Bloomerang Software

We have been using the program for over four years or so and as we have grown, it has been nice to have the ability to automate our donor database and to facilitate communication and reporting. We also enjoy the direct interface of transactions for our credit card processing. This has alleviated a lot of input for our donor receipts and helps with our annual fundraising event. As Treasurer and also tax preparer, it has been an invaluable report tool for preparation of the tax return. We would have a hard time getting by without it.

Pros

Reasonable price
Easy to setup up your organization parameters
Easy setup for reports
Cloud-based, automatic data backup
Help with donor communication and promotion
Comprehensive tutorials for program functions
Great fundraising information and support
Credit card processing interface

Cons

We really have not found anything unacceptable at this point.

As a non-profit, Bloomerang makes tracking, reporting and thanking donors fairly simple. We're grateful for the comparatively low cost of Bloomerang and the outstanding support we receive.

Pros

This software is fairly easy and intuitive to use straight out of the gate. What sets them apart, however is their support team and help/assistance knowledge base.

Cons

There are still some functionalities I'd like to see incorporated to make it more robust.

Very, very positive. Customer service is fantastic. Product is just what we need.

Pros

Ease of use, functionality, and nice design

Cons

The fact that we can't run a duplicate constituents test

The overall experience is great in that we are able to keep track of our donors.

Pros

The knowledge that there is a location for all of my donors' information. Also the ability to track the when, how and amount of donations.

Cons

I find that there is too many times that duplicating of names occur.

Bloomerang is quickly becoming a key partner and service provider as we grow our non-profit efforts! They have a solid background and understanding of our "world" and have been extremely helpful.

Pros

Fantastic sales and support staff
Extremely quick to implement
Very user friendly; very intuitive

Cons

I have yet to take the time to take advantage of the plethora of Bloomerang resources available

I work with several clients that use Bloomerang for their database. This software is very easy to use and very user friendly. They are very responsive when you have questions or are having issues using their software. I would highly recommend this database software to any organization. I have worked with two other database soft wares and Boomerang has been the best so far.

Pros

I switched to Bloomerang about two years ago and this has been a great change. Their customer service and help center is very easy to navigate and a representative responds to your questions within seconds. From step by step instructions on how to pull reports, trouble shooting problems, helping with deleting and importing new constituents, any issues or questions you have they have answer for you within minutes. I love their feature of online webinars that introduce you to their new features and updates. These webinars are extremely helpful and give me the knowledge and information I need to train new employees on this software. Another pro is that they are open to suggestions and improvements. I have sent in a few changes that would make pulling reports easier and updates that will help decrease entering duplicate constituents and they have taken this feedback and acted on it. Several of their new features address the recommendations I have sent them.

Cons

What I like least about this software is that it does not auto populate the city and state when you put in the zip code for a constituents account. This is a feature that I was use to using with other software. This was a helpful feature to have that made data entry easier. I am also not in love with their acknowledgment generator because you can not edit individual letters once they are merged into the Bloomerang template. This is a feature I would like to see, because many of the clients I work with like to add a personal touch to each acknowledgment. We are not able to use Bloomerang for this process because to edit each individual letter we would have to generate acknowledgments one by one, not in bulk, which is very inconvenient and time consuming.

Pros

I like most that they are very knowledgeable with the software. Also, I am constantly finding features that I didn’t know about.

Cons

The one thing I don’t like is that paypal isn’t integrated. However, I was told that they were working on it!

very positive!

Pros

Very pleased with the flexibility of the program. Once we understood its terminology and structure we were able to use it both for student applications and some record keeping and for its primary function, fund raising. This made it a very good and economical choice for a small organization like ours.

Cons

They are a little inflexible about adding components that we need so we have to do more work-around than I would like. But still!

I love the donor tracking on the website and social media. I love the engagement score and the display of the dashboard. We're finding Bloomerang does it all!

Pros

There are very few things Bloomerang can't do when it comes to donor management. The Bloomerang team is very involved with its clients and constantly requesting feedback and providing answers, help, and tips to make your Bloomerang experience smooth.

Cons

There's a learning curve. It's pretty much a blank canvas when you start, which is cool because you can tailor the software to fit your organization. Sometimes though, it's difficult to know where to start. Once you get it figured out though, it's pretty slick!

Our old software stored donor interactions and notes in separate sections, the Timeline in Bloomerang makes viewing all donor interactions and information easy and I love having it stored all in one place!

Pros

Bloomerang's functionality meets the needs of our organization. It's easy to use, the online trainings are very helpful, running reports is a breeze, emails and e-blasts are simple to use, and I love the website integration to track visits by constituents.

