Blackbaud eTapestry is a donor management solution that helps growing nonprofits build a stable foundation for success, beat fundraising goals, and catalyze growth. eTapestry boasts more than 6,000 nonprofits and institutions as users, who manage and track fundraising performance, engage new supporters, and maximize existing donor relationships with the software.
$115
per month Usage based per constituent record
Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT
Score 7.4 out of 10
N/A
Raiser's Edge NXT is cloud fundraising and constituent relationship management software from Blackbaud.
Assistant Director of Annual Giving and Stewardship Manager
Chose Blackbaud eTapestry
We use this suite of products in our entire division. It helps us with reports and donor management, and it is very helpful on a day-to-day basis. I enjoy the ease of use as well as the product offerings available. I would recommend using this in your development office.
Blackbaud eTapestry is more user friendly for all members of the department. You don't have to be as data-minded to understand the information you put in. The cost is also a huge factor in being the perfect option for smaller organizations. You can increase the number of …
I very much prefer eTapestry to Raiser's Edge. I found the separation between the database and web view of Raiser's Edge very disorienting and didn't like having to switch back and forth between the two views to be able to complete certain tasks. I REALLY didn't like that a few …
we were trying to consolidate eTapestry, our donation and event ticketing platform and our email marketing service. RE NXT would certainly have been an upgrade to eTapestry but did not offer the full functionality we were looking for.
I have used Raisers Edge at a former workplace. I absolutely loved Raisers Edge, however, that organization was much larger and needed a platform with the ability to maintain a very large donor count. While more complicated to use than eTap, and far more powerful, I feel …
I was not involved in the selection of Blackbaud eTapestry. However, in comparing it to my experience with Raiser's Edge, this program is more user-friendly despite the learning curve battle of the query and reports section of eTapestry.
Blackbaud eTapestry is not as robust as Blackbaud Raiser's Edge. However, eTapestry provides strong value for the cost. It is much less expensive than using Raiser's Edge.
Raiser's Edge NXT is like eTapestry on steroids. That being said, eTapestry is useful and serves its purpose as long as you're not trying to create complicated compound queries and need the ability to filter lists in real time. We selected eTapestry for its lower purchase price …
Blackbaud eTapestry is easier to use than the old Raiser's Edge - it is more intuitive and modern in its front end and back end. Aside from Bloomerang's extensive donor analytics features and a wide array of integrations, I would say the donor management capabilities are fairly …
Raiser's Edge is a Blackbaud product. It is one of the reasons we went with Blackbaud eTapestry. Raiser's Edge was too much for what the school needed. Raiser's Edge is great but would be way too expensive for us to use as a collaborative of schools.
We have less than 10,000 records in our donor database. eTapestry continues to be the best solution because of its ease of use, and Blackbaud's customer service. Any time we have a question or issue it is resolved quickly and efficiently. In addition, we are happy with …
I have been in only two other non-profit organizations since my current place of employment. The first system we bought under my decision was Blackbaud eTapestry before it was part of Blackbaud. That purchase was made in 2007 and was still in use when I moved to a larger …
I think Raiser's Edge NXT, in comparison to Blackbaud eTapestry, is more robust. We selected NXT because while eTapestry is great for donor management, NXT takes it to the next level by allowing more engagement with donors. NXT has more available, so you do not have to …
Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT is a much more thorough system than Blackbaud eTapestry and offers more possibilities for your donor database. The variety of modules available allows you to tailor your package to your organization's needs. OneCause is great for auctions and other …
We selected NXT because of the features we had been told about. We have been a Blackbaud customer for years. Our consultant told us we would see an increase in donations and the system would be like adding another employee. It definitely was not. We have since changed back to …
NXT has a similar, accessible interface and intuitive process to eTapestry, but offers more advanced and robust options. (As an eTap user, though, I held RE in a bit of awe as the more advanced, expensive option. Now using NXT, I do see the advantages but they're not as extreme …
Upgraded level of accessibility and features. We are able to do so much more and be up to date on our system as well as current to trends that are happening right now.
