# Blackbaud eTapestry Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra > Is Blackbaud eTapestry the right Nonprofit solution for you? Explore 208 verified user reviews from people in industries like yours to make a confident choice. Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/29170/eTapestry/reviews --- Blackbaud eTapestry 3.8 (208) [View alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/29170/eTapestry/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 eTapestry Ease of use 3.4 Customer Service 3.9 ## Pros and Cons in Reviews MH Marcia H executive assistantHealth, Wellness and Fitness, 51 - 200 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “Once trained, it was pretty easy to document new donors in the system“ September 25, 2023 MC Margie C Executive DirectorNon-Profit Organization Management, 2 - 10 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “They kept raising the prices for different services.“ February 10, 2025 KK Kevin K Marketing & Communications ManagerNon-Profit Organization Management, 11 - 50 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “The software had a lot going for it because it had all the bells and whistles that you want, including ability to find out someones net worth, donations at other places, etc.“ October 7, 2021 Jen Mazgajewski S Director of OperationsNon-Profit Organization Management, 11 - 50 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “I find the donor facing event platforms very dated and confusing.“ April 26, 2022 KK Kevin K Marketing & Communications ManagerNon-Profit Organization Management, 11 - 50 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “The plus side about it was that you could easily put someone into the system and instantly send them a thank you email without more than a few clicks.“ October 7, 2021 Riley N Executive DirectorMusic, 51 - 200 employeesUsed the software for: 1-2 years. “I find this platform user-unfriendly, and it regularly is buggy and slow.“ April 26, 2022 KT Karen T Partner in MissionReligious Institutions, 51 - 200 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “This is all done with ease and offers flexibility.“ May 18, 2022 Riley N Executive DirectorMusic, 51 - 200 employeesUsed the software for: 1-2 years. “Considering we pay them literally thousands of dollars every year to use it, I expect a better product.“ April 26, 2022 ## Showing most helpful reviews Showing 1-25 of 208 Reviews Sort by: Most Helpful Rating Company Size Reviewer's Role Length of Use Frequency of Use Michelle H. Director of Donor Services Non-Profit Organization Management Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Great for smaller organizations looking to grow!" November 18, 2020 4.0 Pros eTapestry is a great entry-level CRM tool that will help you familiarize with how the whole concept works. My organization used eTapestry for quite some time and it functioned really well. I really enjoyed the Query Builder tool and folders to keep all your queries organized! Cons Once my organization started to grow more, we needed a tool that could handle the bigger volume. Review Source KT Karen T. Partner in Mission Religious Institutions Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Blackbaud eTapestry: Well Worth The Purchase - Absolutely Worth Every Dime" May 18, 2022 5.0 Exceptional experience and would recommend to all that are searching for a donor software system. Pros Everything about this software is exactly what we need. We can communicate with our supporters in many ways, prepare and run queries on any field, create and use reporting features at any time and essentially document and track all donor information. This is all done with ease and offers flexibility. Cons We wish there were a few more features as it integrates with social media and email addresses. We have found that the accuracy is not as strong as we would like it to be. Alternatives considered [Salesforce Starter](https://www.capterra.com/p/227088/Salesforce-Starter/)[DonorPerfect](https://www.capterra.com/p/2698/DonorPerfect-Fundraising-Software/)[Panorama](https://www.capterra.com/p/166550/Panorama/) Reason for choosing Blackbaud eTapestry The ease of use, flexibility in the queries and reporting and the overall donor management tool met our organizations needs. Switched from [DonorPerfect](https://www.capterra.com/p/2698/DonorPerfect-Fundraising-Software/) Needed a program that met our needs better for relationship management, donor management, fundraising reports and Review Source KK Kevin K. Marketing & Communications Manager Non-Profit Organization Management Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Hard to use but has all the bells and whistles" October 7, 2021 2.0 We liked the software for a while but the more our business grew, the more eTapestry because a pain as the interface was very old and hard to use for people that aren't technology savvy. Pros The software had a lot going for it because it had all the bells and whistles that you want, including ability to find out someones net worth, donations at other places, etc. The plus side about it was that you could easily put someone into the system and instantly send them a thank you email without more than a few clicks. Cons It was very difficult to run reports as there were so many moving parts to get them to come together. Review Source BP Barbara P. Bookkeeper Education Management Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "very versitile" March 3, 2020 5.0 We have been able to move towards a more technology based fundraising using the justgiving portion of blackbaud for our jog-a-thon. Students created their own page and shared it for donations. This made tracking and acknowledging donations much more efficient. Pros We use etapestry and justgiving and have found it to be very useful. We have been able to easily link fundraising campaigns, event registration and forms to our website