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December 12, 2019
We have utilized Blackbaud NetCommunity for email communications with our constituents including e-newsletters, appeals, and special announcements. We also used Blackbaud NetCommunity for setting up donation pages on our website to collect gifts from our constituents. The forms allowed us to easily create donation pages that were secure and easy to use by our constituents.
- Ease of donation forms online--secure donation pages are very important to our constituents.
- Broadcast emails to our constituents
- Better capabilities of creating forms within our website's design
We use NC in 3 ways:
1) it hosts our donation forms
2) we create event registration forms (only ticketed events)
3) we send out e-blasts from NC
NC Spark is used primarily by the fundraising and marketing departments but it services the whole organization.
1) it hosts our donation forms
2) we create event registration forms (only ticketed events)
3) we send out e-blasts from NC
NC Spark is used primarily by the fundraising and marketing departments but it services the whole organization.
- Donation forms can be set up for each specific campaign and linked to specific funds and appeals in Raiser's Edge
- Event registrations/ticket sales are also lined directly to the event records in Raiser's Edge
- NC pulls data needed for sending out e-blasts directly from Raiser's Edge which makes it possible not to have to recreate email lists all the time because you can send it using Raiser's Edge queries. We also like the tracking feature where we know how many emails were opened and resulted in donations
- The E-Card functionality is not perfect. We had difficulty sending out e-cards with multiple recipients as all the selected recipients ended up getting emails with the first name of the first recipient used for all of them in the addressee sections. Blackbaud has been unable to fix it for us so we are forced to continue using the limited Ecards function
- It is not mobile friendly
- It needs to have multiple unsubscribe levels - right now it only gives an option to unsubscribe but we would like to add different levels of subscription
- The emails look different in preview vs the final version
Blackbaud NETCommunity (BBNC) is used by me for sending out all special event communications for our college. We use it also to send out reminders for the same events. Sending out emails is one aspect; we also create registration pages that we link to the email communications. We send out and utilize those registration pages - making it easier for us to track guests that are attending all of our special events in Raiser's Edge. The system is very useful when it comes to tracking, organization and data for past events. BBNC is also useful because you are able to see when other departments on campus have sent out communications, and align yours based on that.
- BBNC is very useful when it comes to creating e-mails and registration pages for special events.
- BBNC is helpful when it comes to tracking guest lists for special events
- Room for growth would be the feature in where the parts and photos are organized in.
- Can use improvement in how it reads between uploading queries in Raiser's Edge to use in BBNC.
We use Blackbaud to support all initiatives in the foundation. Whether it's online or through traditional media, Blackbaud has the software to support our needs.
- Ease of use
- Large community
- Certificates available
- Online forms could integrate better with CMS (other than iframe)
- Better API to sync with other CRMs
- Lower price
March 03, 2018
NetCommunity is being used by the one group within the University to send emails. We are not currently using the community section of BBNC, although we did several years ago. We use NetCommunity with our constituent management software (Raiser's Edge) and the software programs are integrated so it streamlines data maintenance and ensures that we respect constituent communication preferences.
- NetCommunity integrates with Raiser's Edge well.
- It is fairly simple to construct an email.
- NetCommunity has very simple analytics. It would be great to be able to see more in depth information on how constituents are reacting to the email they receive.
- Though it is simple to construct an email, making a complex design can be challenging due to the limitations of the design tool.
- Although A/B testing is available within NetCommunity, it is not easy to set up.
December 13, 2017
I have worked with NetCommunity for a number of years and feel that it is well designed...If you are a Raiser's Edge user, NetCommunity is the way to go.
- Email marketing efforts are more targeted and now have a higher response rate. This equates to increased fundraising dollars.
- A/B split testing has allowed us to further tailor content that is preferred by our audience. This targeting allows us to be more successful in gaining conversions, event registrations, etc.
- For mass volumes of data, the Raiser's Edge plug-in can become tedious to manage.
December 12, 2017
I am a Blackbaud site admin for my organization. I work for the Foundation of American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry so we use Blackbaud NetCommunity in our Foundation for our website donation page. We have a Blackbaud hosted WordPress site that I also manage and our donation forms are available through NetCommunity for our give now page.
- NetCommunity allows you to update your donation form and mobile donation page.
- You are able to create emails and newsletters.
- It allows you to find solutions to campaign and marketing needs.
- Not very user-friendly. It took me some time to figure out how to update our donation form and to make our mobile donation form match our desktop version.
- The templates could be a lot more user-friendly for the end user. I feel there are way too many tabs for the donors to go through to make a donation which may steer them away from donating.
- Some donors have had error messages when making donations however this could be the case with every website as issues do arise sometimes.
