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Blackbaud Altru

Score7.8 out of 10

29 Reviews and Ratings

What is Blackbaud Altru?

Designed for General Admissions Organizations

Categories & Use Cases

Media

Constituent Record: Get a true 360-degree view of each constituent's activity.
Daily Sales:  Improve sales speed and visitor experience with a smart POS
Group Sales:  Keep group sales orders organized and manageable
KPIs:  Measure and monitor organizational performance
Membership Dashboard:  Improve membership acquisition and retention
Organizational Calendar:  Effectively manage events, programs, spaces, supplies and equipment
Sales Reporting:  Accurate, real-time sales reports across all sales methods (including online)

1 / 7

A solid solution

Pros

  • Point of sale - Ease of understanding by front staff.
  • Membership transactions - Ease of understanding by front staff.

Cons

  • Group sales - The process could be more streamlined.
  • Reporting - There is not one report that I can tie out to financials.

Return on Investment

  • Positive - Improved our ability to pull the data and make informed decisions.
  • Positive - Reduced head count by improved understanding of how use the platform.

Alternatives Considered

Axiom Sales Force Development

Other Software Used

Financial Edge, Financial Edge NXT

Altru - a well-rounded POS and CRM database

Pros

  • Ticketing and tracking many different types of admission sales including group, facility rental, individual tickets, and class registration.
  • Membership management, including membership card mailing, recurring memberships, and renewal reminders.
  • Being an all-encompassing database rather than forcing you to use multiple databases.
  • Great customer service and client support, including ongoing updates to better the system.
  • Has a merchandise inventory management system.

Cons

  • Could use more reporting filters rather than depending on us knowing how to build a query correctly.
  • Limitations on emailing tickets to patrons.
  • Limitations on refunding capabilities if multiple refunds are needed on the same order.
  • Could improve outward-facing online forms and the ease with which customers build a shopping cart and update their own account.

Return on Investment

  • Improved membership management, growing our program by 100%.
  • Improved our attendance tracking and ability to see true patronage.
  • Keeps all our data in one place!

Altru - Giving up a little to gain a lot

Pros

  • Cloud based database provides access from anywhere we have internet access across our 40 acre campus.
  • Constituent tracking provides powerful data tools to understand all points of contact with visitors.
  • Basic and in-depth training programs offered, providing staff with the knowledge they need for successful use of the product.

Cons

  • Query system not user-friendly for management with limited database background.
  • Limited company-to-user support outside of an online community of users. No long term account managers for program.
  • No email analysis tools for eblasts.
  • Limited merchandise capabiity for shop use, though the program does allow third party programs to work with it.

Return on Investment

  • Altru has given us the potential to turn users from multiple entry points into members and donors.
  • Through the institutional calendar, we have shrunk our total space use conflicts between departments.
  • Increased out mailing list capacity by combining points of contact into one location.

Alternatives Considered

CAM, Financial Edge, The Raisers Edge and Vista

Other Software Used

Financial Edge, Google Analytics

Altru - the good, the bad and the meh.

Pros

  • Point of Sales system, which is very user-friendly, and easy to navigate.
  • Member Database, which is easy to search through to locate information on patrons.
  • Event Calendar and Listings, which is organized and color coded.

Cons

  • Not ideal to use for e-blasts. It is difficult to manipulate and code through Altru.
  • Registering and managing multi-day events. Altru does not have the capacity to "sell" registrants into multi-session events. You have to work around the system in order to account for attendees in each session of the event.
  • Customizing web forms for program registration is a little bit difficult to figure out and to execute.

Return on Investment

  • It has become very tedious to account for registrants in each session of a class or camp, because you have to "sell" them into each session in order to have an accurate class roster.
  • It is very easy to process payment and entry fees to our Museum and programs.
  • It is easy to retrieve accurate information and records of patrons.

Altru does everything "well enough" to keep around.

Pros

  • Development - prospect management, memberships, donations
  • Visitor Services - ticket sales for programs/special events
  • Marketing - communications, web form management

Cons

  • Web Management - no online portal for site "registrants," little customization, and no group sales
  • Group Sales Management - unable to change orders after complete, not user friendly
  • Ticket Sales - not user friendly, restrictive, event check-in clunky

Return on Investment

  • Able to connect with about 7,000 constituents in marketing communications because we can have donations, tickets, memberships, etc. all in one database

Other Software Used

Lightspeed Retail