We have a mix of both direct mail and online donor base and Blackbaud Raiser's Edge/Raiser's Edge NXT provides the right-size product to manage all of the different channels and the processes involved in managing them. The canned reporting is also very helpful when creating …
The database view component is the best in class, but with an old and outdated interface. The web view is modern looking and slick, but without the powerful capabilities needed for a modern fundraising office. Despite these limitations, the ability to customize is a huge …
We use both NXT and the original Raiser's Edge. They both have their pros and cons. Original (database view) has more robust querying available, but the display is awful and it takes a lot of hunting to find the information you need. NXT is more streamlined and efficient, but …
As I stated before, RE is the most comprehensive and robust CRM and non-profit software solution on the market, yet perhaps out of the reach of smaller non-profits and schools, thus allowing smaller and more generic programs to occupy the ever-changing fundraising world.
eTapestry and Little Green Light are both very flexible and customizable, but neither is as robust as RE in terms of reporting, setting performance metrics, integrating with a Finance department, or creating a moves management system. CRM is quite extensive, good for the very …
I have used the product Daxko in the past and now am using Raiser's Edge, I have also used eTapestry. All of these products work with the non-profit organizations and I feel provide excellent service and are competitive in pricing.
As we are a small Foundation with only one Administrative Assistant, eTapestry is perfect for me to keep all of our CRM. Once I got used to how it worked, I found it to be user friendly. If I have any problems, I can either try to find the answer for myself in the extensive library, chat to support or email our Customer Service Representative with questions. I cannot fault either the Support team or Customer Service Representatives I have dealt with over the years as all of them have been knowledgeable and extremely helpful. I would prefer to have better options within the Email section as the templates are very basic. There is another option to use an eTapestry partner, but there are additional costs involved in that. The email templates are OK to use if you wish to send quick information to your database.
Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT is a great fundraising tool. It is visually pleasing and straightforward for the most part. Being able to open different aspects of the database in different tabs and have reports and exports running in the background is a great time-saver. Having information tiles that you can move and reorganize used on the user means that I don't have to scroll to the bottom of a record to find out a person's giving history. If I'm working on a specific data project involving actions, I can move that tile to the top and it will stay there for just me while I'm working. It doesn't affect any of my other users' settings. Being able to send out links to gift lists to members of my fundraising team is excellent. Clicking the link brings them to the batch info and they can zero in on their prospects in the database directly from those lists. Blackbaud's Email marketing is my least favorite part because there's missing functionality I wish it had, like exporting email statistics and viewing them in general. I understand that other partners which can integrate would take care of this, but still.
Blackbaud RE NXT is extremely well organized and easy to use. The simple layout and straightforward functions make interacting with the product pleasant and easy.
Blackbaud RE NXT's dashboards are amazing. They make reporting so easy because the dashboards convey all necessary information in an easy-to-read, unique format (depending on how you want it displayed). It is relatively easy to create a dashboard, and the options for customizing it are great.
Blackbaud RE NXT is great for receiving and processing donations. From the simple donation forms to the automatic batch creation, using RE NXT makes processing donations much more efficient.
When I started using eTapestry, you had to pay for courses to learn how to do more complicated things in the database. These courses were fairly expensive and our small organization couldn't afford that. I had to figure a lot out on my own or using the tech folks in chat or the odd free thing. Not sure if the courses are still costly or not.
It is not particularly user friendly--for example, you would think the drag and drop email template would be pretty straightforward but it is not! And there aren't built in instructions to help as you try to use things.
Figuring out how to organize queries and reports and communications in folders in order to find things again has been challenging. It is possible to search on keywords, which is very helpful. But finding something in a list of queries that is not alphabetical isn't particularly easy.
Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT is constantly updating and making major changes, so you never fully understand the system
The way some things are labeled in the system doesn't make logical sense. You almost have to learn a whole new language to get the most out of the features.
There's no way to re-generate a copy of a receipt, which is wildly inconvenient.
A lot of features are very limited based on your subscription. They give you a wide range of features but almost none of them work to their full potential. Even if you're paying a lot of money for the system, you will still likely feel like you're doing a free trial.
We do not always get positive solutions from Etapestry. There are a lot of resources and solutions that you can read about and reach out to. I participate in Community Forums and trainings to see what we can be doing differently.
I don't know for sure what we'll do, and I wouldn't publicly share that anyways. Speaking only for myself, I wouldn't jump for joy if I was given the task of transferring CRM providers when this org has a Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT database that's 28 years old, but being aware of what's on the market is always responsible. With the planned functionality updates to Web View over 2025-2026, the phasing out of features in database view, and the changes to contract structure laid out in investor updates, there's a lot of factors that could change in the next few years. And Blackbaud has not made it clear how much work the transfer to Web View only will be for us over the next couple years: It means updating all of our policies and procedures and all of our documentation and retraining all of our employees at minimum, and that's assuming that all existing fields and features remain accessible without modification.