Cons

Tributes - A separate Tribute Record must be created before a tribute gift can be entered. Would be easier to be able to link a tribute gift to an existing constituent record.

Great product - completely revolutionized our organization's donor cultivation and stewardship strategies!

Pros

How easy it is to use and the fact that there are multiple tasks I can take care of through one piece of software.

Cons

There are some interesting tweaks here and there that occasionally make doing reports tricky, but there is also typically a way to work around those and the customer service team is great about helping me out when I can't figure something out.

Bloomerang has made big difference in our ability to track and maintain donors. It brings a number a functions (donor info, donation info, auto donations through credit cards or ETF and donor communication) all to one place.

Pros

Bloomerang is a great donor database software. It provides one place to keep customized information about donors as well as their giving information. It is truly customizable, can integrate with your credit card and ETF processor and gives you the ability to email your donors both as a whole or with customizable filters. I also enjoy the webinars that they offer for nonprofits or for using Bloomerang more effectively.

Cons

There are a few quirky things that have been annoying. Automatically added new constituents to every email group and the way that the software calculates a campaign goal two things that come to mind.

Bloomerang is wonderful! Technical support is right at your fingertips if you need it but almost 99% of the time you won't because it is so easy to navigate and use.

Pros

It's VERY user friendly, easy to comprehend, and is a great tool for analyzing donations.

Cons

It is a little difficult to run very specific reports sometimes (finding the right report, what to include, what to exclude).

We were using a very old CRM software and were looking to update. We also wanted a way to keep track of our granting, donations and to generate letters. We reviewed a lot of other providers and none offered exactly what we needed - as a Community Foundation, our needs are different than other nonprofits. Bloomerang doesn't perfectly meet our needs either, but it was customizable enough that we are able to make it work. It was definitely the best option for us. Very cost effective. It really feels like the company is working to make improvements, and so I look forward to it being even better in the future. Great customer support - very responsive.

Pros

Ease of use. Great customer support. Intuitive.

Cons

No mobile version of software yet, but they are working on one.

Bloomerang is helping us be far more efficient in all of our development activities. The right data is always at our fingertips. Because of the excellent reports feature we are able to access the information we frequently need with minimal effort. We had endured many complaints about our previous online donation forms and now we have wonderful user-friendly forms integrated into our website.

Pros

The integrated online donation process is such an improvement for us. We are so enjoying using it. Also, the reports feature is excellent, again a great improvement over our last CRM database. Bloomerang's customer service is excellent and help is always available. We are also very happy to have built-in donor satisfaction surveys. This was a very pleasant surprise for us! The ability to track interactions is also a new and very helpful feature that we are enjoying. At a glance, we can see how donors are interacting with our organization and how they compare to others.

Cons

The emails are not mobile-friendly, however an integration with MailChimp, which is mobile-friendly is coming. We are looking forward to it! There isn't currently a Bloomerang app, but it appears to be in the works as well.

Bloomerang is amazing! As the Marketing and Development Manager it has saved me to much time having everything in one easily accessible place!

Pros

I love how easy Bloomerang is to use and if I cannot figure it out myself their customer service is there to help!

Cons

Hmmm...That is a hard one. I sometimes struggled to run reports on my donors but even in those situations customer service was able to give me step by step instructions on how to fix it.

Amazing. The customer support is great. The website is fantastic!!

Pros

How user friendly it is. It is an easy platform to use and I have not experienced any glitches with it.

Cons

I think that there could be an easier way to integrate information automatically in to the system.

I have much more information about each donor than I could ever have organized without this system.

Pros

Bloomerang has user friendly donor entry and updating features.

Cons

Getting used to the inclusions and exclusions when running reports.

This is the client's first database. It is a very affordable way for a small nonprofit to have professional fundraising management

Pros

Ease of converting spreadsheets to database; functions, price.

Cons

A little cumbersome figuring out how to create reports, letters and labels.

This application replaced dozens of spreadsheets I used to use. I had looked other products that were less robust and way more expensive. The company offers lots of tutorials, videos, webinars and classes that are very helpful.

I am happy with this app and anxiously await a better email module. I just wish I could better engage my board to use it for donor interaction logging.

Pros

Bloomerang is a very well thought out application. The database and the reports generated from team or in valuable to our organization. The custom reporting is very easy for someone with an IT background searches me, but should be fairly easy for anyone to use. It has been a lifesaver for my organization to have this product which was at a very affordable price. It is continually improved with new features, many at user request. Customer support is top notch.

Cons

The email module does not create responsive emails. This feature is seriously lacking in modern usability. I tend to use email via another email client and take advantage of the BCC feature, which copies the email to Bloomerang and attaches it to the constituent’s record.