Blackbaud Altru vs. Ellucian CRM Advance

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Blackbaud Altru
Score 6.8 out of 10
N/A
Designed for General Admissions OrganizationsN/A
Ellucian CRM Advance
Score 5.3 out of 10
N/A
Ellucian CRM Advance is a nonprofit constituent relationship management software solution offered by Ellucian, Inc.N/A
Pricing
Blackbaud AltruEllucian CRM Advance
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Blackbaud AltruEllucian CRM Advance
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsAltru’s pricing information is catalogued below, as supplied by the software provider or retrieved from publicly accessible pricing materials. Altru is priced as an annual subscription. This includes hosting, unlimited users, access to unparalleled product support – everything you expect from a complete cloud solution.
More Pricing Information
Best Alternatives
Blackbaud AltruEllucian CRM Advance
Small Businesses
Bloomerang
Bloomerang
Score 9.1 out of 10
Bloomerang
Bloomerang
Score 9.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Bloomerang
Bloomerang
Score 9.1 out of 10
Bloomerang
Bloomerang
Score 9.1 out of 10
Enterprises
Blackbaud CRM
Blackbaud CRM
Score 7.5 out of 10
Blackbaud CRM
Blackbaud CRM
Score 7.5 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Blackbaud AltruEllucian CRM Advance
Likelihood to Recommend
8.2
(11 ratings)
7.4
(3 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.2
(3 ratings)
6.0
(2 ratings)
User Testimonials
Blackbaud AltruEllucian CRM Advance
Likelihood to Recommend
Blackbaud
Well suited for smaller organizations that want to centralize many systems. Smaller organizations will have less constituents to manage and fewer events (our organization has 100,000+ constituents, daily programs/events, and a large donor base). Many areas within Altru are not updated to be functional for 2020. Because of this, we do not use the merchandising feature, the volunteer portal, or marketing communications. It does a little bit of everything "okay enough" to be better than having separate systems. It's restrictive in many areas, but being able to do SO much in one database outweighs the negatives! It is 100% necessary to have a data manager who spends all of their time in Altru doing data cleanup, researching and writing policies and procedures, training new users, keeping staff up-to-date on new processes, creating queries and running reports, creating workarounds for "unfixable" issues within the database.
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Ellucian
A potential student calls in and we can enter all the information in CRM right then. Ellucian CRM Advance makes it easy for when we go back a week later to see all the notes on the student rather than asking them all over again. Admissions takes the call and enters all info into CRM Advance and then Academics can just log in and see all the notes Admissions took on the student.
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Pros
Blackbaud
  • Ticketing and tracking many different types of admission sales including group, facility rental, individual tickets, and class registration.
  • Membership management, including membership card mailing, recurring memberships, and renewal reminders.
  • Being an all-encompassing database rather than forcing you to use multiple databases.
  • Great customer service and client support, including ongoing updates to better the system.
  • Has a merchandise inventory management system.
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Ellucian
  • Ties fundraising efforts to alumni.
  • Seamless integration from Ellucian Colleage or Banner.
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Cons
Blackbaud
  • Query system not user-friendly for management with limited database background.
  • Limited company-to-user support outside of an online community of users. No long term account managers for program.
  • No email analysis tools for eblasts.
  • Limited merchandise capabiity for shop use, though the program does allow third party programs to work with it.
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Ellucian
  • Some of the data is not in the most intuitive location.
  • The initial learning curve of the system was a bit steep, but after working with the system exclusively, our users got proficient very quickly.
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Support Rating
Blackbaud
They are always available and very knowledgable. Many times I am able to come up with a solution before they've finished troubleshooting just by having talked through it with them. I really appreciate the Chat feature to answer simple questions in a timely fashion. The training I received was top notch and very detailed.
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Ellucian
CRM Advance is very efficient and overall a great product. We have been using CRM for many many years with really no complaints. It fits our needs.
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Alternatives Considered
Blackbaud
We switched from Raisers Edge in 2012 due to the need to have all processes in one database. Group Sales/Rentals had to use a separate database for their sales than the Members and Donors department. We also could not sell tickets for events and programs in one space. Being able to have all of these in one database is why we chose Altru.
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Ellucian
We actually recently dropped CRM Advance and are now live with Raisers Edge. Raisers Edge was much more user friendly and built around the fundraising experience. Integration was possible through a secure FTP interface with Ellucian Colleague. Other Blackbaud products have since been purchased to further enhance fundraising and gift giving.
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Return on Investment
Blackbaud
  • It has become very tedious to account for registrants in each session of a class or camp, because you have to "sell" them into each session in order to have an accurate class roster.
  • It is very easy to process payment and entry fees to our Museum and programs.
  • It is easy to retrieve accurate information and records of patrons.
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Ellucian
  • We are now able to do a more effective review of applicants and see overall trends of characteristics such as source locations. This helps to focus other efforts such as marketing to support those areas and increase others.
  • There is now a full picture of the needs of our students. By being able to view information in a logical progression, trend data can be identified and reacted to.
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ScreenShots

Blackbaud Altru Screenshots

Screenshot of Constituent Record: Get a true 360-degree view of each constituent's activity.Screenshot of Daily Sales:  Improve sales speed and visitor experience with a smart POSScreenshot of Group Sales:  Keep group sales orders organized and manageableScreenshot of KPIs:  Measure and monitor organizational performanceScreenshot of Membership Dashboard:  Improve membership acquisition and retentionScreenshot of Organizational Calendar:  Effectively manage events, programs, spaces, supplies and equipment