This publication is the most recent edition of
A Consumers Guide to Constituent Relationship Management Systems (CRM) for Public Media.
The last edition, published in 2013, examined 10 systems in detail and compared them against each other for how well they met the requirements criteria of users.
Those systems included the following:
• Allegiance Fundraising
• CiviCRM
• ClearView CRM
• Enterprise for Public Media
• iMIS 20
• Luminate CRM
• MemberNation
• The Raiser’s Edge Enterprise
• roundCause
• Tessitura
The list of systems covered by this updated edition of the Consumers Guide is notably smaller. Two systems have been acquired since the 2013 report—Blackbaud acquired Luminate CRM, and Salesforce acquired roundCause—and we eliminated another system, Enterprise for Public Media, because it has no public website and is not a viable system for this audience.
We further narrowed the list based on results of a survey asking Greater Public members which CRM systems they were using. CiviCRM, ClearView CRM, and MemberNation were not being used by a single member, so we dropped them from consideration.
Just two stations were using iMIS 20, so we moved that to our secondary list of systems along with other software options reported by at least one member station.
That left three systems from the original list: Allegiance Fundraising, Blackbaud’s The Raiser’s Edge (now called The Raiser’s Edge NXT), and Tessitura. Since several member stations also reported using Salesforce (represented previously by roundCause), we also added that to the list.
“We believe the four systems included in this publication are the most compelling solutions available today depending on each station’s particular needs.”
All four systems have a substantial customer base and actively serve public media customers. Their vendors have development and customer service teams of sufficient size to meet the needs of public media organizations.
Therefore, we believe the four systems included in this publication are the most compelling solutions available today depending on each station’s particular needs.