The TSC engaged Barrington Partners to do a full due diligence analysis of the providers being considered under the integrated solutions RFI. Upon hearing the presentations of the finalists, the committee decided to extend the process into a formal third party evaluation, and to include MicroEdge FIMS and FoundationPower in the analysis.  This list was compiled as a result of an RFI underway at the TSC and should not be interpreted as an exclusive list of providers, (for instance, the Bromelkamp Company platform, Community Pearl).

Since its founding in 1995, Barrington Partners has specialized in providing consulting research, and investment banking services to the domestic and international financial services industry. During the Barrington Partner's presentation of the research findings to the full TSC at the 2005 Fall Conference, the following points were highlighted:

Research Highlights

• There are no clear answers.  All of the platforms had strengths and all of them had weaknesses.

• This market has a lot of moving pieces and will continue to change over the next few years. A follow up study with an expanded list of participants is anticipated.

• BlackBaud: this platform is well positioned in terms of its functionality and the stability of the company.  It does need to develop a stronger vertical presence in the market.

• Kintera: while all of the pieces have been brought together through acquisition, this platform has a major challenge in integrating these pieces.  They are important to the field in that their pricing is expected to be aggressive.

• MicroEdge FIMS: This platform is well appreciated by many of its clients and generally does what they want.  Clients looking for greater innovation (and in particular larger clients) are frustrated by its constraints.

• MicroEdge FoundationPower: The FP solution is a customized solution and so is priced for larger Foundations.  FP is good at customization when given clear guidance.  The complexity of the application will be a long term challenge.

• Stellar: the NorthStar500 platform is a good product that is well aligned to community foundation needs.  There are areas of functionality that are not included, but they may not be important to an individual foundation.  Their greatest challenge is the relatively small size of the organization.+

For more information, contact:

Doug Yeager
Project Manager
Community Foundations of America
dyeager@cfamerica.org
(502) 693 1800 cell