eTapestry Reviews

Pros

The interface is a lot friendlier to the average user than the database view, making it easier to use for our employees that don't like working in databases as much. It also introduced certain features that were missing from the main database, which added some new tools to manage data and keep our information clean. The analytics is my favorite addition; while some dashboard tools exist in Raiser's Edge, in NXT they are fully thought out and allow for excellent reporting and visual depictions of our progress.

Cons

It's still an in-development product, so while this could be great for some organizations it's not at the point where it's great for all organizations. Despite the fact that it's user-friendly and many of our staff members prefer to use it, the lack of certain features from the main database make it hard for them to convert completely, and they feel that switching between the two views of the same system is a hassle. While it's understandable that the extra add-ons would take a back seat to the development of the main features, with our membership module missing it does make it hard for our organization to shift most of our staff over to it from the main database view. There are also some things that don't synchronize properly between the two systems yet, which sometimes makes database maintenance feel like we're checking in two different databases for information.

Pros

What I love about RE NXT is that it helps to visualize graphs, such as donor patterns and key financial data, automatically. You no longer have to have endless queries and exports and dashboards to access the data you want the most. This helps facilitate staff meeting discussions, and also keeps all team members informed on the fly. Secondly, the prospect profiles for managers. Gone are the days of exporting travel profiles in plain text. Now a PM can login from the road to see all the details they need in a useful manner -- and what's even better? They can change how the data is displayed so that it is personalized to them. It is clean, well constructed, and yet also flexible enough to be able to dig deeper with a couple of clicks. And if they need to find a new person to visit in their area, the map tools are perfect. Highly recommended for offices with lots of traveling teammates.

Cons

As with both versions of RE, you only get out what you put into it. You need to make sure you have the right policies and procedures in place, for example, to make sure that certain fields in actions are required. You'll also need to work with your team to make sure they understand the updated language from the database view to the NXT view. For example, proposals and opportunities are the same thing. This is a bit of a challenge in offices where the NXT vs. database team may not interact that much and will be speaking slightly different languages about this software. It is not a deal-breaker, just a trainable moment.

Pros

The Raiser's Edge is a very powerful database that can provide great insight into your organization's fundraising. It has the capability to track and report on anything you would ever need to look at for fundraising. The template reports are customizable, which is very helpful. My favorite feature is the query and export combo - I can pull out any piece of information I need to analyze and Raiser's Edge does a good job of getting rid of duplicate information for me. The dashboard feature is also good - you can create multiple dashboards to compare fiscal years, appeals, funds, recent gifts list, summaries, etc. You can also share your dashboard with other users so that everyone can be looking at the same thing.

Cons

Building custom reports from scratch (not using a template) can be challenging to create through Crystal Reports. However, you can usually find a template that you can customize to create a similar report, if not the exact report you want to write.

Duplicate records can also be challenging in Raiser's Edge. When Constituents are uploaded to the database from a list or entered manually, Raiser's Edge will not identify duplicates if the name or address is not an exact match. This can be frustrating - for example, it won't recognize a duplicate address if the only difference is between "Street" and "St." in the database. Cleaning up the duplicates is even more challenging. I have needed to export lists of constituents, identify duplicates in Excel, and then go back into Raiser's Edge to merge and delete the duplicate constituent records.

Pros

Raiser's Edge 7 gives you the tools (and/or gives you optional add-on tools) to manage your donor relationships and data in just about any way you can think of. It's a great all-purpose fundraising tool for non-profit organizations. Raiser's Edge NXT (RE NXT) is the next generation, and we are most likely moving to that within the next year. The awesome things about RE NXT are 1. User access to your donor data from anywhere on any device, 2. Unintimidating ease of use for non-techie and techie alike, 3. Open API which means lots of more fantastic compatible tools are being built by Blackbaud partners, 4. Unlimited users - which means now our Board members and many other stakeholders will be able to login and get their reports on the dashboard instead of waiting for emailed or, even worse, hard-copy reports to be run and delivered to them by our staff.

