What are Blackbaud eTapestry users saying about the software?

Hasn't been updated since 2006, not worth your time

Good management software

We use this as our primary data storage system. It talks to our database view very well.

Pros

I like that all of our data is stored in this software and that it is easy to quickly access for my whole team.

Cons

Sometimes the software gets bogged down with users and runs very slow. The updates do take some getting used to as well.

very versitile

We have been able to move towards a more technology based fundraising using the justgiving portion of blackbaud for our jog-a-thon. Students created their own page and shared it for donations. This made tracking and acknowledging donations much more efficient.

Pros

We use etapestry and justgiving and have found it to be very useful. We have been able to easily link fundraising campaigns, event registration and forms to our website and then track information.

Cons

Extracting information can be somewhat challenging - once you learn their programing and how to create a query it becomes easier. They do provide a very large training database and a chat room for help.

Hasn't been updated since 2006, not worth your time

Pros

It's cheap if you're a small non profit.

Cons

Blackbaud will sell you on products but won't deliver. Don't expect to get much out of eTap other than a headache

Good for Database Management, Poor Communications Tools

I have been working in communications and development for non-profit organizations for more than 15 years. I have been using eTapestry for 2 years. I have experience with a variety of other donor management tools including Blackbaud's The Raiser's Edge. eTapestry is strong in regard to contact management, processing online gifts, and the reporting/query tools. The expense as well as the email communications and analytics are where it falls short.

Pros

Entire system is very easy to learn no matter the experience level Managing donor records and online gifts is very easy Reporting and query tools are easy to use even for those without a lot of experience building queries clean, user-friendly interface excellent customer support simple data entry & gift processing online giving pages import gifts directly to database, helping teams avoid manual entry & the pages can be reskinned to match your website design easy to mass import records

Cons

expensive, especially having to pay for Advanced emails & paying an hourly fee for minor changes eTapestry support must be requested for an array of minor tweaks to giving pages for example and it usually takes several days to up to 2 weeks to get changes finished communications templates are inflexible and look extremely dated, often the preview of a communication you see on your screen is not how it looks at delivery, very limited analytics tools and delivery/testing options as far as I know there is no ability to export from eTapestry to QuickBooks which means gift processing team must reenter gifts manually into QuickBooks while it has the ability to provide personal fundraising pages, they are highly inflexible and the layouts look so dated they are almost not worth using

New to eTap, not to CRM

Creating an all in one database for donors and subscribers is very important as we grow. We grew from 1 to five employees overnight and so getting "organized" was essential.

Pros

I love the ease of functionality in finding and creating accounts. I like the connection with Blackbaud Merchant Services for an all in one platform.

Cons

The start-up was a little too long and delayed our business plan. Also, queries and forms are not necessarily intuitive.

eTapestry Great for Small to Mid size Nonprofits

Appreciate the pricing for this tool to track and manage our donors. Highly recommend for small and mid-size nonprofits. Easy to learn.

Pros

Flexibility of donor records is important and works well. Tagging donors in multiple different ways always our nonprofit to track and communicate in ways that are important to the donor.

Cons

Would like to see improvement in the communications features - templates are clunky to work with and designing own templates is challenging. We end up creating image in outside tool and then import it in.

Great Tool for Tracking Donors

I really like eTapestry for donor giving and cultivation.

Pros

It was easy to use and track giving and donors over time.

Cons

Grant tracking could be a little easier to navigate.

Hard to use but has all the bells and whistles

We liked the software for a while but the more our business grew, the more eTapestry because a pain as the interface was very old and hard to use for people that aren't technology savvy.

Pros

The software had a lot going for it because it had all the bells and whistles that you want, including ability to find out someones net worth, donations at other places, etc. The plus side about it was that you could easily put someone into the system and instantly send them a thank you email without more than a few clicks.

Cons

It was very difficult to run reports as there were so many moving parts to get them to come together.

Great for smaller organizations looking to grow!

Pros

eTapestry is a great entry-level CRM tool that will help you familiarize with how the whole concept works. My organization used eTapestry for quite some time and it functioned really well. I really enjoyed the Query Builder tool and folders to keep all your queries organized!

Cons

Once my organization started to grow more, we needed a tool that could handle the bigger volume.

Great Donor Software

The support team at eTapestry is very helpful and having live chat is great. eTapestry has freed so much of our time and helping streamline our processes.

Pros

Easy to create user defined fields to fit the needs of my organization. eTapestry is a great tool for volunteer tracking, event tracking, donation tracking, and in-Kind tracking. Having one tool for all of those categories is very helpful.

Cons

Queries and Reports are not the easiest to pull. I know that the queries can do so much more - but they are the hardest to manipulate to get the information needed for reporting purposes. Also - it would be nice to have some way to assign users their city specific donors. As we are in multiple cities - the user access is very limited. It is almost either they can see and do everything or not do anything. There needs to be more user categories. And as we expand to other cities - I don't feel like eTapestry grows enough with us.

