Blackbaud's 2008 Asia Pacific Customer Conference - Day 1
G'day from Sydney and Blackbaud's 2008 Asia Pacific Customer Conference. I'm really looking forward to the next two days of the conference. The event is taking place at the Harbours Edge Events Centre in Darling Harbour here in Sydney.
The main conference room was jam packed for the opening session. John O'Donnell, Managing Director of Blackbaud Pacific, kicked things off. There are nonprofits here from Australia (all territories including Tasmania), New Zealand, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
The conference begins this morning with a keynote presentation from Rebekah Horne, Vice president Australia and New Zealand, Fox Interactive Media. Horne is responsible for driving the growth of the portfolio of Fox Interactive Media sites including MySpace.com. Her great work in Australia has led to a recent promotion to run MySpace UK and Europe.
Rebekah started off by noting that media is always rapidly changing. Engaging with younger generations using social media is about having a meaningful dialogue. These are illusive consumers of media, technology, products, and services. There is an opportunity to build awareness and advocacy with this audience, even if they aren't constituents today.
Social networks aren't just about a large pool of people. They are a very powerful way to engage people on a larger scale than possible with traditional channels. The 113 million people on MySpace is an example of how things get opened up on a global scale. Rebekah talked about a recent project done with MySpace and World Vision around the Myanmar disaster. They were able to react quickly, generate a tremendous amount of awareness, and make an impact.
Rebekah Horne went on to talk about the six types of social media users: Essentialists, Scene Breakers, Netrepreneurs, Transumers, Connectors, and Collaborators. It's the connectors and collaborators that are driving much of what is happening on social networks today. Once upon a time it was about just pushing out a message. Now it's about sharing the message and allowing that message to be transformed in new ways.
Up next is Charlie Cumbaa, Senior VP of Products and Services with Blackbaud. Charlie talked about some exciting things that have happened over the past year at Blackbaud. He also talked about the Blackbaud product strategy and roadmap. He shared where we are today and where we are going in the future.
Charlie talked about the continued growth of the company, our increased investment in product development, and he also discussed the acquisitions of Target Software, eTapestry, and Kintera. We're working to meet the diverse needs of our clients on a global basis, and the clients Blackbaud serve in Asia Pacific are an important part of that. He finished his presentation by taking questions from the audience.
Following the lunch break, I sat in on a session about using interactive media that was done by a group of people from Habitat for Humanity Australia, Oxfam Australia, and Lort Smith Animal Hospital. Clive Lam from Blackbaud Interactive started off the session by talking about how interactive media has changed and the role Web 2.0 plays in all of this.
Mark White, COO from Habitat for Humanity Australia, spoke about the decision process that his organization went through when deciding what kind of online platform to use. He spent some time explaining what Habitat does, the different types of constituents they engage with, and how that influenced their online strategy. Mark focused on how the "volunteer journey" and the "donor journey" are often disconnected, and using a tool like Blackbaud NetCommunity allows them connect people along the way. Habitat needed a user friendly extranet environment, enhance volunteer coordination, a way to enhance access to information across geographic and functional areas, and the tools to grow their volunteers and donors. Managing and helping the journey from volunteer to donor is a critical element in the organization's success, and they are using the web to make that happen. Mark noted that Blackbaud NetCommunity has given Habitat a "powerful and transformative way" to engage people and convert them into donors. They viewed the investment as a more efficient and effective way to acquire donors than through traditional channels.
Bernadette Maguire with Oxfam Australia then talked about how important integrated solutions are to an organization's fundraising success. She recounted the tale of making an online gift and the lag time before she received any further communication from the organization. It's not a data problem. It's a stewardship and ultimately a fundraising problem without integrated systems. Bernie talked about the growth of Oxfam's online giving and what has helped to drive their success. About 25% of their total income now comes from online donations. 34% of their donations in the first part of the Australian tax year came from their online site. She talked about how the template structure of building web pages has really helped them to quickly publish content and donation pages without being dependent on technical resources. Bernie talked about the trends that Oxfam has seen with their online giving and how important it is to be able to track when appeals go out and their performance over time. She closed by noting the importance of having a single database for online and offline supporter information, the benefits of doing things online, how the Web impacts other internal processes, and to be sure to your solution addresses data integrity to avoid duplicates and unreliable information.
Then Cath Hoban from and Lort Smith Animal Hospital talked about their first venture into online fundraising. Lort Smith is the largest animal hospital in the Southern Hemisphere, the third largest in the world, and they care for over 100,000 animals per year. The organization is 75 years old, but prior to 2006 they didn't have a fundraising department. They also had a very inadequate online presence that didn't allow them to take online donations. Cath discussed how they put a strategy together to improve their online and offline fundraising results. Their whole project went from concept to product selection to planning to design to implementation to development and launch in less than 8 months. This involved implementing both The Raiser's Edge and Blackbaud NetCommunity as part of the initiative. Cath explained how they've used affiliate programs, banner ads, fundraising widgets, and other tools to help with their Strays Birthday online fundraising event. Their online efforts so far have been successful and the ROI has been much better than if they had used traditional channels alone. Cath spent time explaining how their email marketing campaign has achieved results and how they have been able to measure this. The combination of direct mail cards, ecards, and email messages has really worked for them. They are already halfway to their goal of raising $200,000 from a combination of online and offline pledged and gifts. Cath closed about some ups, downs, lessons learned so far, their goals for next year, and a sneak preview of their newly redesigned website.
The next session started off with a presentation by Charlotte Grimshaw of Fundraising Research & Consulting about Prospect Research and the Fundraising Process. She talked about the growth of wealth in Australia and that there are now 172,000 millionaires in the country. Charlotte went on to discuss the various information and data sources that can be used to complete a total picture of a potential donor. This can be both internal and external knowledge, and there are ways to balance both of these to get results. She discussed an example of how donor screening is done, what it typically includes, and the results.
Anni Macbeth was the last presenter of the day and she spoke about Future Trends of Younger Generations. She started off by noting that engaging with these groups is a challenge, but it is not impossible. Anni reminds us that younger means faster (linear, lateral, multiple, depth, immediacy), and that relationships happen in two kinds (real world / virtual world). There are clear generational differences between Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y, and Anni went through many of the key characteristics that nonprofits need to understand. Baby Boomers are downsizing their lives, have a strong sense of community, but many can't afford to retire. Find what out what they care about, show how they can give back, and remember that they are security conscious people who will plan for bequests. Gen Xers are a split group where half are "brand x" people that have no distinguishable characteristics from Baby Boomers. The other half is leading change, have their own personal sense of time, and are called the Me Generation by Boomers. They are focused on who they are, where they are going, and how they plan to get there. These Gen Xers are leading a lot of what is happening in virtual worlds, they are mobile, their identity varies, and they make assumptions about money and materialism. Gen Xers defer to doers and heroes, status is tied to achievement, and you need to walk the talk with them. Gen Yers value their time over almost everything else, and they tune out organizations that don't move at their speed. They are comfortable with multi-channeling, the conversation is more important than who they are talking to, and they use their intuition to judge authenticity. Gen Yers want to be engaged right now, why they should do it right now, and don't look too far down the road. Anni closed her remarks by talking about where human communication is going, made a reference to the Cluetrain Manifesto, and robots. Yes, robots.
A very informative day. A lot of great speakers. I'm looking forward to tomorrow's sessions. Stay tuned...
(Note: To my new friends in Australia, please forgive the z's instead of s's)
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