Cons

My experience with the Customer Support has been less than stellar. Sometimes it seems like the Customer Support's go-to answer is, "No" or "No, you can't do that." Unless the answer is, "Well, if you buy this other tool we have, then you can do that." But since we have no plans to move off of Blackbaud products, thank heavens they have an amazing Blackbaud Community network where you can ask any question and get tons of advice from folks just like you working in this software daily. Blackbaud Community is now the first place I go when I need support. Many times the question I have has already been asked and answered in the past, and so just searching through the discussions will get me my answer or point me in the right direction, instead of wasting time trying to re-invent the wheel. My fairly high rating in this review on Customer Support is mostly because of Blackbaud Community and our fairly newly assigned account manager.

Pros

First of all the price for our organization is fantastic, after shopping around for a new database management system, we have found nothing close to what we are currently paying. eTap has decent functionality after you learn how to use it; once you master the basics, it has the flexibility to store just about any data that you need as long as you are willing to get a little creative in how you organize the data. The ability for the data base to be directly integrated into our website and Quickbooks is also a great feature that minimizes potential lost memberships and corrupted data.

Cons

The hands down most frustrating part of the program is that you can't have multiple tabs open within the same browser with eTap. In order to have eTap open on two different tabs, you must use a different web browser and a different login ID, which becomes a complete and total pain. It is also not the easiest program to learn and train new people on. Often we want volunteers to work on data management for us but that is really only possible if the volunteer or intern is with us for at least three months so we an spend the time training them on the program.

Pros

Queries are what we use to create lists of constituents with particular behaviors or similarities that we can use for creating mailings, invitations or actions. An amazing tool with endless possibilities.
Raisers Edge is a beast of a program. It can do just about anything you could want for a donor database and Blackbaud offers several supplemental solutions that seamlessly integrate.
Donor stewardship, from first contact, to donation, to acknowledgement letter, is a process that is handled particularly well with Raisers Edge

Cons

The program is quite complicated and if data is not entered correctly than the program just won't work well. "bad in, bad out'. But that is not unique to this program.
That some of the features that I like to use like global changes for adding appeals is pretty buried and the way of finding it convoluted.
Attributes could be more flexible: like I would prefer to have all events under one table (which it can do now) but then there is no step further where I can then say whether they RSVP and then also whether they attended and their name for easy export for nametags.

Pros

I use Raiser's Edge as our donor database and the data entry, reporting features are really updated. However, when they came out with NXT, it was a game changer. NXT is amazing! It has a very attractive interface and super user friendly. As soon as you search for a record, consecutive years and all information on the donor is clear to see and it lets you know which donors you should be reaching out to. You could assign donors to others to initiate contact. You could easily access information on your mobile device. It takes the Raiser's Edge data entry interface and completely gives it a makeover. You are easily able to review giving history and all donor information on one page and very clearly.

Cons

The only thing I don't like about NXT is that the consecutive years aren't always the same as in the donor records in the database version.

Pros

My biggest likes for the Raiser's Edge are the various modules: Events, Membership and Online Express. I can organize the information and pull it back out in queries so easily. The canned reporting is not bad either. They pretty much have every kind of basic report you could need. You can pull some pretty decent reports that track actions, solicitors, giving and profiles. The key is making sure your data is clean and organized.

Speaking of which, Raiser's Edge has done a great job of improving it's data clean up functions. They have improved duplicate removals. They have added e-mail and phone clean ups. And they are always on top of making sure their clients are heard (even if it takes them a little while to deliver).

Cons

The reports have aged out at this point in the desktop version (non-cloud). Development departments are looking for different ways to report their money and we are now depending on Crystal Reports to constantly fill that void. I wished the reports were more malleable and you could really build out the layouts to accommodate what staff wants to see. The biggest thing I hear in terms of complaints from my staff are the number of clicks to get a process done, whether entering an event on a record to recording a membership. Sure we can set up default settings for many of the procedures, but there is still that need sometimes to have to go through and enter manually.

Pros

There is so much you can do with Raiser's Edge, it's a robust and powerful tool. It works "out of the box" without need for programming or customization per se (other than settings and configuration etc.) so you don't need to be a coder to set up and use. I particularly love queries to pull together lists of donors who meet certain criteria, which can then be used for mailing lists, reports, exports, etc. The acknowledgement letters are incredibly valuable, allowing variable data and personalized language, e.g. when a gift is designated to a particular program we pull in a paragraph about that program without our gift entry staff having to do any manual or extra work.