and then track information. Cons Extracting information can be somewhat challenging - once you learn their programing and how to create a query it becomes easier. They do provide a very large training database and a chat room for help. Reason for choosing Blackbaud eTapestry While Blackbaud was more expensive, it provides us with way more options and room to grow. Switched from [Trail Blazer Non-Profit Manager](https://www.capterra.com/p/101648/Trail-Blazer/) We felt we had outgrown Trail Blazer and wanted to expand the online giving and registration aspect of our fundraising. Review Source DM Dalena M. Director of Finance & Operations Non-Profit Organization Management Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "New to eTap, not to CRM" August 13, 2019 4.0 Creating an all in one database for donors and subscribers is very important as we grow. We grew from 1 to five employees overnight and so getting "organized" was essential. Pros I love the ease of functionality in finding and creating accounts. I like the connection with Blackbaud Merchant Services for an all in one platform. Cons The start-up was a little too long and delayed our business plan. Also, queries and forms are not necessarily intuitive. Reason for choosing Blackbaud eTapestry Pricing and built-in training. Switched from [Mailchimp](https://www.capterra.com/p/110228/MailChimp/) Needed a more comprehensive database for tracking more than subscribers to newsletters. Review Source RV Rose V. Grant Writer Non-Profit Organization Management Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Great Tool for Tracking Donors" October 27, 2020 4.0 I really like eTapestry for donor giving and cultivation. Pros It was easy to use and track giving and donors over time. Cons Grant tracking could be a little easier to navigate. Alternatives considered [Bloomerang](https://www.capterra.com/p/131207/Bloomerang/) Reason for choosing Blackbaud eTapestry We actually use both eTapestry and Bloomerang Review Source Helen N. Co- Founder & Executive Director Hospital & Health Care Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Worst system ever" December 3, 2018 1.0 Etapestry is holding me hostage with a product I no longer use. Its outdated system has been causing me so many issues that it's eating in to my funraising time for my nonprofit. They won't let me cancel my contract even though I don't want to use their product any more. Pros It worked for when I needed it to work. But my organization has now outgrown the system. Cons Cusomer support and outdated database. Not user friendly. Review Source Aimee F. OD/HR Professional Used the software for: 2+ years ### "We use this software to manage the donors, supporters, volunteers, etc. for our non-profit." May 12, 2018 3.0 It a good, basic tool for housing all of your client, customer or supporter contact information and activity. Pros Its an inexpensive way to manage donor and supporter activities. It also allow us to bulk email and communicate to our audience. We can design a nice email with graphics and it is fairly easy to set it up and send it out. Cons It is a little clunky in that the categories and drop-downs aren't customization. You basically have to get with your team (or those responsible for entering data) and decide how to use their established categories to fit the data you want to collect in order to have it be consistent for each person's information that you enter. Review Source Riley N. Executive Director Music Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Expensive, Buggy, and Complicated " April 26, 2022 1.0 I find this platform user-unfriendly, and it regularly is buggy and slow. Considering we pay them literally thousands of dollars every year to use it, I expect a better product. Running reports is a nightmare and requires significant staff training for the simplest of reports. The only reason we are still using it is because it is so difficult to switch years of donor records to another platform. They also recently opted us into a more expensive package without giving me a chance to opt out – despite it being a feature we don't use. Pros Not much. There aren't many pros that I have seen compared to other softwares. Cons The biggest problem with eTap is reports. Running the most basic of donor reports is incredibly unintuitive and convoluted. Review Source Brittany B. Assistant director of annual giving and stewardship manager Higher Education Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Good management software" April 21, 2021 5.0 We use this as our primary data storage system. It talks to our database view very well. Pros I like that all of our data is stored in this software and that it is easy to quickly access for my whole team. Cons Sometimes the software gets bogged down with users and runs very slow. The updates do take some getting used to as well. Review Source AF Aaron F. Membership Coordinator Fine Art Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Excellent Non-Profit Museum Software!" March 9, 2018 5.0 Very nice product!!! It is easy to use and great for tracking museum data: memberships, visitors, artists, etc. Pros I love the journal entry ability. It is easy to use and a nice way to keep track of promotional emails sent. Cons There are many functionalities that require additional programming or knowledge. It would be nice to know how they work. A nice summary of the functions would be nice to have, so that we are aware of what we are working with. There may be functionality that would benefit us, but we are unaware of it. Review Source MS Mandy S. Executive of Operations Non-Profit Organization Management Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Great Donor Software" October 13, 2020 5.0 The support team at eTapestry is very helpful and having live chat is great. eTapestry has freed so much of our time and helping streamline our processes. Pros Easy to create user defined