basic but useful
Updated December 11, 2019

basic but useful

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

Modules Used

  • Spark

Overall Satisfaction with Blackbaud NetCommunity

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.
  • 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
  • NC allows us to create multiple fundraising initiatives and reconcile the funds accordingly
  • It allows us to quickly set up event pages
  • The Ecard solution has had a negative effect when multiple gift card recipients got an email addressing them with someone else's name
  • The unsubscribe function precludes constituents from possibly choosing an option to not unsubscribe completely from all of our communication but make a selection of what they want to continue receiving emails about.
We use NC Spark in combination with other tools: Raiser's Edge, Team Raiser (a portion of Luminate Online). We got it in a package with Raiser's Edge. Without the peer-to-peer fundraising functionality it cannot be the only stand alone tool for fundraising. It also lacks a lot of email tools that are offered by other platforms. In general, we like using it and would continue doing so if the price is right.
It is pretty user friendly and easy to use. Each donation form can be linked to an event in Raiser's Edge which is pretty handy. It allows to quickly set up event pages which links to RE easily too.

It is not suitable for peer-to-peer fundraising

Using Blackbaud NetCommunity

4 - web administrators, database manager, operations director
2 - website administrator