# Blackbaud CRM Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra

> Is Blackbaud CRM the right Nonprofit CRM solution for you? Explore 51 verified user reviews from people in industries like yours to make a confident choice.

Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/178085/Blackbaud-CRM/reviews

---

Blackbaud CRM

3.5 (51)

[View alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/178085/Blackbaud-CRM/alternatives/)

Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/our-story/)

* * *

Last updated March 15th, 2026

# Reviews of Blackbaud CRM

Ease of use

3.1

Customer Service

3.4

## Pros and Cons in Reviews

Clea H

Asst. Dir. LAGFund-Raising, 10,001+ employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years.

“I liked Blackbaud and would use it again over Salesforce because all the information was in one place.“

April 17, 2026

JN

Jack N

FounderNon-Profit Organization Management, 2 - 10 employeesUsed the software for: 1-2 years.

“We had numerous request for cancellation ignored, and as of today they’re still trying to collect.“

February 5, 2025

LP

Lisa P

Finance DirectorNon-Profit Organization Management, 2 - 10 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years.

“The best part was the ability to create recurring entries. “

August 7, 2024

LP

Lisa P

Finance DirectorNon-Profit Organization Management, 2 - 10 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years.

“Not when their software is NOT the best for small organizations.“

August 7, 2024

MS

Mike S

Director of ITNon-Profit Organization Management, 11 - 50 employeesUsed the software for: 1-2 years.

“The ease of use and navigation, payment processor built in, the customization of donation forms, and having multiples, reporting, and the amount of plugins available.“

April 4, 2024

JN

Jack N

FounderNon-Profit Organization Management, 2 - 10 employeesUsed the software for: 1-2 years.

“He was not authorized to enter into disagreement so we tried to cancel it with our attorney.“

February 5, 2025

Lauren E. K

Director of OperationsNon-Profit Organization Management, 201 - 500 employeesUsed the software for: 1-2 years.

“Taking advantage of this part of Blackbaud has had a huge benefit to us.“

July 19, 2021

LP

Lisa P

Finance DirectorNon-Profit Organization Management, 2 - 10 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years.

“Customer support is the WORST. “

August 7, 2024

## Showing most helpful reviews

Showing 1-25 of 51 Reviews

Sort by:

Most Helpful

Rating

Company Size

Reviewer's Role

Length of Use

Frequency of Use

Tara M.  
Assistant Director  
Higher Education  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Review Blackbaud"

August 14, 2023

4.0

i find it to be a very useful tool.

Pros

It stores so much data about a constituent.

Cons

It is sometime tough to locate datathat I need.

Review Source

MS

Mike S.  
Director of IT  
Non-Profit Organization Management  
Used the software for: 1-2 years

### "Great CRM for non-profit"

April 4, 2024

5.0

Pros

The ease of use and navigation, payment processor built in, the customization of donation forms, and having multiples, reporting, and the amount of plugins available.

Cons

Communication with other software such as Constant Contact.

Switched from

[Bloomerang](https://www.capterra.com/p/131207/Bloomerang/)

Lack of customization and processing options.

Review Source

VR

Verified Reviewer  
Asst. Dir. LAG  
Fund-Raising  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Preferred Blackbaud"

April 17, 2026

4.0

I liked Blackbaud and would use it again over Salesforce because all the information was in one place.

Pros

I thought Balckbaud was easier to use than Salesforce. I thought everything was nice in one place and easy to use.

Cons

I didn't like that you could not get real time information and that you could not get reporting right away, however I did like the reports.

Review Source

JN

Jack N.  
Founder  
Non-Profit Organization Management  
Used the software for: 1-2 years

### "BlackBaud is a hard NO"

February 5, 2025

1.0

Our request for a cancellation of agreement went ignored. They seem to have no compassion for a small nonprofit struggling to pay its bills.

Pros

Nothing at all! One of our board members entered into an agreement without board authorization. When we try to undo this agreement, they came at us with their lawyer.

Cons

One of our board members signed up and left our board. He was not authorized to enter into disagreement so we tried to cancel it with our attorney. We’re a small nonprofit and never use the platform. BlackBaud send us many threatening letters, and even though our attorney responded, we made a years worth of payments. We had numerous request for cancellation ignored, and as of today they’re still trying to collect.

Switched from

[Pledge](https://www.capterra.com/p/198235/Pledgeling/)

Because Pledge is free, easy to use and totally geared towards nonprofits

Review Source

eG

ethan G.  
marketing specialist  
Information Technology and Services  
Used the software for: 6-12 months

### "Blackbaud is a great quality, scalable solutions"

March 15, 2020

4.0

Pros

What I like most about Blackbaud is its built specifically for capturing and tracking data for non for profit agencies and allows you to see all of your data is a very secure envrionment

Cons

I did not like the level of customer level support that was provided when requiring answers to technical questions, and the timliness of response was not always the grestest.

