Breaking News: Layoffs At Kintera, Earnings Call Set For Today

One month after Kintera received notice about potential de-listing from NASDAQ, widespread layoffs have begun at the San Diego-based software provider to nonprofits. The cuts are ahead of the firm’s quarterly earnings call slated for this afternoon.

Company insiders said more than 40 people were cut starting Tuesday, although Kintera officials declined to comment in advance of today’s 4:45 p.m. Eastern conference call to discuss first quarter financial results. The department losing the most people was finance, followed by marketing and product development, according to insiders.

Roth Capital, one of the few analysts still tracking Kintera, downgraded the stock from “buy” to “hold” on Monday, 15 months after making it a “buy.” Kintera, which trades on the symbol KNTA, ended 2007 with almost $16 million in losses, down from $33 million in 2006 and almost $42 million in 2005. For the first quarter of 2007, losses were $8.2 million.

An insider told The NonProfit Times the earnings report “is not expected to be good” but that the layoffs were more “matching expenses to resources.” Another insider was less optimistic, saying, “This doesn’t surprise you, does it? You had to see this coming.” Neither source would disclose the number of people losing their jobs.

Read complete article here...

Online...They've Got Mail: 10 marketing strategies

The current economic situation nationwide, combined with higher costs and tighter regulations relating to postal fundraising, will make online marketing even more important in upcoming years.

Vinay Bhagat, chief strategy officer for online fundraising firm Convio, maintains that nonprofits will need to invest in effective online marketing programs. He offers 10 best practices for getting started online:

• Ensure your Web site makes the right first impression. Prospective donors are very likely to visit your site before making a gift in any channel.
• Collect email addresses of current donors. Communicating online with donors enhances their value. Few organizations have emails for more than 30 percent of their active donors.
• Optimize your Web site to convert visitors to email subscribers. Target a 3 percent conversion rate of unique visitors to new subscribers.
• Make every communication count. Write emails with a constituent-centric point of view, and steer clear or sending non-compelling material.
• Inspire. Provide value and be transparent to your donors about how funds are spent.
• Ask for money, regularly. Include a soft ask in every communication.
• Use multiple emails in a series to lift appeal response rates. Suppress those who respond to earlier appeals in the series.
• Make fundraising appeals tangible and compelling. People are presented with lots of appeals and offers.
• Empower volunteers. Raise money through online peer-to-peer fundraising software tools.
• Encourage monthly giving. The lifetime value of monthly donors is much higher than single-gift donors.