California State Parks Foundation Honored at Fourth Annual Convio Client Summit.

California State Parks Foundation Recipient of Innovator Award in List Growth Category

AUSTIN, Texas -- California State Parks Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting, enhancing and advocating for California's magnificent state parks, was presented with an Innovator Award in the List Growth category for their online campaign against cutting the budget for California's state parks by $70 million. Within four months of launching the online campaign, the organization tripled its email file, adding an average of almost 30,000 email addresses per month. All award winners were recognized at a ceremony last night at the Convio Summit, the company's annual conference where more than 650 nonprofit clients, partners and industry thought leaders gather as a community to share common experiences and effective strategies for nonprofits.

"This was the biggest online campaign that we've ever tackled as an organization, so winning an Innovator Award means a lot to me and my colleagues," said Greg Zelder, director of membership, California State Parks Foundation. "The combination of the campaign's success and this award validated what we've been doing online. We're excited about becoming even more strategic with our use of Convio and social media in the months to come."

The online campaign was mounted in early 2009 in response to the California governor's proposed budget cuts that would force the closure of 220 state parks. Within two days of the governor's announcement, the California State Parks Foundation started to post daily updates to the organization's home page and send constituents daily email messages which pointed to an optional donation form and used an advocacy petition form as a thank you landing page. The organization leveraged tell-a-friend functionality and social networking sites, including Facebook and Twitter, to promote awareness and garner new member sign-ups.

Nine other nonprofits received Innovator Awards and were recognized in categories including Advocacy, Best Use of Open, Constituent Empowerment, CRM Visionary with Common Ground[TM], Email Communications, Online Fundraising, Overall Use of Convio, Special Events and Best Website. All Convio clients were eligible to submit for the awards.

California State Parks Foundation enlisted the help of Adams Hussey & Associates' creative team and online strategists to aggressively pursue an outbound marketing push.

"It's an honor for us to win this award, particularly given the competitiveness of this category," said Kim Cubine, partner and vice president of client services at Adams Hussey & Associates. "We will continue to implement best practices in multi-channel communications so that our nonprofit clients can differentiate themselves from their peers and gather the support they need to make a difference."

"Our clients are leading the charge in embracing online technologies to create stronger relationships with their constituents and cultivate support for their missions," said Gene Austin, CEO of Convio. "Recognizing the success of our clients at Summit with our annual Innovator Award ceremony allows the entire nonprofit community to learn from each other's unique and best-in-class strategies for fundraising, advocacy, events and managing supporter interaction."

For more information on California State Parks Foundation visit:

* www.calparks.org

* www.facebook.com/calparks

* www.twitter/calparks

* www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE9V5USbMaA

More information on the 2009 Summit Innovator Award Winners and Notable Mentions can be found at www.convio.com/2009innovators.

About California State Parks Foundation

With its 115,000 members, the California State Parks Foundation (CSPF) is the only statewide independent nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting, enhancing and advocating for California's magnificent state parks. CSPF is committed to improving the quality of life for all Californians by expanding access to the natural beauty, rich culture and history, and recreational and educational opportunities offered by California's 278 state parks -- the largest state park system in the United States. For more information about California's state parks, visit www.calparks.org.

About Adams Hussey & Associates

Adams Hussey & Associates (AH&A), with offices in Arlington, VA and San Francisco, CA provides fundraising, membership, lead generation, and subscription services for charities, advocacy groups, select commercial businesses, professional associations and other organizations. These services include creative and strategic development, campaign analysis, complete production management, integrated online strategy and telemarketing program supervision. Visit AH&A on the web: ahadirect.com.

About Convio

Convio is passionate about helping nonprofit organizations use software and services to fulfill their missions. The company is the leading provider of online marketing, fundraising, advocacy and constituent relationship management software and services to nonprofit organizations. The company's online marketing suite offers integrated software for fundraising, advocacy, events, email marketing and web content management, and its database system, Convio Common Ground[TM] CRM, helps organizations efficiently track and manage all interactions with supporters. All products are delivered through the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model and are backed by a portfolio of best-in-class consulting and support services and a network of partners who provide value-added services and applications focused on the unique needs of nonprofit organizations.

Nonprofit organizations used Convio to process $777 million in online donations during 2008 -- a 72 percent increase over 2007. Convio clients sent more than 3.1 billion emails to constituents during that period with an industry leading deliverability rate in excess of 95 percent. Charities of all types used Convio to power more than 3,500 web domains as well as complete 44 million advocacy calls to action.

For more information, please visit www.convio.com.