More Apple, Less PC: Incredibly Robust software, yet needs ease of use

Pros

The vast amount of robust capabilities built into the software platform, always finding new ways of accomplishing tasks and eventually easier ways of doing them.

Cons

It has more of a Microsoft/tech geek feel to the GUI and application's use, rather than the Apple business model for ease-of-use right out of the box, that most non-profit volunteers/activists are accustomed to using for getting a task done quickly — the obvious metaphor to me the difference between the mechanic who wants to get under the hood of his new car and tweak and modify like a hot rod, compared to the average person who wants to drive a Honda off the lot, to get from A-to-B effortlessly and reliably without much thought because they have bigger jobs to do than figure out the mode of transporation, that the car is just a tool and you shouldn't have to take multiple mechanic classes to figure out how to drive it.

Albeit, Mailchimp is a different platform for smaller email tasks for small groups, yet their ease-of-use GUI model helps the lay person get done quickly and with less confusion. Our IT personnel love the Salsa platform which is all that really needs to be said, yet the people who have to use it on a daily basis compare it to a flight cockpit of endless switches and tabs. For a premiere email database platform that Salsa is, I'm still waiting for emails I send to be fully-responsive and readable on the smallest smartphone. Just not there yet. Mentioned that at the last Salsa training event in San Francisco last fall, which we were told is coming... Still love the software platform. Even though the FAQs leave you wanting and confused with laborious hoops to jump through for answers to problems that mostly don't seem to work, sending a ticket to Salsa gets a quick, friendly response, a great answer and usually a screen capture of what precisely to do in a succinct manner, which should populate the FAQ area instead and the answer model to use.

And one last thought, as with the SF training event mentioned here, and the last Salsa conference in Virginia, it was an obvious sea of Apple laptops and iPads across the board at all events, all tables. So, the clientele around DC and elsewhere, the core target demographic for your software that traveled to the conference, prefer out of-the-box, ease-of-use products to get the job done, quickly.

Great Value and Functionality

I would recommend this solution over the other available nonprofit management enterprise solutions on the market. You get the most functionality for the money and they're constantly expanding the software's ability and support.

Pros

Almost all the digital marketing tools you'll need in one platform. Social media and email marketing, custom donation forms, drip campaigns, peer to peer software, event registration and donor segmentation. These are just the pros of the marketing side. The CRM, formerly DonorPro, includes robust reporting and tracking for all your needs from donation tracking to notes to event management, volunteer management and membership management. Truly and all inclusive system that is getting better and better all the time.

Cons

There have been some growing pains that have been mostly worked out in the transition to convert DonorPro into the Salsa platform. Communication between the CRM and the marketing software is still not entirely fluid, but it gets the job done effectively after you fully understand the system from training. The social media scheduling tool needs a little work to get on the hootsuite or sendible level, but again it still functions well for an all-inclusive solution for no extra money.

So glad we switched!

I'd recommend Salsa Engage to anyone who wants to streamline their online outreach, especially if you have a small to mid-size organization with a small but dedicated team . And if you use Salsa CRM, it integrates so beautifully, you'll be glad you make this move.

Pros

First off, the superficial, but important fact that it looks great! It is also very simple to use. Getting our staff up a running with daily tasks, took only one or two hours of training, as opposed to weeks or months in Raiser's Edge.
The templates are a great help and time saver. Even from scratch layout is super simple and intuitive. Engage offers expanded possibilities, like e-mail series, and A/B tests, and integrated donation pages, AND online advocacy! It has it all, with super built-in Analytics! Customer support, and our Success Coach, are key reasons for our success too!
And, we are able to direct more resources to our projects, thanks to a real savings! Engage seamlessly integrates with the CRM which greatly simplifies data management. We still have room to grow with Engage, but are already achieving more that we ever could with Online Express. Salsa Engage beats it by miles!

Cons

Transition is NEVER fun! or simple! Plan for this if you are a making ANY database change. We lost about 20 of our monthly donors. Lesson learned. Plan, Plan, Plan, And ASK every single question you have and write down every single thing you need the new program to do. And make them show you how to get it done, before you purchase. This isn't Salsa specific. General transition advice form one who now knows!
That said, Salsa has done everything to help us get up and running and we are thrilled!

Salsa - flexible, multifaceted and great support team

Pros

Our non-profit aids other smaller non-profit organizations in outreach and advocacy efforts around a variety of issues. Salsa has been great for us because it so flexible and capable of many different types of outreach and advocacy. It has helped us with large scale campaigns and small scale, regular communication with supporters. We are even starting to use it for donor management. One really useful feature in Salsa is its ability to seemingly integrate into our webpage for advocacy actions, so folks can visit our page and take action without feeling like they're getting shuttled somewhere else where their contact information/identity may feel less secure. It is also fun to watch the action unfold and track response on the back end to evaluate the effectiveness of our campaign. The best part - if you run into a wall using the software, Salsa's support team is very quick to respond and amazingly helpful.

