Orange Coast Officials Sell Charity Calendar Software
By JENNIFER BELLANTONIO
Orange Coast officials have struck a deal with San Diego-based Kintera Inc. to offer an events calendar for nonprofits created by the Newport Beach magazine to publications across the county.
Kintera, which helps nonprofits do online fundraising, recently bought the rights to the calendar’s software template from Sue Cannon, editor of Orange Coast’s calendar, and Ruth Ko, the magazine’s publisher. The two declined to disclose terms of the deal.
Orange Coast launched its Master Calendar of Orange County last year to organize its online and printed event listings for nonprofits, which can use the calendar to avoid scheduling conflicts.
Kintera plans to sell the calendar software to city and regional magazines nationwide. A joint venture set up by Ko and Cannon is set to retain a piece of each sale, Cannon said.
The Web-based calendar is designed to let people search for local fundraising events and register and donate via the Internet. Nonprofits can use the service to list events and create e-commerce sites.
Ko and Cannon are expected to train people from other publications on how to use the software as well as market it to nonprofits, among other things. They’ve formed Master Calendar Publishing Services, a separate company, to provide training and marketing.
The pair said they were contacted about the calendar by Harry Gruber, Kintera’s chief executive who co-founded the company in 1999. In 2000, Gruber sold his San Diego-based Intervu Inc. to Akamai Technologies Inc. for $2.8 billion.
“Both Sue and I looked at Harry Gruber and said, ‘Why do you need us? Your technology is so far advanced,” Ko said. “He smiled and said, ‘We can create that, but you guys have done it. You have proven it. And you can take it to another publisher and show him how to do it.'”
Steve Klein, vice president of business development at Kintera, said the company’s partnership with Orange Coast expands its “geographic reach in the nonprofit event listing space, which already includes the New York and Los Angeles markets.”
Orange Coast “has a personal touch with nonprofits,” he said.
Ko and Cannon said publishers will “come to us” for training, or they will set up an online training program.
The challenge: selling magazines on the software.
The pitch is that the calendar can boost readership by giving magazines access to nonprofits, according to Cannon. They also can sell ads around the calendar, she said.
In the April issue of Orange Coast, the calendar spans 16 pages, including a column by Cannon and three pages of ads for nonprofits and events.
Ko is realistic. Some publishers might balk at running the calendar in their magazine without ads to offset it, she said. In that case, she said they can opt to do the online version.
“Some of them will opt not to have the printed version because it is expensive,” Ko said.
