All Salsa CRM Reviews

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Blake

11 - 50 employees

Used less than 6 months

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

4

Reviewed February 2022

Newbie and committed

Brittany

Non-Profit Organization Management, 11-50 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed June 2017

Great product!

PROS

Is super easy to learn how to use. Great registration pages for events that promote individual fundraising.

CONS

Not many options for social media marketing. I wish it allowed for more cross promotion across different social platforms.

Ricci

Non-Profit Organization Management, 2-10 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

4

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed November 2018

SALSA is THE best!

I’ve been with SALSA now for several years. In the beginning I kept trying to make it Network for Good - which I left because they were so non-responsive, but they do have good interfaces and options, and their donation processing is a breeze. But the reality is, that I left NFG because I couldn’t get what I wanted. From my first day with SALSA, though, the team behind the product stood out and they jumped through hoops and turned somersaults to make me happy and get me the training I needed. I even got a call from the President of the company to talk about what I was experiencing and to make sure I was getting what I needed. I can’t imagine any other company with a “the customer comes first” culture that reaches all the way to the top. No matter what I come up with that I want to do, I find that there’s a way to do it in SALSA (except around the donations!). I would recommend this product to anyone and everyone without reservations!

PROS

Since 2003 we have purchased, leased, been granted and explored too many databases to count. Until we finally found our home with SALSA. The team is constantly upgrading and adding features, the customer support is absolutely unparalleled, and their dedication to the end-user is obvious in the features they have and those that they've added over the years we've been with them. Every software CRM has issues. One of the things that sets SALSA apart from all of the others is their customer service team. They go the extra mile and then they just keep going even further to work with you, fix any issue you're having, suggest new features to the development team based on your needs....they are just the absolute best.

CONS

I'm not as fond of their donation processing partner. For example, if a donor wants to increase their giving amount you have to cancel their old donation and they have to go in and create a whole new donation. Some of their training material leaves a lot out, but the responsiveness of their support team more than makes up for that.

Donna

Non-Profit Organization Management, 11-50 employees

Used daily for less than 12 months

Review Source: Capterra

OVERALL RATING:

3

EASE OF USE

2

VALUE FOR MONEY

3

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

3

Reviewed July 2017

Great customer service, but conversion is a time-consuming pain.

At this time, we haven't been using Salsa CRM long enough to record any marked benefit. We're still in the problem-solving phase of post-conversion. As the Development Director, I did receive an immense benefit from sifting through the 2.5 million data fields from our conversion templates, however. I now have intimate knowledge of our constituents and our data that I didn't have before. It's given me a better view of our donor base which has allowed for the placement of fundraising strategies. If CRM and Engage would ever interphase properly, Salsa could probably make my life a lot easier. But right now, it makes it more difficult.

PROS

Customer service is awesome. I appreciate that I can call and get help instead of wading through hours of online instruction videos. Everyone I've encountered has been helpful and knowledgeable. I appreciate the ability to categorize constituents into groups. It's proven very helpful on directing messaging to appropriate constituents.

CONS

Frequently used items, such as notes and address and phone edits, aren't where one would think they would be. When learning the system, it causes a lot of frustration trying to find things. Also, there are lots of drop down menus without explanations on how each category affects the larger picture. For example, under "Edit Address," there is place to check is the address is "Home," "Business," or "Primary." (You can check more than one.) Then across from that, there's a drop down menu titled "Reason." No explanation of what this category means. The choices are "All Correspondence," "Bad Address," "Non-Solicitations Only," "Primary Address," or "Solicitations Only." How does this relate to the "Preferred Contact" drop down found under "Constituent Information" which also features "Solicitations Only" and "Non-Solicitations Only"? Isn't that overkill? What's the logic behind that? It would be nice if there was a printed user's guide. Sure, there's all sorts of information online to sift through, but who has time to watch videos? Give me a searchable .PDF with general instructions that include an overview of the drop down menu choices and their best uses. Finally, conversion is NOT easy. You get what you pay for. We paid for the basic conversion, and I had to manually process over 2.5 million data fields from our previous software to Salsa's templates. It took me 6 weeks. We're still waiting for Salsa CRM and Engage to interphase properly 2 months later.

Vendor Response

Donna - Thank you for your thorough review. We encourage you to provide feedback directly to Salsa as we do incorporate our clients' enhancement requests into future releases. Our Director of Customer Support will be reaching out to you directly to address some of your specific issues. Regarding documentation, we do have an online user's guide that you can download if you prefer printed materials. You can also use our online knowledge base which is searchable by topic. Also, all Salsa customers now have access to Salsa Scholars, our brand new e-Learning platform. It's self-paced interactive learning for both Salsa Engage and Salsa CRM and the purpose built integration which we continue to enhance. In the latest release (expected to be in production by the end of July 2017), you will see enhancements to the integration which were made based on the feedback of our active user community. Please contact Customer Support if you need access to any of the tools listed.