Alternatives considered

[Salesforce.org Nonprofit Cloud](https://www.capterra.com/p/265078/Salesforceorg-Nonprofit-Cloud/)

Reason for choosing Blackbaud CRM

It provided the most flexibility and user friendly features across all of our internal teams including sales, finance, support and product development.

Review Source

VR

Verified Reviewer  
Executive Director  
Non-Profit Organization Management  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Avoid at all costs"

March 1, 2023

1.0

Pros

The sales team did a great presentation but after implementation support and customer service is awful.

Cons

Customer service and support teams are horrible, training is complex for a non-profit with volunteers and keeping data current and relevant is time-consuming and archaic.

Alternatives considered

[Salesforce Starter](https://www.capterra.com/p/227088/Salesforce-Starter/)

Switched from

[Insightly](https://www.capterra.com/p/130671/Insightly/)

Help grow a non-profit and increase fundraising

Review Source

Raghavendra R.  
Software Engineer  
Computer Software  
Used the software for: 1-2 years

### "Broken login management and frustratingly confusing terms"

February 24, 2024

1.0

Pros

I'm a customer of another company called Russian School of Math (RSM). They use Blackbaud as their payment provider. It's a nightmare for me whenever I need to pay RSM

Cons

1\. When I register a new class I get a new “family” id. What??? I’m not buying a new class not a family! 1. Can you fix your terminology? This is extremely confusing 2. I've to go to one website for registration (parents.russianschool.com) and another website (parent.blackbaud.com) for payment. Third one parent.smarttution.com not sure what it is 3. Even within the payment website, there are multiple school accounts? I expect one login for the company not one for each of its branch. 4. What is Blackbaud and why should I deal/learn about that when I’m doing business with RSM? Can you hide your implementation details from users 5. Blackbaud's password policy is too strong

Review Source

Kari B.  
Mobilization and Logistics Manager  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Just doesn't do enough"

August 27, 2019

3.0

Overall it was good when we were smaller, but not ideal for a growing company.

Pros

I liked that this software was able to house all our donor information. Its fairly easy to run reports and the chat help feature was really good.

Cons

You can't tag or mark donations with more than two qualifications. Its also frustrating that you couldn't edit PDFs once they were downloaded because of Canadian guidelines even though I was based out of the US.

Review Source

Manny P.  
.  
Non-Profit Organization Management  
Used the software for: 1-2 years

### "CRM software for rec donations"

January 10, 2019

3.0

If your business is receiving donations this is a great product to use and keep your customers updated daily.

Pros

It's an ideal software for receiving donations. The company has done a lot in the past few years on listening to their customers on what they want and need. And great way to keep in touch with customers.

Cons

There's a learning curve and difficult for new users who are not tech savy. Should be more user friendly.

Review Source

Paul V.  
Executive Director  
Environmental Services  
Used the software for: 6-12 months

### "Keep Your Donors In Line"

December 31, 2018

5.0

Excellent! It was brought efficiency to the office.

Pros

Excellent donor management and donation tracking.

Cons

The vast amount of features can be difficult to learn.

Review Source

mS

maddy S.  
Tech Support  
Education Management  
Used the software for: 6-12 months

### "I get anxiety every time I have to touch this tool"

January 6, 2020

1.0

I just tried to log in to our personalized blackbaud portal and it's as if it's making repeat requests to the server on a loop. My colleague has spent over 15 hours (that i know of) simply customizing a grading form. I work for another school as well and we use a completely different SIS tool called Alma and it is a dream. And I can get on a chat service and I always immediately get support from great people who are super helpful and kind and I feel like I know them because it's the same folks every time and they point me to support articles.

Pros

It's cool you can customize this tool to work for your organization.

Cons

Support has been pretty bad. We have access to a person for a set number of hours, which hasn't been very great (not very personable, quickly trying to get through training sessions, will say he will do something and doesn't). But when I ask for access (that's right, you need special access to their knowledge base) our real person helper did not ensure at all that I could gain access to support pages (telling me to just e-mail this whole other team and they would help me).

Review Source

KR

Kevin R.  
Director of Advancement  
Non-Profit Organization Management  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Company has gone downhill the last four years"

April 22, 2021

1.0

100% dissatisfied customer. Will never use them again. Much better options with vendors who are invested in your organization's success.

Pros

Strong functionality and good training and tutorial resources. That's about it for the positive.

Cons

Customer support is nonexistent. Company has grown so big the could care less about clients and use deceitful renewal techniques. I couldn't even get them to call me back for us to upgrade our subscription substantially. Much better options out there. Steer clear of these folks.....the could care less about your organization and care only about their profits.

