Today I Cried

31 August 2006

Kintera

I'm spending a few days in training for a program called Kintera (site). It's the best worst service I've ever used. Nothing has shown so much potential and covered so much ground and yet put together and supported so poorly. Still they've managed to gain significant marketshare with non-profits and government agencies. The business intelligence that can be harnessed from their product does seem limitless, though I wish it wasn't such a chaotic setup. Of course a program of this level needs someone competent running it. I'm not saying that's me because frankly it requires a level of business sense that I do not have yet. The marketing and accounting thought processes haven't sunk into my brain. But I suppose if I'm going to work on fixing the hack job that is our current Kintera setup, I'm going to have to learn how our operation runs top to bottom. I do enjoy challenges. I just hope I can tackle this one while handling all the other stuff I'm doing.

posted by Non-Profit IT Manager (MS) at 00:20  

5 Comments:

  • I have used Kintera since early 2005 and would be glad to advise you if you want to contact me off blog. NHR

    By Norman Reiss, at 01 September, 2006 09:22  

  • Thanks Norman. I appreciate the offer and may take you up on it. With your experience, what do you think of Kintera?

    By IT Manager, at 01 September, 2006 20:28  

  • Our company has been using Kintera for a bit more than a year now, and I feel your pain.

    I would agree that the possibilities are big, but in my experience most of our clients don't have the time, manpower, desire and dicipline to really use the tool.

    So what they get is an expensive clunky CMS.

    At work we like to say Kintera is Random. I've wanted to make a T-shirt for a few years. I think I would have lots of buyers.

    By Jacob, at 02 September, 2006 12:37  

  • Jacob, I know I'd buy one.

    By Non-Profit IT Manager (MS), at 02 September, 2006 22:53  

  • We've done the best with Kintera's 'thon' module which we use for our pledge-based walks. But Kintera's system is huge - some modules work nicely but others don't. With Kintera still going through growing pains, it has been a challenging experience at times.

    The CMS, for example, has many wondeful capabilities but much of it is hidden behind an unfriendly interface which takes quite a while to learn.

    By Anonymous, at 05 September, 2006 13:23  

Post a Comment

Links to this post:

Create a Link

<< Home