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The inevitable happened. Kintera – one of the larger providers of web-based email and content management systems for nonprofits — was bought by Blackbaud, the 800lb gorilla of software for nonprofits.

Kintera is a public company and has been bleeding money for years. They have had management problems and have had some high-profile customer losses recently. Blackbaud makes Raiser’s Edge, the leading (and expensive) fundraising software for nonprofits.

This was inevitable because Kintera was too valuable to let die — they have customers. And Blackbaud is behind on software-as-a-service (web-based software). So they waited and waited until Kintera had no other options and the price was very low.

The price… all of $1.12 per share. But better than going out of business.

Here’s the press release:

Blackbaud, Inc. Announces Acquisition of Kintera

Charleston, S.C. – May 29, 2008 – Blackbaud, Inc. (NASDAQ: BLKB), the leading provider of software and related services designed specifically for nonprofit organizations, announced today that it is acquiring Kintera, Inc. (NASDAQ: KNTA), a pioneer and leading provider of a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution to the nonprofit and government sectors. Under the terms of the agreement, Blackbaud will pay an all-cash purchase price of approximately $46.0 million. Blackbaud expects to finance the deal with cash and borrowings from its credit facility.

Kintera’s principal offering is its online Sphere® technology platform, which is used by such leading organizations as American Lung Association, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, International Fund for Animal Welfare, Lance Armstrong Foundation and Sesame Workshop to manage online fundraising events and in 2007 processed over $400 million in online gifts. The company also offers wealth profiling and screening services as well as an accounting software solution, both similar to offerings of Blackbaud. With approximately 4,000 customers, Kintera is recognized for the proven capabilities of its Sphere® SaaS offering that has allowed nonprofits to effectively grow their base of supporters and expand their online fundraising initiatives. The company reported $44.9 million in total revenue for 2007.

Marc Chardon, Blackbaud’s President and Chief Executive Officer, said, “The acquisition of Kintera is very exciting for us and for the nonprofit industry as a whole. Expanding Blackbaud’s online offering in this way further establishes Blackbaud as the leading solutions partner for nonprofit organizations. The online solutions of the two companies have historically served different segments of the market and this acquisition gives us the ability to broaden our addressable market with proven and rich online product functionality.”

Chardon continued, “Our core capabilities are complementary and we expect to continue to offer a full range of solutions that effectively meet nonprofits’ needs for donor acquisition and cultivation that are intergrated with our suite of CRM solutions, including The Raiser’s Edge®. Kintera’s “Friends Asking Friends®” team fundraising and advocacy solutions are well suited for organizations that use these programs to grow their base of supporters. Similarly, Blackbaud’s NetCommunity™ offering is ideally suited for enriching the online experience of current donors enhancing the value of data that already exists in the CRM system.”

Chardon added, “We are also pleased to offer new options to Kintera’s accounting and wealth data customers. P!N™ has been innovative in coupling traditional wealth screening services with online offerings and we are excited about the potential of combining these offerings with Target Analytics’ current product portfolio. Likewise, Fundware® has long met the fund accounting needs of many nonprofits and we expect to work closely with Kintera and their partners to enhance the range of solutions available to this important set of customers. Combining these solutions with Blackbaud’s current offerings will allow us to continue to grow these important segments of our business.”

Kintera will continue to be led by its current President and Chief Executive Officer, Richard LaBarbera, a high tech industry veteran with more than 30 years experience working with such leading software providers as Sybase, Siemens/Nixdorf, Storage Technology and IBM. Kintera operations will continue to be directed from their existing offices in San Diego.

LaBarbera said, “Joining with Blackbaud gives us a way to leverage our capabilities with those of the industry leader and thus significantly improve the customer’s experience. Importantly, this move also means that nonprofits will be able to choose Kintera solutions confident in the knowledge that they are backed by Blackbaud’s robust corporate infrastructure and that the partner they have selected will be there to serve them for many years into the future. Our focus will now turn exclusively to better meeting the needs of our customers and collaborating with Blackbaud to leverage the investment they are making to better serve the nonprofit sector. We are very excited about the potential to offer more compelling solutions that enhance the donor experience and increase nonprofits’ abilities to raise more money.”

