" at Blackbus, the Blackbaud User Society.

He asks: What is the drive behind the acquisition of eTapestry; in other words, what is the direction Blackbaud wants to head that would be served by acquiring rather than internal development?

Marc: First, Jay and his team have been developing and growing this business for seven years. So, if we were going in the on-demand direction, which I believe Blackbaud must do, we had a very clear choice of either combining with the leader or trying to catch up from behind. Combining with the leader made more sense.

The question about why be in the on-demand segment is also an interesting one. There are 200,000 charities that raise under half-a-million dollars a year, and many of them don't want an IT infrastructure—they want a simple, on-demand solution.

To Jay, Peter asks: How will eTapestry clients be supported going forward?

Jay: Our same level of support and implementation functions that we have been providing over the last seven to eight years will remain identical. Our team is going to remain and, in fact, grow faster here in Indianapolis. We don't plan on making any changes as far as moving folks in one direction or another.

One other thing, too, is that we plan on sharing ideas and concepts with all of our counterparts in both Charleston and Boston. We hope by doing such in regard to implementation, training and services, that the best-of-breed practices will emerge throughout the entire organization.

Holly Ross, who was recently appointed to become the executive director of NTEN (the Nonprofit Technology Network), submitted the following question:

How are you planning to integrate eTapestry into your product suite? Are you keeping some or all of the product features?

Marc: eTapestry will continue to evolve independently, and I've asked Jay and his team to listen to what their customers need and decide what features to add to eTapestry offerings as they make sense to them.

Jay: We have a multi-year roadmap in place now with the various functions customers have asked for, as well as consultants and industry leaders that we hope become part of the product as we continue to evolve it and move things forward.

Our next questions come from Allan Benamer, founder of the NPTech Blog "Confessions of a Nonprofit Executive Director."

He asks: eTapestry was written in Java but Blackbaud uses Microsoft's .NET framework. How do you propose to make these products work together?

Marc: Web services interfaces are a wonderful thing! The back-end technology differences in the Internet world matter very little. Java and .NET mash up and integrate deeply in many real-world applications. The users never know what part of the service is happening with a Java machine and what part is happening on some kind of .NET background. Our Infinity platform is a service-oriented architecture; it underlies all of the next generation of our products, and it's designed to integrate seamlessly through web services.

eTapestry has a good web-services interface, as we just proved with the WealthPoint integration, so I expect that we will integrate Blackbaud solutions to eTapestry, only in response to what customers tell the team in Indy. For example, the combined team is already evaluating possible scenarios where we might integrate subsets of our Internet offering, Blackbaud Net-Community—the content management of the web transaction processing technologies, into eTapestry—but that's very early in the process. We're looking at it, and we're going to listen to the eTapestry customers to tell us what we should do and in what order.

Also, to Jay: How will Blackbaud and eTapestry overcome the differences in philosophy with regard to customer approach and technology?

Jay: We've all been pleasantly surprised in just how much alike our care and handling of customers are. There's a genuine interest in the success and happiness of every customer, whether they are big or small. As you approach customers, that size really comes into play. We don't handle a large national account in exactly the same manner as we would a small account with just a single user. The entire approach for making the implementation a success is quite different for those two different entities. I think we'll continue to approach that in the same way and keep getting the tips and ideas that we can pick up from other parts of the Blackbaud world of companies.

With regard to the technology, it will depend on how deep inside you want to drill. Most customers, especially those wonderful end users of either product, have no idea really what the back-end database is, nor do they really care. To them, the products lines are looking more and more alike as time moves on. They really function as web-browser user interfaces with numerous drill downs within that interface, so from the outside looking in—from an end-user perspective— those look very much the same. The key for all of our customers is that the integration points need to be easy to use and seamless.

Our next set of questions came from Robert Weiner, who runs a San Francisco-based consulting firm and serves as a moderator on TechSoup.

He asks: Doesn't eTapestry compete with the hosted version of Raiser's Edge?

Marc: There has been a very modest amount of competition between the two organizations—maybe a handful of times a quarter compared with hundreds and hundreds of new customers per quarter that Blackbaud and eTapestry sell to. When you see that little competition, it is because in many ways our customers know what they want to buy before they start looking.

Also, to Jay, what if any changes will eTapestry clients notice?

Jay: We have no plans for any different pricing policies that are any different than our past procedures. Perhaps the effect of being part of a well-known and respected company and larger company like Blackbaud will allow us to achieve even better economies of scale and work to the advantage of our customers as we march forward.

We see so many other advantages for the customers, too. The Blackbaud R&D processes are among the best—if not the best—in this entire sector. We hope that plays out for enhancements and changes and further integrations that our customers will be able to take advantage of.

And Marc, can you describe the impact the combined efforts of Blackbaud, eTapestry, and the Target companies will have on the nonprofit marketplace?

Marc: Being able to offer integration and a broader view of the constituents is going to be very valuable to our customers. These two organizations are the best at doing what they do. Target is the best at high-volume direct marketing constituent views, and eTapestry is the best at ondemand database views of the constituent. Bringing those two together will give our customers a seamless way of being able to support their constituencies and grow their fundraising over time.

The Baudcast features stories about Blackbaud products, services, customers, and the nonprofit industry. Join Blackbaud employees and customers as they share their knowledge in these free nonprofit and technology-focused podcasts. You can download the .mp3 file directly from www.blackbaud.com/baudcast, subscribe to the RSS feed, or even access them via the iTunes Music Store.

FOR INFORMATION

Blackbaud
2000 Daniel Island Dr.
Charleston, SC 29492
(800)443-9441
solutions@blackbaud.com
www.blackbaud.com

eTapestry
6107 West Airport Blvd.
Suite 120
Greenfield, IN 46140
(888)739-3827
info@etapestry.com
www.etapestry.com