Parable Provides eCommerce Solution for Prison Fellowship

Online Christian Retailer Partners with One of the Largest Christian Ministries

San Luis Obispo, CA—Parable Interactive now provides all eCommerce functions for Prison Fellowship’s online ministry sites—www.pfm.org, www.breakpoint.org, and www.wilberforce.org. Prison Fellowship was founded in 1976 by Charles Colson and exists to effectively minister to prisoners, ex-prisoners, victims, and their families, and to promote biblical standards of justice in the criminal justice system. Prison Fellowship’s websites offer resources (such as books and audio tapes) for sale, and Parable Interactive will now handle these transactions.

Prison Fellowship knew online donations and product sales were a key component to the success of their websites, but they realized their own eStore limitations. “We like to look at outsource solutions, so we can focus our energies on content,” says Alan Terwilleger, Senior Vice President, Ministry Advancement, Prison Fellowship. “When we discover functions that are not our core competency, we look to experts—like Parable Interactive—to effectively fulfill those needs. We are excited about this relationship.”

Parable Interactive also believes this new agreement is a great match. “Prison Fellowship can do what they do best—provide top-quality content—and Parable can do what we do best—provide top-quality products,” says Ron Johnston, president of Parable Interactive. “We are enthusiastic about offering our services to Prison Fellowship’s tremendous number of loyal supporters.”

The Prison Fellowship websites formerly directed their e-commerce through Amazon.com, but Terwilleger saw the two organizations at cross-purposes. “We realized many of the products offered at Amazon.com were not a good fit for our mission. Prison Fellowship does not want to be connected with blatantly immoral products and we trust Parable’s integrity implicitly.”

Parable Interactive also provides Prison Fellowship an easy means of collecting donations online. Each time a browser visits the shopping pages, he or she is given the opportunity to make a contribution. Parable’s software is designed to deposit the entire donation amount into the ministry's account and even allows donors to contribute without making a purchase.

Parable Interactive is one of a family of companies under the Parable umbrella. Parable is a California-based marketing and retail services company representing over $400,000,000 in annual sales of Christian products to consumers.

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April 26, 2001