Salsa CRM Reviews

Essential Operating Tool

Pros:

Salsa CRM has been essential in making sure that our organization has run smoothly since inception. The product allows us to grow into new features as we grow as an org.

Cons:

Reporting and corresponding can be tedious at times but improvements to both have been made over time.

Good, but needs fine tuning

Comments: Overall I have enjoyed setting up and implementing Salsa. My biggest complaint (other than the alphebetical order issue) is that the person inputting the data should have more of an understanding as to the inner working and fields available in Salsa. There are many fields that I have (and still am) currently modifying/getting rid of because the fields already existed in the system so I am moving the data. All someoned needed to request was to use the existing field to upload against but I was never told or given the option. I can see the issue possibly being from me not seeing the fields but in my mind, you all are the experts and are helping implement the system the best way possible.

Pros:

The options in the reporting system are great and I find it superior to most query/reporting tools.

Cons:

The fact that NOTHING is in alphabetical order. Why and how this has happened is ridiculous.

Disjointed, kludgy, unintuitive, overly-complex, and outdated on the CRM side

Comments: We gave it our best shot. We spent days and days trying to import people - without ever really succeeding. I worked for DAYS trying to master the reporting interface. Which looks (and probably is????) extremely and outlandishly powerful. The only trouble is - its SOOOO powerful (and complicated), nobody even uses it. I finally contacted the company to ask if there were any training videos on it - and they (literally) told me that virtually nobody writes their own report definitions. "Most of their customers hire consultants to do that," they said. When I finally DID succeed in writing a couple that worked, they seemed somewhat surprised. Lots of little things just didn't seem to make sense. For example, even -- if I was logged in, and two hours pass, it logs me out, providing the log-in credentials to log back in again - which is fairly common. But if one tries to put in credentials on that page and log back in, it says, in tiny print on an otherwise-white screen upper left, "Forbidden." The one thing NOT to do to a customer who has just paid $4500 for a year's worth of use of a software platform is log him out - and when he tries to use the log-in page to log back in again, tell him it's forbidden.

Pros:

Salsa Engage is a new product. If they had built a CRM from the ground up, incorporating Salsa CRM components, I have a hunch it would have been better. Salsa Engage, for its part, allows one to do online forms, email groups (in a matter of speaking), and some social media integration. (But wow - they didn't.) It will indeed do those automated sequence emails (though not dependably; and strangely, when I informed their customer service that the 'drip' sequence wasn't always working, they literally said, "Yes, if

Cons:

For the CRM side (Salsa CRM), they just bought an off-the-shelf product from another vendor. (DonorPro.) It's a dated interface. (Like - 1965 maybe?) (I jest. But not by much.) Then they tried to figure out a way to cobble it together with their [better] efforts in Salsa Engage. The trouble is, if a person doesn't buy access to Salsa CRM, there really is ZERO CRM. For example, one can generate a group email, of sorts, from directly in Salsa Engage. But there's really no way to jot down a mailing address with a phone number in Salsa Engage, solely. (It only accepts contacts with emails.) The whole thing seemd Kludgy, actually.

The Highlights of Salsa CRM

Comments: I loved it, and my organization could benefit from it.

Pros:

I love how its reports was the most accurate with numbers when compared to Card pointe Monthly statements.

Cons:

That the data is no longer available after 2 years.

Overall, a useful product

Comments: As my review title states: overall, a useful product, but it's definitely got room for macro design improvements.

Pros:

There are unlimited capabilities with the software. Salsa CRM offers everything you could possibly desire in a CRM designed for a nonprofit. In fact, there's so much functionality, that after six months of having used the software, I still feel like I'm only 25% of the way there with fully knowing it inside and out. Constituent profiles are clean and easy-to-navigate, and they help unearth stats that can ultimately help you recapture lapsed donors and sustain their commitment to the org. Additionally, customer support is always there to help you navigate the software should you ever get lost.

Cons:

The training is not exactly exciting or something an audio-visual-hands-on combo type of learner with ADD is going to find very useful. I think it's unfortunate that the product vocabulary has to be all "startup-y." I'm still trying to understand the reporting systems. I've also been faced with buggy moments that typically require restarting the software which causes delays in getting work done.