Cons

Can be a bit clunky, and not always intuitive (NXT web view is a huge improvement in those areas). The reports aren't pretty (again NXT is astronomically better there) and sometimes there isn't a report that will work for our needs so I have to set up with queries and exports. There is almost always a way to do what I need to do, but I sometimes have to go through some complicated digital acrobatics to get there.

Pros

Blackbaud's Raisers Edge is great software for donations management, including special events and memberships. It's very easy to use, and very easy to get information from, whether through any of the many canned reports, or through queries and exports. Support is extra, but well worth the cost, at least in the initial years after set-up.

Cons

The cost - upwards for just the donations management - is considerable. And things like the Special Events module and Membership and Tributes and Memorials modules are not included in the base package. Like most other software, a lot of thought needs to happen when setting Raisers Edge up. But seriously for every con that I could list, the customer support that comes extra with the annual maintenance, if purchases, offsets the con with quick answers and fixes, so that even the most complicated thing in RE is easily addressed with a quick phone call to support.

Pros

The Raiser's Edge is consistent and reliable as a CRM. Because it is so widely used, there are tons of good resources online if you have any questions, and you are likely to be able to easily hire staff who have experience with it. You are able to set up your data structure with a good amount of customization. The the query tool is easy to use as long as you understand how you've set up your fields. You don't need to be able to code to administer the database, which I appreciated. Permissions are fairly straightforward.

Cons

As part of the Blackbaud suite of products, The Raiser's Edge is not easy to integrate with other products. If you need easy integration with other software solutions, you'll either have to buy other Blackbaud products, which are expensive and sometimes not the best in their class, or do a lot of data transfers between the systems. For example, when I was administering a Raiser's Edge database, I had to regularly export lists for use with Constant Contact, and import transactions for our online giving page, because we didn't use Blackbaud solutions for email marketing or online giving. It wasn't very difficult to do, but it did slow us down with tasks that should be automated.

Pros

Raiser's Edge is the best donor database I've seen. It has comprehensive fields and capability to track projects, funds, and appeals. When we used RE, we had about 250 different appeals categorized and about 50 different funds. When running reports or queries, you could slice and dice the data pretty much any way you wanted. Query functions were huge for me. You can dig down into anything you want - all donations by xyz appeal during 10-11 timeframe and paid by check at a certain event? That's an option, for example, with the click and choose query.
Huge added bonus if you use RE in conjunction with Financial Edge, Blackbaud's accounting system, as the two systems actually integrate (not export and import but a true integration).

Cons

The biggest obstacle we faced with RE was the pricing. Blackbaud prices you into tiers based on number of constituents, so if you keep old donor records "just in case", you end up accumulating all these records and data that you are paying for annually. If you can afford it, it's great. They are definitely shooting for the quality model not the low-cost model.

Pros

eTapestry has lots of power to get things done. It is cloud-based, so there is no need for the user to worry about upgrading the software or backing up the data. Queries are very easy to produce, and exporting the results in reports, PDFs or excel is a snap. You can design your own forms so that your website can talk to eTapestry easily. eTapestry works equally well on desktop computers, tablets and cellphones. This is very helpful for fundraisers who are on the road.

Cons

If you are downsizing from a more robust package such as Raiser's Edge, be prepared for a loss of flexibility - for example, queries in eTapestry lack some of the power that Raiser's Edge has. When comparing what you get "out of the box" with some other solutions, you will find that in order to keep costs down for the average user, eTapestry is very basic. To add in eCommerce, donor logins, advanced email, etc these are available, but as an add-on pricing. This can make it more expensive than other products that have all these features to start with, so you should be aware of what your real needs are before committing to eTapestry.

Pros

This is such a great tool to keep track of your constituents. Everything is organized, making it easy to find the information you need with little hassle. It was also relatively to learn how to use it. I had never heard of Raiser's Edge before beginning an internship during college, and without any experience outside of that using it, I was able to find a job where I spend all day using Raiser's Edge. Not being particularly computer-savy, it's almost unbelieveable to me how comfortable I feel using this product.

Cons

There always seems to be little kinks and bugs that make little to no sense, and many times even those at Blackbaud don't seem to know why. For example, I work a lot with tributes. Recently I discovered that when you are entering a gift and you have a tribute open, if you go into one of the tribute acknowledgee's records and then back out, RE will check off all of the acknowledgees to acknowledge even if you previously did not have them all checked off. My manager asked why this was happening and how we can fix it, and the short-term suggestion we got was to exit out of the acknowledgee record instead of saving and closing. Frankly, that's a horrible suggestion. Obviously there are going to be times when we need to save and close. I understand you may not have an immediate answer, but I'd rather you not be able to give me a suggestion than to give me a bad one. In short, I think there are many kinks to be worked out and customer service can be improved.

