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…
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Webex Events (formerly Socio)
Score 8.6 out of 10
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Webex Events (formerly Socio) gives event professionals event tech to power every stage of the event planning & execution process.
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.
WebEx Events is a great tool for hosting both an event website and an onsite event app. If you are looking to integrate an on onsite and online event, they have this capability, as well. The staff is always very helpful and I am able to get answers to my questions in a timely manner
It has quite a few optional and customizable features that can be utilized.
It's easy to integrate your existing tools like Zoom, YouTube, Vimeo, and streaming services.
It's flexible in the way that you upload content in that you can enter things one at a time on the website, or use a spreadsheet to upload a larger amount of content.
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.
Sometimes I feel like it uses too many resources and makes my computer go slower
Chats of the webinar dissappear by default, but sometimes important info is shared and could be nice to have the option to save it
The quality of the video gets chosen by webex by default, sometimes maybe it would be nice to get the option to fix manually what's the minimum quality you want. Just to not talk with pixels
Of course something could happen to our orgs ability to put on a conference or Socio could fundamentally change their product or their customer service - but barring any magor shift there is nothing that is even close to competing for our attention here.
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.
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.
Socio (now WebexEvents) is one of two products I use that gets customer service right. Not only can you get an answer from an actual person quickly during business hours - but if you are asking after hours, you know the response will be waiting for you in the morning. Not only are they fast, but they are also smart about their products and customers. There is very little back and forth trying to explain the problem I am having, or the new way I am trying to use their product, that may even be novel for them.
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.
We have used multiple virtual event platforms in the past, as well as trialed several. We ultimately decided on Webex due to the aesthetics of the website, the incredibly easy build-out process, the 24/5 support, the user-friendly front-end interface, the multiple ways to monetize sponsorships, and ultimately... the price. The value for what you get is incredible compared to other platforms.
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.