Difficult to use and quite disappointing

Comments: I think our sales representative was very good at what he does. The software for Salsa Engage looks great outer-facing. However, the connection to the CRM is disappointing, and email deliverability is also hard. Regarding the CRM itself, it is not at all user friendly. Getting things set up and onboarded was lacking on behalf of Salsa. Customer support is always very friendly, but they simply point me to the same articles to go read over and over again. Which I have done. Many times. Yet, I still would appreciate some actual guidance/help.

Pros:

I think the CRM has the potential to be robust. However, entering and mining the data is quite difficult.

Cons:

As someone who has been in marketing, fundraising, and tech for 15+ years, I am pretty tech savvy. And, this CRM is hard to use. Anything that should be easy isn't. Specifically, printing donor recognition letters/receipts is cumbersome. Running donor reports is cumbersome.

User friendly

Comments: Better constituent tracking.

Pros:

Copying previous emails makes it very easy to create new ones. Once you learn the functions, it is simple and straight forward to create emails.

Cons:

It would save time if brand colors could be saved to a palette for fonts and background colors in emails so that it isn't necessary to type them in each time I create a new row or title. I have repeatedly found that the text adds a return prior to completely filling a line. I have removed formatting, and it doesn't change this problem.

Easy to Use

Comments: We are a local chapter of a national nonprofit organization, and manage roughly 50,000 records. I use it daily with little to no issues, enter and acknowledging donations and keeping details records of constituents. My favorite part is the ProPortal where you can get resources such as software upgrades and video tutorials.

Pros:

Easy to use. Tons of online resources. Open to user input.

Cons:

Getting more complicated issues resolved can be a chore. But I think this is an example of growing pains. Hopefully more staff will cure this problem.

I helped a medium sized nonprofit to start using Salsa CRM.

Comments: Easy to set up.

Pros:

Very easy to get set up. We were getting on the platform after using only excel sheets. Canned reports are also helpful.

Cons:

I think it would be great if there was a user group or community of users available to exchange ideas.

Newbie and committed

Comments: They were so patient with our org from the start, made the entire process to onboard easy, and we're already seeing a difference in time management simply by having an effective, user-friendly CRM.

Pros:

My nonprofit just started to use this software last week, and we're already in heaven. Our account rep is stupendous, and they're making the transfer from our previous donor management software to this CRM platform extremely easy. The UX is stellar, its donor management capabilities are unmatched, and reporting is made super easy. I'm looking forward to learning this software more and its sister, Salsa Engage.

Cons:

I haven't found any cons yet, although I'm curious to see just how smoothly their social media capabilities function.

Salsa gets it done, but only if you have the staff to make it work

Comments: My team used Salsa for a 1-year campaign to raise money to build a home in Nepal for trafficking victims. We successfully raised $467,000 in 10 months! Hands down, we COULD NOT have done it without Salsa. Because it had everything in one (emails, analytics, segmenting, Peer 2 Peer campaigns, donation pages, event pages, and much more) it was much easier to keep track of everything we needed to keep track of.

Pros:

*I didn't realize it at the time, but I really like how easily I could create queries/segments of donors. It has a "If/Then" approach with clicks of a button that is a lot easier than another CRM I use (eTapestry by Blackbaud). *Their email system worked well for our purposes. We had templates that we used throughout the campaign that looked good and were easy to fill in our information. It sent the emails we told it to send without a problem. *The event feature was helpful. We had lots of people sign up on the events page that was relatively easy to create. *I definitely like like analytics features. (This is probably my favorite feature.) It is really nice to see who opened emails, click rates, donation totals/types, etc... It is especially neat that we could send emails to people based on what emails they have opened or clicked on. *Branded donation pages was a must have for us and we got that so it's a big plus with Salsa.

Cons:

*The emails were mostly good, but sometimes editing the templates was frustrating. You can't delete certain aspects (like a table or a line) in the email and if you're not careful and press "backspace" at the wrong time, the system will think that you've clicked the "Back" shortcut key and it will take you out of the email...unless you've saved recently, your email is gone. So, save OFTEN. *The Peer2Peer pages were good but had a few glitches. It was difficult to import off-site giving and link to a person's Ambassador page. I had to go through Customer Support to remove re-imbursed donations that were given via the P2P pages. It is really difficult to format the P2P pages - oftentimes, a page that was perfect would later start showing random signs: $ & % | and stuff... *We had some difficulties with people getting charged more than once when they clicked the button too many times. Not sure if that's Salsa's fault or the users'. *We had some issues with security warnings when donors when to the donation page. This was a frustrating thing that popped up often but never really got resolved. *While the event feature was nice, it didn't work so well for people inviting guests. I'm not sure what went wrong, but we had a lot of people who were unable to register guests for some reason, even though we had clicked the box to allow it. This lead to a small logistical headache at the event itself. *I didn't know they required 60 days notice to cancel the subscription. I had to jump through a TON of hoops to get our account canceled when our campaign was over because I only gave 30 days notice. Luckily they eventually caved and allowed us to go on good terms, but it took a lot of phone calls, emails, and polite convincing...okay, not always polite toward the end...

