Nonprofits Worldwide Now Get Powerful Constituent Relationship Management Software for No License Fees as MPower Moves to Open Source

DALLAS--MPower Systems – provider of the most open, flexible, and powerful software for constituent relationship management (CRM) and fundraising for nonprofits – today announced that the company is moving to an open source software model, making its solution available to all nonprofits without license fees. Additionally, users will have access to MPower’s source code so they can develop features and functionality to meet their organizations’ individual requirements, as needs arise. To download and begin using MPower now, please visit www.mpoweropen.com.

In conjunction with the MPower Open announcement, the firm also is changing its name to MPower (dropping “Systems”) and introducing a new graphic identity.

“MPower's move to offer its industry-leading CRM software as open source is nothing short of revolutionary for the nonprofit community,” said Karen Jacobs, Vice President of Finance at Precept International, an MPower client. “It is as important a development for nonprofits as the Internet, which has become a critical tool for cultivating constituent relationships and driving fundraising. MPower is the next big thing for charitable organizations.”

MPower Open

MPower has been a longstanding proponent of flexible and open approaches to technology for nonprofits. The move to an open source offering is the company’s latest and most significant step enabling nonprofits to easily build the best systems for optimizing their CRM and fundraising.

Hundreds of nonprofits, including some of the world’s savviest direct marketers, already use MPower’s fully-developed, full-feature software to manage daily operations – including donation processing, fulfillment, event and volunteer management, call center and mail processing activity tracking, and major donor relations – and also integrate data from multiple sources such as direct mail, television and radio, online, telemarketing, events, personal contact, newsletters and subscriptions. Integration allows an organization to have a complete view of constituents and is key for precise segmentation and effective marketing throughout all phases of the donor lifecycle. Clients have complete access to MPower’s source code so they can -- themselves or through third-party service providers -- easily develop new functionality and customizations, and add other best-of-breed applications to their MPower systems.

Now all nonprofits will be able to do the same without license fees – without an expensive upfront investment.

“Going open source is the right thing to do to advance the important work of nonprofits – this community needs software that’s as full-featured and powerful as software for the commercial sector which has been steadily adopting open source, due to the inherent shortcomings of the proprietary software model,” said Randy McCabe, Founder and CEO of MPower. “We’re delighted to lead this transformation in our market which will make a huge difference to charitable groups around the world.”

Going forward, MPower will work even more collaboratively with its client base, expected to scale rapidly now that the product is freely available and will be widely distributed. At the same time, the company’s growing development team will do approximately 80 percent of the core product development – focusing on architecture and database work as well as core features and functionality. MPower also will continue providing fee-based product support and services through: 1) its own team of in-house professionals; and 2) MPowered Partners, which is the company’s expanding partner network of consultants with expertise in fundraising, marketing, IT including custom application development, and complementary products for nonprofits.

Business Case for Open Source Software

Under the proprietary, all-in-one software model, clients are “held hostage.” They lack control and options for having the functionality they need when they need it – a proprietary vendor’s product roadmap moves only as fast as the vendor’s development team’s priorities. Also, customers have to pay for new modules and releases whether they like them or not and/or replace their entire system.

Consequently, in recent years, businesses increasingly have been using open source software for their mission critical applications. According to a March 2007 Forrester Consulting study, “Open source has emerged as one of the more important IT trends in this young century. The application of open source methodologies has grown significantly in scope, as has its usage, over a relatively short period of time. Once evaluated by companies, open source software is frequently adopted … In this study, more than half the companies that are using open source are using it for mission critical applications.”

Although based on a relatively young model (about 10-plus-years-old), open source products and companies are clearly emerging as leaders in all areas of technology, from operating systems (Red Hat Linux) to databases (MySQL) to Web servers (Apache) to business CRM (SugarCRM).

About MPower

Dallas-based MPower is the only full-feature, truly open source CRM software specifically for nonprofits. It is the most powerful, multi-channel relationship development solution for charitable groups, providing the control, options, flexibility, transparency, and ability to collaborate – all without license fees. MPower enables organizations to manage important daily operations (including donation processing, fulfillment, event and volunteer management, call center activity tracking and major donor relations) and also leverage key constituent data from all channels for marketing that builds strong, lifetime relationships. MPower serves hundreds of nonprofits of all sizes with diverse missions and constituencies, including some of the world’s largest and most sophisticated direct marketers. For more information, please visit www.mpoweropen.com.