Pros

The software allows you to keep more than just address and gift data for your constituents. You can customize parts of the software to meet your organization's specific needs. Additional modules can be added as your organization needs grow and budgets allow. Customer support is available through many channels and the company works to help users interact with each other, which can be very beneficial. They offer a variety of training options that are also beneficial and I would argue essential.

Cons

Their growth and expansion of products seems to be outpacing the ability in all areas to support it all. On a few occasions I have found promises made by sales staff to be unmet by the software...though it appears to be more of a lack of true understanding of my questions/needs on the part of specific people sales staff. When I ask support staff about it later, they are much clearer on what the software can & can't do.

Pros

The Raiser's Edge database was very outdated however with the addition of NXT it's now very visually appealing and user-friendly. They took the old database look and revamped it to include charts, recommendations for donor cultivation and alerts daily referencing which donors to reach out to. It's very mobile friendly and great for major giving officers so they could make notes and assign tasks to their team while on the road. You could easily look up donor records and it's all accessible from Blackbaud.com so you don't need to download an app. It's good to have when on meetings and if you have to be an exhibitor for your Foundation and quickly look up donor records.

Cons

NXT shows consecutive donor years at the top of each profile however the years are not always accurate with the years in Raiser's database. Sometimes the years are way off. Also, they should make it easier to view outstanding pledges in NXT. NXT is a bit pricey however worth the cost and your return on investment is improved as it notifies you when you have major giving prospects to reach out to.

Pros

The eTapestry system is by far the best we've ever used. There are many things to like including: the dashboard with its sophisticated look that integrates all of the important information in on place, which makes it simple to focus on important things like delivering programs. Our old system didn't work well, especially when we needed to pull information from it. Reporting in eTapestry is quick and it looks really professional. So far, everyone we've had to provide information to, such as accountants, counselors, and so forth, are really impressed with how the information is presented to them. Last but not least, the diy forms are a godsend. They've raised us to a whole new level in regards to our tax receipting, registration forms, and mail outs!

Perhaps the greatest thing we've enjoyed using eTapestry is the caliber of service we've received from every member of the team.

Cons

So far there's nothing we don't like, but I do have some suggestions.

First of all, for the diy forms, we are using one for program registrations that have a fee - the donation form seemed to be the best fit. It would be ideal for us if we could either change the wording from "donation amount" and "donation frequency" to "payment amount" and "payment frequency", or provide us with the options for wording because we don't want those who are registering to be confused about the fee because it's not a donation.

Secondly, in the diy forms, where we have multiple options for users to check off, it would be ideal if we could create columns so that the form isn't too long.

Finally, because we are using some of the diy forms for program registrations and we deliver programs to families, it would be ideal for us if we could have a form where participants could put in the names of their family members and those names would generate separate constituents in the database. For instance, a mother signs up for a program with her two kids. All have the same contact information, but the health information is different for all three. Currently, people have to do the form several times - once for each family member.

Pros

I love that the fundraisers I work with are more comfortable with the NXT interface, yet I still have access to RE:7 to do the heavy-lifting. And I love that Blackbaud actively solicits feedback and input from customers/users to drive development of the product. This gives us the chance to get a product that is more tailored to what we need and want.

Cons

Much too early for anything to mention here. Because it's cloud-based, NXT can get upgrades and new features rolled out regularly, with no action needed on the user's part...I do wish there was an update product development map that showed what is coming when, even if the timing is constantly in-flux.

Pros

Blackbaud Fundraising includes Raiser's Edge, Luminate Online, crowdfunding features. The Fundraising tools integrate very well and it's user friendly and intuitive. We are able to create an attractive and easy to use donation form for our website. It allows you to easily track donor giving, pledges, create donation pledges and integrate with Raiser's Edge and other tools well. NXT is a new feature we purchased which is expensive however it's an attractive interface to view and track donor pledge level and upgrades.