Tim Williams, Blackbaud’s Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, stated, “In addition to the strategic reasons supporting the acquisition of Kintera, we believe the acquisition is attractive from a financial perspective as well. Subscription revenue was already the fastest growing source of revenue at Blackbaud and it was expected to become larger than license revenue at some point in the second half of 2008. With the acquisition of Kintera, this will become a certainty as we will add another significant source of subscription-based revenue from an on-demand service offering. The evolution of Blackbaud’s business model toward new revenue sources with ratable revenue recognition has been a significant and positive development over the past several years, and it complements the very strong cash flow profile of the company.”

Blackbaud’s acquisition of Kintera is structured as an all-cash tender offer for all of the shares of Kintera at a price of $1.12 per share. The company is expected to formally launch the tender sometime next week and close on or around July 2.

Here’s Kintera’s Press Release:

Kintera, Inc. enters into definitive agreement to be acquired by Blackbaud, Inc.

San Diego, CA. – May 29, 2008 – Kintera, Inc. (NASDAQ: KNTA), a pioneer and leading provider of on-demand solutions for nonprofits, announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Blackbaud, Inc. (NASDAQ: BLKB) in a cash tender offer for $1.12 per share, or approximately $46.0 million. Blackbaud is the leading provider of software and related services designed specifically for nonprofit organizations. Blackbaud expects to finance the tender offer through cash and borrowings from its credit facility.

Kintera will continue its operations in San Diego and its other locations. Richard LaBarbera, Kintera’s current President and Chief Executive Officer, will continue to lead Kintera. Mr. LaBarbera is a high tech industry veteran who has worked with such leading software providers as Sybase, Siemens/Nixdorf, Storage Technology and IBM.

Richard LaBarbera said, “Joining with Blackbaud gives us a way to leverage our capabilities with those of the industry leader and thus significantly improve the customer’s experience. Importantly, this move also means that non-profits will be able to choose Kintera solutions confident in the knowledge that they are backed by Blackbaud’s robust corporate infrastructure and that the partner they have selected will be there to serve them for many years into the future. Our focus will now turn exclusively to better meeting the needs of our customers and collaborating with Blackbaud to leverage the investment they are making to better serve the non-profit sector. We are very excited about the potential to offer more compelling solutions that enhance the donor experience and increase non-profits’ abilities to raise more money.”

Marc Chardon, Blackbaud’s President and Chief Executive Officer, said, “The acquisition of Kintera is very exciting for us and for the nonprofit industry as a whole. Expanding Blackbaud’s online offering in this way further establishes Blackbaud as the leading solutions partner for non-profit organizations. The online solutions of the two companies have historically served different segments of the market and this acquisition gives us the ability to broaden our addressable market with proven and rich on-line product functionality.”

Chardon continued, “Our core capabilities are complementary and we expect to continue to offer a full range of solutions that effectively meet non-profits’ needs for donor acquisition and cultivation that are integrated with our suite of CRMsolutions, including The Raiser’s Edge®. Kintera’s “Friends Asking Friends”® team fundraising and advocacy solutions are well suited for organizations that use these programs to grow their base of supporters. Similarly, Blackbaud’s NetCommunity™ offering is ideally suited for enriching the online experience of current donors enhancing the value of data that already exists in the CRM system.”

KNTA-F
About Kintera, Inc.
Kintera®, Inc. (NASDAQ: KNTA) provides an integrated, on-demand open platform to help organizations quickly and easily reach more people, raise more money, and run more efficiently. The Kintera platform consists of a variety of products including Events, Advocacy, E-mail, Web Site Content Management, Donor Management, Constituent Relationship Management and Accounting. In addition, Kintera’s open technology, Kintera Connect™, enables clients and partners to integrate directly with Kintera technology, resulting in the availability of best of breed solutions through the Kintera Connect partner program.

For more information about Kintera software and services, visit www.kintera.com.

