Blackbaud eTapestry is a donor management solution that helps growing nonprofits build a stable foundation for success, beat fundraising goals, and catalyze growth. eTapestry boasts more than 6,000 nonprofits and institutions as users, who manage and track fundraising performance, engage new supporters, and maximize existing donor relationships with the software.
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GiveSmart
Score 6.9 out of 10
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GiveSmart, a Community Brands company, offers a full-service event management platform supporting event website, event registration, attendee tracking, donor management and data insights, and full customer service for entities wishing to raise funds via an auction or charity event. The platform also integrates technology from Community Brands brand Gesture to provide a comprehensive suite of services.
GiveSmart replaces the former 501 Auctions, a platform to support charity auctions, mobile…
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Pricing
Blackbaud eTapestry
GiveSmart
Editions & Modules
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Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Blackbaud eTapestry
GiveSmart
Free Trial
Yes
No
Free/Freemium Version
No
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
Optional
Optional
Additional Details
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More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Blackbaud eTapestry
GiveSmart
Considered Both Products
Blackbaud eTapestry
Verified User
Anonymous
Chose Blackbaud eTapestry
Blackbaud eTapestry is more user friendly for all members of the department. You don't have to be as data-minded to understand the information you put in. The cost is also a huge factor in being the perfect option for smaller organizations. You can increase the number of …
We choose Blackbaud eTapestry ten years ago because some of the above did not exist or they did not have the features such as credit card integration and direct email. We also liked the ease of use. To create queries and to run reports are easy and to create and run …
Assistant Director of Annual Giving and Stewardship Manager
Chose Blackbaud eTapestry
We use this suite of products in our entire division. It helps us with reports and donor management, and it is very helpful on a day-to-day basis. I enjoy the ease of use as well as the product offerings available. I would recommend using this in your development office.
I have not used anything like eTapestry where all the information is kept in one place. I have used other CRMs but financial information was always kept separately.
I very much prefer eTapestry to Raiser's Edge. I found the separation between the database and web view of Raiser's Edge very disorienting and didn't like having to switch back and forth between the two views to be able to complete certain tasks. I REALLY didn't like that a few …
we were trying to consolidate eTapestry, our donation and event ticketing platform and our email marketing service. RE NXT would certainly have been an upgrade to eTapestry but did not offer the full functionality we were looking for.
I used and set-up Salesforce.com at a previous position and Blackbaud e-Tapestry is simpler to use 'out of the box' and has a much lower learning curve. My supervisor is looking at Raiser's Edge to replace e-Tapestry for the more premium features.
Blackbaud eTapestry is the most customizable out of the other databases I have worked with, however, a solution like Bloomerang is easier for inexperienced database users.
We have researched 2-3 other donor platforms and we just aren't at a place to change, although we are very tempted. eTapestry is getting us by for now and we don't look forward to the day when we have to change platforms and have to change things for our monthly donors. We …
We have compared other products and also looked at supplemental software to integrate with our events and event management software. We have looked at many other products and there is not a one that does it all.
Blackbaud eTapestry is a fully cloud based system, unlike Sumac, which means it can handle continuous multi-users in real time while remaining synchronous. Everything can be stored within the system, including documents that one needs such as granting or gift agreements. Easier …
With the exception of Faith Direct, which we had prior to eTapestry, and is strictly a vehicle for donations (think PayPal, WePay, GiveCentral, etc) - some of the others did not exist or were even less relevant at the time we chose eTapestry (Donor Perfect). We were interested …
I was not involved in the selection of Blackbaud eTapestry. However, in comparing it to my experience with Raiser's Edge, this program is more user-friendly despite the learning curve battle of the query and reports section of eTapestry.
Blackbaud eTapestry is not as robust as Blackbaud Raiser's Edge. However, eTapestry provides strong value for the cost. It is much less expensive than using Raiser's Edge.
