Open Forum

We are a small to mid-size cultural heritage organization with a (largely online) library and museum, which is free. We are looking for a new CRM system that can help manage donors, general audiences, limited event registration, and (hopefully) email marketing.

I have seen past postings from as recently as December of 2021 but I was wondering if anyone has any new recommendations. We are considering Every Action, Charity Engine, Bloomerang, and Neon. Is anyone using any of these and could provide feedback on their experience? Also, we currently use MailChimp for our email marketing platform and are debating whether to keep it and have it integrate with our new CRM system or fully adopt whatever email platform is built into the CRM system we choose. Any insights, feedback or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

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Tim Ternes
Director of Programming
Hill Museum and Manuscript Library
Collegeville MN
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Hubspot has a basic CRM platform that allows you to grow and expand from a database to marketing and sales. I found this one to be the easiest to learn how to use and integrate with outlook. Good Luck!

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Megan Chusid
Owner's Representative
New York NY
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We just switched to Wild Apricot from Blackbaud's eTapestry. It was the best all-in-one platform for our small museum. It consists of our website, member / donor database, programs with the option to set attendance limits which was a key for us, as well as our email platform. We also considered Bloomerang which is really similar. We choose Wild Apricot because it had the option to set capacity limits on our programs. 

WildApricot.com

Good luck!

Tamara Herring

Morris Center for Lowcountry Heritage

MorrisHeritageCenter.org

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Tamara Herring
Executive Director
Morris Center for Lowcountry Heritage
Ridgeland SC
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We're a mid-sized art museum, about $10M in operating size. We recently moved from Balckbaud to Tessitura. So far so good. We're using CatalogIt for collections management. That said, I don't think the two overlap and talk to one another. But the new website coming this year will hub them both together. I'm not sure if that helps at all, but good luck with your migration.

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Matthew Isble
Exhibit Designer & Founder of MuseumTrade.org
misble@crockerartmuseum.org
Crocker Art Museum
Sacramento CA
misble@crockerartmuseum.org
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I'd recommend you at least consider Tessitura in your evaluation. We've seen several organizations with disjointed systems gain tremendous benefits with a unified CRM, ticketing, membership, fundraising, and email marketing platform.

(Of course, it's entirely possible that Tessitura is too expensive -- but worth asking the question, at least.)

Let me know if you need an introduction to someone there.

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Chris Steins
Urban Insight
https://www.urbaninsight.com/
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Thank you, Chris, and all of those who have responded. The advice is much appreciated. I have sent an inquiry to Tessitura and am waiting for a response. Our biggest concern is price but I agree it is worth exploring. Chris, if you have a contact at Tessitura who would be able to help us understand if it could be an option from a budgetary standpoint, I would welcome the introduction. 

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Tim Ternes
Director, The Saint John´s Bib
Hill Museum and Manuscript Library
Collegeville MN
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Original Message:
Sent: 03-02-2023 08:21 PM
From: Chris Steins
Subject: What's the perfect CRM for a mid-sized cultural heritage organization?

I'd recommend you at least consider Tessitura in your evaluation. We've seen several organizations with disjointed systems gain tremendous benefits with a unified CRM, ticketing, membership, fundraising, and email marketing platform.

(Of course, it's entirely possible that Tessitura is too expensive -- but worth asking the question, at least.)

Let me know if you need an introduction to someone there.

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Chris Steins
Urban Insight
https://www.urbaninsight.com/
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Hi @Tim Ternes

I work with @Chris Steins and we'd be happy to introduce you to someone at Tessitura. Please feel free to email us at: skelly(at)urbaninsight.com and steins(at)urbaninsight.com and we'll make the connection.

Have a great weekend.

Thanks,

Josh

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Joshua Skelly MBA
CEO
Urban Insight
Los Angeles CA
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Original Message:
Sent: 03-03-2023 10:23 AM
From: Tim Ternes
Subject: What's the perfect CRM for a mid-sized cultural heritage organization?

Thank you, Chris, and all of those who have responded. The advice is much appreciated. I have sent an inquiry to Tessitura and am waiting for a response. Our biggest concern is price but I agree it is worth exploring. Chris, if you have a contact at Tessitura who would be able to help us understand if it could be an option from a budgetary standpoint, I would welcome the introduction. 

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Tim Ternes
Director, The Saint John´s Bib
Hill Museum and Manuscript Library
Collegeville MN
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Original Message:
Sent: 03-02-2023 08:21 PM
From: Chris Steins
Subject: What's the perfect CRM for a mid-sized cultural heritage organization?

I'd recommend you at least consider Tessitura in your evaluation. We've seen several organizations with disjointed systems gain tremendous benefits with a unified CRM, ticketing, membership, fundraising, and email marketing platform.

(Of course, it's entirely possible that Tessitura is too expensive -- but worth asking the question, at least.)

Let me know if you need an introduction to someone there.

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Chris Steins
Urban Insight
https://www.urbaninsight.com/

Hi Tim,

One other option I don't see mentioned that can do what you need & more is Veevart, which we switched to about 9 months ago. It handles fundraising, membership, ticketing, rentals, accounting, gift shop/pos, and integrates with Mailchimp. I believe it's a lower cost than Tessitura. Good luck!

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Sean St. Marie
Administrative Coordinator
Emily Dickinson Museum
Amherst MA
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A couple other options to look at would be Charityproud (https://www.charityproud.org/) and Salesforce (https://www.salesforce.org/nonprofit/). I'm happy to make an introduction on either. I'll note that Saleforce can seem a bit big, but it can do everything. Plus you get 10 seats for free as a nonprofit. They'll try to sell you add-ons, which you don't need. I'm also happy to talk through the decision making process if you like.

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Patrick Larkin
Consultant
York SC
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Hi Tim! I came on here with the exact same question and it was nice to see a familiar name :-) I am curious which CRM/POS system you went with? And if you would recommend that system now that you've used it for a bit? -- Catherine Shotick 

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Catherine Shotick
Director
Westerly Museum of American Impressionism
Westerly RI
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Original Message:
Sent: 11/22/2024 10:15:00 AM
From: Catherine Shotick
Subject: RE: What's the perfect CRM for a mid-sized cultural heritage organization?

Hi Tim! I came on here with the exact same question and it was nice to see a familiar name :-) I am curious which CRM/POS system you went with? And if you would recommend that system now that you've used it for a bit? -- Catherine Shotick 

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Catherine Shotick
Director
Westerly Museum of American Impressionism
Westerly RI
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Hi Tim,

I am more than happy to discuss how our MIT (Museum Innovation Technology) Platform might be able to assist. It's the only all-in-one solution out there. With over 60 different features, you can have the system tailored exactly to your needs. 

Best, 

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Jovan Harmon
BDM
Hidonix Inc.
Milano
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Tim, 

Our team would highly recommend DONOR VIEW.  It's spectacular for tracking donors - far superior in doing searches and histories than our previous platform, and much less expensive. It can also do your e-mail newsletters, event ticketing, tracking volunteer time (they can log in to do if you wish) and some smaller online auctions.  I am sure it can do far more than I am familiar with.. but as CEO of a smaller museum (budget $1.5M, 90K annual guests) - I just know when we left that 'industry standard platform' we saved money and became far more nimble in tracking and interacting with our donors, members and volunteers. One of the best moves we've made in the last half dozen years. 

Home | DonorView - The Ultimate Nonprofit Management Software

Good luck! 

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Richard Osgood
President & CEO 
Door County Maritime Museum - Sturgeon Bay
Sturgeon Bay WI
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