Classy vs. GoFundMe Charity

Well suited for organizations with large fundraising programs or many recurring donors, especially those who have the staffing to devote to reporting and fundraising data analysis. Variety of payment options is good for mobile-first or younger audiences who may be taking more frequent advantage of payment methods like Venmo and Apple Pay. Most useful if it is used in tandem as an event registration/event hosting platform (Classy Event Registration or Classy Live) as attendee data and fundraising is kept in a single place. Less appropriate for smaller organizations, or folks that will not be doing crowdfunding/peer-to-peer/events. There are other platforms that do standard donation pages well that have fewer bells and whistles but are accordingly cheaper.

Incentivized

GoFundMe is well suited for personal appeals where a story can be told and donors feel an immediate result or effect. It is less appropriate for larger mass appeals that are not targeted directly to a specific cause. For example, not good for companies to ask for funding for operating expenses.

Incentivized

• The Classy platform is easy to use, both for the staff and our volunteer fundraisers
• It's easy to build a great looking fundraising page
• Classy support (particularly chat and phone) are attentive and responsive. Every one there is smart and nice!

Incentivized

• Peer-to-peer fundraising
• Fundraising pages

Incentivized

• Campaigns lack customization options which can be limiting- while you can add code to make some changes, there is a basic framework that you can't always override.
• Slow to roll out some donor payment options like Venmo.
• Not inexpensive price point and on an annual contract, so the software is definitely an investment.

Incentivized

• Need a clearer picture of your campaign status, especially around publishing (making it live).
• Processing rates are not horrible but not great either - If we used our own processor our fees would be cut in half.

Incentivized

VERY easy to use, but lacks flexibility. But very easy to learn and master, even for someone with technical skills. They offer live chat which is a great help for on-demand support. At higher call volumes, you may wait 10 minutes, but I’ve never waited for more than that and the support if 90% of the time very helpful.

Incentivized

GoFundMe is very easy to use and does a great job allowing us to share insights and stories to leave a lasting impression on donors. From setting up the account to ending the appeal, the entire process has been very user-friendly. I'm very impressed with the experience so far and plan to continue using it for future campaigns.

Incentivized

Classy's team was very helpful as we transitioned over, and helped us get everything set up quite easily. The few times we've had issues or questions, their online chat feature has been a quick way to get answers. On Giving Tuesday last year, the site went down, but Classy was quick with communication to its clients and had the problem resolved in about an hour. I know that if we have any problems or questions, the company and its team will be responsive and helpful. That makes a difference to me and our small team. We don't have time to troubleshoot or stay on hold for a long time waiting for support.

Incentivized

Crowdrise has been great with their customer support. They have always been helpful and available. They also have several resources on their website that has been useful to other areas of our non-profit. Their relatability has been positive for us and has made us feel taken care of and considered.

Incentivized

I have not used any other platforms like Classy. Given I came into this organization after Classy was already chosen, I was pleased with how easy it was to learn the platform and how user-friendly the entire thing is. Although I haven't used any other platforms like it, I would highly recommend it.

Since GFM was selected for us I can't give the rationale behind that. However, I do think that Qgiv and Salsa are more internally user-friendly and provide at least the same amount of functionality. That being said, the other two (I think) require CRMs to use whereas GFM can just integrate with others, making it a better choice for one-off campaigning.

Incentivized

• This has been nothing but positive. We use the basic version so there is no fee associated with it other than a percentage of each transaction. So everything that comes in is added revenue where the only investment is staff time, but there is no monetary investment.

Incentivized

• Brought in new donors from outside our solicitation area.
• Appeals to younger audiences.
• Great way to include client testimonials and stories.

Incentivized