Likelihood to Recommend For 100% tax-deductible donations, I 9.5/10 recommend Blackbaud Online Express. The only thing is that it does not charge debit cards automatically, so I have to do it myself. Using Blackbaud Online Express forms for events gets more complicated. The way events work in
Raiser's Edge in general is already complicated, so maybe it's more on
Raiser's Edge than it is Blackbaud Online Express.
Read full review From where I stand, GLM is well-suited for use by small-staffed charitable foundations who make more than thirty (30) grants a year and distribute more than $500,000 in funds to non-profits. The software is able to handle every step in the grant-making process from receipt of a request, to the evaluation and decision regarding the grant, to tracking the pay-out, and to closing the grant when the work or the year is completed.
Read full review Pros Online donation forms are easy to create and place within our existing website. The donations received are easily transferred into our Raiser's Edge database. Creating email communications for our constituents is very simple to achieve in Online Express and the statistics provided are very helpful to see what our constituents are clicking on. Read full review Foundant provides a streamlined grants management solution for reasonable cost. The company listens to its users, collecting ideas and making improvements. Updates to the software are rolled out several times a year. When something cannot be changed right away, the company gives context and forecasts when the change might be possible. While the software is easy to use, it also offers more advanced features (such as merge templates) that allow more customization for the advanced user. Read full review Cons It does have some "quirks." It can be a little tricky to process the batch until you have done it a few times. I had a problem finding a constituent yesterday - he was purchasing a program ad for an event - that I knew was in the database. It turned out that he had been marked inactive, and so apparently wasn't included in the search results. Read full review Need a smother process for third party responses. Currently individuals recommending more than one student for scholarships have many emails to deal with to find the correct link to upload the correct student's letter. Questions that would filter which applications the applicant would apply for. Read full review Support Rating Customer service for all of Blackbaud's products has really lacked over the years. They are starting to get better in the last year but it can very frustrating. The online knowledge base community is the best resource for information. At times it can take hours for a customer sect even rep to help with questions or problems which is not at all ideal in this industry.
Read full review Alternatives Considered Blackbaud Online Express is mainly used strictly because of its integration with Raiser's Edge. If a client uses Salesforce for constituent/lead management, other products can offer more flexibility in designing donation forms, email templates, etc. However, they all have their own negatives in Salesforce integration -- that is a whole other can of worms. While the Raiser's Edge integration of Online Express isn't perfect, it is relatively painless compared to the competition's Salesforce integration. Also, for NFP's, Blackbaud's NFP focused business model is a plus.
Read full review I have not used other online grantmaking products or evaluated others. I used to use MicroEdge Gifts, but not the online application version. It was a stand alone management system. This is hands-down better, easier to use and a more complete system
Read full review Return on Investment Regardless of project or initiative, all fund-raising efforts are managed in one place for the entire organization. Donor management is concise, thorough, and systematic - no individual or organization is overlooked. Snapshot reporting of successful grant applications and fund-raising are readily available. Read full review Positive customer service--fairly easy to use for applicants. Positive--easy to run reports you have already set up, so [it] saves time. Negative--limited question types makes it harder to gather the data we want to track. Negative--our budget is more complex than can be tracked in Foundant, so we have to use a separate program. Negative--we have to track potential grantee conversations in a separate program. Negative--getting data ready to display in a dashboard takes a lot of time to manipulate in Excel. Read full review ScreenShots