Take off is rough

Comments: I have only been a Salsa customer for just less than six weeks. The salsa representatives I have talked with during the transition have been nice. I'm sure Salsa will end up being a great move, I just wish they were a faster and more empathetic toward our timelines and internal pressures.

Pros:

The sales pitch we got was exciting. Salsa has it all. I believe it will be the software that will help our little nonprofit get to the next level. I specifically liked the donor organization, peer-to-peer fundraising and their sophisticated automatic email options.

Cons:

Such a slow start. I was pretty quick and aggressive about getting Salsa all the info they needed but it took them longer then a month until we could even use the software (some of this was due to the holiday season I'm sure). Salsa touted about offering the first month for free, but I couldn't even use it that month. When I asked if we could get another month for free since I couldn't even use the software for the first five weeks (sometimes those little victories make all the difference when you are convincing the board to switch software) the declined. The transition process is unnerving, like maybe I'm taking a step backward.

Many improvements over the years

Pros:

Salsa has really added improvements over the years to help with ease of use. A key aspect I use is reporting, and there are frequent updates to built in reports and performance dashboards. I love the new update to the donor detail report. I am able to get the information I need quickly and accurately.

Cons:

I find the cultivation feature a bit clunky. We are still using excel spreadsheets to keep track of this type of work. Although we still keep notes in salsa, the leg work needed to set up and efficiently use the the cultivation feature may be more work for us than its worth.

Executive Director

Comments: It is a challenge and you have to put a ticket in for every problem. We are a small organization and wanted a simple program. This is a full time position.

Pros:

Price, online data is transferred to the CRM. The Engage and CRM merge. We were able to get rid of Event Brite. We can all access the CRM and use it at one time. This is helpful.

Cons:

Transfer of data was a problem. We would up with over 10,000 duplicates and it is taking us forever to delete them. Also the user experience was poor. Our constituents say it is too complicated. Membership is a challenge.

Great product, could use a few tweaks

Comments: I really like Salsa Engage and how easy it is to use. There are some functionalities that could be improved, and hopefully will be improved as they continue to roll out new product features. Our members find it easier to use that our last system, and with each update, Salsa is offering some cool new features that we will begin to use. There are some things (like event registrations) that don't work as well as we would like them to (you can't delete people who cancel attendance at a free event, and there is no way to pull all the info for registrants and guests in just one list), but hopefully those will be fixed soon. I find the customer service people very responsive, but it isn't always a quick fix for our issues. We have used this product for about seven months and so far are pleased with how it is working for us.

Pros:

easy to use, great advocacy tool, great statistics/reports, easy to share on social media

Cons:

formatting emails can be difficult if you want to include photos, event registration is a little clunky, hard to get issues resolved through customer support tickets sometimes

Overall Salsa CRM is a good system.

Comments: Feel they could use more support. Though their support team is always friendly and helpful, don't always receive answers in a timely manner. A lot of back and fourth with email when picking up the phone would be faster and easier.

Pros:

For the most part Salsa CRM is user friendly, the cost is reasonably priced and works well for our foundation.

Cons:

Some features were misleading, did not offer certain things needed for our foundation. Always room for improvement.s

Salsa CRM

Comments: At first the CRM program is over whelming if you are not familiar with a CRM program. There are very good aspects to the program as well as a few downfalls (most of which can be solved by research).

Pros:

I appreciate these features: donor cultivation, tasks, custom fields, finance summery options (batches etc), custom appeals and campaigns. The custom campaigns and appeals are perfect for businesses that have multiple and/or ongoing events.

