The support and the solution go hand in hand. We went "live" just over 12 months and we are learning more and more everyday on how we can leverage the solution. 100% integrated with our accounting. Blackbaud has setup a platform that is engaging and interactive for users to connect with others in the community as well as developers. The solution is improving and so are we.

Sometimes we find development improvements that seem critical to our organization to take longer then we would like. But we live in a day of instant gratification and once recognized we can be patient.

Initially, we saved tens of thousands of dollars migrating our POS, CRM, and online ticketing platforms to the single Altru platform. We've never regretted it. That was about seven years ago, and we're still happily using it. Altru generally does everything we want it to do. It's great for admissions and event ticketing but not a great tool for email marketing or running a gift shop, though it does send bulk emails and allows you to sell merchandise. If you have an email marketing tool or gift shop software, keep it.

All our donor, patron, and visitor information is in one place, secure in the cloud. We rely on Altru to keep all our sales, donor, and member records together so we can see all the ways our constituents connect with us. This also makes reporting much easier, having all earned and contributed revenue recorded in one database. This also makes training easier, as there's only one system that many of our staff need to learn and interact with, everyone from ticket sellers to fundraisers. Finally, using one cloud-based system requires fewer administrators and no server hardware, streamlining staff and IT costs.

The financial and revenue setup can be intimidating, since there's a general ledger behind all the sales and revenue transactions. A general ledger must be set up, fiscal years created, transactions mapped, payment types created, payment methods created, etc. It can be daunting without a background in accounting or bookkeeping. You will need a trained financial professional to help oversee the financial configuration. Blackbaud will help you set this up initially, but you will need someone knowledgeable to oversee those parts.

I know a good amount how to deal with things on Altru, but if something comes up that you don't know, it's not always self-explanatory how to get done what you need to get done. Sometimes you have click on quite a series of things that you would never things to click on to make something happen. That being said, it doesn't seem to glitch often, which is nice. Again, having all the needed resources right there in one software is a helpful.

I love the amount that you can do on Altru and that it can all be done in one place. Whether it's keeping our volunteers organized, scheduling tours, selling event tickets, etc., it can all be done right there in Altru.

There are multiple ways you can do everything. Rather than having one concise way to do each action, you have to search to find many not simple ways to do everything. Sometimes, screens look slightly different on different computers as well, even though they've all been updated. It's amazing how much you can do, but it would be so much easier if the methods used were more concise.

While there are several things that I would like to see improved in Altru, I still believe it is still the best product out there for non-seated venues that need a ticketing solution. Our reporting has gotten so much better because we *can* see what members, donors, volunteers, etc have done with our institution. I find the support and ongoing education webinars that Blackbaud offers to be lacking and they need to improve their discovery process.

The absolute best part of Altru is that it offers a 360 degree view of our constituents. We can query on many different types of engagement with our institution to see who our donors are or how likely a member is to renew. For frontline staff, the user interface for ticketing is easy to use and very intuitive. Training staff is so much more pleasant with this software!

Group sales and group sales reporting are woefully underdeveloped (I will never understand why the entire group sales sales method was just left out of the Program Revenue report). Refunds and exchanges are also really terrible in the system. There is no room for human error and trying to offer customer service to our constituents often results in our institution looking bad because the system just won't let us help them in a timely/efficient manner.

Once trained, employees are more likely to become more engaged with the product and will see the advantages of one CRM instead of bouncing from one CRM to another. Customers are happier when they don't have to wait. In fundraising, it is vital to be able to see what donors are also members or ticket buyers opening the door to the ask. Stewardship of donors is simplified with everything about the donor on the screen in front of you during a call or even on your phone on the way to a meeting. Many processes are automatic once set up correctly. And again, customer service and support are tremendous assets for Altru.

Ability to have fundraising, ticketing, events, membership all in one CRM is amazing. It has increased employee production, made patrons and donors happier (less waiting, ease of use), increased fundraising ability by having the ability to see who hasn't donated yet attends/purchases abundantly and relationships between constituents. I absolutely LOVE this CRM and would only consider moving to another organization that uses the product! Training and support are amazing. Support is always available through knowledge base, community, videos and when really stumped, through online chat. And they CARE about helping you with find the answers you need.

No CRM is perfect. The canned reports aren't always easy to manipulate when downloaded while the queries can be difficult for those not using them on a regular basis. The prospect management is not as flexible (would like the ability for one person to handle all the fundraiser's management) and can be redundant in places. There are small glitches here and there, and the email ability from Altru is poor, but they are constantly listening to their customers to make needed improvements.