A major provider of engagement solutions to non-profit organisations in the US has acquired Baigent Digital to provide cloud-based online and marketing solutions to UK charities.

Convio will offer UK charities online fundraising, email marketing, CMS and the company’s special event software TeamRaiser.

It also has plans to introduce its Common Ground CRM product to the UK.

Gene Austin, president and CEO of Convio, said: “The broad range of solutions and services our combined companies will provide to the market will enable UK-based organisations to build stronger relationships with supporters, raise money more efficiently and be more successful.”

Work with leading charities

Baigent already works with many UK charities including UNICEF, Cancer Research UK and Action for Children, providing digital strategy, design, online fundraising solutions and technology implementation.

The company is now working to localise Convio's TeamRaiser and fundraising product line and make this available to UK charities in early 2012. Other aspects of the Convio online marketing suite and a UK version of Common Ground are planned for later in 2012.

Common Ground would compete with Blackbaud's Raiser's Edge, which is currently the leading CRM product for charities according to the Charity CRM Software Survey 2011.

Martin Campbell (pictured), managing director for Baigent, said: “Convio’s solution incorporates fundraising, marketing, peer-to-peer and CRM capabilities in an integrated fashion via the cloud. We don’t see any other products in the UK market offering this kind of feature set.”

In 2010 Baigent was roughly break-even on revenue of approximately $2m and Convio will pay approximately $2.9m with an additional $0.4m dependent on performance targets over three and a half years.