Item: Blackbaud DonorCentral
Rating: 5
Author: Patrick Reilly, CMP

Overall Satisfaction with Blackbaud DonorCentral

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Blackbaud DonorCentral is used throughout my entire organization. However, the majority of its use is in our Development and accounting departments. Our Development team uses it to keep track and manage donor relations. Our Accounting team keeps track of the money coming in from donors and corporations. My meetings department very rarely uses this application as it does not sync / interface with our registration system we use (Aventri).

Pros and Cons

Pros

Has great security and privacy settings. Keeps your donor information safe.
Has a direct link with donors to our information. Eliminates a lot of double work and or hitting the same donor with multiple emails.

Cons

Doesn't interface with our Aventri Registration system.
Has quite a few advertised features like SKY and DAF that don't get used that much and aren't as impressive as they say that are.

Return on Investment

Helps development team keep a clear and concise donor relationship.
Accounting can forecast money coming in more accurately.

Alternatives Considered

I do not know of any other alternatives, as I do not work in the development department. Our Development team would have sourced alternatives to settle on this one.

Support Rating

I gave it a low rating because response times are slow. It does have multiple ways to reach support, but it usually takes a while before you "get in front" of the person you need to fix your issue. Also, problems seem to happen a lot, so it makes the process more frustrating.

Key Insights

Do you think Blackbaud DonorCentral delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Blackbaud DonorCentral's feature set?

Yes

Did Blackbaud DonorCentral live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Blackbaud DonorCentral go as expected?

I wasn't involved with the implementation phase

Would you buy Blackbaud DonorCentral again?

Yes

Likelihood to Recommend

Specific scenarios where Blackbaud DonorCentral is well suited are definitely in regards to our Development team. They can quickly update our constituent's memberships and keep our communications team in the loop on current member emails and those who are in need or renewals. It also helps with their development and fundraising events. They are keeping track of the highest donors and those big prospective donors for future events. Scenarios, where it is less appropriate, are definitely in my meetings department. It does not sync with our registration database for conferences, so we have to do double work verifying if they are members or not.

Comments

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BlackBaud DonorCentral is a great tool for Non-Profit Development