Blackbaud CRM vs. NetForum by Community Brands

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Blackbaud CRM
Score 7.5 out of 10
N/A
Designed for large, complex organizations as well as federated and international nonprofits.N/A
NetForum by Community Brands
Score 5.3 out of 10
N/A
NetForum is a feature-rich association member management system. From member management to credentialing and fundraising, NetForum is an open platform for integrating best-in-class providers.N/A
Pricing
Blackbaud CRMNetForum by Community Brands
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Blackbaud CRMNetForum by Community Brands
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Blackbaud CRMNetForum by Community Brands
Top Pros
Top Cons
Best Alternatives
Blackbaud CRMNetForum by Community Brands
Small Businesses
Bloomerang
Bloomerang
Score 9.0 out of 10
Neon CRM
Neon CRM
Score 4.2 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Bloomerang
Bloomerang
Score 9.0 out of 10

No answers on this topic

Enterprises
Ellucian CRM Advance
Ellucian CRM Advance
Score 5.2 out of 10

No answers on this topic

All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Blackbaud CRMNetForum by Community Brands
Likelihood to Recommend
8.7
(36 ratings)
9.0
(2 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.1
(8 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
6.9
(7 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.2
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Blackbaud CRMNetForum by Community Brands
Likelihood to Recommend
Blackbaud
It works well enough for fundraising purposes and donor tracking. I think it would be less appropriate for instances or industries where you don't need so many data points on someone. You are able to attach a lot of information to a record so if you don't need that info (simply need contact info for example) you might want a simpler system
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Community Brands
If you have a question about a function or tech problem it's a great place to get answers
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Pros
Blackbaud
  • Accessing in-depth data for a single constituent is easily done and customizable by user working with "tiles" on the home screen
  • Generating lists of possible prospects with specific similarities can be done with a few clicks and then stored for more research later
  • well designed relationship options allow for a a look at specific constituents and how they might relate to other constituents in the system leading to more effective prospecting
  • Screens can be easily customized by user or user group eliminating irrelevant data and presenting only truly relevant information
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Community Brands
  • Can store a lot of information. There are many different modules and each module has a lot of spaces for details such as birthday, gender, spouse and children's names, emergency contact information, photos and more.
  • Can be linked to our internal systems. Our awards system is run through our organization's website but the winners are sent to netFORUM so that their records indicate the awards and distinctions they have achieved without us having to manually enter all of these.
  • Can provide a lot of reporting information which is useful for data collection or year-end reporting needs.
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Cons
Blackbaud
  • Certain aspects of Blackbaud are oddly non-customizable.
  • Blackbaud updates/support is slow and often ineffective - our organization switched to Microsoft 365, which is apparently incompatible with Blackbaud. Help/support recommended clunky workarounds that don't actually work, rather than proactively enhancing compatibility
  • There should be a flag in constituent search to show which people in the results list are deceased.
  • Query isn't very user friendly. It should be simple to locate the information that you want to pull, and add parameters to that information. Instead you have to write multiple queries to set parameters, then write a query that looks at those other queries. It's time-consuming and easy to make mistakes, and the knowledge/proficiency is difficult to explain or transfer to new staff.
  • Blackbaud generally just feels like its technology is outdated. It wasn't built for the needs of a modern organization, and its developers have failed to make the necessary improvements over time to stay competitive.
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Community Brands
  • need more users
  • better search
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Likelihood to Renew
Blackbaud
We've covered a lot, but mostly because we are happy with the system overall. There are a few kinks, and sometimes it takes a minute to figure out the right wording to pull a report or the best way to code a new category that we want to track. But Blackbaud is always there to help us, and once things are figured out - they are super simple to replicate. It wouldn't be worth it to switch to a new system and lose of all our information and time put in to mastering the system
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Community Brands
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Blackbaud
I have not personally had to reach out to Blackbaud CRM Support, because we have a central office that manages the Blackbaud CRM relationship. However, any time I've reached out to our support team, there is nothing they can't figure out by utilizing the support they receive from Blackbaud CRM. I've not had any issues that have gone unresolved, and they can always get things done in a timely fashion.
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Community Brands
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Blackbaud
Most of our issues were self-inflicted and related to BB's work. We did not "staff up" correctly, our data to be converted was not in great shape and we set some unreasonable goals. With BBs help we were able to clean our data and prep it for conversion and we adjusted the goals to be more achievable with the timeline we were given. We found the BB staff to be responsive and focused, especially when working on-site with us.
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Community Brands
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Blackbaud
Blackbaud CRM is more robust and has better functionality. It is necessary for a bigger fundraising shop. Blackbaud Raiser's Edge and NXT worked well in smaller organizations with fewer users and fewer donors/prospects. RE was more affordable than CRM was for the smaller organization.
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Community Brands
netFORUM is better at data collection and support for the price.
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Return on Investment
Blackbaud
  • Change is always expensive and painful, but CRM is worth the time and effort. One immediate benefit is improved transparency internally, especially for internal accounting, controls, and compliance departments.
  • Cloud hosting helps cut cost and demand on organization staff. Improves access and meets compliance on every level.
  • Ability to make global changes to recording donor phone communication makes it a one-stop resource for a well-run development team.
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Community Brands
  • Easier to use product
  • Features i never new before
  • Save a ton of time
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ScreenShots