Replied July 2017

Anonymous

501-1,000 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: GetApp

OVERALL RATING:

4

EASE OF USE

4

VALUE FOR MONEY

4

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

4

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed June 2017

Happy Customer

This is the best CRM software I've ever used. Easy to pull reports, do batching, and get information. Is a great tool for gathering information about your donors.

PROS

Very easy to use as compared with other CRMs that I've tried. Friendly customer service. Very happy to have cloud based option to check when I'm out of the office.

CONS

More help with instruction and maybe a reference manual. Sometimes it feels hard to get a handle on the very many add on features, which is a good thing.

Anonymous

Used daily for less than 12 months

Review Source: GetApp

OVERALL RATING:

4

EASE OF USE

4

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

4

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed June 2017

Great features

Our experience with salsa has been great overall! The biggest challenge was the transition process. We were moving from google drive and several other platforms for ticket sales, emails, etc. so we didn't have any experience with this. It eventually all worked out and the Salsa team really stepped up to accommodate our needs.

PROS

Salsa is constantly updating the system which really helps nonprofits stay current in the technical trends also helping us make the best use of our time and funds.

CONS

There are a few glitches from time to time, as there is with any technical updates. They work to fix them quickly and the customer support staff is very helpful!

Amy

Individual & Family Services, 51-200 employees

Used daily for less than 12 months

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

3

EASE OF USE

2

VALUE FOR MONEY

3

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

3

FUNCTIONALITY

3

Reviewed December 2020

Difficult to use and quite disappointing

I think our sales representative was very good at what he does. The software for Salsa Engage looks great outer-facing. However, the connection to the CRM is disappointing, and email deliverability is also hard. Regarding the CRM itself, it is not at all user friendly. Getting things set up and onboarded was lacking on behalf of Salsa. Customer support is always very friendly, but they simply point me to the same articles to go read over and over again. Which I have done. Many times. Yet, I still would appreciate some actual guidance/help.

PROS

I think the CRM has the potential to be robust. However, entering and mining the data is quite difficult.

CONS

As someone who has been in marketing, fundraising, and tech for 15+ years, I am pretty tech savvy. And, this CRM is hard to use. Anything that should be easy isn't. Specifically, printing donor recognition letters/receipts is cumbersome. Running donor reports is cumbersome.

Reason for choosing Salsa CRM

Their sales person did a great job selling the product. The overview/demo was very convincing. Again, it looks very nice outer-facing, specifically what the Engage side of things can produce.

Reasons for switching to Salsa CRM

I thought our company was ready for something more robust than what Bloomerang offers. I liked the integration with Engage (its marketing platform).

Vendor Response

Amy, We are sorry that the CRM to Engage integration is not meeting your expectations. We will have a member of our client services team reach out to you to talk through your options and help you to resolve issues that you are having. Please feel free to reach out to us directly as well. Thank you very much for your feedback!

Replied December 2020

Leslie

Health, Wellness and Fitness, 2-10 employees

Used daily for less than 6 months

Review Source
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

3

EASE OF USE

3

VALUE FOR MONEY

3

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

3

FUNCTIONALITY

3

Reviewed February 2020

Data Migration Less Than Desirable

During conversion, you cannot actually speak with a person unless you have paid. You have to email ALL your questions.

PROS

It is way more user friendly that what we were using before = ETapestry but then, it's ETap so go figure.

CONS

We are in process of conversion and here are my initial thoughts: 1) pay the extra money and have someone help you unless, you don't have that many constituents. 2) I was extremely disappointed. When migrating business or organizational contacts over, you will lose multiple contact names, period. They only let you migrate ONE name over which is contained in ONE text field box. This means if you ever want to do a mailing, there will be NO way to address a letter as Dear Ms FIRST NAME. This is so dumb. 3) You don't get to decide which accounts you want to split or keep intact. Once you send over your conversion template, any and all names that contain an "&" or "AND" get automatically split into two accounts. This includes organization contacts. So if you have a business IE: Brown & Smith Attorney at Law, you are SOL. 4) I could not figure out why they had Organziation TYPE and Individual TYPE on each account. In my experience, and account is either an ORG or an IND period but, here is the rub. YOU CANNOT add contact names to an existing ORG record. You have to create a seperate record and then link each IND to that ORG. So for multiple organizational contacts, they will be set up as INDIVIDUALS. The only way to sort out this mess, is to use the TYPE or ORG or IND. This is where you will list your indivuduals as say, BUSINESS CONTACT, CHURCH CONTACT, etc. This is a huge cluster &^#. Now I get why they don't let you sample the database before buying.

