Blackbaud Church Management software is designed to connect all staff and volunteers with one holistic view, automated processes and easy-to-use software to manage all your programs , and provide data to better understand congregants and the various ways they interact with your house of worship with a single source of data, and finally keep church membership engaged with multi-channel communications.
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Planning Center
Score 8.2 out of 10
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Planning Center in Carlsbad offers modular church management applications, providing CRM, tithe management, event registration and attendance, and volunteer resource scheduling.
$14
per month
Pricing
Blackbaud Church Management
Planning Center
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Calendar
14+
per month
Check-ins
14+
per month
Giving
14+
per month
Groups
14+
per month
Registration
14+
per month
Services
14+
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Blackbaud Church Management
Planning Center
Free Trial
No
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
No
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
Additional Details
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Prices increase based on the number of members and attendees.
I believe this system was overpriced and under-supported. From experience, it is very clunky and lacking features that churches would find helpful. There are no scenarios for which Blackbaud Church Management is well suited. It is not appropriate for churches. I would avoid it at all costs. They were also not willing to assist in moving to another system.
Planning Center is incredibly helpful if you are in the business of putting on events, performances, or productions. In such situations, Planning Center will help you coordinate with a large group of people, clearly showing who is expected to do what during the order of a service. If you are planning a major event (a wedding service, a major birthday party, a work event, or any kind of production), Planning Center will foster both teamwork and clarity. The only scenario I can envision Planning Center not being helpful would be a more laissez-faire type of event, (like a "come and go" reception).
I've not needed to use Planning Center support. In the few instances that I would have thought would "require support," tips and notices popped up on screen letting me know what was happening. There are very VERY few issues that I've found with Planning Center. The interface has been intuitive and powerful, so I've not needed to use their support service.
In my opinion, Blackbaud was by far the worst experience we have had with any church management system. We initially moved away from Shelby Systems to FellowshipOne. In an attempt to consolidate church management and accounting into a single system, we moved from FellowshipOne to Blackbaud Church Management to accomplish this. Both FellowshipOne and Shelby wer far superior systems.
At one point, I was presented with both Asana and Trello as helpful tools to facilitate teamwork and collaboration amongst a large group of people. However, when it comes to putting on productions/services/events, Planning Center just seemed to have everything we need. I have never really once given thought to moving on from Planning Center. I'm sure Asana and Trello have much to offer, and I did briefly consider the, but Planning Center (for what we needed) was a grand-slam, home run.