Kintera, Kintera Sphere, Kintera Connect, Social CRM and The Giving Experience, are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Kintera, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

About Blackbaud
Blackbaud is the leading global provider of software and services designed specifically for nonprofit organizations, enabling them to improve operational efficiency, build strong relationships, and raise more money to support their missions. Approximately 19,000 organizations — including the American Red Cross, Dartmouth College, the WGBH Educational Foundation, Episcopal High School, Lincoln Center, Cancer Research UK, Special Olympics, and Arthritis Foundation — use one or more of Blackbaud products and services for fundraising, constituent relationship management, financial management, direct marketing, school administration, ticketing, business intelligence, website management, prospect research, consulting, and analytics. Since 1981, Blackbaud’s sole focus and expertise has been partnering with nonprofits and providing them the solutions they need to make a difference in their local communities and worldwide. Headquartered in the United States, Blackbaud also has operations in Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. For more information, visit www.blackbaud.com.

We just completed a great little project for the World Lung Foundation. It’s a slideshow. Big deal, right? But this show lets you make your own beginning and endings. Anti-tobacco organizations around the world can customize this slideshow by adding their URL and information and then embedding the show on their website.

This is another Web 2.0 example really because the consumers of content are also the creators or content.

The occasion is World No Tobacco Day, which is May 31. Here’s the slide show as customized by me. Customize your own here.

From my friend Farra Trompeter:

Hello,

I need your help. I am trying to raise $5,000 by May 31 to make sure the life-saving work of the New York City Anti-Violence Project can continue. The organization is facing a major cash flow crisis as promised funds from the City Council are on hold. I’m emailing my friends with the hope that if I can get 100 people to give $50 (or hey, 50 people to give $100) then I can help out.

You can “chip in” by going to this special page –which will connect to my PayPal account OR you can give directly to the organization via Network for Good. Please let me know if you give so I can ensure you get a receipt.

It’s easy to feel excited about gay rights with last week’s marriage victory in California, but this good news often comes at a price. Increased visibility for the queer community triggers an increase in attacks and incidents of hate and domestic violence, HIV-related violence, pick-up crimes, rape, sexual assault, and other forms of violence.

With violence on the rise, our community cannot afford a break in the delivery of AVP’s services. Imagine being attacked and not having a hotline to call. Or getting the courage to leave an abusive relationship without anyone to talk to for support.

As was just announced, in 2007:
* Murders in the community more than doubled;
* Reports of sexual assault rose 61%;
* Bias violence from nonstrangers increased 25%; and
* 5 LGBT people were murdered in New York, including Francis De La Hoz, 28,who was killed in September–just blocks away from my apartment.

Please help. Whatever you can give will go a long way. Thank you!

To learn more about AVP, watch this video, or visit www.avp.org.

The New York City Anti-Violence Project is dedicated to eliminating hate violence, sexual assault, and domestic violence affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities through free and confidential counseling and advocacy and timely organizing and public education.

Thanks,
Farra

The tech blog, Read Write Web has a post today called How To Use Social Media for Social Change. That’s a really ambitious title, given that the topic is huge and that thousands of folks like us at See3 spend their full time working on the question.

The post has some interesting examples and focused to some extent on Twitter. If you don’t know Twitter, it is a newish social network (based on short cell-phone text messages) that is using up a lot of the oxygen in the social media conversation these days. Word is that Twitter just raised another $15 million in investment. Twitter is really a mobile-centric application and I believe that mobile activism, fundraising and engagement will be coming on very strong over the next 18 months. Stay tuned.

One of the more interesting case studies in the Read Write Web story is about Nerd Fighter:

Use YouTube to Promote Charities

Last December, we wrote about how two brothers used YouTube to promote various charities. The brothers started a project called “Nerdfighters Power Project for Awesome,” which entailed a series of videos, each featuring a certain charity. Their videos briefly became YouTube’s most discussed videos, filling each one of the slots on the YouTube’s Most Discussed Videos page. They didn’t use any tricks to do so, either. Instead, they reached out to the YouTube community to generate interest, messaging many high-profile YouTubers and generating a mailing list of around 4,000 interested people who were later alerted when it was time to act.

Here’s a Nerd Fighter video for you to view.

Learn more about the project they talk about here.

