Blackbaud Online Express vs. STPL Global FundRaiser (discontinued)

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.

Incentivized

I think FundRaiser is better suited for smaller organizations that do not have a lot of entries to make and a lot of tracking to do. Larger organizations that make more entries and need to do a lot more tracking might want an application that is a little more modern and user-friendly.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

• FundRaiser keeps a database for us of our individual, business, and organizational donors for future reference.
• FundRaiser keeps a database for us of our donors' contributions each year on an ongoing basis.
• FundRaiser has multiple reports that can be run to fit your specific needs; be it yearly contributions, donor addresses, etc.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

• If you enter a duplicate donor in error, the program will allow you to make one inactive, but will not allow you to delete one. This often causes confusion when going to post-donation payments.
• The system is also very basic and could be more user-friendly.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

When I upgraded my computer I had to upgrade my FundRaiser software. I reached out to customer support, and they assisted me in easily switching the computer my software was on, and then making the upgrade. The customer service department was friendly and helpful. There was a minor glitch, but it ended up going fine.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

• FundRaiser saves us time that we would be spending trying to keep track of donations and donor information on spreadsheets, which saves us money.

Incentivized