A BRIEF PRIMER ON API'S AND DATABASES
Recently, two of the CRM players, Kintera and Convio unveiled new tools to help nonprofits benefit from Application Programming Interfaces (API's), a powerful open platform technology. Other providers, such as Blackbaud may follow their lead.
As I learned from attending the just completed Convio Summit in Austin, Texas, a discussion about API's and databases fortunately doesn't have to be technical. It's basically about storing and retrieving information. If you've ever kept a list of information in Excel, you will be relieved to know that under the hood, even the most sophisticated database contains tables that look exactly like a simple list in Excel - with rows and columns of data.
The essence of an API is that it enables databases and applications to talk to each other, so you can share data and host data in multiple places simultaneously. API's achieve this by opening small windows into a database that allow light-weight applications to access and display the data in a variety of places online.
If you've ever used My Yahoo!, YouTube, Google Maps, DIGG, TypePad, MySpace, Facebook, Plaxo, or Salesforce, then you've likely run across an API. The ever popular widgets seen on blogs, for example, take advantage of API's. Another popular implementation of API's is the Plaxo address book synchronization service, which allows you to aggregate your various address books into one database, using Plaxo's API.
It's great to see the proliferation of API's in the for-profit world, but what about nonprofits? Some nonprofits have begun to utilize widgets and other light-weight Internet applications to leverage social networks. In fact, ASPCA and Conservation International received recognition during Convio's Summit, in part for their successful use of widgets on social networks such as MySpace. To the extent that API's make widgets possible, these nonprofits benefited from the use of open platform technology. But widgets are just the beginning. The sea-change in nonprofit adoption of API's has yet to occur. That's because to-date, the major constituent relationship management databases didn't have open platform API's.
Without API's to unlock the data in their constituent and donor databases, nonprofit organizations had difficulty maximizing the value of their data in their communications and fundraising strategies. In an increasingly data driven world, where information is collected in multiple databases, wouldn't it be nice to be able to easily share the data? Wouldn't it be nice to give your constituents an easy way to share their affinity with your organization with their friends and family? Well, that's exactly where API's can be helpful.
CONVIO OPEN
While attending the Convio Summit, I had the opportunity to sit down for some Q&A with Sam Heywood, Senior Product Manager for Convio. Sam's presentation and demo of Convio's new "Open" feature set had piqued my interest in API's and their impact on nonprofit communications. Sam provided insights about Convio's goals with their new Open initiative as well as about the current and potential impact of API's on the nonprofit sector.
Frogloop: What is Open?
Sam Heywood: Convio Open is more than a product or service, it's a whole paradigm shift in the way we serve nonprofits and meet our commitment to enable nonprofits to leverage the Internet to engage constituents. Open fundamentally changes the way we approach everything we do.
That said, there are three pillars to Open:
- Convio API's: develop custom applications to interact with your Convio data
- Convio Extensions: engage social media outlets like Facebook and get your message where your constituents want to be.
- Convio Database Connectors: eliminate the hassles of manual data entry between databases such as Blackbaud's donor database, Raiser's Edge and your Convio constituent record database.
FL: How can nonprofits benefit from your new Open initiative?
SH: Open API's allow nonprofits to bend systems to fit their particular needs. Leveraging our Constituent Management API organizations can build entirely custom acquisition and registration workflows. The upcoming donations API will allow organizations to deliver a completely
customized donation experience. Donor acquisition via API will allow
nonprofits to engage anywhere, not just in Convio.
Open allows nonprofits to capture more rich data such as constituents' interactivity with the Website, not just their name and address. With Open, nonprofits can see what people are doing, how often and how long. This data collection can help better identify affinities and provide more opportunity for nonprofits to meaningfully engage their membership.
Finally, the CMS Content management system that came over as a part of the GetActive merger will be integrated into Convio CRM via APIs. In turn, as these APIs are developed, they will become publicly available to anyone wishing to integrate other third party CMS systems into Convio
FL: What are the main challenges to implementing Convio Open?
SH: To begin leveraging the APIs you will need in-house developer resources that are familiar with common Web technologies such as HTML, forms, Java, Ajax, PHP, XML.
Also, API's are great, but you still have to prioritize. You still have to think about your API implementation in the context of your overall online strategy.
FL: What kind of costs are associated with Convio Open?
SH: Convio doesn't charge any extra licensing fees for Open API's, so they're free. The only costs incurred will be from consultative services if the nonprofit doesn't have in-house developers. For example, many of our clients work with Heller Consulting. Heller delivers a seamless end-to-end customized connector for Convio's clients. It's really affordable when you consider the savings in time.
FL: What else can we expect to see as a result of Convio's Open initiative?
SH: We're very excited about the developer community that we're
building around Open. In the coming months, developers will be able
to share information and best practices and there's the potential of
creating an open source community around Convio Open API's. Open
source applications built using Convio API's would significantly reduce the cost of implementing custom applications using
Convio Open.
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