Bonterra Guided Fundraising Reviews

Vivian's Door Network For Good Review

Comments: I've had an overall great experience with Network For Good. My coach makes sure that I know how to use the software to accomplish our fundraising goals.

Pros:

The software is feature packed and there is great customer support. An individual coach makes the experience operating the software within the framework of your fundraising efforts is the icing on the cake.

Cons:

There are a lot of moving pieces, so you have to stay abreast of the software.

Great CRM program

Comments: Great CRM, easy online giving, customer service is friendly and quick, help catalog is easy to search and understand.

Pros:

I really like that this CRM is very user-friendly. Point and click is so easy. And if I have a question I can ask by phone, email, or chat and get answers quickly.

Cons:

When exporting sponsor information, the contact name is not included with organizations. After export, I have to add the contact name to the spreadsheet. It would be great if the contact name came over with the company name.

Poor customer service

Comments: Bonterra's product works ok, it's difficult to pull accurate data because of the lack of options for soft-credit management, and there are not reporting options. In general you can't do global changes and the options for custom fields are not robust. There are MANY better, cheaper options out there right now for a CRM if the main thing you need is quality data management and reporting. That said, the main reason for this review is Bonterra as a company seems to be going for the buying up all the small companies to weed out competition strategy instead of actually improving their product or user experience. Since they bought out Network for Good we went from having an account representative who we could get on the phone to having to beg to get in the faceless cue of a ticketing system whenever I have any issue. The customer service is now gone and no apologies made, we are just a number.

Pros:

features: email management and donation pages in one product

Cons:

bad reporting options few options for customizing fields poor customer service

Satisfied Fundraiser

Comments: We appreciated the coach at the beginning of our joining Network for Good and now the customer representatives who help when we have a question. Overall, the different aspects of the Fundraising platform meet our needs and give us a clear picture of our fundraising efforts.

Pros:

We like the ease of entering donations with the various campaigns.

Cons:

The annual cost of the program is difficult for a small nonprofit.

Bonterra Guided Fundraising will earn you money and sanity.

Comments: Our experience has been great from onboarding until today. All staff members were able to figure out Bonterra with little to no questions from their moment of first log-in. Questions were answered as needed. No complaints.

Pros:

We love this CRM. It is so much more than we expected. We are now moving more and more of our functions onto the platform. It has been user-friendly from the start and, as they add more features, it gets even better. We believe that Bonterra will be the software that is used most often now matter what the position in our organization.

Cons:

We found nothing to dislike from day one.

Titusville Alumni Association

Comments: Highly effective donor management program that meets and exceeds all of our alumni management needs.

Pros:

From the beginning of our query to Bonterra / Network For Good, upon a referral from another local nonprofit, I was impressed with the thoroughness of details, the responsive customer service, the initial training, and questions are always answered. The flexibility of the program works beautifully for our needs.

Cons:

I have yet to find something that isn't working well for us! Great experience all around!

Satisfied Customer Since 2020

Comments: Love the customer support! So responsive! We implemented the product during COVID and it couldn't have gone more smoothly.

Pros:

The addition of event ticketing and auction functionality makes the package even more attractive and useful.

Cons:

Our database count is inflated by zero-dollar "subscribers" -- people who have never donated but receive information (such as local government officials on the newsletter list) -- so our annual costs are higher than I would like.

Lots of Features and Ease of Use

Comments: Their training staff is exceptional, and we've really enjoyed this system over our previous one. We highly recommend Bonterra!

Pros:

NFG was brought to our non-profit organization through a Jumpstart program and we compared it against the Salsa system we were using. Bonterra is much easier to use and reports are infinite - We love it!

Cons:

We were gifted reduced pricing for the software the first 1-2 years, so the retail price is a bit harder for our non-profit but the benefits are much greater and we'll continue to use it

This system is not what I would recommend now - too expensive

Pros:

All in one system for communications and donors

Cons:

How each product now is separate and must pay for it which has changed from the initial investment but it is basically the same product

Good value

Pros:

I came to this product when the online giving fee of our previous provider went through the roof. I was pleasantly surprised at how intuitive and friendly the contact management and donor management functions are. Now, I am using it for event management, which is a bonus.

Cons:

Often, when an online donation is made, it generates a new contact, even if the person is already in the system. Yes, this can be cleaned up quickly by combining contacts. But I'd like the system to recognize each individual. And, of course, my gripe with all these systems is it doesn't handle household giving well. How do you count a gift from a married couple? It has to go against only one of their records.

Great product and would recommend this product to all organizations

Comments: Overall, my experience has been enjoyable and kill building. The help desk and customer service have been a wonderful resource for me with any question that I have. They are responsive and quick to resolve any issue that I have.

Pros:

Overall, this is a really simple software to use. As a new fundraiser and beginning of my career, this software has given me skills surrounding best practices in fundraising which I am immensely grateful for.

Cons:

Some of the areas of the software are not as streamlined as I wish they could be and can often lead to duplicative work. I would like to see improvements to the in-kind feature of the program as it is very difficult to track these donations.

HMK Review of Bonterra

Comments: We have had a very good experience with Bonterra/NFG overall.

Pros:

The customer service and onboarding was very easy to follow. Customer service when I have questions is very fast and easy. The team is knowledgeable and very helpful.

Cons:

The time it takes for donations to deposit to our bank.

