Blackbaud CRM

Pros

We used this software at a previous organization that I worked at. Blackbaud has an incredible amount of reporting functionality. You can manipulate data any way you can imagine. Now that I have worked with other donor databases, I've come to appreciate in an even deeper way how much functionality Blackbaud's programs have.

Cons

It takes a fair amount of experience and training to get the most out of the software, just because it can do SO much! It is fairly user friendly for the basics, but when you are doing advanced query building and importing large amounts of data, you are going to need some technical assistance. But, they are pretty good about providing it.

Pros

The ease of use and navigation, payment processor built in, the customization of donation forms, and having multiples, reporting, and the amount of plugins available.

Cons

Communication with other software such as Constant Contact.

Pros

The best part was the ability to create recurring entries. That is, until it was taken away with the switch to web only use. With over 200 recurring entries every month, it's a drain on my time and energy.

Cons

Customer support is the WORST. They must hire random people off the street. In three years, I think I talked to one person who knew anything about accounting. And don't get me started on pricing - a 25% increase after the initial contract, which was supposed to convert to an annual fee, but they are claiming it's a 3-year. Nobody in my organization signed a three year contract. Not when their software is NOT the best for small organizations.

Pros

Blackbaud CRM is has a lot of useful tools for fundraising, donor management, and grant writing. We have used this product for several years and it has been great tool for our company for the past 2. We learned after the first year if we didn't really learn the product and spend time watching the online and tutorials from the company then this product was not worth the money. The tutorials and modules are very helpful for making the most of the product. The price is worth it if you commit to learning and using tit to it's full capacity. The customer service is always great and reps are very helpful.

Cons

You have to put time in on the front end to learn the product or you will most not take advantage of all the software has to offer. It is not hard to use once you learn but the software is not the most intuitive so you have to learn as opposed to just jumping it in and things being easy to figure out naturally.

Pros

Easy flow in adding donors, easy flow in taking donations, pretty UI, intuitive use and workflow. Reporting functions are easy to edit and create.

Cons

Licensing and customization can be pricey. If you have your own developer to improve functionality, you may not get access to test environments or else you're paying for their developer for customizations.

Pros

This software is designed for nonprofits and the the features are incredibly helpful in maintaining and recording information about our constituents.

Cons

Some of Blackbaud's systems look dated and you have to upgrade (more $) for a 2018 look. However, the functionality is efficient and effective. The cost is also a bit high as compared to other cloud-based CRMs.

Pros

The software is extremely detailed and if the user is trained it takes much less manual implementation than other less expensive competitors. This software is offered on the desktop as well as a cloud-based version. There are many additional products offered with the CRM to offer a whole encompassing experience with little manual effort.

Cons

Complex and not user friendly, difficult to teach new users, and for small non-profits too many options.

Pros

Tons of features and pretty good at being customizable, generally intuitive point-and-click

Cons

It is not very efficient in terms of how many clicks it takes to do certain tasks, and it could be updated to not feel like something from 1998

Pros

I liked that this software was able to house all our donor information. Its fairly easy to run reports and the chat help feature was really good.

Cons

You can't tag or mark donations with more than two qualifications. Its also frustrating that you couldn't edit PDFs once they were downloaded because of Canadian guidelines even though I was based out of the US.

Pros

It's an ideal software for receiving donations. The company has done a lot in the past few years on listening to their customers on what they want and need. And great way to keep in touch with customers.

Cons

There's a learning curve and difficult for new users who are not tech savy. Should be more user friendly.

Pros

The sales team did a great presentation but after implementation support and customer service is awful.

Cons

Customer service and support teams are horrible, training is complex for a non-profit with volunteers and keeping data current and relevant is time-consuming and archaic.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Blackbaud CRM

Switched From

Pros

It is online and you can attach backup. I like that you can upload a budget.

Cons

The customer support is pitiful and there is no one to holistically assist when you have a problem. Don't buy the line you can call one company for all your needs because it works like 20 companies all pointing their finger at each other and it is impossible to resolve problems. I am highly disatisfied.

Pros

Blackbaud CRM is a robust system. Constituent profiles allow for you to collect a wealth of information about your constituents and use it to analyze, communicate, and solicit donations or sell your products. You can not only collect biographical information, you can also upload media, create action tracks (work flows), record giving history, etc. You can also add custom attributes for anything that is not out of the box.

There is a lot of support available for blackbaud products and a knowledgeable support team dedicated to answering questions and troubleshooting.

Cons

Software is a little clunky at times, you have to use it as it was intended or create workarounds to make things work. Software is pricey for a non-profit. Learning curve can be high for new users. When it comes to Membership, which is a big part of our business, the functionality is basic.

Pros

I love that Blackbaud has many different software options. The non-profit I work for used Blackbaud's Raisers Edge software for many years and switched to Altru in 2012 as our CRM needs had increased/developed as our organization grew. I also am appreciative of the time and attention that Blackbaud employees provide when support or training is needed.

