Nonprofits Worldwide Now Get Powerful Constituent Relationship Management Software...

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

Bold Move by Leading CRM Provider Ushers in New Era for Nonprofit
Fundraising
DALLAS--(Business Wire)--
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.

MPower
Susie Tull, 512-577-2956
susie@mpoweropen.com

Copyright Business Wire 2008