Tech Platforms

This week’s Community Call featured 4 retreat center leaders in a roundtable discussion on their current tech platforms—with a dozen peers on the call from across the US and Canada.

Many participants agreed that there’s no perfect tech stack or system for retreat centers. Finding tech solutions that meet the unique needs of retreat centers often requires customizing or combining existing platforms.

Wondering what tools other retreat centers are using? Here’s a list of platforms discussed on the call, with collated commentary from participants. RCC doesn’t endorse any of these platforms, but encourages leadership and staff at retreat centers to exchange insights as an effort to strengthen our collective impact with these tools.

Booking Platforms

RetreatGuru

Pros

  • We use RetreatGuru to register participants for programs, and also to register volunteers and residents

  • Found it to be the best option for our work

  • Favorably priced

  • Responsive, personal customer care

  • Lodging options, add-ons, tiered pricing

  • Integrates with Wordpress

  • Worked with our donor software system, which Venue 360 does not

  • Comprehensive training

  • Responsive and helpful with customer care

  • We are beta users for RetreatGuru’s new Rentals platform (for hosted retreats). The platform is really nice: Inquiry form on our website, we respond with a quote, they deposit and sign a contract digitally

  • Folks can inquire about availability in RetreatGuru

  • $122/mo for RetreatGuru

Cons

  • Switching to RetreatGuru took a lot of time

  • Does not work well with our kitchen - we offer mostly hosted programs - can’t get a meal count if hosted retreat leader has the registration data - meal count is based on registrations

  • Waiting list feature is not as convenient or customizable as we’d like - when spots open up, it opens up/registers people even when we don’t have room for them

  • RetreatGuru markets itself as the premier platform for ayahuasca retreats - colors the marketing - don’t want it to reflect on our retreat programming - but also couldn’t find a strong alternative

  • Looks better than Retreat Manager, but still takes effort to match the branding to our website; it is a separate page/site

Retreat Manager

Pros

  • Our retreat center offers both hosted and sponsored retreats - RetreatManager handles both well

  • Everything on one page - who’s using what bedrooms/rooms without switching screens

  • Improved flexibility

  • Built for religious orgs

  • Manages ongoing/serial programs better than RetreatGuru

  • Comprehensive

Cons

  • Concern: unstable platform in 2019

  • User interface is outdated

  • Staff didn’t know how to use it to its full potential

  • Server-based, didn’t work remotely very easily -- is now becoming cloud-based

Venue360

Pros

  • We switched to Venue360 from RetreatGuru. RetreatGuru is more based on programs. Our business model is 90% hosted groups / 10% in-house programming. Venue 360 is not geared toward our in-house programming, but works well for hosted groups.

  • Guest retreat facilitators can make their own profiles, communicate w participants

  • There’s an intensive in-person training to learn Venue360, which we completed virtually over Zoom, but it wasn’t as intensive as we’d hoped

  • Integrates well with Wordpress

Cons

  • Allows visitors to navigate through our website to see upcoming programs, but once visitors select a program they are sent to a new tab.

Megasys

  • Moved all our data into Megasys recently, but unfortunately, it was more geared for hotels

  • Functionality/visibility was limited

  • Didn’t integrate with finance department

BookingLayer

  • Has many of the options that folks at retreat centers would like

  • Allows automation so people can book directly from website, syncs the master calendar with Airbnb, Glamping Hub, VRBO

  • Based in Spain

  • Design is not intuitive, involves watching lots of tutorials

  • More expensive than Retreat Guru

CampBrain

UltraCamp

CIRCUITREE

EventPro

  • Outdated, doesn’t allow linking to a website

VRBO and Airbnb

  • These work well for the houses on our property

Thinkbox

Website Platforms

Wordpress

  • Incorporates registration forms from BookingLayer

  • Offers deep integrations with MailChimp, WooCommerce, GiveWP and EventsCalendar along with QuickBooks

Squarespace

  • Program registration links on our Squarespace website connect to RetreatGuru

Payment Platforms

Paypal

  • We use it to receive donations, but not primary payments any more

  • Didn’t like it all - not user friendly

  • Politics of PayPal founder didn’t align with our center

WooCommerce

  • Integrates with Wordpress

USAePay

  • Unique challenge we faced: Donations were being multiplied by the amount of participant devices that connected during online events

Stripe

  • Integrates with Venue 360

Data Storage Platforms

Google for Nonprofits

Etherpad

  • alternative to Google

Communications Platforms

Zoom

Jitsi

  • Video chat platform, alternative to Zoom

  • Open source, not perfect

  • Good for certain situations (Zoom is not allowed in Cuba)

  • Doesn’t support breakout rooms

Constant Contact

Mailchimp

  • Default CRM for the 6000 people on our mailing list who are very lightly connected

  • Cheaper option for us - $90/mo for Mailchimp

  • We move people over to Neon once they have significant interaction with our org

Slack

Grasshopper

  • Virtual phone system

  • Phone number rotation to other numbers

  • Connect to universal email

  • $20/mo for Grasshopper

Mattermost

  • Instant messaging

Jamboard by Google

EventsCalendar

  • Integrates with Wordpress

CRM & Donor Management Platforms

Civi CRM

  • CRM platform aligned with our foundation’s organizational values

HubSpot

  • Could be a good integration with RetreatGuru

Salsa CRM

  • We use Salsa for development / recruitment

ETapestry by Blackbaud

Raiser’s Edge by Blackbaud

  • Also integrates with Paypal

GiveWP

Salsa

DonorPerfect

Neon

  • Initial set up and training for Neon was $4k

  • $304/mo for Neon

  • Been integrated for 3 months

  • Great for creating reports for our board, e.g. trends in donations

  • Affordable for small organizations

  • We’re integrating RetreatGuru with Neon -- we set up RetreatGuru so it maps very clearly to the Neon info

Accounting Platforms

Sage50

Quickbooks

Best Practices for Migrating Data

When migrating data to new platforms, what’s the best practice?

  • Mallory: Assign a specific staff member to strictly work on that. Don’t do it at your busiest time of year, as it takes a lot of energy and time.

  • Francisco: We upgraded from co-ax to fiber optic during COVID, and we thought our devices were going to work really well. But we needed to replace everything. Make sure you check out what will fit with your current infrastructure.

  • Ayton: Map out your different use cases so you have a clear picture of what you need to solve for, the specific requirements that you’ll need. Software providers tend to over-promise. Prioritized use cases will help you evaluate and implement your software in a targeted manner.

Contribute Your Solutions

Have more insights to share?

Curious to connect with other retreat centers and exchange best practices?

Check out these additional resources.

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