Cons:

The Salsa Labs Email product needs some serious updates. Such as E-Mail themes and easy to use forms. The forms are prehistoric compared to other email marketing products (such as constant contacts). Because of the merge of Donor Pro and Salsa, I have to manage three separate accounts (including merchant services) which can take a lot of my time. The help site offers some good training videos but does not always cover the specific questions or topics that I need. This requires more time watching videos in hope that I get my answers. I have usually okay customer service but often get referred to a manager to get my answers. There needs to be more customization properties to the event form to tailor to certain events (individuals vs. teams) and integrating payments according to the sign-up forms.

Salsa CRM Experience

Comments: I have been using Salsa (formerly DonorPro) for about 2 years. The system is easy to use and allows us to segment donors, easily pull reports and capture essential information to complete donor profiles. We also use the Event Management module - while a little cumbersome at first, this module allows us to extract the data in a more efficient manner when soliciting and prospecting for future events.

Pros:

Ease of use. You can select the modules you wish to use - we don't need them all. I like the fact that Constant Contact is connected - less data entry errors when capturing info. Support services are good.

Cons:

Running queries - this aspect is not intuitive to me. I often find myself asking colleagues or the help desk for assistance.

Do not go with this product

Comments: I have worked with this product for 2 years now and it does not have the ease of use and capabilities that I was told it does when I first started. We pay for husbands and wives as separate records even though most of them donate as a family unit, not as an individual which messes up our accounting. Pulling reports is like pulling teeth, very difficult and when I call or email for help I am told the solution is an easy one; but after a half hour on the line I am told that what I need cannot be done; which in my book is unacceptable for someone to tell their consumer. I would not recommend this product to anyone ever.

Unvarnsihed Endorsement of Salsa Labs and Donor Pro CRM

Pros:

it is comprehensive.....and for limited users like me who panic when our highly competend data base and digital manager is out the help desk has the patience of a saint or godees to help me get unstuck in any transaction it is the service and help that follows the sale that makes or breaks a great product great service great team....Salsa Labs has written THE book on getting support right

Great online fundraising platform

Comments: We moved from simply accepting paypal payments 4 years ago to Givezooks. Salsa's acquisition and implementation of givezooks into their CRM gives us exactly what we need for our small 501 without paying for a lot we don't.

Pros:

How easy it is to create annual campaign and new grassroots fundraising pages.

Cons:

I wish my team members could reset their prior year pages without creating new ones, and i could just re-link them to the new annual campaign

Salsa review

Comments: As a small nonprofit organization, we have used Salsa from the beginning to organize and build our donor data base. We’ve used what we’ve needed but there is so much more to learn and optimize. We just don’t have the time to stop and review more videos regularly.

Pros:

I’ve likes the functionality of the program. It fits our needs.

Cons:

Wish they offered the option of in person training. Perhaps a regional training conference. The videos are thorough but extremely time consuming when first learning the programs and functions.

Good for keeping all donor information and notes in one central and safe location

Pros:

Ability to easily keep notes, documents, gift details and contact information in one easy-to-access cloud-based location. I had a wonderful experience recently with customer support agent he was Knowledgeable, patient (so very appreciated!!!), follows up, accessible. Thank you!

Cons:

I inherited this software and we have some challenges with the ease and quality of reporting. This might be due to the way we set up our system. We are troubleshooting this and will reach out to customer support if we have continued questions. There are some reports that I'd like to see as automated. For example, top gifts, top donors, etc.

Salsa Engage - Peer to Peer and CRM

Comments: CRM less intuitive than Engage, and harder to get constituents back into Engage from CRM - automatic the other direction. De-duplication is getting easier to use.

Pros:

There are good on-line tutorials and if you call for help, they are very attentive. Easy to use social messaging and email newsletters. Design Templates very intuitive. Peer-to-Peer has increased our fundraising goals. For a small non-profit like ours, the fees are reasonable, but still hard to digest.

Cons:

If you send a request for help on-line it takes too long to be helpful, but see above, I use other methods for support instead.

Salsa CRM is my system of choice

Pros:

I've been in development for 20+ years and used a variety of systems, and Salsa CRM is the only product that consistently meets my needs and gets the job done. The product is intuitive, easy to learn and their support is top-notch. Many webinar and trainings offered, although it is so easy to use I don't need to tap those options much.

Cons:

not applicable - nothing to improve. The product is intuitive and meets my needs, and most importantly is scalable. I've used Salsa in a shop with less than 10K donors and in an organization with over 30K donors, and have worked with peers everywhere in between also using the product with great success.