eTapestry was the first donor database I had ever used and always found it to be much easier to use and administer than the databases I was used to (patient care and payroll databases). The rare times I can't figure out how to do something, I just hope on the chat and someone from the team pleasantly walks me through the process. If it's something that database is incapable of doing, they encourage me to log my suggestion in the idea bank so it can be considered for enhancements. On top of that, the regular training provided allows you to continue building your skills within the database
Learning the overall useability of Blackbaud Raiser's Edge is a fairly steep learning curve, however, the support team that Blackbaud Raiser's Edge employs are top notch, helpful and very knowledgeable. Blackbaud Raiser's Edge also maintains an extensive library of articles that are very helpful, as well a useful tutorials, including step-by-step articles as well as instructional videos. With these tools at your disposal you will be competent in no time
I have never had an issue accessing eTapestry. It does occasionally go down for maintenance. When that happens, they give you a lot of notice and generally schedule maintenance for hours between midnight and 6am so that business won't be disrupted.
The only reason I cannot give a 10 is because like all web based products, internet connection is required and that is not something that can be counted on 100% of the time. When the internet connection is stable, I have had little to no issues using Raiser's Edge.
The product does what it is supposed to, although there are downsides. There are positive and negatives for every product. This is less expensive alternative for a small organization tracking minimum information.
NXT itself is a pretty simple interface, and is great for front-line fundraisers to be able to look up info and run some simple "reports"/analysis. It's very quick and intuitive, but the back-end attached to it (RE 7.96) may have connectivity issues from time to time. NXT itself, though, is simple enough that issues are rare.
My favorite feature is the Live Chat. If we get stuck, we can get immediate help, download the chat and save it for later so if we need help again we have it on file. The Knowledge Database is also extremely helpful.
You are better off using the user community or Facebook group to get answers than the support provided by Blackbaud. Oftentimes, support reps are not even aware that new features are being rolled out, nor do they have fundraising experience so you end up explaining more to the rep about what you are trying to accomplish and why than getting to the issue.
When you get a good, knowledgeable person for in-person training, you can't beat it! Hands on, real time, questions answered on the spot. And they want to make sure you get what you needed before leaving. To also have dedicated time without other distractions is very important to the learning process in my opinion.
They explained everything well to us throughout the process. It was easy to find resources needed to answer any questions that we had. Support was also available should we need further assistance from the resources found online. They were also quick to respond to our teams inquiries, which was much appreciated.
The content is solid, but for those who benefit from in-person interactions, it can be a bit challenging. While the online format is great for flexibility and accessibility, there’s something about face-to-face training that makes it easier to absorb and ask questions in real-time. Overall, though, it’s a solid resource for self-paced learning.
I was not there for the implementation of this platform. Unfortunately I am unable to just skip this question as it requires a response, which needs to be fifty characters, so here we are. At thirty four, I need to add a few more words to satisfy this requirement. Done.
I can't recall many specifics, mostly due to my own limited use of the entire NXT range of functions. One thing that I dislike is that when previous "Contact Reports" (Talisma term) were imported the dates were all converted to show as the date that they were imported into NXT, rather than the original dates they were entered into the old CRM. During the implementation, similarly, a few batches of Actions were re-dated to show the date of the batch transfer or update (not from the old system, I believe).
We have researched 2-3 other donor platforms and we just aren't at a place to change, although we are very tempted. eTapestry is getting us by for now and we don't look forward to the day when we have to change platforms and have to change things for our monthly donors. We worry about attrition if our donors have to change platforms.
I have not used other products like this before. I have used and created some SQL databases and ERPs, but have not used fundraising-specific software such as Raiser's Edge. Based on what I know from other products vaguely similar to this - databases and ERPs - this is very user friendly and easy to pick up for anyone, especially with their NXT webview offering.
Pricing really seems to be all over the place, and everything else you need is an extra add-on cost. The biggest issue is training. Options are limited unless you subscribe and pay for it across your contract.
New features are constantly being added to Raiser's Edge NXT that expand its capabilities. Features such as constituent mapping and easily accessible actions allow for more in-depth analysis of existing constituents. The future ability to manipulate soft-credits and customize reporting dashboards will make NXT even more attractive to our fundraisers and executives. It's great to see that the software is evolving.
Having everything in one system means that information is much more likely to be up to date. We hardly get any returned mail from the post office when we pull lists.
Our gift officers can easily pull up donor information on their phones while out on a visit, giving them the edge they need to close a gift.
Information tiles on a person's record that are easy to reorganize and collapse per the needs of each user makes finding pertinent information quick.
