A nonprofit's ability to collect the data it needs and personalize the feedback it gives to constituents is becoming more critical with the growth of new Web applications that generate additional constituent data.

Forget workarounds. Think open.

Open APIs and extensions allow nonprofits to link existing data and applications in new ways to deliver totally unique solutions.

Join Tom Krackeler, Vice President of Product Management at Convio, Inc., for the free Product Spotlight Webinar "Web 2.0, Social Media and the New Web: Leveraging Open Platforms to Help Nonprofits Achieve Results" to learn why open platforms, products and tools are essential for nonprofit marketing in today's Web 2.0 world -- and in the future.

>FREE! Register Today!

Gene Austin, Chief Executive Officer, Convio and Tom Krackeler, VP, Product Management, Convio

It is incumbent on all software vendors serving the nonprofit sector to open opportunities for nonprofits to have greater choice and flexibility in pursuing their missions.

To meet the expectations of nonprofits today -- and five years from now -- software vendors need to facilitate interoperability between systems and enable integration between offline and online data and the new Web. And they should do so with one clear purpose in mind: to open the possibilities for nonprofits to find and engage constituents to support their missions.

The NTEN community has been leading the charge for openness. With Salesforce and Facebook, Convio has embraced openness as a way of doing business.

Software vendors should:

1. provide nonprofit organizations of all sizes and in any stage of Internet adoption the flexibility to integrate with other web or database applications to exchange constituent and campaign data.
2. make their Open APIs available to clients, partners, and a broad developer community.
3. expose Open APIs as part of their core product functionality.
4. proactively use APIs provided by other companies in additional to providing their own.
5. make their API documentation publicly available and provide a forum for sharing and discussing best practices and exchanging code examples.
6. publish a roadmap for their API development and encourage participation in the development of that roadmap.
7. make their APIs accessible to nonprofits at a level that does not require extensive technical expertise to leverage those APIs.

Last fall, NTEN hosted a discussion amongst some of the major vendors in about Open APIs, one of the major pieces of the data integration puzzle. One year later -- almost to the day! -- two major vendors have announced major initiatives around Open APIs. Coincidence? We think not!

Last week, Kintera announced the expansion of their Connect program, adding APIs to their library of tools.

The latest announcement is from Convio, which today launches Convio Open. The site addresses data integration in three ways: APIs, Connectors, and Extensions. It's a much deeper set of tools than what we've seen before, and the site provides integration resources for organizations with a variety of integration needs, including a FaceBook integration.

Who's next?

Wednesday, August 15 at 11am PT/2 pm ET for a free community call with Kintera CTO Scott Crowder.

Kintera recently announced Kintera Connect, an upcoming open application integration platform that provides nonprofits with the opportunity to select industry solutions that best meet their unique needs. But what does an open platform mean for you? And what types of solutions and capabilities will an open platform offer to nonprofits? What impact could an open platform have on fundraising and constituent engagement efforts? Learn from Scott Crowder, Kintera’s chief technology officer (CTO), how developers and partners will be integrating directly with Kintera technology and what technology possibilities could be available to your nonprofit. This is your opportunity to get your questions answered.

This is a FREE event. No registration is required. To participate:

• Phone: 866.740.1260 / passcode: 3979000
• Web: ReadyTalk.com / passcode: 3979000

This call will last one hour.