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eTapestry has a lot of threads to manage, maybe that's why they named it that way.
September 20, 2022

eTapestry has a lot of threads to manage, maybe that's why they named it that way.

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Blackbaud eTapestry

We use eTap to manage and track our supporters and the fellows who participate in our Fellowship and Academy programs. We also use it to create mailgroups from which we solicit either donations or encourage folks to apply for our programming.
  • Organizes constituent data in an easy to manage and user-friendly way
  • Integrates well with ConstantContact
  • It is somewhat customizable
  • You can't use the Back feature on your browser to return to the previous page.
  • You can't use it in more than one browser window to compare or analyze information
  • The query functionality is complicated and it is hard to get what you're looking for if you're not well trained.
  • It's a useful repository for all of our constituent information.
  • Its integration with Blackbaud's payment services makes it easy to capture online donations
  • The ability to embed forms into your existing website is handy
  • It's made it easy for us to track year over year progress of our annual fundraising campaign
  • We've leveraged the user defined fields to build out application tracking and fellow prospecting so we can see when someone goes from a beneficiary of our services to a supporter of them
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 and maintenance fees.

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

Yes

Are you happy with Blackbaud eTapestry's feature set?

Yes

Did Blackbaud eTapestry live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Blackbaud eTapestry go as expected?

I wasn't involved with the implementation phase

Would you buy Blackbaud eTapestry again?

Yes

eTapestry is a great solution for startup nonprofits or organizations with a smaller amount of financial supporters. If the majority of your queries are simple and don't require narrowing your base down into very specific groups, you can get the information you need. It's more of a burden if you're dealing with complicated donor segmentation, need quick, on the fly reporting, and if you expect all employees of your organization to use it to its fullest potential. If you've used Raiser's Edge NXT, eTapestry is like that but stripped down and made to be more complicated.

Using Blackbaud eTapestry

15 - eTapestry is used not only by our fundraising team but by our marketing and operations team members. Marketing uses eTap to pull mailing lists and the Operations team uses it to track those who are participating in our programming.
2 - You need technical and analytical skills along with a data background in order to support eTapestry. Being aware of its shortcomings and quirks can help you support others when they are trying to use the software.
  • Fundraising
  • Marketing
  • Stewardship
  • Event Management
  • Mailing List signups
As our organization and footprint grow, eTapestry may not be able to handle and massage the data we have in the way that we need it in order to increase donor engagement and track interactions across the people we serve as well as our supporters. The learning curve is kind of steeper than most other CRMs, so it's not easy to easily delegate queries and communications when not everyone has been "in it" long enough to know how it works and how it doesn't work.

Evaluating Blackbaud eTapestry and Competitors

  • Price
I was not involved in the purchasing process when we acquired eTap, but I am pretty sure we purchased it because it was the entry level, low cost option within the Blackbaud suite of products.
I would consider the growth potential or lack of growth potential of the product. Would it be able to meet our needs in 5 years considering the way we were using it when we first purchased it? Would its shortcomings and restrictions make it harder for us to do our work when there is more people and money data to be managed and massaged?