This Spring, Blackbaud announced that it planned to acquire Kintera. Since then, the "i's" have been dotted, the "t's" have been crossed, and the real work of integrating the two products has begun in earnest.

Lots of Kintera Sphere users have questions about what the acquisition will mean in terms of functionality. Blackbaud's CTO, Shaun Sullivan put together a screencast that demos some of the integrations they're working towards, leveraging the APIs in both systems. You can see a demo of Kintera Sphere and Raiser's Edge sharing data, as well as a Sphere/Infinity integration.

Flickr Photo: Cubbie_n_ VegasI'm in DC -- well, Arlington -- for the next couple of days, giving a social media training. A few big things happened yesterday, but I spent most of it on airplanes. As it's currently 4:30 am, according to my body, I'm going to cop out and just give you guys a bunch of links to keep my daily blogging streak alive.

Here's the stuff I wish I had the wherewithal to write about today:

Unless you've been out of the office, you undoubtedly heard that Blackbaud is buying Kintera.  They are both publicly traded companies, so neither is allowed to comment on what will happen right now.  They have to keep behaving as completely separate entities until the acquisition is approved.  That doesn't give us a lot of good information, but it hasn't stopped the speculation either.

This is certainly very meaningful for the sector.  No matter how the acquisition plays out in terms of which products are kept, etc., there is one less choice in the nonprofit CRM market.  And I tend to believe that choice is good.  But rather than opine at this time, I'll instead share some of the musings of the nonprofit community and beyond:

• Connections: Steve MacLaughlin's Blackbaud Blog
• Nonprofit Tech Blog 
• Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology 
• Idealware
• The Nonprofit Times 
• Don't Tell the Donor 
• Forbes.com 

 What's your take?

Kintera has an Open API. Kintera customers and select vendors can now access an extensive and documented API to connect their applications to Kintera Sphere. From their press release:

Kintera,® Inc. (NASDAQ: KNTA) today announced that Kintera Connect™, the company's open application integration platform, is available for clients and partners to integrate directly with Kintera technology. As a result, best of breed solutions are now available through the Kintera Connect Partner Program, providing organizations with the freedom to select solutions to best meet their unique needs.

If you are looking for more information, check out:

• Kintera Connect Resource Page
• Kintera Connect API Documentation
• Upcoming Kintera Connect Webinar

Thanks again to the 60 or so folks who were able to join us for today's community call with Kintera. Kintera has been under new leadership since March of this year. We convened Scott Crowder, Kintera’s new CTO and the NTEN community for a discussion about where Kintera is headed, especially in relation to Kintera Connect, their plan to open their platform to clients and select developers to create integrations and third party applications.

Get the Recording.

And, if you have any follow-up questions, feel free to contact Darryl Gordon, VP of Marketing.

Wednesday, August 15 at 11am PT/2 pm ET for a free community call with Kintera CTO Scott Crowder.

Kintera recently announced Kintera Connect, an upcoming open application integration platform that provides nonprofits with the opportunity to select industry solutions that best meet their unique needs. But what does an open platform mean for you? And what types of solutions and capabilities will an open platform offer to nonprofits? What impact could an open platform have on fundraising and constituent engagement efforts? Learn from Scott Crowder, Kintera’s chief technology officer (CTO), how developers and partners will be integrating directly with Kintera technology and what technology possibilities could be available to your nonprofit. This is your opportunity to get your questions answered.

This is a FREE event. No registration is required. To participate:

• Phone: 866.740.1260 / passcode: 3979000
• Web: ReadyTalk.com / passcode: 3979000

Kintera® Inc. (NASDAQ: KNTA) today announced Kintera Connect, an open application integration platform that features applications provided by Kintera and application partners. We are scheduling a community call with Scott Crowder, CTO of Kintera, for NTEN members.

According to the press release, Kintera Connect is built on Kintera’s existing Web services and enables developers and partners to integrate directly with Kintera technology. Initial partners include TMA Resources, Campbell Rinker, Mobile Commons (which will be featured in an NTEN webinar on Thursday), DailyStrength, Jacobson Consulting, Solid Cactus, Echopass, Freecause, FISC Solutions, CopperKey, Razorsight, Quantrix, Frontline Data, AQ2 Tech, BringLight and WPG Inc. This application integration has the potential to share datamore easily between applications, according to one of the vendors that provides association management software.