Cons

Blackbaud's client base is largely owned by non-profit organizations. Non-profits aren't typically the kind that can spend thousands of dollars on software every month. However, Blackbaud's products are very costly. I would say they are worth the money, if it's affordable. But I do question their motives when it comes to cost, as they seem very high for who the products are for.

Pros

It's cool you can customize this tool to work for your organization.

Cons

Support has been pretty bad. We have access to a person for a set number of hours, which hasn't been very great (not very personable, quickly trying to get through training sessions, will say he will do something and doesn't). But when I ask for access (that's right, you need special access to their knowledge base) our real person helper did not ensure at all that I could gain access to support pages (telling me to just e-mail this whole other team and they would help me).

Pros

It's a complex piece of software that can run very difficult algorithms and can execute a wide variety of functions. It's incredibly helpful that it comes in different formats as well to suit folks from both the front and back office and support them and their specific roles.

Cons

The software requires a significant amount of training to understand fully, and is quite complicated to approach as a beginner. The company does offer training sessions, but they can be quite costly.

Pros

When the eTapestry product was first purchased it seemed overly complex, but it did function properly. Queries were not intuitive, but we learned. Our database size was approximately 11,000 records.

Cons

Two things: As Blackbaud made "enhancements" to the product, they did not provide ways to migrate from the old format to the new. In our case they said that we needed to individually edit our, now, 12,000 records. This was not an option and we decided to leave. Leading to the second problem.

I sent Blackbaud notice that I was leaving. The notice was completely ignored and I was send a "discounted" contract. A Blackbaud representative asked me to call at a certain time, which I did. There was no answer and I left voice mail. I sent another notice that I was leaving. I was sent another discounted contract. I have now been sent bills for the original contract, AND for accrued time, in spite of the fact that Blackbaud has acknowledged receiving the [second] notice that I was leaving.

Pros

Strong functionality and good training and tutorial resources. That's about it for the positive.

Cons

Customer support is nonexistent. Company has grown so big the could care less about clients and use deceitful renewal techniques. I couldn't even get them to call me back for us to upgrade our subscription substantially. Much better options out there. Steer clear of these folks.....the could care less about your organization and care only about their profits.

Pros

It does what we need it to do, helps us keep track of our donors

Cons

Working with Blackbaud is a very unpleasant experience. Trying to get answers to anything is impossible. Their contract has fine print in it that seems designed to cause you problems--do be sure to read the fine print.

Pros

There is not much I liked about the software. This does have the ability to store a lot of info and is data beast. They are slowly getting caught up when it comes to usability and features.

Cons

Honestly, its hard to know where to begin. I really dislike most everything about Blackbaud and its services. It always seems 2 steps behind the competitors. Steady support is hard to find. We either had to pay high prices for dedicated support or the turnover rate led to going through multiple reps. The price for any of their product suites are way above the rest for way less functionality. This lacks integration with other marketing platforms. Once you are locked in, you are very locked it. Do not assume you will be able to migrate of their products.

Pros

It's versatility in being able to manage your donor's information. It is flexible enough that it allows users to define how and what they input. There is a lot of functionality in being able to track your interactions with your donors.

Cons

It is a bit complex and there is a steep learning curve. If your org doesn't have the proper roadmap in place first, you can get bogged down with learning the program also whilst trying to stay afloat.

Pros

It's tailored to my needs as a higher education professional. It's a software designed specifically for nonprofits, and helps not only with CRM, but with how to conduct all fundraising operations.

Cons

Sometimes the export features are not the most useful, however, we are able to find workaround solutions.

Pros

RaiserEdge was our main CRM before we switched to Salesforce, RaiseEdge really built something that enabled nonprofits to have everything covered.

Cons

RaisersEdge stopped keeping up with times, they did not invest on the online platform and the bridge and net community were a disaster. I loved RaisersEdge but they simple stopped investing our their technology and they become a very closed software.

Pros

The linking options for couples, and linking for parents to children was very impressive. It was fairly simple to add constituents.

Cons

Importing accurately was a struggle I think mostly because you only had a certain amount of fields to use. Also pulling "Queries" or reports, was frightening. I needed classes to just understand how to pull accurately. We are using a new CRM software that imports very accurately and quickly. The reporting is much easier and more comprehensive and I love the new feature of adding a new field to any section of the software any time you want. This makes reporting and collecting information so much more simple!

Pros

Small amount of individuals on their tech support staff are helpful.

Cons

Every aspect is a nightmare. Each billing cycle there is ALWAYS more added to the bill than originally quoted. One month 200 sustainers were deleted and they never helped to recapture those members. They want to charge $13,000 to make simple change to a donation page. (Our new membership system gave us a new donation page at no extra cost.)

Pros

I LOVE THE CAPABILTY TO MANAGE DONORS FROM BEGINNING TO END. FROM PROSPECTING TO STEWARDING. REVENUE IS EASILY ENTERED, STORED AND REPORTED ON. ABILITY TO MANAGE ALL FUNDRAISING AND EVENTS ALONG WITH VOLUNTEER MODULE. SECURITY ROLES TO MANAGE WHO SEES WHAT.

Cons

I HAVE NO COMPLAINTS THUS FAR ABOUT THIS SOFTWARE.