A great starting point for small nonprofits!

Good, but no the Best.

Pros

Ease-of-use was the best component of the system. When I was hired on by my organization in 2014, they had been using the system for a number of years already. People knew what tools they need in the system, but did not invest in further exploration of resources until I arrived. It was fairly intuitive though.

Cons

The pricing was based around Contacts/Accounts which was not good for us as we have had rapid growth. Moreover, at the time, it did not integrate well with other systems we were purchasing. Our goals was to build out a seem less network where our data flowed in a way that made sense from Accounting to Marketing. eTapestry would have left us with few options.

Too Many Limitations

If you are only dealing with donations, this may be a good option for you, but I work for a membership organization, and not long after I was hired, I convinced the organization to scrap eTapestry for something better suited to our needs.

Pros

This database is easy to use. If you've ever used another donor management system, you'll find it pretty intuitive. You can build decent queries and create tons of data points you want to track.

Cons

Everything has to be done manually, and it can take some time. I wouldn't recommend this to a membership organization because of the time involved logging renewals. There is also a really not so awesome template you have to use create all of the products you want to offer, including donations. It's a hassle for the organization and the donor.

We use this software to manage the donors, supporters, volunteers, etc. for our non-profit.

It a good, basic tool for housing all of your client, customer or supporter contact information and activity.

Pros

Its an inexpensive way to manage donor and supporter activities. It also allow us to bulk email and communicate to our audience. We can design a nice email with graphics and it is fairly easy to set it up and send it out.

Cons

It is a little clunky in that the categories and drop-downs aren't customization. You basically have to get with your team (or those responsible for entering data) and decide how to use their established categories to fit the data you want to collect in order to have it be consistent for each person's information that you enter.

eTapestry for Donor Management

Pros

eTapestry has a lot of great cloud based functionality for keeping track of your donor database, sending communications, running reports on interactions with donors, etc.

Cons

It's pretty pricey for smaller not for profits.

Etapstry by Blackbaud

Etapestry was a Cadillac and we only needed a Ford Escort at the time. Great for large nonprofits, more than what's needed for small ones.

Pros

Central location for donor information and donations. Donors could log in to make changes to their donations and profile info so expired credit cards were not an issue.

Cons

It was hard to learn. So many features that we were unable to use them all. It was expensive for our needs. Couldn't create an email or newsletter within it at the time we used it.

Great for the price

The software delivered what we needed it to and was sufficient for our requirements.

Pros

The ability to have recurring donors processed automatically and securly is very important and Etapestry delivered this. The program is able to track donations to specific projects and fundraising programs. Handles EOFY receipts well.

Cons

It was difficult sometimes to get the information you required out of the program without specific training.

Blackbaud eTapestry: Well Worth The Purchase - Absolutely Worth Every Dime

Exceptional experience and would recommend to all that are searching for a donor software system.

Pros

Everything about this software is exactly what we need. We can communicate with our supporters in many ways, prepare and run queries on any field, create and use reporting features at any time and essentially document and track all donor information. This is all done with ease and offers flexibility.

Cons

We wish there were a few more features as it integrates with social media and email addresses. We have found that the accuracy is not as strong as we would like it to be.

Great Price, good functionality, limited ease of use

Overall, it's a good program for the price we pay, but if it was any more we would change to a more user friendly system. The most important thing with eTap is to make sure that you have an employee who is familiar with database administration otherwise it is very easy within eTap for data to be misrepresented. In summary, if you don't have a big budget, it's a good way to get your feet off the ground, but I wouldn't look at it expecting a 5+ year/long term solution.

Pros

First of all the price for our organization is fantastic, after shopping around for a new database management system, we have found nothing close to what we are currently paying. eTap has decent functionality after you learn how to use it; once you master the basics, it has the flexibility to store just about any data that you need as long as you are willing to get a little creative in how you organize the data. The ability for the data base to be directly integrated into our website and Quickbooks is also a great feature that minimizes potential lost memberships and corrupted data.

Cons

The hands down most frustrating part of the program is that you can't have multiple tabs open within the same browser with eTap. In order to have eTap open on two different tabs, you must use a different web browser and a different login ID, which becomes a complete and total pain. It is also not the easiest program to learn and train new people on. Often we want volunteers to work on data management for us but that is really only possible if the volunteer or intern is with us for at least three months so we an spend the time training them on the program.

eTapestry - A medium weight solution for Donor Management and Receipting.

I have been impressed with the solid support team eTapestry has. The online chat has been very helpful to me, and the specialists I have chatted with have always been knowledgeable.

Pros

eTapestry has lots of power to get things done. It is cloud-based, so there is no need for the user to worry about upgrading the software or backing up the data. Queries are very easy to produce, and exporting the results in reports, PDFs or excel is a snap. You can design your own forms so that your website can talk to eTapestry easily. eTapestry works equally well on desktop computers, tablets and cellphones. This is very helpful for fundraisers who are on the road.