fields to fit the needs of my organization. eTapestry is a great tool for volunteer tracking, event tracking, donation tracking, and in-Kind tracking. Having one tool for all of those categories is very helpful. Cons Queries and Reports are not the easiest to pull. I know that the queries can do so much more - but they are the hardest to manipulate to get the information needed for reporting purposes. Also - it would be nice to have some way to assign users their city specific donors. As we are in multiple cities - the user access is very limited. It is almost either they can see and do everything or not do anything. There needs to be more user categories. And as we expand to other cities - I don't feel like eTapestry grows enough with us. Review Source KQ Katie Q. Civic & Social Organization Used the software for: ### "Been with eTapestry for over three years." November 24, 2014 1.5 Pros Very recently, I had my first positive experience with phone support. Hopefully, that is an indicator that eTapestry is beefing up their customer service. We will know more as the holiday rush happens. Cons Since the beginning, customer support has been abysmal. Just recently, it has improved, but it took three years. Last year, during the holidays, I waited no less than an hour on hold each time and ended up hanging up because I did not have that kind of time to wait on the phone. One time, I waited an hour and a half, and when the closing time came, instead of taking my call, eTapestry simply disconnected me, and I pay extra for phone support! I gave up and was never able to reach support last year during the holiday season. This year's holiday season is just starting, so I have to see if anything has improved. Also, when we set up our account there was zero project management. They did not establish our needs, and as a result, set up the database as they saw fit. We had problems with defined fields (ones they established and ones they did not), and any changes would have cost a fortune. So we were stuck with what they did, which requires a lot of additional data input after the fact. There was also zero personal training. They provided videos to watch. That was not an effective way to train because they use their own terminology, and when you had questions to ask, you couldn't ask because you were watching a video. Hands-on training is a must! We started with a customer support person who was not in tune with our needs and was later switched to a group and lost one-on-one support. Review Source KJ Kathryn J. Community Relations Coordinator Civic & Social Organization Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Expensive platform with increasing costs and long contract periods!" April 17, 2018 3.0 Unfortunately, eTapestry is just not easy to work with as they were in the beginning when we started working with them in 2011. Pros At first I loved eTapestry for its great support and a la carte options. It is definitely a robust system. Not so much anymore since they are now part of Blackbaud. They now bundle options and railroad agencies into long contracts to get single features that used to be available a la carte. Cons All of the above, plus their communications tool is not the best. It would be better if they integrated with a marketing tool like Constant Contact and included that in their packages. The maneuvering through the system is clunky and not at all intuitive. Review Source KP Karen P. Director, Development and Strategic Partnerships Civic & Social Organization Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Overall a good starter CRM" December 5, 2017 4.0 IF you use their system, you should really consider using their payment processing as well. It is comparable to other services and will make your life easier. Pros The interface is easy to use and the donation processing and web forms functionality is pretty intuitive. If you haven't used a donor database before, this is a good beginning system. It has all of the basic functions you need, is fairly easy to use and fees are on a sliding scale. Cons Their reporting and querying system is not great. You can get what you need, but it seems to be overly complicated and often requires two or three steps where other systems can do it in one. They are making improvements on this, but the essential architecture now is the same as it was when I first used this system in 2008, so I am not sure how much they can effectively change. Review Source LB Lisa B. Consultant Non-Profit Organization Management Used the software for: 2+ years ### "e-Tapestry: Non-Profit Software for 10,000 or less donors" August 21, 2018 5.0 When I worked for a small non-profit we used e-Tapestry successfully. It was a tremendously helpful to establishing our development pyramid and where our team should best spend our time to be successful. Pros This software allows you to track, research and analyze donors. That means you can project revenue, cultivate more effectively and have a better communicative relationship with your donors. Cons In non-profit, development professionals use many different types of software. I see eTapestry as the entry level software with an eventual graduation to Raiser's Edge. Review Source ER Ernest R. President Non-Profit Organization Management Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Considering placing" August 18, 2022 3.0 Pros It has a very comprehensive set of features. Cons More expensive than many of the newer packages. Not as easy to use as other packages. Requires expensive 3rd party software in order to integrate with Quickbooks. Review Source MK Mary K. Outreach and Development Coordinator Civic & Social Organization Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Miserable and impossible" December 21, 2017 1.0 I would not wish this donor management system on my worst enemy. Pros It already has all of my data in it. That is literally the only good thing I can say about it. I