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
Well suited for any size company which needs CRM management. Easy to use. Great for individuals or teams that use Apple products. Daylite and ios expert integration has been key in capturing leads from our website into the Daylite database, plus then if they opt into email marketing, they are entered into the MailChimp database. The web forms also automate the creation of opportunities and are linked with the contacts/companies. Sales Managers with geographical responsibilities can easily filter contacts or projects based on these regions so they only see what they need. Daylite is not appropriate for Windows users.
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
Daylite allows you to link your email so when you email a client it will link to their contact in Daylite and save the communication so anyone on the team can see all the emails that have been sent between the client and our company.
Daylite allows you to create "opportunities" for the different packages and services we offer. This lets us track where someone is in the process, if they are still thinking about a service, have been sold on it, or are not interested.
Daylite lets you leave notes on the account that everyone on the team can see. This has been so helpful for our company because it lets us drop helpful notes on personal things about the client that would be good for everyone to know.
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.
The main drawback of Daylite is that it becomes slow on its iOS mobile devices.
Sometimes I face a lot of retries to log into the account. The mobile app needs a change and needs an upgrade. Apps are lacking in giving appointment reminders on time. Sometimes it does not notify on the right time about the appointment with the client.
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
It is an excellent database! There isn't a database on the market which is perfect for everyone but this one is very very close and does most of what we need.
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.
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.
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.
Daylite provides authentic services and features with excellent programming. I have also collaborated on the Daylite calendar with Apple Calendar so that I can never leave behind any updates of the future. Moreover, it keeps on updating its feature for giving better services.
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.
Daylite has been very helpful for new employees to answer their own questions about contacts/passwords, etc.
We found the tiny notification bell to be weak, sometimes a project comes in with a tight deadline and we have to double-check and ask an employee if they saw the notification. More time would be saved by just chatting about the project and its expectations.
A huge benefit is the institutional knowledge that can be had by reading past projects. We've tracked everything, so the history is there.
