Blackbaud eTapestry Reviews and Ratings

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We used Blackbaud eTapestry as our donor database - we kept contact information and history on individual and organizational records, we tracked our donations (monetary, gifts-in-kind, etc.), and ran reports for analysis. Blackbaud eTapestry was good for the level of donor stewardship and the number of donor records at our mid-size organization.

Likelihood to Recommend

I believer Blackbaud eTapestry is well suited for small to mid-level organizations. It is not as robust as some of the larger donor databases and CRMs, but if you only need the gift history/contact information, Blackbaud eTapestry gets the job done. Data can be exported for use in other programs as well, to fill any gaps.

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We used Blackbaud eTapestry for our Donor Management system for our organization since 2012.

Likelihood to Recommend

In my opinion, if you are considering Blackbaud eTapestry, run!! Not only is the program outdated with overpriced training, but their customer service is terrible. We have had Blackbaud eTapestry since 2012. I took over as Executive Director in 2022 and quickly realized we needed a new system. My bookkeeper called and was told we could cancel anytime. We adopted a new system, and then went to cancel Blackbaud eTapestry. We were told that they never said that we could cancel and they don't have month to month contracts. We are locked in to a renewal that we didn't consent to for 3 years and nearly $18,000!!! There is no way to cancel now and we have not used the product in months.

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Blackbaud eTapestry in our day to day fundraising activities. We use it to store supporter information, document donations, run queries and reports, compose and send communications and to make bank deposits. This software system supports all of our fundraising needs in one software system.

Blackbaud eTapestry is very easy to use and is user friendly. Credit card transactions can be made seamlessly. Recording data has never been easier!

The program is also fully customizable for data fields. If you have volunteers, different affiliates, personal information or anything in particular you want to track, you can!

Likelihood to Recommend

Blackbaud eTapestry is a fantastic program for small organizations. The functionality is easy to use. All fields can be customized and affiliations can be created for ease of queries and reporting. It is well suited for organizations that have 10,000 records or less. If you are looking at tracking education related information, such as student information and not fundraising related, this is not the program for you. It is strictly a fund development and fundraising database that houses pertinent donor information versus activity tracking. Fields are customizable, and that is fantastic, depending on what you intend on doing with the information. If you are considering Blackbaud eTapestry to do social interactions, find emails and coduct wealth screenings, do not trust all the information you receive back. We found that the email and social finders were not accurate, and neither were the wealth screenings. For some constiuents it worked, but the vast majority, we were better off contacting the donor and gathering information that way.

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use this product regularly to manage our prospect and donor relationships. All reports are pulled from here to gain relevant and updated information. If we didn't have this system for our whole team to keep track of individuals, we wouldn't be as strong. There are a variety of different products within Blackbaud eTapestry, and we use a good number of them.

Likelihood to Recommend

This product is well suited for our industry and department because it contains the most relevant information that we need to make connections with our donors and alums. It's helpful for an ever-growing and changing team to see what was done in the past and use that information to take into the future when meeting with people.

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Blackbaud eTapestry is my go to for all CRM within our organization. We keep track of all donations, donor details and prospective donors. By using reports/queries I can supply my Board with financial information within a couple of minutes and I can decide what information they see from account names to recognition names and first donation amount to lifetime donation amount. eTapestry also allows me to send on-off emails or mass communication emails to select accounts and I can add a journal entry at the same time which makes my work life so much easier.

Likelihood to Recommend

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.

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We used eTapestry as a donor CRM. We gained and tracked donations, as well as other communications, financial, and demographic data about current and prospective donors. I was the primary user, but the product was already in place when I joined the organization. WE also used it to send some donor communications out, from invitations to thank you notes.

Likelihood to Recommend

Overall Blackbaud eTapestry is a really solid CRM option for nonprofits with a mid-sized budget. It's a great younger/less powerful cousin of some of Blackbaud's even more popular products. If you haven't considered it yet, check it out! It's nice because it is specifically made for fundraising and designed with our needs in mind.

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use eTapestry for all donor and gift management, communications and reconciliation with financial ledgers. The ease of creating customized queries and reports is very versatile and there are many standard reports that take care of your basic needs, plus preview other capabilities within reporting that can be used to enhance the user created reporting. This allows me to create meaningful reports for internal and external stakeholders such as the Finance department, auditors and the Board of Directors. Our website giving is directly connected via Blackbaud Merchant Services, which greatly reduces the administrative time in creating constituent accounts. The only thing I liked about Raiser's Edge versus eTap was the ability to store batch donation entries for things such as payroll giving, but the recurring gift function is almost as good so wouldn't be worth switching in my opinion.

Likelihood to Recommend

Blackbaud eTapestry suites my needs very well, it is easy to use and the Blackbaud team provides great support and regular training sessions. With it belonging to such a powerhouse as Blackbaud, we are able to take advantage of larger scope enhancements that we might not be privy to working with a smaller company, but still use a product that feels like "the right size for us". I'm sure I am biased because I have never worked with a different company in terms of a donor database (I have been the administrator for other style databases though), but they provide a reliable product and they are nice people to work with, so you really can't ask for much more than that.

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use it to track donors and donations to our nonprofit.

Likelihood to Recommend

Blackbaud eTapestry was fine for a starter database and is relatively inexpensive. These days even small nonprofits need more modern and user-friendly platforms, whether it's through Blackbaud or another company. Also the customer service is slow to respond and sometimes just plain unhelpful, it has seemed that Blackbaud has been dialing back resources put into eTapestry and perhaps putting them towards their other database solutions.

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Our organization collections donations from individuals, corporations, and foundations. I use Blackbaud eTapestry to track how much each person/organization donates each year. This helps us with our fundraising efforts because 1) we see how many new donors we've acquired in a given year; 2) we see how many repeat donors are committed to supporting our organization year after year; and 3) we track any one-time donors and see if there's a means to connect with them and keep them in the loop for organizational news/events. The database also lets us produce donor acknowledgement letters with in-platform templates and layouts.

Likelihood to Recommend

Pros: 1) Easy to make donor acknowledgement letters for old and new accounts. 2) Easy to see previous donations on an account. 3) Easy to add new donations to an account. Cons: 1) Not always intuitive (ex: difficult to pull list of donors from a specific 12-month period); learning curve to fully implement 2) Sometimes eTapestry is slow/takes a while to buffer - not always immediate results.

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use Blackbaud eTapestry for Customer Relationship Management and gift reporting primarily. I also use to log volunteer hours. It helps us log contacts and create next moves with donors and other stakeholders. It allows program managers to report their activity in a common place that is easy to access for all.

Likelihood to Recommend

It is a good beginner solution - with the basic functions easy to find and use. For larger more complex organizations a more robust system may be needed.