Givesmart does not provide the communications, peer-to-peer fundraising, and event webpage features that Salsa Engage used to have. Salsa CRM allowed us to split donations into multiple campaigns/funds or ledgers. Salsa CRM allowed us to upload copies of gift documents. Salsa …
We used DonorPerfect and Handbid in the past and they lacked all the features we needed and their customer support was insufficient. The user experience on these platforms was always a challenge. GiveSmart is more streamlined and we have had better customer support when we run …
OneCause has much of the same functionality, but GiveSmart was less expensive, which is why we went with them. Classy looks much more polished and has a lot more customization options - both on the user-facing end and the reporting/data/back end - but does not let us have user …
We originally selected Mobile Cause as a solution for offering text-to-give options. After utilizing the platform for that, we realized we could also take advantage of its other features for creating forms on our website. At the time, it offered more options for integration …
I have been a guest at other non-profit events that utilized similar software, and I feel that the GiveSmart platform seems more user-friendly. I cannot speak to the efficiency on the administrative side because I have solely used GiveSmart, but I don't find GiveSmart lacking …
It was quite simple to initially set up the fundraising event page. It gave us options in design and reach. GiveSmart provides thorough spreadsheets which makes reconciling between our platform easy. Customer support was simple to access and available when they were needed. In …
GiveSmart is the platform that was already grandfathered when I entered my role. I used Kindful at my last job and GiveSmart at this one. GiveSmart's check-in and check-out process is significantly more accessible and user-friendly. Still, Kindful was used in sync with Square, …
My organization has been using GiveSmart's online donation form for many years. It integrates well into our website, and we like using it for multiple campaigns. Their Events software integrates with our accounting software, a big plus over what we used before. Other …
GiveSmart allows us to use one system for everything which makes doing business and understanding your donors and donations and operating your events much smoother and more efficient. And the information and insights that you can pull from Givesmart are much more extensive.
Ultimately, we chose GiveSmart because it was the upgraded version of the Abila software we had already been using for years. Our donor records get a unique update each year that most donor CRM organizations don't know how to handle. We also liked how they offered the three …
We liked that we could integrate our MailChimp newsletters and email with GiveSmart, the text messaging feature, and it seems the reporting will be easier for us.
All of these websites suit our organizations for their reasons. They are also used simultaneously to collect data. With GiveSmart, I need one website to do what all these do individually. It causes errors on my end and forces me to look in many places for the same information.
We use Givegab every year for an event called IdahoGives. It is effective, but I would definitely not switch from GiveSmart to it. We may start looking at switching over to Classy if GiveSmart doesn't reactivate the android app for their services
Mainly we chose GiveSmart because it allows the option for a donor to specify a total dollar amount they want to give and then divides that dollar amount into monthly payments for them with ease and without having to create an account. The cost of the software is also much …
We currently use both but for separate reasons. GiveSmart is great for our fundraising events and Stripe works very well for facilitating online donations through our website.
As we are a small Foundation with only one Administrative Assistant, eTapestry is perfect for me to keep all of our CRM. Once I got used to how it worked, I found it to be user friendly. If I have any problems, I can either try to find the answer for myself in the extensive library, chat to support or email our Customer Service Representative with questions. I cannot fault either the Support team or Customer Service Representatives I have dealt with over the years as all of them have been knowledgeable and extremely helpful. I would prefer to have better options within the Email section as the templates are very basic. There is another option to use an eTapestry partner, but there are additional costs involved in that. The email templates are OK to use if you wish to send quick information to your database.
GiveSmart definitely works for large in-person ticketed events which also involve auctions, paddle raises, and more. The workflow is relatively easy for guests, and especially for volunteers. We especially like how quickly you can add paddle raise donations to specific people's paddle numbers because it allows us to track in real time. The seating functionality has some odd quirks, but overall it works. We opted not to use it for our main donation capture organization-wide because it doesn't look as professional, nor is it as customizable, as some other options on the market.
GiveSmart is a very easy-to-use platform that provides robust instruction on use but is so user-friendly that the instructions are mostly not necessary. I find it easy to update, change, and create all aspects of our page. For example, I first used GiveSmart without any instruction from a manager. She instructed me to look around and see what was going on. I was able to navigate the site effectively, and only found a few pieces for which I needed more instruction.
GiveSmart offers a well-made item section. Our gala has a silent auction made up of more than 170 items, and GiveSmart makes it easy to upload those items in bulk or add them individually. It offers every field I would want to have for an item and provides a comprehensive and adjustable front-facing-view for donors that is easy to manipulate.
GiveSmart's main page creator is easy to navigate and create the site you want. They provide helpful details like sizing for images and the ability to create buttons and links and different sections as our needs dictate. It's easy to adjust the colors and design to reflect our branding.
The distribution reports do not separate what campaign the transactions were for.
Revenue reports do not clearly state the CC fees for each transaction, which requires manual calculations.