We currently use Blackbaud NetCommunity (BBNC) for our agency's website platform, email, donations and event ticket sales.
- BBNC transfers the data from the website (donations and ticket sales) directly into Raiser's Edge seamlessly.
- The building of the site is very user-friendly and easy to use.
- BBNC could improve on the look and feel of the event module pages - very plain.
- BBNC could improve on the functionality of the event module pages and donation pages.
December 15, 2016
We use NetCommunity to manage events, e-communications, contact information updates, and donations.
- NetCommunity is simple enough that a user can customise a web page, donation and response forms, newsletters and templates for other users without having a background in web development. It's great for teams that don't have dedicated IT/web staff.
- NetCommunity SPARK allows users to manage their opt-ins and outs for all email, or specific types of communication which the institution categorises themselves. That information travels through the integration plug-in and gets into Raiser's Edge seamlessly.
- When paired with the Events Module in Raiser's Edge, NetCommunity is a great day of event tool to check in registrants or register walk-ups.
- Profile changes, event registration, and login creation is not seamlessly handled by the plug-in, and it's not automated at all. Someone has to review the data and basically decide how it will migrate to Raiser's Edge for every change. It really misleads other departments to think our work is automated.
- The creation of logins is very problematic. If someone forgets they had a login under a different email, you cannot overwrite their Raiser's Edge record with the new login until you go into NetCommunity and delete their old user. In reality, the system should be designed to tell people that their record has an email associated with it already, allow them to make the change. If you don't delete the old user on the NetCommunity, the change gets rejected on Raiser's Edge in the background, so on Raiser's Edge you think that's the login the user wants but the user is sent an email telling them that their info has been updated. It's very dysfunctional.
- You cannot delete queries from the tables in NetCommunity unless you delete the record of the emails sent using that query. Then you can't see the full name of the queries to select from, and then you have old queries that maybe don't even exist in Rasier's Edge now listed as usable in NetCommunity.
April 06, 2017
- Creating eblasts to send to organizations and constituents
- Creating donation and registration pages for constituents
Addresses our problem of reaching our audience digitally and socially in a mass way as well as creating pages for our constituents to access to sign up for events or teams.
- Easy management of constituent lists that were used in the past. Search function is easy to use and understand.
- Templates are great and easy to use, can easily create an eblast in minutes.
- Very strong online community and live chat support.
- Eblast template does not always look the same as final copy of eblast.
- NetCommunity could house all constituents within itself instead of having to use data porting.
- NetCommunity should allow the option of importing organizations like it does with constituents.
December 14, 2016
NetCommunity is being used as the official website for Kaweah Delta Hospital Foundation. We are able to share information about the foundation and accept credit card payments online. We also use the website to register people and companies for our annual golf tournament.
- Ease of use to setup the website.
- Easy to change information.
- Easy to upload and display pictures.
- Customer support is great.
- Changing templates is a little difficult.
- Importing events into Raiser's Edge from NetCommunity can use some help. Golfers show up as guests on Raiser's Edge.
December 13, 2016
There are two main users in my office, one other person who is in charge of our "marketing" and me. She does the text, photos, and look and feel of the site, and I do the background stuff that makes it work with RE. It is our only website at this time.
- I like the integration with Raiser's Edge. Having the gifts automatically be processed this way is super safe, and eases a bit of the burden on our gift processing.
- Tracking email statistics once email has been sent.
- Event registrations with the ability to choose multiple options.
- Integration interface with Raiser's Edge has some challenges occasionally with tribute records.
- Working behind the scenes requires a whole new vocabulary and I found it un-intuitive.
- Interaction with Mobile Pay - could be more automated.
October 10, 2016
Blackbaud NetCommunity is used by our organization for email communications, event registrations and volunteer solicitation.
- Blackbaud NetCommunity generally allows for html configuration of emails.
- Blackbaud NetCommunity provides a simple way for volunteers to access and register for opportunities.
- Blackbaud NetCommunity allows for event registrations where attendees may select multiple options.
- Blackbaud NetCommunity email communications, event registrations and volunteer pages are not mobile-optimized.
- Blackbaud NetCommunity does not offer mobile-friendly donation pages.
- Blackbaud NetCommunity email templates are not easy to configure.
- Blackbaud NetCommunity can only handle email lists of less than 20,000 requiring us to recreate the email 10 times to send to our house list.
We used Net Community for an extremely short period of time. Our level of dissatisfaction with the product, integration and support was so great that we actually moved to another system mid-contract with Blackbaud. We were using NetCommunity Spark to handle online donations.
- Integrates with Raiser's Edge
- Not user friendly.
- Blackbaud support was unable to diagnose problems with Spark (more specifically, the set-up) that were causing data integrity issues within Raiser's Edge.
