AMS Fest acquired by Association Trends

As predicted on theNIRD, Association Trends announced the acquisition of AMS Fest today. Read the press release.

Full disclosure: The founder of AMS Fest and ReviewMyAMS, Teri Carden, is my partner.

INVESTMENT: Feathr takes round of funding from Freeman Digital Ventures

In July 2017, Feathr, a marketing technology company focused on the conference and event market, accepted an investment from Freeman Digital Ventures. Read the press release.

Community Brands announces Configio acquisition

Community Brands announced a new acquisition today, adding Configio, a cloud-based solution for event and activity-based organizations, to its family of companies. Configio allows organizations to “better manage members, clients, participants, marketing data, and more.” Configio counts Kampgrounds of America and the BolderBOULDER 10K as clients.

Dating back to 2012, Community Brands now counts the following companies in its portfolio.

  1. Abila
  2. Affiniscape
  3. Aptify
  4. Configio
  5. Digital Ignite
  6. Job Target
  7. NimbleUser
  8. YourMembership

Read the press release.

Visualization of M&A and investment activity since July 2016

I thought readers of theNIRD would appreciate this visualization of the consolidation and investments that have taken place in the not-for-profit technology market since last year. These investments represent at least $700,000,000, and only the deals I have been able to learn of. For clarity, the boxes with multiple company logos in them represent mergers, acquisitions, and consolidations. The boxes with a single logo in them represent an investment (either venture capital or private equity).

This image is taken from a slide deck for a 30 minute orgCommunity webinar I’m giving tomorrow (Thursday, July 13, 2017). Register now to participate in the full presentation.

Investment Visualization

ASI acquires Australian software developer IVT

In July 2017, Advanced Solutions International, developers of the widely-used iMIS association management system, announced the acquisition of Internet Vision Technologies, an Australia-based AMS and nonprofit management software developer with 160 clients.

Click here for the press release.

ASI acquired a benefits administration software company in May 2017, and received a $26M round of growth equity funding in July 2016.

Thirty on Thursday Webinar with .orgCommunity this week

I’m presenting a webinar for .orgCommunity this week on mitigating risks that may arise from your technology vendor being acquired, merged, consolidated, or invested in. Click here to register (free for .orgCommunity members and a small fee for non-members) and for more information.

The webinar is this Thursday, July 13, 2017.

Call for companies to visit on The Power Trip at ASAE Annual Meeting

At ASAE’s 2016 Technology Conference, I hosted The Power Trip, a guided tour of the trade show floor to introduce participants to CEOs of leading association technology companies with various funding models, and to learn about how their funding philosophy affects product delivery and support.

I’m going to do round two of The Power Trip at ASAE’s 2017 Annual Meeting in Toronto, August 12-15, 2017. Today, I’m calling all technology companies that would like to have a handful of highly tuned-in association technology executives and consultants delivered straight to your booth for a meet and greet, and to tell the story of why your funding model makes your company awesome.

Requirements:

  1. CEO must be present in your company’s trade show booth at an appointed time to greet participants. I’ll work with you to arrange a time that agrees with your schedule.
  2. I’m looking for a good mix of privately-held, private equity backed (majority and minority owned), and venture capital backed companies.

Complete this form to raise your hand and express interest:

Was your organization hacked by the Russians during the presidential election?

This post is a little off-topic, but I thought it might be of interest to not-for-profit and association technology executives who aspire to understand the powerful forces beyond our control that affect our organizations’ operations.

Ed Schipul is CEO of Tendenci, an open source AMS — well, frankly, the only open source AMS. Very thoughtful and techie guy, but not someone who runs in the same circles as the other AMS vendors.

My eyes widened when I read on his blog that former FBI director James Comey testified that the Russians had hacked hundreds of — and perhaps 1,000+ — nonprofits and NGOs in their efforts to sway the 2016 US presidential election.

Ed believes that some of his clients were targeted:

I can personally confirm it was in the hundreds just based on our client base. This does NOT mean they breached, but targeted? Yes.

His analysis and advice is worth reading.

No investment or M&A activity announced at AMS Fest

Sometimes a rumor turns out to be just that. There were no investments, mergers, acquisitions, or consolidations announced during the Hot Off the Press segment at AMS Fest. Watch the archived Facebook Live broadcast.