Classy vs. Raiser's Edge

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Classy
Score 7.5 out of 10
N/A
Classy is a fundraising platform that supports direct giving and peer-to-peer fundraising, recurring donations, and event management. Classy offers nonprofits the tools to provide the right experience to the right donor at the right time. Classy gives nonprofits access to customizable campaigns, best-in-class integrations, and an expansive library of resources including always-available care agents and hands-on fundraising coaches. Together, the vendor states that Classy and…N/A
Raiser's Edge
Score 7.9 out of 10
N/A
N/AN/A
Pricing
ClassyRaiser's Edge
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
ClassyRaiser's Edge
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
ClassyRaiser's Edge
Considered Both Products
Classy
Chose Classy
I am still relatively new to my organization, and we were already set up with Classy before I got here. However, I know that they explored many other options, and Classy was chosen unanimously. We find it so helpful to have regular calls with a Classy representative, as it's …
Chose Classy
Classy thrives in social media and web applications. It blows away Raiser's Edge and Blackbaud products, which are becoming obsolete. For Salesforce integrated solutions such as Click&Pledge or IATS, Classy provides a higher class of service at a somewhat higher price.
Raiser's Edge

No answer on this topic

Top Pros
Top Cons
Best Alternatives
ClassyRaiser's Edge
Small Businesses
OneCause
OneCause
Score 9.2 out of 10
Bloomerang
Bloomerang
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
OneCause
OneCause
Score 9.2 out of 10
Bloomerang
Bloomerang
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Blackbaud CRM
Blackbaud CRM
Score 7.5 out of 10
Blackbaud CRM
Blackbaud CRM
Score 7.5 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
ClassyRaiser's Edge
Likelihood to Recommend
8.6
(53 ratings)
7.0
(82 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
6.2
(27 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(1 ratings)
9.0
(10 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(3 ratings)
Support Rating
9.9
(3 ratings)
7.6
(19 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
5.9
(5 ratings)
User Testimonials
ClassyRaiser's Edge
Likelihood to Recommend
Classy.org
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.
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Blackbaud
Raisers Edge is outstanding for storing and reporting on constituent data and communications. There are many options for creating methods of tracking by different information included and also for creating personalized tracking methods.
Raisers Edge is not very well suited for an organization that also has a gift shop and visitors center. Allowing membership admission and item sales is not practical.
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Pros
Classy.org
  • 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!
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Blackbaud
  • Raiser's Edge is good in allowing detailed categorizations for donations - Funds/Campaigns/Appeals/Packages
  • Raiser's Edge has good query functioning and is helpful in pulling lists and segments of constituents and donations
  • The variety of detail across sections (Gifts/Bios/Actions) is helpful for recording and archiving constituent information
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Cons
Classy.org
  • 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.
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Blackbaud
  • Data posting to Financial Edge (FE) is limited and complicated to understand (took us time to adjust). The posting report does not have enough info: Appeal, campaign and who posted to FE. In genereral, RE/FE integration is not explained by Blackbaud properly, we had to figure out everything on the go.
  • Volunteer module is a bit cumbersome; some fields have duplicate fields in the event module; the identical information ends up being recorded in two different places.
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Likelihood to Renew
Classy.org
No answers on this topic
Blackbaud
There are many CRM tools on the market however Raisers Edge especially with NXT offers everything you need in one database. It’s a little pricey however Blackbaud support is super helpful and they offer so many tools and add ins.
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Usability
Classy.org
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.
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Blackbaud
it does lots of things well (prospect tracking and event management), some things FANTASTIC (gift records and donations and relationships). It is rigid enough for the database administrator to maintain good clean data, but flexible enought for customization across organizations so specific data can be kept as needed for YOUR specific organization needs.
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Reliability and Availability
Classy.org
No answers on this topic
Blackbaud
Since the software is expensive to use, only so many people are able to active users at once. There are times when I may have to wait or ask another user to log out so that I may log in.
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Support Rating
Classy.org
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.
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Blackbaud
For most users, only chat support is available. There is a phone number, but it is very labor-intensive to get someone on the phone, and the chat does not include an easy way to screen share. Those sessions need to be scheduled in advance and almost begged for; the chat line always has a long wait time, and sometimes it seems their support personnel is chatting with more than one client at a time.
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Implementation Rating
Classy.org
No answers on this topic
Blackbaud
It's critically important to consider where you are taking your fundraising efforts and strategy, and to collaborate closely with other departments who will also use RE. I would strongly recommend that you investigate best practices -both from Blackbaud (theory) and with other organizations (practice) - to create a user manual and guide for RE within your organization
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Alternatives Considered
Classy.org
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.
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Blackbaud
Salesforce has a more modern feel and I felt that it was easier to perform functions beyond the basics, such as running reports for analysis, on Salesforce. But The Raisers Edge already existed at my company and given that I only needed it for basic functions and did not need much training to do those, I decided to use The Raisers Edge.
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Return on Investment
Classy.org
  • 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.
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Blackbaud
  • It takes longer than necessary to do things so that makes it cost more staff time to complete the work we need. One example is with online gifts since you can't import these into a batch we have to manually add all of the online gifts which is time consuming.
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ScreenShots

Classy Screenshots

Screenshot of Campaign Designer: Campaign pages can be used to collect one-time or recurring donations through a customizable, mobile-responsive web page optimized for conversion.Screenshot of Peer-to-Peer: Mobilizes supporters with tools to fundraise on a nonprofit's behalf.Screenshot of Classy Live: Powers events of any size and location with an event fundraising platform that unites donors around a customized experience.Screenshot of Recurring Giving: To build a reliable revenue stream and appeal to more donors for ongoing support.Screenshot of Embedded Donation Forms: Maximizes conversion and revenue on websites using a form built for performance.Screenshot of Crowdfunding: To tell a story and inspire support for a cause with conversion-optimized crowdfunding campaigns.