Museum

No matter your size or the complexity of your needs, we’ve got the best-fit solution for your museum.

We know that as a busy museum, you’re intensely focused on boosting attendance and memberships, building long-term relationships with supporters, and increasing revenue through fundraising and ticketing.

You depend on ticket and membership sales to raise revenue, so when ticket sellers and fundraisers process orders, getting the details right really matters. And even though every staff person can potentially handle hundreds of transactions daily, each patron or donor must be treated as a valued customer.

Blackbaud’s solutions for arts and cultural organizations meet the specific, complex needs of busy ticket counters, membership departments, and visitor centers at museums. In addition to tracking all the details associated with building a strong relationship with each visitor, the solutions also gives ticketing and membership professionals the tools they need to manage daily operations — from selling tickets and memberships to tracking and reporting on those transactions.

Learn more about Altru, or read on to hear how we help with:

• Online Ticketing
• Ticketing & Admissions
• Fundraising
• Membership
• Internet Solutions
• Group Sales
• Retail Point of Sale
• Financial Management

Learn how our products work together as Blackbaud’s Arts and Cultural Solution (PDF).

American Association of Museums (AAM) Affinity Partner Program

Blackbaud is proud to participate in the AAM Affinity Partner Program which offers Institutional Members 3% off their first year Altru subscription. Those who are not AAM members, please contact AAM for membership information at institutionalmembership@AAM-us.org.

"Museums of all types and sizes – from aquariums and historic sites to art museums and zoos – are always searching for more efficient ways to do business, particularly in this economic climate. As AAM continually strives to advocate on behalf of the field and provide outstanding service to our members, we applaud Blackbaud for its Corporate Affinity Partnership and for providing this new solution at a discount to AAM members." — Ford W. Bell, President, American Association of Museums

Online Ticketing

Give your patrons the service and convenience they want. Sell tickets when your patrons are ready and willing to buy!

Imagine a world where tickets can be purchased around the clock at minimal cost and with maximum convenience for your clients. Marketing opportunities are endless, and you're understanding your patrons like never before. Sound like nirvana?

It’s already a reality. All of these things and more can be achieved using The Patron Edge Online, a component of Blackbaud’s solutions for Arts and Cultural organizations. The Patron Edge Online is a cost-effective solution that can help your organization easily and systematically build its online presence.

Learn more about The Patron Edge Online for general admission organizations.

Check out how some customers are putting The Patron Edge Online to the test and reaping great results!

American Players Theatre
Museum of Contemporary Art





Ticketing & Admissions

Arts and cultural organizations depend on ticket sales to raise revenue, so when ticket sellers process orders, getting the details right really matters. And even though every salesperson can potentially handle hundreds of transactions daily, each visitor must be treated as a valued customer. That’s why the most successful organizations are turning to Blackbaud’s complete ticketing solution — The Patron Edge  — to help manage relationships with the patrons whose support is vital to the success of their missions.

Regardless of the size of your ticketing office or visitor services operation, The Patron Edge is the only solution your organization will ever need to:

• Manage all ticketing, membership, and subscription sales
• Boost ticket sales and cut expenses
• Build and strengthen relationships with patrons
• Demonstrate increased financial accountability, fostering a positive community image

Read more about The Patron Edge for general admission organizations.





Fundraising

Cultural organizations know that effective fundraising is contingent upon building solid relationships. Contributions begin with good communication and continue only when you maintain a genuine, focused interest in your patrons over time. To cultivate these relationships, you must value the information you collect as your greatest asset. 

The Raiser’s Edge defines and streamlines the process of cultivating relationships by helping you manage and sustain an extensive interaction database, differentiating your organization from dozens (or hundreds) more that are vying for the generosity of your supporters.

Find out how The Raiser’s Edge specifically helps arts and cultural organizations or check out how The Raiser’s Edge helps all types of organizations.





Membership

Blackbaud’s Membership Management Solution is specifically designed to help arts and cultural organizations attract, retain, and upgrade members. Easy-to-use reporting tools and website management features allow your organization to focus on building and fostering lifelong relationships with your members.

Learn more about Blackbaud's Membership Management solution (PDF).





