Software company's compliance to benefit its nonprofit customers as move for increased regulation in the nonprofit sector gains momentum
San Diego — March 17, 2005 — Kintera Inc., a technology provider to nonprofits, reported today that its Annual Report on Form 10-K discloses that it has effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2004, based on the criteria established in Internal Control-Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO), and that its independent auditors attested to the effectiveness of those controls as required under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
"Public companies of all sizes and types are facing new reporting challenges to comply with the rigorous mandates of Sarbanes-Oxley and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board," said Harry Gruber, Kintera's co-founder and CEO. "Kintera has worked to maintain and document a sound financial management infrastructure. The conclusion of management, attested to by our independent auditors, that these controls are effective is a validation of our efforts."
Gruber notes that the company's compliance will benefit its thousands of nonprofit customers in light of the recent move, spearheaded by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), toward requiring Sarbanes-Oxley-like regulation of the nonprofit sector. "Congress and other governmental agencies are expected to require nonprofits to adopt self-regulatory measures similar to Sarbanes-Oxley in the near future. Nonprofit organizations are realizing the importance of increased accountability to build consumer and regulatory trust."
Added Gruber: "When organizations use a software-as-a-service vendor that has internal control over financial reporting under Sarbanes-Oxley requirements, they can trust that the integrity of the flow of funds and related reporting infrastructure is also compliant. In a sense, nonprofit organizations are public companies. Therefore, working with a software-as-a-service provider that is in compliance is an easy step toward ensuring compliance with the regulations nonprofits will likely face in the near future."
Kintera said that more than 15,000 accounts in the nonprofit, government and corporate sectors use Kintera's "software as a service" technology, including the Friends Asking Friends fundraising program and Kintera Sphere, an enterprise-grade software system that provides customer relationship management (CRM), a Web content management system (CMS), e-marketing and directed giving applications.