Reason for choosing Salsa CRM

We do peer to peer as well as an annual gala so we needed the events module. It came down to either Salsa CRM or DonorView, which now I am wondering if DonorView would have been better.

Reasons for switching to Salsa CRM

Blackbaud is putting Etapestry "out to pasture" or "sunsetting the product." This means they will not be doing any additional updates.

Vendor Response

Hi Leslie, Thank you for the feedback about our Standard Conversion process, our clients input means a lot to us. Salsa would love a chance to speak with you and review your concerns about your conversion. While we do have some standard practices that we use to make our conversions quick and affordable, we can certainly work with you to make the database work for your needs. We have training and consulting resources and would love a chance to speak with you to provide the best steps forward. Please email services@salsalabs.com and ask to speak with the Implementation Manager for more assistance. Additionally, there is no additional charge to speak with Salsa over the phone, so Salsa would love to learn where that expectation was set in the process so we can address that immediately.

Replied January 2021

Frankie

Used free trial

Review Source: Capterra

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

Reviewed October 2014

Efficient and Effective

DonorPro has a great capacity for maintaining and reporting detailed information! DonorPro allows detailed input of patient information, relationships, services provided, as well as donor and donation data. And then, DonorPro makes retrieval of that information quick and easy. DonorPro's software is designed with the final output in mind. It "asks the questions" that a user needs in order to maintain a detailed and functional database. The user can maintain detailed information on each constituent and can also view the big picture through reports and queries. Also, the training and support are outstanding! There are so many ways to use DonorPro to its max that it is a waste to try to figure out everything on your own. The ease of use is dependent upon the user's investment in the opportunities and resources that are offered. Deep, thorough training is offered regularly; and, when I hit a bump in the road, the support staff is always prompt, courteous, knowledgeable, and helpful. Every single time I have needed support, the team has responded quickly and accurately. There's not much about DonorPro that I don't like; most problems are caused by "user error."

Richard

Used free trial

Review Source: Capterra

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

4

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

Reviewed October 2014

Review of DonorPro Fundraising Customer Relationship Management Software System

Versatility: The product is cloud based so I have access anywhere that has an internet connection whether or not I have my own personal computer, tablet or iPhone available to me. Just pop on someone's laptop & login to the GO version losing very little functionality from the desktop / laptop version. So far I love the Vendor because of the excellent customer service that they are providing me. Experience: So far I have no complaints about either the software or the vendor. Interested: Get a demo, or better yet get access to login and use a demo database. Try using their customer service department to answer questions during the demo phase. Ease of Use: You have to get used to how the system was built, and how to move around all the functional available. There is so much that can be customized to your own needs. Issues - All my issues have been my lack of understanding - once I know how to use it, it has worked flawlessly. Customer Support - Award winning!! I have gotten quick response to questions posed, and I find that they even offer to assist further after the problem has been resolved.

User Profile

Melissa

Verified reviewer

Education Management, 201-500 employees

Used daily for less than 6 months

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

4

EASE OF USE

3

VALUE FOR MONEY

3

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

4

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed December 2020

Robust CRM for Non-Profits

Overall it's a powerful CRM but there is a fairly steep learning curve, however, they do have good training materials and customer support.

PROS

I like the ability to query data into custom reports of my liking or to automate tasks. I like the automatic sync to Salsa Engage

CONS

I think the requirement to batch every donation entered is unnecessary. I also wish the designation field could be used on transactions that do not come through Engage

Vendor Response

Melissa, We are happy to hear that Scottsbluff Public Schools is finding success with Salsa. We are so pleased you have had positive experiences with our training and support resources. Thank you!

Replied January 2021

Margaret

2-10 employees

Used daily for less than 12 months

OVERALL RATING:

2

EASE OF USE

1

VALUE FOR MONEY

1

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

2

Reviewed March 2017

Some pro's but very difficult & terrible at Events

There are some great features about this product, but it is a very difficult system learn and manage and the Event platform isn't fully integrated between DonorPro and Salsa (these 2 companies merged), making it VERY difficult.

PROS

Customer Service is great. Being able to call in and get a live person when I have a question is awesome. I also like the Salsa Engage platform for email blasts, posting on social media, and creating fundraising campaigns.

