In an economic climate uglier than any for the past quarter-century -- at least -- nonprofits of every size are facing potential shortfalls in the lean years ahead.

If you're in that boat, maybe you're looking at a CRM-sized hole in the budget and wondering:

Can we possibly afford to put our CRM fee to a more critical use?

Can we possibly afford not to keep the efficiency and impact our online data services give us?

Tough choice.  Luckily, you don't have to make it.

Say hello to Salsa Enterprise -- everything that large, complex nonprofits need, at a price that doesn't break the bank.

Join a Salsa Enterprise webinar on Tuesday, Nov. 25 to find out how to save tens of thousands and get the robust CRM toolset -- mass e-mailing, online donations, advocacy, and an integrated view of supporters -- plus free data migration from Convio, Kintera, GetActive, Blackbaud, Capitol Advantage or any other system; personalized training; strategy support; and a dedicated account manager.

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On April 5, 2004, e-CRM toolmaker Kintera peaked at $17.73 a share. On that date, Bear Stearns' high was $87.53 -- a little less than five times Kintera's value per share. At any point in the intervening four years, Kintera shareholders would have been overjoyed to trade at one-fifth Bear Stearns. Today, they got there. Current valuations: Kintera $0.66 Bear Stearns: $3.82 ??? Profit!

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'My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' -Luke 15:31-32 It's time to slay the fatted calf. As a hybrid nonprofit/tech provider, DIA's animating vision has always been empowering nonprofits. Open APIs have been a bedrock assumption of that understanding since day one: as our guy put it on last year's Open API debate, "nonprofits can do more than vendors can imagine they can do". Kintera and Convio just got a little religion, too. And since we're not above glorying in converts, we're excited to see the big commercial players starting to come around. Judi Sohn and Michelle Murrain have more about those announcements. Allan Benamer has some thoughts from a coders' standpoint. Personally, I'm pretty much in Beth's boat -- "wouldn't know an API from Ape if it stood right in front of me beat its chest".

Above: an image capture of a third-party application that increments a counter based on data pulled from our API

But I've seen some groups use our API to do some pretty cool stuff, often stuff we had no idea they were doing. Mashing up with outside applications, custom data sets and (of course) Google maps. Radically customizing pages -- even reworking DIA-hosted pages. Content management integration. Arranging custom database syncs.

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Kintera yesterday announced an "upcoming open application integration platform" that appears to kinda-sorta mark the long-awaited first hint of the giant CRM providers prying open their APIs and letting outside developers build out the power of their tools for custom cases without forking over a couple grants' worth of fees. NTEN is promising a forthcoming call to get into what's really opening and what's not, but as an open API shop since day one, we'd like to welcome the big K to the party, and assure them that it's a real blast if you come in past the cloakroom. And the party only improves by more guests bringing APIs.

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There's a conspicuous absence from the sponsorship credits at the NTEN Nonprofit Technology Conference home page I stumbled upon in preparing yesterday's low-key upcoming events post. A dependable occupant of the conference's logo rolls the past few years, it's nowhere to be found in 2007. It's a fact of no special importance on its own (except perhaps to NTEN!), but easily read as another milepost in the struggling firm's departure from the data management and CRM universe of rank-and-file nonprofits. Naturally said reading is utter speculation; we have no special insight into this from either side of the [non-]transaction.

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The Nonprofit Tech Blog unearths from Kintera's Edgar filing a letter from minority shareholders calling on the management that has led KNTA stock to the brink of de-listing to step aside. PICnet has more ... including share prices with the following disclaimer: "Warning: the graphic after the jump may not be suitable for Kintera shareholders." With GetActive absorbed by Convio and Kintera seemingly facing insolvency or irrelevancy, the shape of the early-aughts CRM terrain is being resculpted before our eyes.

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