Likelihood to Recommend 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.
Read full review PatronManager is probably best for a larger organization with a dedicated technology expert because a lot of the features require someone to understand the back end a little bit more, especially when you need help (and a lot of the webinars or feature releases are way over the average person's head!). Data mining becomes frustrating because the reporting features are very backwards. PatronManager is very user friendly on the ticketing center and its easy to train new employees on this side.
Read full review Pros 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. Read full review Building custom reports is intuitive and user friendly. Integration with third party apps such as MailChimp is seamless and functional. Support requests are handled quickly, and the annual user conference offers special training and in-person demos. Read full review Cons 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. Read full review Reporting features are difficult to use. Built for orgs that have IT management, challenging at a small shop. Not easily customizable. Read full review Support Rating 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.
Read full review Alternatives Considered 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.
Read full review The PatronManager user experience is far superior, and custom report-building is the easiest I have ever seen on a CRM platform. Pricing is also competitive, and customer service + support far exceeds other platforms I have used in the past.
Read full review Return on Investment 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. Read full review PatronManager has saved us a lot of money compared to former ticketing software (Vendini). PatronManager has less ticketing fees associated, enabling audiences to up their purchase with an add-on donation that we get to keep. Read full review ScreenShots Blackbaud Altru Screenshots