Burundi

AUSTIN, Texas, June 16, 2009 — Convio, Inc. – the leading provider of on-demand constituent relationship management software and services to nonprofit organizations – today announced that Gilbert Tuhabonye will be the keynote speaker for the fourth annual Convio Summit, November 16-18, 2009 in Austin, Texas. Gilbert is a genocide survivor of the horrible Tutsi massacres in Burundi, former NCAA All-American runner, inspirational running coach, author, motivational speaker, and co-founder of a nonprofit organization.

Alison L. Des Forges, a human rights activist and historian who tried to call the world’s attention to the looming genocide in Rwanda in 1994 and who later wrote what is considered the definitive account of the eventual slaughter of more than 500,000 Rwandans, was among the passengers killed Thursday when Continental Airlines Flight 3407 crashed near Buffalo. She was 66 and lived in Buffalo.

Think about pushing the envelope to get potential donors’ attention, and the first thing that comes to mind isn’t usually the Smurfs.

Those beloved blue lumps are as safe as mother’s milk and just as much a part of the lives of little ones around the world.

But shock — and pulling folks out of their comfort zone — does get donors’ attention. And that’s why UNICEF Belgium used Smurfs to bolster its latest campaign, aimed at raising at least $100,000 for UNICEF projects in Burundi, a densely populated African nation.