Likelihood to Recommend 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
Read full review In my last position at a SAAS company, I used
Salesforce and HATED IT. It was so clunky, and when I used HubSpot, it was like a breath of fresh air. Any company that does customer interactions and sales needs Hubspot. There is a TON of room for customization, which is AMAZING. I don't see anywhere that it wouldn't be a good fit.
Read full review Pros 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 Read full review It tracks emails including opens, clicks, and keeps a great log. I love how they give you options to build your own reports as well as some templated reports as well. It creates an easy way to work with your colleagues even if its remote positions. Read full review Cons 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 Blackbaud generally just feels like its technology is outdated.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. Read full review Pricing - HubSpot offers a number of great features in the free version however the paid options can be pricey. The free version could do with more options in some of the additional areas such as the marketing platform. Although there are some options included, they are very limited. Read full review Likelihood to Renew 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
Read full review To be honest there are some barriers due to which we are unable to use Hubspot at it's full potentials. The region that we work in has some restrictions that don't allow us to make calls or text which leaves us to just Email to the client.
Read full review Usability I think the usability is great. I am able to train a new agent with zero experience in our process with HubSpot in a day or less. They can be proficient in using HubSpot quickly, the way I've designed it to work, in less than a week. I am able to load new leads, set calling campaigns, and start prospecting quickly. I've even had to call customer service for help, and they were super helpful.
Read full review Support Rating Read full review Because when I needed help HubSpot responded immediately and provided me with the information I needed which enabled me to realize that HubSpot was even more customizable and easier to use than I thought! And I already thought HubSpot was very user friendly and easy to use, and then Support showed me how to manipulate the settings, columns and the appearance of the tool.
Read full review Implementation Rating 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.
Read full review If you've had any prior experience with cloud based marketing automation or group communication tools, you can do the implementation without paid outside support. Though getting to a SLA (service level agreement) would be best achieved with the help of a third party who can facilitate
Read full review Alternatives Considered 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.
Read full review Salesforce requires a lot of in-depth knowledge both to implement and to manage. I found it to be quite clunky and there was an additional overhead for any marketing functionality, that wasn't up to par. Whilst Zoho had some good features, in practice the CRM was difficult to manage, customer support was non-existent, and like
Salesforce , required 3rd party support agents in order make simple changes. comparison, HubSpot allows the user to make many changes themselves such as adding and mapping properties, and also has excellent customer service. Combined with a well-rounded offer in terms of marketing, analytics and a good CRM, HubSpot stands out as the clear winner.
Read full review Return on Investment 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. Read full review Automation helps to save time so that we can reach out to more prospecting or save time that can be spent on more strategic sales tasks like deal management Visibility/collaboration helps connect marketing and sales efforts vs them being siloed Connection with salesforce helps us to get more out of our CRM spend as we have valuable data insights coming from Hubspot Read full review ScreenShots