Review Source

DW

Dayna W.  
Accounts Receivable  
Education Management  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Blackbaud CRM difficult to use"

October 26, 2019

4.0

Blackbaud CRM is a clunky program. The queries are a very frustrating part of this program. Also the customer service on this specific product is really lacking.

Pros

The linking options for couples, and linking for parents to children was very impressive. It was fairly simple to add constituents.

Cons

Importing accurately was a struggle I think mostly because you only had a certain amount of fields to use. Also pulling "Queries" or reports, was frightening. I needed classes to just understand how to pull accurately. We are using a new CRM software that imports very accurately and quickly. The reporting is much easier and more comprehensive and I love the new feature of adding a new field to any section of the software any time you want. This makes reporting and collecting information so much more simple!

Review Source

KS

Kayla S.  
Sponsorship Coordinator  
Non-Profit Organization Management  
Used the software for: 1-2 years

### "Blackbaud Review"

July 18, 2020

5.0

It's been awesome! We love Blackbaud and have had a great experience.

Pros

Blackbaud has so many awesome features that our previous CRM did not have. We have loved it. They are still developing their web view version which is primarily what I use, but their database version has all of the features and can do so much.

Cons

I look forward to the day that the whole system will be housed online. Sometimes it's frustrating to switch back and forth between the database and the web view.

Review Source

CM

Cheri M.  
Database Assistant  
Non-Profit Organization Management  
Used the software for: 6-12 months

### "Flexible Tool"

September 11, 2019

5.0

We used Blackbaud CRM to keep records of constituents and their giving, as well as keeping track of our touches as an agency. We also used Blackbaud CRM heavily to keep track of tickets for our annual fundraiser.

Pros

I like that I can easily keep track of all constituents of my nonprofit. It's easy to add constituents and edit. I loved the customer service... representatives were super easy to contact and worked quickly to resolve even nationwide issues.

Cons

I didn't like how the sheer bulk of constituent information slowed the software during heavy event season.

Review Source

AB

Ann B.  
Executive Director of Operations and Innovation  
Religious Institutions  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Robust CRM"

March 8, 2019

4.0

For data management, I don't know that there is any better.

Pros

Blackbaud has many features and has brought different facets of CRM under one umbrella, giving you alot of tools in one system.

Cons

RE and FE work really great. The integration tools Blackbaud offers for newsletters, communicating between systems, etc. are a little difficult to integrate and have stalled some of our progress.

Review Source

JD

Julie D.  
Controller  
Non-Profit Organization Management  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Blackbaud CRM"

October 3, 2018

5.0

Pros

I mostly used this software for reports and it was very easy to get the information that I was looking for.

Cons

I don't really have any dislikes with this software.

Review Source

LP

Lisa P.  
Finance Director  
Non-Profit Organization Management  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "SAVE YOUR MONEY!"

August 7, 2024

1.0

During the initial presentation, they bragged about how useful they are for small non-profits. LIES! In the three years of use, I became farther and farther behind. Our contract started in May but we didn't even start using it until October. So much training was needed, and I'm relatively smart when it comes to software, but I needed unbelievable amounts of training. This might be a good software for large organizations with a department of accounting folks, but small organizations need to run a different direction. Look at Araize, they have a fantastic product!

Pros

The best part was the ability to create recurring entries. That is, until it was taken away with the switch to web only use. With over 200 recurring entries every month, it's a drain on my time and energy.

Cons

Customer support is the WORST. They must hire random people off the street. In three years, I think I talked to one person who knew anything about accounting. And don't get me started on pricing - a 25% increase after the initial contract, which was supposed to convert to an annual fee, but they are claiming it's a 3-year. Nobody in my organization signed a three year contract. Not when their software is NOT the best for small organizations.

Review Source

JV

Jacqueline V.  
Business Manager  
Entertainment  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "If you don't have it and are considering this product keep on looking!"

July 27, 2023

2.0

It is so frustrating. Customer service is an absolute joke

Pros

It is online and you can attach backup. I like that you can upload a budget.

Cons

The customer support is pitiful and there is no one to holistically assist when you have a problem. Don't buy the line you can call one company for all your needs because it works like 20 companies all pointing their finger at each other and it is impossible to resolve problems. I am highly disatisfied.

Reason for choosing Blackbaud CRM

Sales pitches that promised excellent customer service and increased efficiency - don't believe the lie!

Review Source

VR

Verified Reviewer  
Director of Operations  
Non-Profit Organization Management  
Used the software for: 1-2 years

### "Great if you put in the work!"

July 19, 2021

4.0

This has been a great tool for tracking grants for us. Before we just tracked this information in a multi-tab excel workbook. Taking advantage of this part of Blackbaud has had a huge benefit to us. All of our fundraising and grant data is in one place instead of stored in multiple locations we have a more thorough picture of our fundraising goals and performance.