Pros

It stores so much data about a constituent.

Cons

It is sometime tough to locate datathat I need.

Pros

What I like most about Blackbaud is its built specifically for capturing and tracking data for non for profit agencies and allows you to see all of your data is a very secure envrionment

Cons

I did not like the level of customer level support that was provided when requiring answers to technical questions, and the timliness of response was not always the grestest.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Blackbaud CRM

Pros

Blackbaud has so many awesome features that our previous CRM did not have. We have loved it. They are still developing their web view version which is primarily what I use, but their database version has all of the features and can do so much.

Cons

I look forward to the day that the whole system will be housed online. Sometimes it's frustrating to switch back and forth between the database and the web view.

Pros

I like that it connects all of our facets of our school under one umbrella so each user only has one login to all the information they need.

Cons

Their customer service is dreadful and slow. It is impossible to speak with anyone from tech support when problems arise.

Pros

I like that CRM can easily and quickly talk to other programs that we end up using. It's a one stop shop for donor stewardship.

Cons

There isa duplication issue on Blackbaud that means sometimes 1 donor can show up 10+ times, and it's more work on the back end to get it to be removed. Search features can use some work.

Pros

Blackbaud was fairly intuitive. It helped to keep our data up to date and organized. The support team was great and always making updates.

Cons

I wish it were easier to edit and customize the software to meet our needs as an organization. There have been a few things we would like to track, but do not make sense in Blackbaud.

Pros

It is more open the its closest competitors allowing for the possibility of in house IT customization. However this are not as upgrade-able as the company says they should be.

Cons

Not a mature product, still has may growing pains to be worked out.

Pros

I'm a customer of another company called Russian School of Math (RSM). They use Blackbaud as their payment provider. It's a nightmare for me whenever I need to pay RSM

Cons

1. When I register a new class I get a new “family” id. What??? I’m not buying a new class not a family!
1. Can you fix your terminology? This is extremely confusing
2. I've to go to one website for registration (parents.russianschool.com) and another website (parent.blackbaud.com) for payment. Third one parent.smarttution.com not sure what it is
3. Even within the payment website, there are multiple school accounts? I expect one login for the company not one for each of its branch.
4. What is Blackbaud and why should I deal/learn about that when I’m doing business with RSM? Can you hide your implementation details from users
5. Blackbaud's password policy is too strong

Pros

I like that I can easily keep track of all constituents of my nonprofit. It's easy to add constituents and edit. I loved the customer service... representatives were super easy to contact and worked quickly to resolve even nationwide issues.

Cons

I didn't like how the sheer bulk of constituent information slowed the software during heavy event season.

Pros

We liked how integrated the system could be. There were a lot of systems and programs this one could integrate with and had many options when it came to presentation of material.

Cons

The biggest thing we did not like about this system was the reporting aspect of it. It was overwhelming for us. It was similar to that of creating formulas in excel. Some people like more complex systems and options but others just need it for simple tasks. It would have been nice if the whole reporting and field section aspect of it was more user friendly.

Pros

Blackbaud has many features and has brought different facets of CRM under one umbrella, giving you alot of tools in one system.

Cons

RE and FE work really great. The integration tools Blackbaud offers for newsletters, communicating between systems, etc. are a little difficult to integrate and have stalled some of our progress.

Pros

Used a lot in schools for a variety of reasons.

Cons

A bit confusing to learn and complex for your average user.

Pros

I like the user experience, it is easy to use and very user friendly. Customer support is also very quick and helpful!

Cons

I think it could be less expensive but overall great quality!

Pros

I like that we can use this software on our I-Pads while working at an event to find donors and cash them out easily.

Cons

Sometimes it is confusing as to which step you are in until you have used it several times.

Pros

Pretty full feature set, good community of users.

Cons

Terrible interface, terrible service, difficult to implement, closed ecosystem, expensive.

Pros

I like that crm can easily track interactions with top donors and fundraisers that I meet with on a weekly basis.

Cons

Understanding some of the functionality of crm blackbaud takes some time, it is a little hard to understand/ learn at first.

Pros

Excellent donor management and donation tracking.

Cons

The vast amount of features can be difficult to learn.

Pros

I mostly used this software for reports and it was very easy to get the information that I was looking for.

Cons

I don't really have any dislikes with this software.

Pros

blackbaud on its own as a CRM is pretty good

Cons

any additional products from blackbaud may not be the best

Pros

Easily able to keep a lot of information in one place.

Cons

Better for somethings more then others such as financial tracking

Pros

It's fairly comprehensive and allows me to manage my donor base effectively. It has everything I could ask for in a non-profit management platform.

Cons

It's expensive for the value it delivers. The software is getting more and more complex to use. But the user interface is difficult to navigate at times.

Pros

This is good software for keep a database of donors and their contact details with this software. Learning how to use the software is easy. Even less tech-savvy people should not have issues using it.

Cons

I did not notice any major problems when using the software.

Pros

Blackbaud stores data for you so you can't lose anything.

Cons

Systems are hard to edit, not user friendly and extremely frustrating. Its hard to find what you need on the site and harder to export.