Certain Event Automation Software vs. OneCause

Certain is very well suited for any type of event or tradeshow that require specific fields from registrants and an automated email sequence to keep them engaged. It's less appropriate for one-off events, since setting up those pages can be quite complex if you're used to the types of Eventbrite/Sympla. If you don't really build event pages regularly, I'd recommend a software that's more simple, which should address what you need.

Incentivized

After having used Greater Giving before switching to OneCause, I'd highly recommend OneCause for any event or fundraising management. The ability to see a company's support over multiple events is great for a snapshot or quick numbers for reporting. It's easier to navigate than most systems, and truly is a one-stop shop for your needs. I look forward to using OneCause for all our future events.

Incentivized

• Easy to use and create
• Easy to pull reports once event has been sent to attendees
• Great way to gather a lot of information

Incentivized

• Easy online bidding process for our participants (especially using the older software).
• Detailed tracking and organization for our auction staff to manage everything in one place.
• Excellent and proactive customer service in the months leading up to the event and in-person at the event itself.

Incentivized

• Dashboards: It's quite important for leadership to get a visual of what their event registrants look like (with graphs, for example). Now, Certain does not present a feature to create dashboards, so we have to export their reports and create our dashboards ourselves.
• UX when setting up an event: Now this can be quite complex, as it's not as easy to use or intuitive. Many different tabs with many different sub-items can present a confusing experience for newcomers when building an event.

Incentivized

• Auto-numbering items in auctions need to be editable. Right now, when you add items, they are numbered consecutively, and you can't edit them. I want all of my items to be numbered together by item type. We always have last-minute additions, but there is no ability to renumber.

Incentivized

We are a very small non-profit and are actually looking to use another service just to cut costs, but we may not stay with them and will coming running back to OneCause if we can't make the other option work! The ONLY reason to move would be to reduce the over-head cost of the platform.

Incentivized

Use of the software is generally fine, but the setup and implementation are not always intuitive. Though the knowledgebase is robust and covers a lot of areas (and the support team is pleasant and knowledgeable), the event setup process (particularly when setting up payment and bank information) can be a bit cumbersome and should really be streamlined

Incentivized

Support staff is there to help out and it is nice knowing there are available on event day as well

Incentivized

This feature is amazing. Nice to have reports immediately when the event (auction) is over

Incentivized

OneCause has the BEST customer support I have ever experienced. They are patient, and knowledgeable and always help me when I contact them. Whenever I have inquired how to use a feature or asked about how to do something, they give me the answer but also go above and beyond with additional info that I ended up also using.

Incentivized

We hired OneCause to guide us through our first event after we signed up with them. The staff they sent were pros. They gave us professional guidance and support. Once we had been shown the ropes, we knew we could take the reins and confidently run our next event

Incentivized

Very thorough and nice to have a refresher when needed. Nice to see when I haven't used in a little while and refresh my mind how to update.

Incentivized

I don't know if my insights are key but I can say that implementation was done in-house without any outside support for the solution. The staff influencing the solution had very little technical expertise and ability as well which showed just how easily the software was to implement.

Incentivized

My company selected Certain and continues to use Certain because it is quick, easy, and efficient. We create up to 20 registration links a year and Certain allows us to create templates to copy and create annual event links very fast. I also love that there is someone there to speak to if I ever need assistance

Incentivized

We used Auction Star one time. It was not as user-friendly for our donors. Prior to that, we planned event logistics and auction components without any specialized software. Everything was done in Excel and Word. OneCause allowed us to organize tables, registration and auction packages a lot faster and more effectively.

Incentivized

The product has everything I need

Incentivized

• Certain helps to deliver a great customer experience, since it facilitates automatic email delivery and your company can keep them connected well before or well after an event.
• Certain presents a wide variety of reports, which perfectly addresses any request for visibility coming from your organization.
• Certain's configuration settings are quite complex, so our newcomers are not comfortable using the software at first.
• In case you need a more visual representation of your audience, Certain, unfortunately, does not generate dashboards.

Incentivized

• Definitely saved us a fair amount of time in terms of individual ticket sales and managing guests on the back end. Did not save us that much time for sponsored tables as most of our guests did not purchase their sponsorships through the site.
• OneCause doesn't seem to have a function for entering a "Reserve Value" for auction items--i.e., while it allows for a minimum bid, it doesn't allow for having a minimum sale value, which meant that a few of our auction items sold for far lower than their value, which was unfortunate.
• Having the support package on the night of was critical for our organization, particularly as ALL of the full-time staff had very limited experience working with OneCause/Bidpal. Knowing that there were experts there to help liaise with the auctioneer and to troubleshoot with any guests experiencing issues was really essential.

Incentivized