Certain is a leading provider of enterprise Event Automation software to Fortune 1000 companies. The vendor’s value proposition is that Certain gives users everything they need to plan events, engage attendees, and achieve sales and marketing results. The vendor says their software helps data-driven marketers and event professionals capture and integrate rich buying signals and attendee insights into omni-channel marketing campaigns to improve sales and marketing results and deliver credible…
$9,990
per year
Bonterra OneCause
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
OneCause supports fundraising with online and event fundraising solutions that help nonprofits reach more and raise more. Since 2008, OneCause states they have helped 14,000 cause-driven organizations to raise over $8B through more than 90,000 fundraising events and campaigns.
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.
OneCause is great for managing online and mobile bidding, managing event registration and ticket sales, processing donations during the event, handling checkout and payment collection after the auction, and significantly reducing manual work for event staff. On the other hand, OneCause does not handle complete donor history or constituent relationships, which would be super helpful to have
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.
OneCause could improve their messaging - the fact that custom emails are not as easy as custom texts can be frustrating. I wish all the automated messages were possible over email as most of our professionals that we work with, they prefer email over a text.
OneCause could make it easier to copy and paste text into site design or other features. Having to re-type out the text is a time-suck, when it would be easier to adjust the text to the font default without having to type it in the HTML editor on it's own.
PLEASE make it easier to resend the "assign tickets email". The fact that the main way to do that is when you first enter them into OneCause, but then are not able to resend that message to ticket owners at a later date makes it difficult for them to find what they need when they are ready to assign their tickets.
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.
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
Shelbe was my point person and she was available for me at absolutely anytime. No question was stupid or obvious in her eyes and she always gave me the exact responses and resources I needed to succeed. Could not be more complimentary of this software! Just have to convince my team to use it for more areas now!
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
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.
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
We looked at Auctria and GiveSmart, though we didn't go into great detail with either. We ultimately selected OneCause based on the recommendation of another local school that used it for its auction software. The customer service and support as we made this decision and transition was a confirmation for us.
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.