Tessitura Network is responding to the global COVID-19 pandemic

by releasing new product functionality and strengthening the connections among its global user community.

Enhanced capabilities to increase productivity and retain revenue

As arts and cultural organizations moved to cancel events and close their doors to slow the spread of the coronavirus, Tessitura moved quickly to support their needs. One of the key factors for organizations during this time is the need to retain vital revenue. In just a few weeks, Tessitura has released several pieces of critical functionality.

Enhancements that automate Tessitura’s mass cancellation capabilities have streamlined the ability for patrons and staff to apply funds from returned tickets to a contribution, gift certificate, or account credit, or to process refunds en masse. For UK organizations, contributions can be processed to an in-scope fund for Gift Aid. Organizations using the mass cancellation utility have been able to retain 83% of their revenue. 

Along with the need to cancel events, organizations have needed to collect their ticket holders’ preferences for the value of their tickets. To aid with this data collection, Tessitura released a self-service feature for their e-commerce platform, TN Express Web (TNEW), that saved staff time by allowing patrons to select configurable options including donations, gift certificates, or exchanges.

Once cancellations are completed and revenue allocated, it’s essential to send receipts. Tessitura has made it easier to send bulk emails notifying customers of refunds, and can take advantage of a new HTML template for transactional refund emails.

For admission-based organizations wishing to quickly extend expiration dates on memberships, Tessitura has also released a new utility to make that a seamless process.

Learning & community resources to accelerate knowledge sharing

Tessitura’s website has long been a rich source of information for its members, from product documentation and video tutorials to live webinars and other learning resources. The website is also home to an active portal for community engagement and knowledge sharing.

As the scope of the COVID-19 crisis became clear, Tessitura added a new online forum dedicated to response readiness. To date, the forum has over 40 discussions on highly relevant topics, with some discussions garnering dozens of replies.

The Tessitura team has added new Business Continuity resources to the website, with a highly useful landing page (behind member login) collecting relevant content for those navigating the current challenges. A Frequently Asked Questions page collates useful information to help Tessitura users complete essential tasks while working from home. An ongoing series of blog posts has provided further professional insight and advice.

“Tessitura was formed to enable arts and cultural organizations to be productive, efficient, and effective. We continually look for opportunities to do that,” said Jack Rubin, CEO and Co-Founder. “When this crisis hit not only did Tessitura Network respond to the immediate technology needs, but we also recognized the needs of the individuals in our member organizations: blogs to inspire, information to educate, and hosted webinar sessions to share ideas face-to-face with colleagues from across the world. It is this combined approach — people and technology — that is the foundation of the Tessitura Network.”

“Our community’s focus changed almost overnight to managing the uncertainty of cancelled events and closure of buildings,” said Kristin Darrow, Senior Vice President of Product. “We are proud of how our team was able to pivot: within that same span of time, we were preparing to bring new technology to our members facilitating easier ways to automate ticket returns, extend memberships and change event dates efficiently, improve flexibility in handling payment terms on existing orders. We have also expanded online capabilities for frictionless self-service like customer-managed ticket returns.”

“Tessitura’s response as an organization has been very thoughtful and strategic,” said Sean Wright, Executive Director of The Grand, a performing arts organization in Wausau, Wis. “I commend you for the work done to meet the needs of the member organizations. Thanks to all who are working hard to shift to these immediate member needs.”

About Tessitura

Tessitura is an enterprise CRM system that powers all key business functions for museums, performing arts organizations, and other cultural, educational, and media entities. From fundraising and memberships to ticketing, marketing, education, analytics, and more, Tessitura's unified platform enables a seamless, 360-degree view of all donors, members, and volunteers within a single database. Tessitura provides targeting and insight capabilities so the “right” engagement can happen at the optimal time.

In addition to its flagship software, Tessitura offers a range of complementary services that empower its users to achieve their goals. Those users form a community of industry leaders that enjoys an unprecedented level of knowledge sharing and collaboration through the facilitation efforts of the Tessitura Network. Tessitura also works with a wide range of ecosystem partners that provide products and services to extend the power of what its members can do.

Operating since 2001, Tessitura Network, Inc. is proud to be a member-owned and governed nonprofit. Tessitura serves over 700 organizations in ten countries. For more information about Tessitura, visit www.tessituranetwork.com or contact Amelia Northrup-Simpson, Marketing & Communications Manager.