Blackbaud Netcommunity is a NET gain in my opion
March 18, 2016
Blackbaud Netcommunity is a NET gain in my opion
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Modules Used
- Pro
Overall Satisfaction with Blackbaud NetCommunity
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
- Almost ALL of our transactions occur on line, so our mailing costs on renewals have gone down, and with an increase in "good" experiences on line for our end users, they become more engaged with us and in turn remain loyal supporters.
The other products were in-house and did not really stack up for comparison
Using Blackbaud NetCommunity
Event Management and Registrations ,Development and FundRaising ,Membership ,Volunteers, Education and Interns
Marketing & Communications
Marketing & Communications
1 - We have one full time web master, 4 of the staff of 17 manage specific parts of netcommunity that coincide with their respective departments. For example the programs department takes care of shopping cart udpdates when we have new events come up, the membership department takes care of updating the membership forms and acknowledgement.
- Event Registrations
- Membership Transactions
- Donations
- Newsletter sign ups
- Volunteer requests
- We have used a modified membership module form to allow for functionality to sign up for different newsletters and segmented emails based on interests and level of involvement with the community.
- We are currently using it for all our departments, so future use would only come from increased functionality with software enhancements
Evaluating Blackbaud NetCommunity and Competitors
Not Sure
- Product Features
- Product Usability
- Prior Experience with the Product
This was implemented prior to me joining the company, so I do not have any feedback on this regard
Blackbaud NetCommunity Implementation
Blackbaud NetCommunity Support
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved Kept well informed No escalation required Immediate help available Support understands my problem Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response | None |
Yes - Premium support includes phone calls for support needs; the basic level of support your initial point of contact is chat support. Since I have been using the product for 7 years, my requests tend to be a more advance user need and chat support is challenging since the information is limited and you have to type everything in words instead of having an actual conversation and dialog with the support staff. Premium Support is WELL worth the extra cost as it saves time when troubleshooting.
Yes - The donation page acknowledgement email was not updating with new text. Blackbaud was able to fix this right away.
The support person got 3 different analysts on the line because the interface between NetCommunity and Raiser's Edge was not working as expected. Between the 3 analysts, a software designer and myself we were able to teamwork the solution in one day.
Using Blackbaud NetCommunity
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Quick to learn Feel confident using | Inconsistent |
- Downloading transactions to Raiser's Edge
- searching for specific pages and parts
- Event registrations allow for guest names to come across and anonymous - for those instances where you do not know your guest names yet; It also allows for dietary requirements and while you can not log in as an organization, you can register as an organization for events.
- Managing the Acknowledgement pages - sometimes the text editor is very cumbersome, and to find the Save button you have to scroll down to find it.
- The membership module has limited functionality, and some of the merge fields we would like to user from Raiser's edge are not available for use as merge fields.
- The volunteer module is also limited - we have work arounds in place so we can use it but would love some increased functionality.