Item: Bonterra Guided Fundraising
Rating: 10
Author: Susan Olson

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I utilize Network For Good as our Donor Data Base. Here, I record all donations and generate acknowledgments. I can easily create themed acknowledgments for all kinds of donation scenarios including, every day giving donors, recurring donors, event donors, direct mail donors, and ticket purchasers. I utilize the campaign/designation categories so that I know where every donation is from and going. This makes for easy sorts to pull up information for analytics. I use communications to create monthly e-blasts and special email reminders. I also create forms for individuals to sign up for groups, training, events, and volunteering.

Pros and Cons

NFG eliminates the need for other systems to handle monthly emails or newsletters.
Designations feature works perfectly for our needs.
Donors' ability to create passwords and log in to manage their credit card information or review donations is appreciated.
Monthly donations are supported.
User-friendly forms and the ability to include videos.
Excellent communication and support.

For the default footer in acknowledgments, the phone number is not included and we are unable to add the phone number.
In My Tasks, the order of tasks changes every time I delete a task. It would be helpful if they stayed in the order I entered them so I could find the task I am looking for easier.
When I view a sent email, there is an option to resend it, BUT I cannot edit the email before I resend.
It is great to be able to schedule email blasts to a group of people. But I would like to be able to send an acknowledgment to a first time donor and then schedule a "new donor welcome email" to go out to this individual donor at a later date.

Most Important Features

Acknowledgments
Email blasts
Forms
Text

Return on Investment

With Network for Good, we have everything we need in one system. We do not need to pay separately to other platforms for our donor database, monthly e-blasts, text messages, and event registrations.

Alternatives Considered

I can't recall the name of the CRM I used at my last job, but it tried to do too many things. It was a good CRM, but it had "add-ons" that included keeping track of volunteers. At first, I was excited for this information to be in one place, but it did not integrate well and caused mistakes in acknowledgments.

Key Insights

Do you think Bonterra Guided Fundraising delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Bonterra Guided Fundraising's feature set?

Yes

Did Bonterra Guided Fundraising live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Bonterra Guided Fundraising go as expected?

I wasn't involved with the implementation phase

Would you buy Bonterra Guided Fundraising again?

Yes

Likelihood to Recommend

Network for Good works really well for us as a smaller nonprofit. Personalization is a key feature I love (although it would become challenging with a large number of donors because there is no batch acknowledgment feature). I use the Communication tab to create acknowledgment emails that are specific to each campaign donation. I am able to personalize these with an edit feature before I send them off to the donor. I can easily see the donor's contact page to note if this is a new donor, current donor, or lapsed donor and personalize accordingly. On the donor's contact page, I can see if they have received and opened emails which help me decide if a written acknowledgment would be better going forward. I appreciate that Network for Good eliminates the need for other systems to handle monthly emails or newsletters, campaigns, and event registration.

Everything you need in one place - Network For Good!

Overall Satisfaction with Network for Good