Internet Solutions

In today’s busy world, it’s easy to lose touch with your suppoters. But your ability to help maintain relationships with them carries immense value. By keeping them connected, you’re helping to maintain your own enduring connection with them. You create a dynamic, two-way communication vehicle to help you stay in touch as your organization and base of supporters evolves. Often, patrons wish to stay in touch but find your organization’s communication vehicles — website, email, or direct mail — impersonal, confusing, and frustrating. Without a sense of “belonging”, supporters quickly become busy and focus on other organizations soliciting their donations, and you lose valuable financial supporters. But when you provide the vehicle to help them stay connected and make critical next-step transitions, you foster a mutual friendship that benefits you both.

Blackbaud® NetCommunity enables your organization to create an interactive online network for patrons and supporters, fostering a sense of connectivity between them and your organization and significantly reducing the amount of time and money your staff must spend on administrative tasks. Best of all, it seamlessly integrates with The Raiser’s Edge®, our comprehensive fundraising and constituent relationship management solution, so you always have a single source of up-to-date patron information across your entire organization.

With Blackbaud NetCommunity, supporters may visit your website and receive timely, targeted communications at their convenience, wherever they have access to the Internet. When patrons log in, the system creates personalized web pages unique to their interests, with appeals specifically targeted to them. They can communicate with other supporters and search customized directories.

Find out more about how Blackbaud NetCommunity can work for you.





Group Sales

In The Patron Edge, Blackbaud’s group sales solution, you can process group sales orders in addition to single ticket sales. For example, if a school group tours your museum as a field trip, you can sell a group of tickets and manage details about the order. With group sales in The Patron Edge, you can take orders for future events without creating the events in advance and change details about the group order, such as dates and number of visitors. You can control capacity and assign guides or resources to events.

Group sales in The Patron Edge offers your supporters the convenience of advanced booking and provides the tools necessary to effectively manage your group sales reservations and collect comprehensive data for group visits and audit order.

With group sales, you can sell admission tickets or general admission event tickets to an entire group at once. You can process the payments at the time of sale, or you can reserve the tickets for the group and accept payment later. Once you make a sale, you can add additional tickets to a group order.

With group sales, you can reserve tickets when a customer selects tickets for a group and postpones paying for them. When the customer is ready to pay, you can easily locate the tickets on the general admission screen and accept and record the payment. If the customer needs to make changes to the order, you can update or delete a reservation. Once you place a reservation for a group order, if the customer needs to add tickets to the group order, you can update the reservation at any time.

Because so many components make a group’s visit with your organization a success, the Group Order Details screen serves as a central location to store all the details about the group order and the group itself. From the Group Order Details screen, you can manage specific details about tickets, contacts, guides, resources, and notes.

Learn more about The Patron Edge and what it can do for you.





Retail Point of Sale

Retail point-of-sale systems are quickly becoming the new benchmark in all walks of retail — from museum shops to thrift stores. Electronic cash registers and outdated retail software pale in comparison to the point-of-sale systems available today.

Blackbaud provides CounterPoint to cultural organizations to help you make and save more money, sell online, retain and find new customers, run a more efficient business, and improve customer relationships. 

Check out the top 10 reasons you should convert to CounterPoint (PDF) to find out what it can do for you .

Want to know how integration between CounterPoint, The Raiser’s Edge, and The Financial Edge (PDF) can revolutionize how you do business and how effective you are at raising money?  You’ve come to the right place.





Fianancial Management

Today’s economic climate poses tough new challenges for cultural organizations. With increased competition for revenue and funding sources and dwindling numbers of volunteers, members, and patrons, cultural organizations of all sizes find that they must differentiate themselves from other nonprofits competing for their patrons’ dollars and time. As a result, successful cultural organizations have adopted a more aggressive approach toward financial management.

Blackbaud’s The Financial Edge gives you the power and versatility you need to make smart strategic decisions. Capable of standing alone or fully integrating with The Raiser’s Edge, our fundraising solution, and The Patron Edge, our ticketing solution, The Financial Edge is the only financial management solution you can trust to take your accounting data to the next level.

Get the details on what The Financial Edge (PDF) can do for your cultural organization or check out how The Financial Edge helps all types of organizations.