Cons

Salsa, at times, can seem very complicated to use, but that is because it is such a powerful, multifaceted tool. And, like I mentioned, when it gets complicated, Salsa's support team is right there to help. One wish for the software would be that web and email templates could be a little more easy to put together, more flexible and more polished. This may speak more to my lack of design code knowledge than of Salsa Software, but I feel like my final html email products aren't as shiny as some I've produced in html email specific software.

User friendly effective tool

We have been using Salsa for more than 18 months and are happy with the product. There have been numerous updates and improvements in social media sharing and other pieces since we signed on with Salsa, and we are happy with those changes. Customer support has improved dramatically since we first signed on, and I feel like we hear back with solutions to our problems, though sometimes I wish they could update incorrect legislative district information more quickly so that folks could take action when an issue is "hot." We use Salsa for advocacy actions, events, P2P fundraising, and donations and I feel like it is a very comprehensive tool to take care of all of those pieces of our work. I would recommend Salsa to organizations looking for online tools to advance their work.

Pros

Easy to use for the staff person as well as for the end user
Social share feature works well
Customer service support is good
Great insights and reports

Cons

Isn't easily compatible with our offline database
Takes a while to update incorrect House and Senate district information when it's incorrect for constituents

Two organizations. Five years. Salsa makes it easy.

Pros

Simplicity of use - at least the basics - regardless of the web development skillset of the staff. The packages are also customizable for the needs of one's organization: if you need the whole kit 'n' kaboodle, you get it. If not, you get only what you need. You can also set permission levels for staff to control who can do what to which parts of the packages.

Cons

The look of the forms! For orgs that can't splurge on a web developer/designer, it can be absolutely frustrating to have to clean up so many of Salsa's forms just to get them to be visually pleasing. Also, much of the common changes that orgs want to make seem to be found in some special coding: wouldn't it be easier to provide the types of forms with info most people want, but give them the option to take it off (rather than having to know and trust their coding skills to add them)?

Salsa Engage improved our event management and communication

Pros

The event software allowed our small arts organization the ability to have online ticketing for events, which saved tons of staff time because they no longer need to take phone reservations. We have a better count of open to the public events also, because we ask supporters to make a no charge reservation online. The system put our e-mail communications together with all of our online communications. It is easy to use and the built in templates are simple to modify.

Cons

The system works well for us and we regularly use all of the features. Our supporters like being able to access event registrations when it is convenient for them.

Salsa Engage

Easy to use and support team is on top of their game. They always answer my calls and respond to me quickly. They helped me create some incredible reports, these reports that make my job easier.

Pros

I find Salsa Engage is very easy to use and very easy to maneuver around. My questions are often answered just by playing around in the software. The support team is always helplful and they respond in a very timely manner

Cons

I personally don't like trying out new software, I usually don't like the change. I didn't like the look the first time I used it, but that changed once I starting using it. Worth the price for sure.

Business Manager

Salsa has a great training program and their customer service department is very friendly and is able to help me out when I need assistance. Salsa Engage allows a small nonprofit to afford customized event forms.

Pros

Allows us to customize online forms for fundraising events at an affordable price. Easy to use and pull reports.

Cons

I do not like the fact that the donation information flows into the system without any way to approve it.

Salsa Engage for nonprofits

Its been ok. There are kinks that do sometimes get worked out by the company. Overall they have great customer service. So when I do have an issue, I get a quick response.

Pros

Salsa generally has a user-friendly interface. Its a platform that be used for everything from E-blasts, to fundraising, to sign-up forms and so much more. I believe there are many told and functions that I have not had an opportunity to use.

Cons

I mostly use for the e-blasts. I find the choices, formatting and other functions limited or strange. For example, the text boxes are finicky every time you make changes in one sentence it seems to make changes to entire text box, forcing you to reformat the whole box again. Also the formatting often doesn't always look great in news letters. There seems to be little room for customizing so that paragraphs and images line up properly, forcing us to put everything in a column rather than in more modern layouts.

Gets the job done

Pros

Salsa provides us with most of the tools and products we need at a price affordable to small and mid-sized nonprofits. Their query and reporting tools are very robust and allow for detailed tracking of supporter actions.

Cons

It is fairly challenging to customize the look and feel of the donation and signup forms, and their out-of-the-box design is fairly clunky and not super modern. It would be nice if their developers were a little more receptive to working on customizations and improvements (as one-off projects outside of the monthly fee schedule).