- NetCommunity isn't nearly customizable enough.
March 18, 2016
We use Blackbaud NetCommunity across the entire organization. We put on over 100 programs per year and handled all our event registrations through NC; we also take donations and process memberships through the interface. Our volunteers are also able to sign up for volunteer opportunities on line.
It integrates well with our Raiser's Edge database and the plug-in to download transactions is pretty smooth.
It integrates well with our Raiser's Edge database and the plug-in to download transactions is pretty smooth.
- Integrate with Raiser's Edge. This is important for us because our staff resources are limited - like any nonprofit - and the smooth integration with oru FundRaising software is critical to our mission.
- Event Registrations work well, you can register for as many events as you like
- The pages are easy for most of the staff to manage, after training, each department helps the web master by making small changes as needed by their respective department.
- Some of the membership information and functionality is limited; we would love to have memberships for an organization, but currently there is not an organization sign on.
- Some of the acknowledgment pages are limited in resource information
- An event dashboard is unavailable at this time - meaning an organization can not sign in and see who is coming as their guest to our gala
February 26, 2016
We use NetCommunity to provide a web page for grant applications on our main website. We chose this product due to it's integration with Blackbaud Raiser's Edge and Fusion Lab's GrantEdge. It is deployed in a three server setup. We use a DMZ facing web server, an internal Raisers Edge Web Services Server and the Database server. It allows us to provide an application for users to fill out on the web in order to apply for a particular grant in their field. That application is then filled out and the information is passed on to the GrantEdge program to process the grant.
In addition to this we also use NetCommunity to manage our email newsletters and memberships to email lists.
In addition to this we also use NetCommunity to manage our email newsletters and memberships to email lists.
- It is very good at integrating with other BlackBaud products.
- It is also great at providing a simple to understand interface for editing the pages it serves.
- It is fairly straight forward to setup new users and roles for memberships to an email list.
- The upgrade process has never been easy for us. This typically takes more than 3 days to work with support to figure out.
- With the integrations we use it can be difficult to diagnose problems with the system.
- I do not like that it can be very slow at times even with low bandwidth usage.
- The database can grow quickly and become larger than expected.
We use Blackbaud NetCommunity heavily throughout the school. It integrates with Faculty Access for the Web and NetClassroom, which we use for grading, attendance, billing, etc. We use NetCommunity as our parent portal and mass email system. Most departments utilize BBNC email for their mass communication, due to its fantastic integration with Raiser's Edge and Education Edge. It is also our parent and alumni portal. It allows for profile updates (as well as sports signups, immunization updates, etc). There is a directory for both current parents and alumni to use for networking and carpools. It is also where we put any information that needs to be locked behind a login. There are customizable levels of security, so we also have some "rooms" where, for example, only the board can access. It can be tricky to customize, but as a whole, is quite strong.
- Integrates with Raiser's Edge. This is how we have set up our alumni directories and profile updates.
- Integrates with Education Edge. This is how we have set up our parent and student information update forms.
- Integrates with FAWeb/NetClassroom. This ensures accessibility of all portals with a single login, and it all integrates well with RE/EE.
- It is difficult to customize. The default that we set up is not particularly mobile friendly, and it seems to be quite difficult to make even minor improvements without a consultant.
- Along the same lines, there are pre-designed modules, for example, for events. However, all of these are set up to handle registration fees. It can only be simplified so much, so it results in an overly complicated form for free events.
July 16, 2018
It's being used across our Advancement division, particularly by our Advancement Services team and Communications department. It allows us to create mass communications for our constituencies. We're also able to do event-based fundraising via our event invitations and event registration forms. We're looking into the potential of e-cards as well as updating our event modules for better functioning and more modern registration pages.
- Mass communications to constituents via integration with Raiser's Edge.
- Analytics to track online transactions, open rates, opt-outs, bouncebacks.
- Relatively easy to use interface.
- Server is sluggish at times.
- Issues with analytcs not always loading properly.
- HTML coding changing communications after sending.
December 16, 2014
Our school used NetCommunity for our Advancement and Alumni pages for about 4 years. We have recently switched to using Blackbaud's Online Express because it is really all we need and it is much more cost efficient for our organization. I also used NetCommunity at the previous school I worked at. I found that as long as someone was willing to put in the time to learn how the product worked it worked great The problems came from users who didn't bother to go through the training and then didn't find it to be "intuitive".
NetCommunity works great for online giving and event registrations. The transactions for both are easily integrated into batches in Rasier's Edge. The registration form is a little cumbersome if there is more than one registration unit involved with the event. Donors thought that the form was too lengthy to fill out. The alumni directory was hard for people to understand and really was more trouble than it was worth. We had to give that piece up when we went to Online Express. Sending emails from NetCommunity works well, although our organization has found that we like Online Express much better for this.There is more flexibility with the design of the email and with Online Express you manage the entire process from Raiser's Edge.