Pros

Blackbaud CRM is has a lot of useful tools for fundraising, donor management, and grant writing. We have used this product for several years and it has been great tool for our company for the past 2. We learned after the first year if we didn't really learn the product and spend time watching the online and tutorials from the company then this product was not worth the money. The tutorials and modules are very helpful for making the most of the product. The price is worth it if you commit to learning and using tit to it's full capacity. The customer service is always great and reps are very helpful.

Cons

You have to put time in on the front end to learn the product or you will most not take advantage of all the software has to offer. It is not hard to use once you learn but the software is not the most intuitive so you have to learn as opposed to just jumping it in and things being easy to figure out naturally.

Reason for choosing Blackbaud CRM

The customer service was exceptional and that did not end once we signed on with the company. We receive excellent customer service from Blackbaud any time we reach out and that is very valuable.

Review Source

VR

Verified Reviewer  
Sr. Prospect Researcher  
Non-Profit Organization Management  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Robust CRM platform, but feels overcomplicated and outdated at times"

March 25, 2024

3.0

Generally good, but it takes some time to get used to the platform and its quirks and inefficiencies

Pros

Tons of features and pretty good at being customizable, generally intuitive point-and-click

Cons

It is not very efficient in terms of how many clicks it takes to do certain tasks, and it could be updated to not feel like something from 1998

Review Source

CORINNE A.  
Development Manager  
Non-Profit Organization Management  
Used the software for: 1-2 years

### "Blackbaud is the gold standard"

November 5, 2019

5.0

Overall, Blackbaud CRM is the gold standard for non profit fundraising software. It is expensive, but if your organization is large enough to afford it AND if you take the time and resources to train your employees to get the most out of it, you will gain tremendous insight into your donors and constituents.

Pros

We used this software at a previous organization that I worked at. Blackbaud has an incredible amount of reporting functionality. You can manipulate data any way you can imagine. Now that I have worked with other donor databases, I've come to appreciate in an even deeper way how much functionality Blackbaud's programs have.

Cons

It takes a fair amount of experience and training to get the most out of the software, just because it can do SO much! It is fairly user friendly for the basics, but when you are doing advanced query building and importing large amounts of data, you are going to need some technical assistance. But, they are pretty good about providing it.

Review Source

VR

Verified Reviewer  
Business Systems Administrator  
Non-Profit Organization Management  
Used the software for: 1-2 years

### "Very Robust CRM"

March 14, 2019

4.0

One thing that stood out is that the UI is near intuitive, nice to look at and the data is well supported by a dedicated team at Blackbaud. I was able to pull reports on data quickly and easily for other users. Training is pretty seamless as far as getting users acclimated into the system. Though we didn't like the out-of-the-box functionalities, we understood that we wanted some customization, which was a bit pricey for our company. Once when we did get the essential functionalities edited, we were quite happy with the results. Customer support is great at quickly responding in helping us with issues.

Pros

Easy flow in adding donors, easy flow in taking donations, pretty UI, intuitive use and workflow. Reporting functions are easy to edit and create.

Cons

Licensing and customization can be pricey. If you have your own developer to improve functionality, you may not get access to test environments or else you're paying for their developer for customizations.

Review Source

AG

Adrienne G.  
Manager, Programs & Operations  
Non-Profit Organization Management  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Powerful tool for the Right Organization!"

December 3, 2019

4.0

Blackbaud CRM has given us a baseline for what to look for in a software. It has a lot of features and functionality that can be adapted for an organization.

Pros

Blackbaud CRM is a robust system. Constituent profiles allow for you to collect a wealth of information about your constituents and use it to analyze, communicate, and solicit donations or sell your products. You can not only collect biographical information, you can also upload media, create action tracks (work flows), record giving history, etc. You can also add custom attributes for anything that is not out of the box. There is a lot of support available for blackbaud products and a knowledgeable support team dedicated to answering questions and troubleshooting.

Cons

Software is a little clunky at times, you have to use it as it was intended or create workarounds to make things work. Software is pricey for a non-profit. Learning curve can be high for new users. When it comes to Membership, which is a big part of our business, the functionality is basic.

Review Source

VR

Verified Reviewer  
Development Director  
Non-Profit Organization Management  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Great way to raise funds!"

December 18, 2018

4.0

We are tracking our constituents and raising money by building relationships. We could not do that without this system.

Pros

This software is designed for nonprofits and the the features are incredibly helpful in maintaining and recording information about our constituents.

Cons

Some of Blackbaud's systems look dated and you have to upgrade (more $) for a 2018 look. However, the functionality is efficient and effective. The cost is also a bit high as compared to other cloud-based CRMs.

Review Source

Similar Products

Featured

## Send me user reviews about this product

### Fill out the form and we'll send a list of the top-rated software based on real user reviews directly to your inbox.