All encompassing platform

Comments: I have had a generally good experience using NFG and the transition to Bonterra. Besides the reporting being confusing to me I would recommend this to other nonprofits.

Pros:

The system is easy to learn and navigate. We can keep all of ur donor's information in one central location and have the ability to shoot out email marketing or thanks you's from their home screen.

Cons:

I have found the reporting for donation disbursements to be a bit lackluster. I have had to pull many reports just to find the varied information I am searching for. I am not sure if this is user error or if the system can enhance and improve their reporting.

Chief Development Officer

Comments: I would give NFG a 5. Need to have more seamless online experience and let people purchase 100% online. I do not want to have to speak with someone multiple times to set up a new system especially since I have been using for years. You should have a fast track to set up for existing users and please do not send so many emails.

Pros:

Like that this system is online and I can run campaigns and manage individual donors and also do events.

Cons:

I did not like that it took more than a day to set up. Set up should be seamless and instant. Also, I wanted set up to be online. Like you pay and you are set up with tutorials. Also, way, way too many emails. I do not have time for all these emails. Please only reach out when necessary.

Spent 5 great years with Network for Good/Bonterra!

Comments: We spent several years as an organization using Network for Good/Bonterra Guided Fundraising as our CRM, and enjoyed the experience other than the high costs. It enabled us to grow our email list and donor database while creating personal touchpoints for each contact.

Pros:

I appreciated the robust filter options and the ease of navigation on the donation tracking page.

Cons:

The cost became prohibitively high for our organization, causing us to transition to a different platform.

A Solid Product for Nonprofit Donor Management

Comments: It has been a great experience so far!

Pros:

We really appreciate that we can track and manage donor interactions, giving, and reports that show trends of giving throughout our organizations past few years. The ability to create customized campaign pages and linking them to our website is a huge factor for us. We also love the "mail out" feature that allows us to print giving statements, thank you letters, labels, and more.

Cons:

We are a small nonprofit, so it is a bit pricey for us, but I believe worth it.

Essential and Easy to Use

Comments: Wonderful experience, quick support and great training!

Pros:

We have used Network for Good for the last couple of years and it has made fundraising simple for our organization! It is an essential development tool!

Cons:

We would love if it integrated with some of our other applications. For example our CRM system, Copper.

the right choice for us

Comments: Overall all we've had a positive experience over the past four years. This was our first DMS, so anything was going to be an improvement!

Pros:

Easy to use the product, easy to manage data. Responsive support.

Cons:

Some aspects of the user interface is clunky and unintuitive. Also lacks some functionality that we have discovered would be useful. Lacks social media integration for emails, which is a feature that was actually mentioned in our demo, but does not actually exist.

Best Donor CRM for Non-profit fundraisers

Pros:

Of all the Donor CRM's that are on the market, Network for Good has, by far, the best user interface of any. The ease of use and intuitive nature of their design makes everything you create and do in the system easy to navigate and complete. There isn't anything I can think of that NFG doesn't do when it comes to nonprofit fundraising, donor management, and communication. As an added bonus, the education NFG offers is helpful to fundraisers at all levels and helps contribute to achieving results.

Cons:

Customer Service can be hard to reach and sometimes unable to assist with questions and issues.

This Platform Has Really Helped!

Pros:

I love having all of my databases in one place, being able to track online donations and send out thank you's so easily. The donation entry is also very easy for donations that are not made online. I like being about to sort out the database and also send out newsletters and other communications so easily.

Cons:

The database conversion was a little clunky. I also think some of the fundraising page software buttons could be improved so that you don't accidentally move on without saving your changes.

For non-profit basics, use it

Comments: Overall, I liked the program, but will not be renewing after the first year because it did not have the "depth" that I needed. We had DonorPro, which was bought out by Salsa, who then moved over to the Bonterra Group of products, so I was forced to leave our former software. I tried NFG, but it doesn't not meet my needs.

Pros:

I found it easy to use and track donations and "clients". It is visually appealing. I do a lot of mailings, and it was easy to do filters to make those mailings happen

Cons:

For me, it doesn't have enough "depth". What I need in a program like this is the ability to have several pets listed for each contact and it cannot do that. I had to put in another whole contact - but it couldn't be a duplicate of the other - to list the 2nd pet someone had. This is on the contact side. I could not use the Donor side for this because I couldn't filter it properly for the mailings I needed to do.

NETWORK FOR GOOD MEETS USER NEEDS

Comments: Network for Good solved a record keeping need for our non-profit. The coaching during the first year was very helpful.

Pros:

Initially our utility benefited by coaching sessions, After the first year we dropped that feature. Being able to send email blasts to selected donors was utilized frequently.

Cons:

Learning a new system is always a challenge. Sometimes accessing staff for assistance caused delays.

Great experience so far

Pros:

Easy to navigate. Allows us to use email blast features for our newsletter, etc.

Cons:

It could be a more discounted rate for nonprofit organizations.

Save time and money with Bonterra

Pros:

Staff support has been excellent. Also e-blasts and group texting are easy.

Cons:

It takes too long for funds to appear - a month

Great for Nonprofits

Comments: easy to learn and get used to, super helpful in all of our work.

Pros:

All of our contacts are in one place and the entire team, regardless of what department can have permissions to view and edit. This allows us all to know our donors the way we want and acknowledge their support.

Cons:

Extra, necessary features are add-on costs.