Comments on: Blackbaud Buys Kintera

By: Allan Benamer

Allan Benamer — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:08:50 +0000

@rupert Well I’m glad nonprofit management is figuring out that per seat pricing isn’t good for them.

@Norman I think people have pretty much decided that RE can be trusted for donor management. The question is how much they ought to pay for it and in what manner.

By: Norman Reiss

Norman Reiss — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 19:29:54 +0000

The jury is out on whether Blackbaud’s planned purchase of Kintera is good, but a bigger question is whether Blackbaud can be trusted as the primary online vendor for nonprofits. See my latest blog posting at http://nonprofitbridge.vox.com.

By: rupert pupkin

rupert pupkin — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 02:40:30 +0000

It hasn’t take much persuasion, at least not in the companies I’ve been dealing with.

By: Allan Benamer

Allan Benamer — Sat, 31 May 2008 16:25:40 +0000

@rupert: Agreed, per seat pricing stinks to high heaven but development and IT directors seem to greatly prefer RE over other products. The skills are more portable and marketable from one nonprofit to another. Do I think that in the long-run, the per seat pricing issue will go away? Yes. And I've pointed to two alternatives on this blog, plusthree and Mpower. There are many other alternatives as well. I would suggest that it's better to direct your disgust at the business model into a persuasive argument that gently encourages nonprofit management to "do the right thing".

By: rupert pupkin

rupert pupkin — Sat, 31 May 2008 01:09:59 +0000

This is like AOL buying Compuserve so they can be the dominate player on the Internet. Yes, for now they’ll be bigger, but they still have a business based on locking people into expensive captive systems that elsewhere are becoming more open and more free. And I mean free as in both beer and speech. Per seat pricing in the internet age? Give me a break.

By: Allan Benamer

Allan Benamer — Fri, 30 May 2008 17:33:15 +0000

Hmmm… I don’t think of Blackbaud as a “dirty monster”. They’ve been remarkably successful at getting nonprofits to adopt donor management software and using that to leverage themselves into CRM software. On the other hand, I dislike the lack of openness in their architecture and the high cost of their tech support but I don’t think that qualifies them for “dirty monster” status.

And I doubt they’re going to be “hungrier” in the sense that there aren’t any more acquisition targets left in the space that would be a good fit for Blackbaud.

By: freddy fender

freddy fender — Fri, 30 May 2008 13:58:03 +0000

And the dirty monster becomes bigger and hungrier…

By: Peter Gulka

Peter Gulka — Fri, 30 May 2008 12:53:56 +0000

Interesting times. I have no idea if there is a Kintera User Society, but we are going to work hard to create a place for Kintera clients over at the Blackbaud User Society