would never ever purchase this software Cons Its impossible to run reliable reports, even their own support people can't tell me how to get the data I need out of their system. There is no easy way to expunge old records. They make it exceedingly difficult to get away from this company when your contract with them does expire. I have to clean up reports by hand every time I run them. Review Source KS Kerri S. Director of Development Fine Art Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Streamlined Fundraising Support" April 10, 2018 5.0 Etapestry has helped our small development department in big ways! It's ease of use was critical for staff who had not used professional fundraising systems before. They were able to get on and get started right away. Pros Dramatically cuts down administrative time with auto functions, which was essential for our small development team so that they can spend time on cultivation vs. wasting time updating spreadsheets and processing donations. Easy reporting and querying has enabled us to better assess our efforts and returns. Great donor tracking functions ensure things are slipping through the cracks. The auto reminders and calendaring are super helpful. The seamless integration with online giving was also a blessing. Cons The only con is that the online fundraising interface is a bit limited design-wise, without additional cost. Review Source RM Ruth M. Consultant Civic & Social Organization Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "eTapestry - is it for you, without a rep?" March 8, 2018 4.0 I can recommend - you have to decide and you management without a Lindsey Pros I like eTapestry but I have to confess that when I started at an organization using it I had the benefit of an assistant who knew the product inside and out and got me started almost immediately actively working with the software. It is intuitive so I only had to query my wonderful colleague, on occasion. I was excited at what was possible to accomplish (with some add-ons). Cons Again the confession: if I did not have rep on board would I have been able to be operating the system my first week. I had used similar products before and am not really a novice. I did reach out during that time to eTapestry for support but it was often slow enough that I figured everything out without their help Review Source MH Marcia H. executive assistant Health, Wellness and Fitness Used the software for: 2+ years ### "eTapestry review" September 25, 2023 4.0 Pros Once trained, it was pretty easy to document new donors in the system Cons Lots of steps on running reports; makes it difficult to stay focused Review Source DS Dawn S. Donor Relations Coordinator Religious Institutions Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Learning how to run accurate reports has been a challenge but they have been so helpful with our fundraising efforts." February 8, 2018 4.0 Customer support has been great! I wish that there were more training videos that walk you through how-to's. Pros I like being able to set up UDFs and run reports on even the small details that may seem insignificant to other organizations. Cons I don't like the number of criteria that has to be identified before being able to generating an accurate report. Review Source JH Jake H. Secretary Non-Profit Organization Management Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "eTapestry is a good (not great) system for what we needed" July 18, 2017 4.0 We are able to track and communicate with our donors through this system. The reporting functionality is amazing for the price, and after a user has invested quite a bit of time into learning how everything works, the system has many capabilities that have been extremely useful for our organization. Pros We like the tiered permissions (security groups) function, which set this system apart from many other offerings in the donor management arena. The customer service has always been great when we've had problems. The reporting capabilities of eTapestry are absolutely incredible. Cons The software is not always intuitive, and it's only easy to use after lots of time has been spent learning its layout and functionalities. Review Source HG Heather G. Database Coordinator Religious Institutions Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "I love eTapestry!" March 1, 2018 5.0 eTapestry is a great product for start ups and smaller non-profits. Going to the training is very helpful for getting the big picture for functionality, however, the online training options are so helpful that if you can't go to the live training, you still have everything you need at your fingertips. Pros I love the ease of use. I love the DIY forms that integrate with our website. I love the user-defined fields so we can track anything we want. I love how easy it is to do a query, and I love the flexibility of the reports. Cons I do see that eTapestry doesn't have the full functionality that the Raiser's Edge has, however, they are minor issues, and easy enough to work around. Review Source MJ Maggi J. Administrative Manager Hospital & Health Care Used the software for: 2+ years ### "A Good and Flexible Progra," February 14, 2018 4.0 Generally E-Tapestry is a good database for a smaller non-profit. It is flexible enough for some customization and their customer service is absolutely the bomb. Pros I like that you can create UDF (User Defined Fields) to customize the data you are using It is fairly easy to understand and user friendly The customer service is GREAT! I also like the DIY (Do it yourself) forms I like being able to suggest updates, I just wish they came faster Cons The journal entry types is not customize-able. So I have emails with the same entry type as an actual meeting with the constituent. The DIY forms are not as flexible as they really need to be The event module is separate and costs more. 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