The mind can only take so much of the illogical. When 75% of one’s time is spent trying to make connections between tasks and elements in a program as vast and as ill-conceived as Kintera, all one wants to do is nap. Instinctively the brain knows that putting so much effort into something inevitably fruitless is fruitless in and of itself, and therefore prefers to shutdown. My initial psuedo-optimism has passed (post).
It’s hard to argue Kintera’s benefit when you look at the numbers. My non-profit makes heaps off the relatively minimal investment in Kintera. Hard to argue until you factor in that data management and site traffic have very little to do with Kintera. Kintera’s function, at least in the capacity we manage to use it, is not unique. Many products such as ESX (site), Convio (site), and Blackbaud’s NetCommunity (site), could do just as well because in the end the tools provided are just tools. Granted, I’ve not used other services, but ours site’s traffic, this non-profit’s service, and the reasons why people donate have nothing to do with Kintera and everything to do with the quality and sincerity of this organization.
I think my company is trapped into thinking that Kintera is the only road to online donations success. I can’t explain their insistence on staying with Kintera any other way. In the end, Kintera only makes this company’s life harder. Its tools are difficult to use and its support is non-existent. Volunteers, constituents, and donations are practically manually managed since Kintera won’t speak to Raiser’s Edge with any competence. After my three-day training, the instructor who claimed a supporting commitment to all his students has never once responded to my emails. (I never even got the fleece promised me!)
At least I got some Silly Putty (info) from them. Do you know that the harder you throw Silly Putty, the harder it gets (demo)? That’s cool! At least Silly Putty makes far more sense (info) than Kintera.
Kintera is a lemon. There are options. Go with them.