CONS

Difficult CRM to use and learn, and not that great once it's up and running. Also, Event Platform is not fully integrated between the DonorPro side and the Salsa Engage side. It is easy to set up the fundraising landing page and registration in Salsa Engage, but after that you are left to figure out how to bring those registrations back over to the CRM side, where you supposedly would assign them seats, bidder number and check them in. It was so difficult trying to find a person that could answer my questions, (they admitted that it didn't work properly), that I finally downloaded the info to an Excel Spreadsheet and highlighted 400+ people with a yellow highlighter! Also at check-in, we pre-authorized credit cards in the CRM, and used the recommended cc sliders, but it took forever as they wouldn't pre-authorize unless the address was exactly perfect. (Our old Event Platform would gather that CC info at check-in and pre-authorize with out having to type in an address, or much of anything.) This made registration so slow that we received numerous complaints and it was very stressful.

Anonymous

11-50 employees

Used weekly for less than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

2

EASE OF USE

1

VALUE FOR MONEY

1

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

3

FUNCTIONALITY

2

Reviewed April 2018

Salsa turned out to be way too complex for a small non-profit without a dedicated CRM person.

Not much. It was too clunky and complex for us to learn and use. Please note, you should not be using my LinkedIn profile because the main LI profile is for a company I'm working with not for my non-profit. Using a LI profile simply doesn't work for people who have multiple roles at different organizations.

PROS

On the surface SALSA looked to have everything we needed in a modern user interface. Email program. It was relatively easy to create

CONS

Salsa, as it currently exists, is an integration of three separate solutions. The CRM and the Engage products actually use separate databases that need to sync with each other. The fundraising module was a completely different and much older interface. The support was friendly and knowledgeable but with no experienced IT/CRM person on staff Salsa was simple too complex to learn and remember, especially since we used it only one per month. We decided to cancel our contract and move to something simpler and more manageable for us. Salsa management declined to return the unused portion of our contract. I don't believe would have been a great sacrifice to return to our non-profit. But they chose not to. Similarly, the merchant services account we had to sign with Salsa was for a three-year period, even though our contract with Salsa was only annually. We're now paying a cancellation fee for that service. I'm certain that Salsa probably works well for larger organizations, but it was simply too complex for our small team.

Amanda

Philanthropy, 2-10 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

4

EASE OF USE

4

VALUE FOR MONEY

4

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed November 2017

Fantastic customer service for a beneficial product

PROS

*Helpful and responsive customer service - Clay is wonderful! *Reporting provides fantastic and detailed snapshot

CONS

*Need training to understand how to use product; Not extremely user-friendly initially *Rather dull display

Vendor Response

Amanda, thanks for your review and for being a longtime customer. Wanted to make you aware of Salsa Scholars, the interactive eLearning platform that contains instructor led training courses that has really shortened the learning curve for Salsa CRM and Salsa Engage users. Also, the new browser interface of Salsa CRM is much improved from the desktop interface you may have used in years past. More interface and dashboard improvements are in the works right now! If you haven't requested access to Salsa Scholars yet, you can do so by emailing educationdirector@salsalabs.com.

Replied November 2017

Jennifer

Used more than 2 years

OVERALL RATING:

2

EASE OF USE

2

VALUE FOR MONEY

3

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

2

FUNCTIONALITY

2

Reviewed August 2016

Converted to DonorPro in 2014.

PROS

I like the event module. It makes keeping track of quests pretty easy without needing to also track in an Excel file. It is easy to get your query results into Excel.

CONS

I find that many things in Donor Pro are hidden or just not intuitive. There is not a lot of help once you get past the basic training. Here is a direct quote from Tech Support: "I encourage you to experiment with this tool. It is a little "hidden," so I am not surprised that you were not aware of it." I am disappointed that many query fields are only available with certain queries (donation versus constituent), so if you are looking for two different pieces of information, you need to run a query, save your results, and then run another query just to get basic information. I am also frustrated that there is no "key" to decode query fields. There is no way to know the difference between First Gift and First Gift Ever if you don't ask. I have also found fields in canned reports that have no explanation of what they are pulling.

Lisa

2-10 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

3

EASE OF USE

3

VALUE FOR MONEY

3

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

3

FUNCTIONALITY

3

Reviewed November 2017

Overall Salsa CRM is a good system.

Feel they could use more support. Though their support team is always friendly and helpful, don't always receive answers in a timely manner. A lot of back and fourth with email when picking up the phone would be faster and easier.

PROS

For the most part Salsa CRM is user friendly, the cost is reasonably priced and works well for our foundation.

CONS

Some features were misleading, did not offer certain things needed for our foundation. Always room for improvement.s

Vendor Response

Lisa, our apologies for not being more clear. Please give us a call and we'll work to find the proper solutions you need for your foundation. Thanks for your feedback.

Replied November 2017

Sarah

Civic & Social Organization, 51-200 employees

Used daily for less than 6 months

OVERALL RATING:

3

EASE OF USE