Bonterra Development + Digital

Formerly EveryAction

I have used the Bonterra Development + Digital tool at 4 different organizations since 2016. I think Bonterra Development + Digital is an excellent tool for smaller non-profit organizations as well as those organizations that have not used a CRM in the past. Its functionality, ease of use, and excellent customer support make it an excellent tool for small non-profit organizations. Once an organization has more than 5,000 donors/prospects the tool becomes less effective primarily because of the inability to track contacts, integrate with desktop email systems such as Outlook.

As a grassroots organization that employs 25 full time staff and has an annual operating budget of less than 3 million, Bonterra Development+Digital suites us nicely for the moment. There are moderate work arounds that we've had to implement to make it work for us that will make it harder to add the development package which is annoying.

EveryAction is a very thorough and complicated database. It is great for nonprofits who have a lot of data, donors, and need to be able to pull complicated reports. We are able to send specific, custom emails through the database to segmented audiences. It is alot. It would not be appropriate for smaller nonprofits, especially if there wasn't at least one person dedicated to be the expert.

I have worked with one other CRM in the past and know some of the difficulties in adapting a system to different sectors and styles of work. For the grassroots advocacy, information, and parent resource services that my nonprofit does, this CRM is perfectly suited to my work. I serve a wide geographic area and the tools that the CRM provides to pull lists, identify high engagement contacts, and message those contacts all make my job much easier.

The system does very well at tracking and reporting on individual gifts and actions, but attributing individual donations to across donors in households and organizations remains a difficult manual process. EveryAction source codes are also so helpful for seeing campaigns holistic impact, yet the event function struggles to reliably track attendees who did not register online.

For the nature of our work, EveryAction is a great tool. We often have to put together emails and appeals with little turnaround time, and template features and the ability to copy paste emails are very helpful. It's also great to be able to track engagement among our constituents. For example, you can open up an individual's record and check what emails they receive from our organization, if they opened them, and the date that the email was read.

If you work for a political organization, EveryAction will definitely make your Job easier.

Im not sure if it would work so well for like a restaurant business or something like that.

I think EveryAction is a great tool for small nonprofits. It is not too challenging to learn, and many people in the organization can use it for a variety of fundraising uses - including direct mail appeals, targeted email appeals, major donor prospecting, cultivation, and solicitation - just to name a few. I don't think it would be good for a larger organization as it is not as powerful of a database as I have seen being used at large university fundraising programs.

Every non-profit need one. Period.

Broadcast email design, database management - putting contacts into targeted groups, online actions to contact public and corporate officials.

As United Way, we are unique, in that we collect pledges in a fiscal year, but the payments on those pledges are made in a calendar year. For example, the pledges are received in the fall. Beginning in January, payments on those pledges begin through December. So, the opposite of a fiscal year. It makes Viewing our actual dollars and pledges extremely difficult. We must run multiple reports every day to be able to see what I need to see on a daily basis.

EveryAction is well-suited for reporting. The ability to Save and Schedule reports is unique and helpful. It has some work to do to be helpful with Volunteer scheduling and detailed Event planning.

I will recommend EveryAction a to any colleagues I inreract with in the community engagement space. Because the way their interface interacts with customers is smooth and efficient, and is a great tool to collect data while you are out interacting with potential voters. I do wish it was more affordable.

Well suited -- creating newsletters, creating event/training RSVP links, pulling lists.
Not well suited -- integrating with other softwares, email creation piece could have more functionality (graphics, fonts, colors, etc.)

I think it is very appropriate for donor information, tracking replies to email blasts and general communications with donors. It is, however, not that effective for tracking volunteer information. It would be great if there were more features catered for volunteers.

EveryAction has been an incredible resource to manage our advocacy campaigns. It saves many hours from our previous system. EveryAction has made complex tasks simple once you understand the basics of how it works. It took about 2 months to be very comfortable using EveryAction and not having to follow step by step guides. After a few months, it's so easy to use and makes our work much simpler.

EveryAction is a very robust platform and a great solution for managing our database deployment of actions and audience segmentation. There is room for improvement, however, with customizations across the platforms from reporting to design on Online Actions items.

The system is only as good as the employees enter details and if done correctly. Reporting is overwhelming to decide what to pull and when/how.

EveryAction is easy to train users on.

Small and medium sized organizations can really benefit from EveryAction's management of supporters/donors/constituents. It's great for managing those messages to state lawmakers.

I'm not sure what would be less appropriate--EveryAction is pretty intuitive and use friendly.

It just keeps me updated and informed. Whenever I forget about my follow ups.. they show up in red to keep me informed and updated.

In my experience, EveryAction is very well suited for crafting and sending updates to large audiences. The tool is cumbersome for quick updates and communication with smaller audiences.

EveryAction is great for managing your donor database, tracking donor engagement, and managing memberships.
There are some functionalities I would like to see added, for example, the ability to run reports showing donors who have increased or decreased their giving in the past year.

As mentioned we use it for very simple transactions and categorization of individual contributors and organizational partners. We’re able to track how they communicate with us through the bcc function which is great so that future users can catch up easily on what our interactions have been before

It's very helpful for keeping track of donations with each donor. Acknowledgements tend to be done much easier with this program. Daily reports are pulled with ease, as well as reports allowing me to find duplicate donor profiles. In addition, I'm able to use this program to better keep track of those who pledged donations to us vs who paid those pledges.

Tribute letters are a bit less reliable with this program.