Bloomerang Can Be Your Fundraising Best Friend
May 23, 2017
Bloomerang Can Be Your Fundraising Best Friend
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Bloomerang
I use Bloomerang as my fundraising/donor CRM system. I am a one-person shop and needed something easy, efficient and able to do a variety of tasks without requiring high cost or intense support. It is a cloud-based solution to give me more flexibility on where I access my info as well as providing off-site information back-up that I lacked before. Besides tracking my donor data, I also use it for online donations that provide me with donation form flexibility as well as automatically propagating donation data into the database. I also use the event registration and e-mail subscription variants on these forms. If I was deriving the majority of my revenue from events, this might not be the right platform. But, it provides me with tremendous capability, reasonable cost, and the ability to create and manage custom fields without needing to pay for consultants or support. I used to use Raiser's Edge, but adding the capabilities I get with Bloomerang would have tripled my expense. Bloomerang has been very supportive and responsive so far.
- Custom fields: you can easily tailor it to your exact circumstances rather than using one field for a different piece of information because it doesn't fit anywhere else.
- Intuitive cloud based application that is easy to navigate: very quick learning curve, no need for expensive consultants or support agreements.
- Transition and support: smaller organization that genuinely cares about its customers.
- Designed for fundraising: has several tools that focus on donor retention which is a key goal of all fundraisers.
- User restrictions: they currently don't allow different access levels. I can't let my board members in as "look only" users or restrict information access. they are currently working on this, but right now it's "all or nothing."
- It doesn't have a dedicated events module.
Raiser's Edge didn't do any of what I needed and their NXT version was crazy complicated and triple the price. DonorPerfect was a close 2nd place. Their event management was better, but we only run one event and Bloomerang was better on everything else. Bloomerang also had the integrated donor screening option. Salsa was by far the best on the social interaction and e-mail side, but the database side was not what I wanted. Neon was also interesting, but not for me and our situation. One application is not always the best for everyone - it needs to address your specific needs.
Using Bloomerang
2 - Fundraising/development
While we have a robust IT staff, Bloomerang doesn't erquire any internal support. It's cloud-based so computer requirements are minimal. Any questions or issues I've had have been quickly addressed by Bloomerang support remotely.
- Capturing and retrieving donor information including donations, interactions and key information. I also need to be able to easily run reports and see the right information in a usable form.
- Allowing me to use an unlimited number of self-designed online interaction forms for donations, event registrations, e-mail sign-up, etc. All form data is automatically imported into the database, saving me a step and time.
- Integrated email allows me to track whether the recipient receives it, opens it, and clicks on an included link. It all appears right in their profile so that I can accurately assess my donor in one place.
- The integrated DonorSearch capability is more cost-efficient than procuring this information through another method.
- It focuses on donor retention, which is critical to our success as fundraisers. From seeing my donor retention % every time I log in, to the other tools that keep me donor-focused, this is a distinguishing advantage.
- Out of all the cloud-based solutions I examined, this provided the most benefits, with the least disadvantages, at a reasonable cost.
- I've only been using it for 6 months, so not much yet. But, the custom field options are going to really help me as I begin a multi-pronged segmentation effort.
- I forsee a much more active use of email now that I have this capability - as soon as I can gather more e-mail addresses.
- I will not be able to create and manage an effective monthly giving program - which will dramatically increase donor retention and average giving.
Using Bloomerang
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using Familiar | None |
- Online donation/event forms.
- Creating and modifying donor records.
- Seeing donor retention rates.
- Entering new gifts or interactions.
- The reporting function requires a little focus. It's OK if you think analytically and it gives you a lot of flexibility. If you are looking for a lot of pre-made reports or creating new ones with just a few clicks, then this might not be for you.
Yes - It is very easy to use and looks just like the computer version. I wouldn't recommend using a smart phone for much more than accessing information, but an iPad works really well. I have yet to encounter any issues when accessing it via a portable device. Because it is cloud based, you will need wifi or cellular data access, but I don't believe that is unreasonable.