Cons

Blackbaud products tend to be very pricey and offer a ton of features however you only use about half of them on regular basis. It could be quite a challenge to create crowdfunding pages., definitely multiple steps. Sometimes the dashboard giving and queries show different numbers so there's some inconsistency. Their NXT new tool is amazing however it's pricey. It's great for major giving officer.

Pros

The data is well organized, easy to pull, and easy to export. Although this is the only major database software I have used personally, I have heard multiple comments from others that Raiser's Edge is so much easier and more efficient than other software types on the market. Our organization has been using Raiser's Edge for over 15 years, and we are well pleased with its capabilities and performance.

This software manages everything fundraising related - donor profiles, biological data, giving history, mailing histories, event attendance and seating, EFT and automated credit card transactions, memberships, to-do tasks, alumni information, online giving forms and email blasts (with the optional Online Express module), etc. BlackBaud has an easy-to-access support system if you need help, as well as training, blogs, free webinars and videos so that beginners can easily learn the system.

Cons

BlackBaud is a little over-priced on some of its data cleansing services, like EmailFinder and Deceased People Finder. We often get the same service for much cheaper through our mailing house vendors.

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

We are a higher ed institution and we have moved from Banner to Raiser's Edge to NXT. What we saw right away was that NXT is very intuitive and easy to use. Our frontline gift officers love that they can use it on their phones, computers, tablets, and laptops, and that it's just a website away. Pulling lists is a lot easier and more accessible than the database query and the built-in mapping feature is widely used. It is a very clean and easy interface, which has made it a clear winner with our frontline staff.

Cons

Some very basic components are missing, which can be very frustrating. For instance, you can view an list of your Opportunities (Proposals) and a list of your Portfolio assignments, but not a list of them together. You also can't filter lists by looking for missing values (e.g., Prospect Status is blank), which creates some headaches. You very much have to adapt your processes to the database, rather than adapting the database to your processes. That can create some serious headaches during conversion, but overall it will save time.

Pros

RENXT is a wonderful leap forward for those that are currently using RE7. First off, it is online, so you can login anywhere and on any device, which for me makes it far more useful to fundraisers. Ultimately, I am a big fan and I think it makes your fundraisers spend more time reaching out to key donors, rather than working on back end tracking and database work. Also, what I appreciate the most is that I do not have to hire people who have RE experience anymore, because it is so easy for them to immediately start working out of NXT. It opens up the candidate pool!

Cons

This is a general blackbaud critique, but their customer service is not always the best. They can be difficult to get in touch with and you sometimes have to wait for a while to get a question answered or problem fixed. I will say, we have not had any issues with NXT in particular, where we needed to call them though.

Pros

Data conversion from ResultsPlus was excellent. The specialist worked with us to make sure all the data was correct and matched or improved upon how it was organized. The process also helps you become familiar with the software. So, once completed, we were able to start using without much disruption.
We've been successfully using it for over a year. Overall, it is user-friendly, with great support. Our account manager is wonderful and helps with issues/questions; checks up from time to time. Online resources/tutorial great and help navigate some of the learning curves with reports, mailings, etc.

Cons

We got an odd impersonal e-mail with a link to view our invoice.It would be nice to be able to pull it up online via our Blackbaud Account Site. Support was slow when we had a question with invoice and not easy to manage/review.
Not the best for e-newsletters - it's a little clunky to design with limited templates. We stayed with Constant Contact, but there are good integration features with eTapestry.

Pros

I appreciate that the product is part of Blackbaud's empire of services for the sector, so you can assume that much of the functionality is based on best practices. It has a nice graphic interface. I really appreciate the DIY form features that allow us to collect information on not only donors but volunteers and other constituents. It's been a phenomenal transformation in our ability to track our supporters and empower the board with good information. The automatic address updates we completed before our annual fund appeal resulted in an increased in renewal rates for our lapsed donors, which effectively paid for the subscription for the year.

Cons

For an organization with a smaller budget, the software investment is expensive. We were fortunate to receive a 30% discount for our first three years, but as we look to renew in the coming year, I think it will start to become more painful to pay for this operational utility. It took a significant amount of time to learn how eTap works. I was initially stunned by the costs of eTapestry's video and in-person training programs and the knowledge base is a little funky to use. Their customer service staff on chat have been super helpful, however, and that's become my go-to for answering questions. They do have free resources for training, but they are basic.