Learn more about the Nerd Fighters here.

I did a webinar today for about 400 professionals from America’s YMCAs about the web and membership marketing. I will write more about this, but I was reminded of my audience and their questions while reading Seth Godin’s online discussion on the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s web site.

You can see the conversation with Seth here. A highlight for me was the question about brochures. Here’s the full, unedited exchange on that subject:

Question from Tennessee Nonprofit:
Are brochures dead?

Seth Godin:
and buried

Here is a simply story, life.

Your videos don’t have to be complicated to be interesting.

Link [YouTube]
Hat Tip [EarthFirst]

If you don’t think “somethin’ is happening here” have a look at this. (By the way, can your organization turn an event into an inspiring event video in 24 hours? Make it relevant and people will pay attention.)

There are many folks running some of today’s major nonprofit organizations who cut their teeth in the late 60s and in the 70s taking to the streets for issues like opposition to the Vietnam war, civil rights and women’s right. They often look at today’s younger generations and wonder… why aren’t they taking to the streets?

The culture has shifted, but the commitment is still there. You see a tremendous amount of activity online for advocacy and there is a major movement of social entrepreneurship.

Our job is to tap into this strong desire to make the world better in a way that fits with today’s culture. One thing we know is that young people want to do service. And so if you have a service program or are thinking about adding one, now might be the time to think big.

David Rosenn, the Executive Director of AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corp sent me a note about Teach for America’s growth. The NY Times has it:

May 14, 2008
Teach for America Sees Surge in Popularity
By SAM DILLON
Teach for America, the program that recruits top college graduates to teach for two years in public schools that are difficult to staff, has experienced a year of prodigious growth and will place 3,700 new teachers this fall, up from 2,900 last year, a 28 percent increase.

That growth was outpaced, however, by a surge in applications from college seniors. About 24,700 applied this spring to be teachers, up from 18,000 last year, a 37 percent increase, according to figures released by the organization on Wednesday.

The nonprofit program sent its first 500 recruits into American public school classrooms in 1990. It has a large recruiting staff that visits campuses, contacting top prospects and recruiting aggressively. Founded by a Princeton graduate, it has always carefully sifted through applicants’ grade-point averages and other data in recruiting. But with the numbers of applicants increasing faster than the number of teachers placed, it was even more selective this year than before, the organization said.

About 11 percent of the graduating class at Yale applied, 10 percent at Georgetown and 9 percent at Harvard, said Amy Rabinowitz, a spokeswoman.

It was the No. 1 employer on many campuses, including at Duke, Emory, George Washington, Georgetown, New York University, and Spelman, Ms. Rabinowitz said. The campuses with the largest number of recruits, however, were large, prestigious public universities. About 90 recruits are from the University of Michigan, and about 60 from the University of Illinois, while Wisconsin, Berkeley and the University of Texas are each sending 50 recruits, Ms. Rabinowitz said.

The program will place teachers in 29 locations this fall. Those include many of the nation’s biggest cities and some largely rural states, like South Dakota, where about 50 recruits work on Indian reservations. About 1,000 recruits teach in New York City schools.

Teach for America’s budget is $110 million, up from $40 million in 2005.

You can help the people of Burma through the American Jewish World Service.

“AJWS has been making grants focused on Burma since 2002 and has long-standing partnerships with grassroots organizations in the region. Through this network, AJWS is providing emergency support to local organizations that are responding to immediate needs. Funds donated to AJWS will allow these organizations to provide food, water, cooking equipment, shelter, clothing and health services to those most in need. Funds will also go to providing cremation and funeral services for the victims of Cyclone Nargis: this is essential to prevent the spread of disease and protect water supplies from further contamination.”

Click here to donate for Rapid Relief - Cyclone in Burma from the American Jewish World Service.

The MoveOn.org Obama in 30 Seconds video contest has a winner. To refresh your memory, MoveOn asked it’s 3 million+ members to make a 30-second campaign commercial for Obama. It had to be positive.

They received over 1,000 entries. Their members and the general public voted on the finalists, more than 5 million votes. And a panel of judges picked the overall winner.

Here’s the winner:

You can see other category winners here.