NetCommunity is a good product if need a more total website solution. If your organization just needs to be able to manage emails,online donations and event registrations go with Online Express.
NetCommunity works great for online giving and event registrations. The transactions for both are easily integrated into batches in Rasier's Edge. The registration form is a little cumbersome if there is more than one registration unit involved with the event. Donors thought that the form was too lengthy to fill out. The alumni directory was hard for people to understand and really was more trouble than it was worth. We had to give that piece up when we went to Online Express. Sending emails from NetCommunity works well, although our organization has found that we like Online Express much better for this.There is more flexibility with the design of the email and with Online Express you manage the entire process from Raiser's Edge.
NetCommunity is a good product if need a more total website solution. If your organization just needs to be able to manage emails,online donations and event registrations go with Online Express.
- Online donations are easily handled in NetCommunity
- Event registrations work well easily to pull into a batch in Rasier's Edge
- The basic templates can't be changed and you need to pay Blackbaud to redesign them.
- The Alumni Directory isn't very useful.
- The event registration form is cumbersome for donors to use.
December 15, 2014
We used Net Community up until 9 months ago, when we switched to another product. We were using it to host our website, manage our donor database, and sending our donor emails for the whole organization. Basically, we used NetCommunity to communicate with our donors and manage our external web presence.
- NetCommunity had a good API which interfaced with a piece of custom software our organization had built to manage our internal operations. This was highly convenient and we have not found another product that interfaces this well.
- The product is solid, it may not be particularly user friendly but it does what it is supposed to do.
- The support team at Blackbaud was reasonably supportive whenever we called in with issues we were having with the product.
- We found NetCommunity to be unwieldy to work with. We needed to keep a full-time web developer on staff in order to maintain and update our ministry website. With our new product we are able to function without a full-time developer.
- We found the reporting functions to be counter-intuitive, difficult to work with compared to other products
- Some simple tasks, like keeping our email database up to date and cleansed of hard bounces and spam reports, were very manual and required much more time to implement than with other products.
We use Blackbaud NetCommunity (BBNC) for foundation-related event registrations and online contributions. It allows us to create varied means by which the donor or other constituents can become an active participant in the worthwhile endeavors of our organization.
- Handles all donations and event registrations well.
- I appreciate the ability NetCommunity has to link with The Raiser's Edge. Makes data entry very easy and efficient in handling donations and event registrations.
- My first experience with NetCommunity was approximately 5 years ago. I have not received formal training and had to learn things on my own (with help from support and documentation). It was easy to learn and I gladly use it still to this day.
- I believe added flexibility and customization would be beneficial. Perhaps, the ability is there, but I have not yet tapped into it's potential. For example, it would be nice to add more than just a logo on the registration page.
- Not sure of what else there is. It has served it's purpose for me quite well.
October 22, 2013
- Data integration with The Raiser's Edge - data which is collected in Blackbaud NetCommunity directly integrates with The Raiser's Edge interface and can be seamlessly downloaded into the CRM.
- Donation/Event/Membership registration - the product comes with out-of-the-box forms that can be used for these basic functions. They are flexible, but structured enough to integrate the data back to the CRM.
- Email marketing - constituents can be emailed directly from the Blackbaud NetCommunity platform by querying the data available in the CRM. Targeted email communications can be setup as well as ongoing subscriptions/newsetters.
- Content management - general tools to manage content are available. Business users can add/modify/delete this content without tremendous technical expertise. The content can also be shared across multiple websites - or A/B split tested to determine preference.
- Friendly URLs - the product allows for friendly URLs that are also more searchable on the major search engines (i.e. Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.).
- For mass volumes of data, the Raiser's Edge plug-in can become tedious to manage.
- In-person training
We currently use Blackbaud NetCommunity as our main source for online fundraising. We create various pages for our various events, schools, and philanthropy groups that request a donation page. We import our gifts daily and track our progress of online gifts from NetCommunity monthly. We have seen great increases in our online giving and plan to continue to use NetCommunity. We are also starting to use everydayhero for our peer to peer fundraising so that sharing the link and building momentum can be easier (NetCommunity does not allow for messages or social media sharing).
- Online fundraising is easy
- Building pages is simple
- Can have multiple pages for multiple events
- Easier import
Blackbaud NetCommunity Scorecard Summary
What is Blackbaud NetCommunity?
Categories: Nonprofit Fundraising
Blackbaud NetCommunity Technical Details
| Operating Systems: | Unspecified |
|---|---|
| Mobile Application: | No |