Fonteva and Togetherwork
The association industry is always on the move. In particular, the association management system or AMS space is known for mergers and acquisitions. Fonteva, one of few AMSs built directly on Salesforce, announced its sale to Togetherwork. We were lucky enough to meet with Fonteva’s Chief Marketing Officer and Board Member Jake Fabbri to discuss this association industry news.
What is Fonteva?
Fonteva is an association management system or AMS that is built directly on Salesforce. Founded about ten years ago by Salesforce experts, as Jake described, this comes with some inherent advantages. Fonteva is a purpose-built Salesforce for associations. Salesforce is large enough to spend a substantial amount on research and development. For this reason, Fonteva benefits from advancements in Salesforce’s technology. For associations that are already using Salesforce for tracking sales or donations, the move to Fonteva to manage other areas of the business makes a ton of sense. There are comparatively few AMSs built directly on Salesforce. Community Brands’ Nimble AMS is a competitor to Fonteva.
Fonteva Key Information
- 10 Years Old
- Founded by Salesforce Experts
- 350 Customers Globally in North America, the EMEA, and Australia
Who is Fonteva for?
We asked Jake who Fonteva was for. His response was that Fonteva is positioned for associations of many sizes. Rather than focusing on the revenue of the organization, Fabbri described team size as an indicator of fit. Fonteva is for associations with 10 or more staff. At the same time, Fonteva serves some of the world’s largest associations.
- On the lower end, starting with Organizations with 15 staff with dedicated IT Resources
- Ideal profile fit would be medium to large associations over 25 staff
- 100% Association Market Focused
- Association Events are Integral and differentiate Fonteva
- Leverages Enterprise CRM in Salesforce
Fonteva’s Forever Home
Togetherwork provides Fonteva a “forever home.” Fonteva leadership looked for an acquiring partner to be invested in the association space. While Togetherwork seeks out organizations that are well run. The five-year-old Togetherwork is already invested in member-based organization software; however, Fonteva is their first and only focus in the Association market. Togetherwork is committed to Fonteva and its existing clients. Fonteva believes that Togetherwork provides a customer-centric perspective that matches Fonteva’s core values, one of which is customer-centricity. The Fonteva culture expects a “run to the fire” approach to customer service. The culture comes from valuing the customer and understanding that the best marketing is having successful customers tell the Fonteva story. Fonteva co-founders were seeking a forever home that would provide Fonteva stakeholders stability. Fabbri describes a huge amount of work to vet the fit between organizations. Likewise, the Fonteva culture values a company culture that is responsive to client needs.
Togetherwork Provides Efficiencies
Togetherwork with previous acquisitions in member-based organizations provides more than efficiencies at scale. For Fonteva the acquisition by Togetherwork provides fast-growth company efficiencies. Togetherwork will manage Fonteva from a “one company” approach. All business operations like human resources and benefits management that are not specifically related to the product are managed by Togetherwork. In addition, Togetherwork provides technological efficiencies. Fonteva will leverage Togetherworks’ payment processing expertise and software to better serve Fonteva’s clients. All of these things will allow Fonteva to focus on building great software and supporting their customers’ success.
We were thrilled to learn about the Togetherwork acquisition of Fonteva and as excited that Jake Fabbri, CMO at Fonteva is among the first guests on the new The Association Podcast.
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