FIMS vs. SurveyMonkey Apply

I believe a company starting out with a whole new database may take advantage of MicroEdge GIFTS. However, GIFTS would not work well for an organization which is transferring their old data onto the platform. GIFTS does not update well as time passes and data would most likely be lost and/or corrupted. I have not worked with the newest GIFTS online, so I do not know if that process would be smooth or not, but from what my coworkers told me upon hire, it seems GIFTS was very difficult to customize online. When attempting to use GIFTS online, our organization was told that we'd have to pay an invoice of several thousand dollars to change three words in a paragraph on the online system. Lastly, and most importantly, we found MicroEdge's customer service to be nearly impossible to reach, rude, and never helpful when help was sought out. Organizations which would need help with the program should not expect to be serviced in a timely or helpful manner.

Incentivized

I think SurveyMonkey is well suited in company meetings to see how well customers like a certain product or in staff meetings to see how well a new teaching method is doing in comparison to an old one. I honestly think that SurveyMonkey can be used in just about anywhere that customer or employee feedback is valued.

Incentivized

• GIFTS Classics does a very good job of processing transactions. You can track workflow and enter/change important information along the lifecycle.
• My favorite feature is the ability to select almost any field within the database and organize how it will be viewed, either within the system or when exported to Excel. You can relabel the column headers, sort, switch the order, stack fields, and capture all the information that will help in both processing and decision making.
• I find the ability to create a wide range of templates that can then be generated and stored through the document manager tool to provide great efficiency and reduce opportunity for error.

Incentivized

• SurveyMonkey Apply has the best customer service I've ever experienced in a company. They are easily accessible, super helpful and friendly, and they will work until they are able to find a solution.
• The platform for building an application on SurveyMonkey Apply is simple for the user. It's set up with such a clean format that is appealing to the eye and incredibly user-friendly.
• The application system also has a lot of flexibility, making it easy to customize your applications as needed.

Incentivized

• GIFTS system had many inherent bugs
• Difficult to search for information in GIFTS
• Customer support was difficult to reach
• When reached, customer service was rude and unhelpful
• GIFTS system could not put addresses in alphabetical order by country
• Upon updates, GIFTS system would crash and data would become corrupted
• GIFTS often would freeze and crash when exporting information to Excel
• GIFTS would not allow for the deletion of certain program codes even when user had full administrative privileges

Incentivized

• An average administration may not have the technical capabilities to adapt and shape it for themselves. While SurveyMonkey Apply has an option for tech support for a price, it is not something always easy for the admin.
• There is no way to cross reference users by Social Security Number or other identifier. In other words, a single applicant with multiple email addresses could potentially apply and receive benefits as the users are tied to email address not email address and SSN.

Incentivized

I typically receive a response to an inquiry within an hour or two, if not sooner. Most tech support people are knowledgeable about our problems, and if not, they will escalate to the proper person.

Incentivized

It is really a matter of priority. I can see situations where GIFTS Classic is a very strong option! Once an organization determines its priorities then it should definitely consider GIFTS to see how well it compares with mission critical functionality.

Incentivized

SurveyMonkey Apply (formerly Fluid Review) is extremely user friendly, it speeds up the survey/forms creativity and design. Very reliable and trusted - it is the most popular and used by small organizations to large and well established businesses. You can easily opt for month to month options and that is why I choose SurveyMonkey (formerly FluidReview)

Incentivized

• Good reporting (by program area, geographic area, payments, and backgrounds) for close to 250 grants per year
• Due to familiarity of program (MicroEdge), not too difficult to convert to new program of Blackbaud Grantmaking

Incentivized

• Positive Impact: allowed us to move to a more virtual office, just in time for COVID's forcing all to work from home/remotely.
• Negative Impact: made it much harder to capture all data we need to merge with all applicants since organization created.

Incentivized