We could not change the item a transaction was billed to if it was wrong. For example, if a donor made a restricted donation but was labeled unrestricted, we were told there was no way to correct it, so we had to keep track of those changes on the side.
We do not always get positive solutions from Etapestry. There are a lot of resources and solutions that you can read about and reach out to. I participate in Community Forums and trainings to see what we can be doing differently.
For the most part, we are very satisfied with GiveSmart. There are some additional functions we'd like to see it have and GiveSmart has been responsive in the past to add new features that nonprofits are looking for. Their support teams and account representatives are very friendly and helpful. The ease of their system allows a competent person to enter the data and create campaigns without having to have much technical knowledge.
It's usable and very convenient, but not always intuitive. For example, we had difficulties figuring out how to pull a list of donors from a specific 12-month period. There were many settings and options, so it was very trial and error.
For the most part, GiveSmart serves our organization's needs for creating fundraising forms. It is especially useful for our peer-to-peer fundraising and event planning and registration efforts. The dashboard is relatively intuitive, and there have been improvements in creating forms and managing campaigns since shifting from Mobile Cause to GiveSmart Fundraise.
I have never had an issue accessing eTapestry. It does occasionally go down for maintenance. When that happens, they give you a lot of notice and generally schedule maintenance for hours between midnight and 6am so that business won't be disrupted.
We never experienced any issues with outages, the system being down, etc. It's extremely reliable. That's very important when you're dealing with financial and personal information! We want to make it easy for people to give, and it's great that we've never had to worry about service issues making that more challenging/
The product does what it is supposed to, although there are downsides. There are positive and negatives for every product. This is less expensive alternative for a small organization tracking minimum information.
We haven't had any issue regarding performance or reliability with GiveSmart. We don't integrate it with any other software so that issue isn't relevant. The pages load quickly and reports are completed almost as soon as you hit the "run" button. Overall, the system works as designed and is pretty quick when people use it.
I've had nothing but great experience when reaching out for support on this program. The team has always been supportive and polite when answering questions. They have a lot of knowledge to share and provide good insight into the product. It helps to have their perspective on certain issues
When I did have to reach out for support it was not always easy to get ahold of anyone to help. There were also times when I did get help where I struggled to understand and be understood. Not a language barrier, but more of a not understanding what my problem was. I am not sure if it was a problem on my end or on theirs, maybe both, lol
They explained everything well to us throughout the process. It was easy to find resources needed to answer any questions that we had. Support was also available should we need further assistance from the resources found online. They were also quick to respond to our teams inquiries, which was much appreciated.
GiveSmart provides great training videos on their system. Not everything is covered with their videos but their support staff are very friendly and knowledgeable. I would have given them a ten but not everything is covered in their videos and sometimes you have to find the right word to search for in able to find the right training video.
I was not there for the implementation of this platform. Unfortunately I am unable to just skip this question as it requires a response, which needs to be fifty characters, so here we are. At thirty four, I need to add a few more words to satisfy this requirement. Done.
We just made the change using the band-aid approach. In other words, we just went for it and taught the users how to do it at our first event and went from there. 90-95% of people haven't used a mobile bidding software so most everyone was on the same stage of knowledge so implementing it was easy as people didn't have to re-learn anything.
I very much prefer eTapestry to Raiser's Edge. I found the separation between the database and web view of Raiser's Edge very disorienting and didn't like having to switch back and forth between the two views to be able to complete certain tasks. I REALLY didn't like that a few tasks had to be done in both database and web view. Although it was worded as an "upgrade", I felt that we lost a lot of functionality, in particular with gift imports. I also didn't like gifts from the website having to land in Online Express, rather than being able to go directly into a constituent account
We used DonorPerfect and Handbid in the past and they lacked all the features we needed and their customer support was insufficient. The user experience on these platforms was always a challenge. GiveSmart is more streamlined and we have had better customer support when we run into issues.
For what GiveSmart is designed to do, the software works excellently. We haven't found something GiveSmart cannot do when it is used as designed. However, when GiveSmart is tried to be used as a total CRM, it doesn't do that but that is okay as it wasn't designed to be a total CRM but rather a mobile bidding software.
Our donors always want an easy method to donate before, during, and after our event—GiveSmart definitely gives them that flexibility.
Retaining the information that GiveSmart allows us is important, especially when we compile statistics and reports based on what was processed through our GiveSmart event site.
