Blackbaud CRM Pros and Cons

Sheila Wortham

We are exploring different CRMs for our organization. We have been using the Raiser's Edge (/NXT), but it no longer meets our needs and we want to upgrade our platform. I would appreciate it if you could give me a brief overview of the advantages and disadvantages of the Blackbaud CRM.

Andrew Urban

@Sheila Wortham Not posting this as an advertisement for our services, but only as a note that we have had several clients make the leap from RENXT to BBCRM successfully. The key to doing so, and to know whether or not that leap is the right move, as opposed to re-working your current RENXT workflow for gifts and reporting, has a lot to do with gift and GL management. How complex is your gift recording process, how many fundraisers do you have working in your system, how complex are the integrations you need in order to do your work effectively?

Happy to link you up with others we know who have made that switch.

Jefferson Davis

Pros of CRM:

• Flexibility and customization. With CRM you have more flexibility to customize the software for your organization. Some of this needs to be done via Blackbaud SDK so you need a group or developers or contract with Blackbaud, Zuri Group, Brightvine or other independent contractors to make these changes. Some, however, can be made using page designer via low code no code solutions.
• The tool is powerful and I think handles complex gifts and the major gift cultivation well.
• Version 4.0 is pretty stable.
• CRM can integrate with other Blackbaud products such as Financial Edge, Luminate Online, and Online Express.
• CRM has a robust reporting and analytics module that allows you to create custom reports, dashboards, and scorecards.

Cons of CRM:

• There is not some of the built-in functionality and analytics you get in NXT, such as wealth ratings, email marketing, and social media insights.
• Version 4 has been out for a while and sometimes shows its age on the look and feel. The user interface is not as intuitive or user-friendly as NXT.
• Marketing Efforts are powerful, but complex. They require a lot of configuration and testing to ensure accuracy and efficiency.
• CRM is more expensive than NXT in terms of licensing, implementation, maintenance, and training costs.