Cons

If you are downsizing from a more robust package such as Raiser's Edge, be prepared for a loss of flexibility - for example, queries in eTapestry lack some of the power that Raiser's Edge has. When comparing what you get "out of the box" with some other solutions, you will find that in order to keep costs down for the average user, eTapestry is very basic. To add in eCommerce, donor logins, advanced email, etc these are available, but as an add-on pricing. This can make it more expensive than other products that have all these features to start with, so you should be aware of what your real needs are before committing to eTapestry.

eTapestry: simply the best product out there

Pros

The eTapestry system is by far the best we've ever used. There are many things to like including: the dashboard with its sophisticated look that integrates all of the important information in on place, which makes it simple to focus on important things like delivering programs. Our old system didn't work well, especially when we needed to pull information from it. Reporting in eTapestry is quick and it looks really professional. So far, everyone we've had to provide information to, such as accountants, counselors, and so forth, are really impressed with how the information is presented to them. Last but not least, the diy forms are a godsend. They've raised us to a whole new level in regards to our tax receipting, registration forms, and mail outs! Perhaps the greatest thing we've enjoyed using eTapestry is the caliber of service we've received from every member of the team.

Cons

So far there's nothing we don't like, but I do have some suggestions. First of all, for the diy forms, we are using one for program registrations that have a fee - the donation form seemed to be the best fit. It would be ideal for us if we could either change the wording from "donation amount" and "donation frequency" to "payment amount" and "payment frequency", or provide us with the options for wording because we don't want those who are registering to be confused about the fee because it's not a donation. Secondly, in the diy forms, where we have multiple options for users to check off, it would be ideal if we could create columns so that the form isn't too long. Finally, because we are using some of the diy forms for program registrations and we deliver programs to families, it would be ideal for us if we could have a form where participants could put in the names of their family members and those names would generate separate constituents in the database. For instance, a mother signs up for a program with her two kids. All have the same contact information, but the health information is different for all three. Currently, people have to do the form several times - once for each family member.

ETapestry for NonProfit

Pros

Data conversion from ResultsPlus was excellent. The specialist worked with us to make sure all the data was correct and matched or improved upon how it was organized. The process also helps you become familiar with the software. So, once completed, we were able to start using without much disruption. We've been successfully using it for over a year. Overall, it is user-friendly, with great support. Our account manager is wonderful and helps with issues/questions; checks up from time to time. Online resources/tutorial great and help navigate some of the learning curves with reports, mailings, etc.

Cons

We got an odd impersonal e-mail with a link to view our invoice.It would be nice to be able to pull it up online via our Blackbaud Account Site. Support was slow when we had a question with invoice and not easy to manage/review. Not the best for e-newsletters - it's a little clunky to design with limited templates. We stayed with Constant Contact, but there are good integration features with eTapestry.

An Investment for Growth

This review was solicited by eTapestry's marketing department.

Pros

I appreciate that the product is part of Blackbaud's empire of services for the sector, so you can assume that much of the functionality is based on best practices. It has a nice graphic interface. I really appreciate the DIY form features that allow us to collect information on not only donors but volunteers and other constituents. It's been a phenomenal transformation in our ability to track our supporters and empower the board with good information. The automatic address updates we completed before our annual fund appeal resulted in an increased in renewal rates for our lapsed donors, which effectively paid for the subscription for the year.

Cons

For an organization with a smaller budget, the software investment is expensive. We were fortunate to receive a 30% discount for our first three years, but as we look to renew in the coming year, I think it will start to become more painful to pay for this operational utility. It took a significant amount of time to learn how eTap works. I was initially stunned by the costs of eTapestry's video and in-person training programs and the knowledge base is a little funky to use. Their customer service staff on chat have been super helpful, however, and that's become my go-to for answering questions. They do have free resources for training, but they are basic.

Overall a good starter CRM

IF you use their system, you should really consider using their payment processing as well. It is comparable to other services and will make your life easier.

Pros

The interface is easy to use and the donation processing and web forms functionality is pretty intuitive. If you haven't used a donor database before, this is a good beginning system. It has all of the basic functions you need, is fairly easy to use and fees are on a sliding scale.

Cons

Their reporting and querying system is not great. You can get what you need, but it seems to be overly complicated and often requires two or three steps where other systems can do it in one. They are making improvements on this, but the essential architecture now is the same as it was when I first used this system in 2008, so I am not sure how much they can effectively change.

Frustrating with a long learning curve

Pros

Integration with online giving is seamless. Manual entry of gifts is easy and straightforward. It's easy to export data.

Cons

No one in our small organization uses this software regularly enough to feel proficient, and it isn't intuitive. I waste a lot of time trying to get data out of the software. Reports have to be rebuilt every time you run them, and there is no built-in year against year to date report, which seems like an essential to me. When I was given instructions on how to accomplish this, I couldn't believe the number of steps it involved. I find myself spending a lot of time running queries, then exporting them to Excel to manipulate the data to prepare something I can share with the ED and Board. I know there are users who love this software, but it isn't working well for us.