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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Blackbaud Luminate Online

    Score6.7 out of 10
    Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
    Luminate Online aims to help non-profits engage more effectively with supporters and raise more money by enabling integrated campaigns for digital, social and mobile channels. According to the vendor, Luminate Online helps non-profits: Better understand online supporters Make the right ask at the right time Launch creative fundraising campaigns Automated campaigns stimulate engagement and action through targeted welcome messages with personalized…N/A
    Pricing
    Blackbaud Luminate Online
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Blackbaud Luminate Online
    Free Trial
    No
    Free/Freemium Version
    No
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    Yes
    Entry-level Setup FeeRequired
    Additional DetailsLuminate Online is priced based on the number of email addresses on file, modules used and service plan. Our peer to peer offering, TeamRaiser, has a transactional, shared success pricing model.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Blackbaud Luminate Online
    Considered Both Products
    Blackbaud
    Chose Blackbaud Luminate Online
    The integration that you can have between Blackbaud Luminate Online and Raiser's Edge via the RELO connector was highly valuable. It isn't simple to set up however, this took expertise from the consultants. But once set up, it always worked very well. On the other hand, Classy …
    Incentivized
    Chose Blackbaud Luminate Online
    We no longer use Blackbaud Luminate
    Incentivized
    Chose Blackbaud Luminate Online
    I haven't used Classy directly, but comparing the platform from public information leads me to believe it is comparable to Blackbaud Luminate Online. It isn't possible to determine what future development efforts Classy has planned, which is important when we consider how …
    Incentivized
    Chose Blackbaud Luminate Online
    It is a great add on feature to Blackbauds Raiser's Edge NXT. Raiser's Edge NXT does have the capability to create donation pages however it does not have the capability to do receipting which is why I prefer Blackbaud Luminate Online capability for this.
    Incentivized
    Chose Blackbaud Luminate Online
    We use them at the same time. It's apples to oranges.
    Incentivized
    Chose Blackbaud Luminate Online
    They are essentially both helpful tools to non-profits. I will say Blackbaud Luminate Online seems to have more resources and data available than the likes of Slipcase and most of its competitors. The features on Blackbaud Luminate Online differentiate it from all the other …
    Incentivized
    Chose Blackbaud Luminate Online
    [I feel] Luminate has a less evolved feature set and a significantly more closed ecosystem, limiting the uses cases dramatically.
    Incentivized
    Chose Blackbaud Luminate Online
    If it were up to me, I would go back to Luminate, which is a much more flexible and robust platform than is Classy, the platform we adopted.
    Incentivized
    Chose Blackbaud Luminate Online
    Classy.org, Raiser's Edge, Sphere or contracting with a tech company to build a tool from scratch.
    Incentivized
    Chose Blackbaud Luminate Online
    My current organization was using Paypal to process online payments as well as in house payments. The reporting was horrible. You couldn't pull transaction history therefore not be able create different segments for future use. They had also used MailChimp which had a nice …
    Incentivized
    Chose Blackbaud Luminate Online
    I've looked at Give2Together and Salsa. The reality is that I have been using Luminate for over a decade and I really like the platform. I wouldn't consider using a different program.
    Incentivized
    Chose Blackbaud Luminate Online
    I've used both BBNC and Sphere with other clients. As I work primarily with data, my first choice of the three would be BBNC, but it does not have the team functionality that this client needs.
    Incentivized
    Chose Blackbaud Luminate Online
    Before I was hired here, Benefactor was used. The decision was made to change from that because it could not handle our needs. Luminate had the most options and was a leader in the fundraising field. It has definitely helped us grow our fundraising and has all the modules in …
    Incentivized
    Chose Blackbaud Luminate Online
    Raiser's Edge, Sphere
    Incentivized
    Chose Blackbaud Luminate Online
    We've used Sphere which was similar, but Luminate's TeamRaiser is much cleaner and user-friendly.
    Incentivized
    Chose Blackbaud Luminate Online
    None at this time.
    Incentivized
    Chose Blackbaud Luminate Online
    We used Blue State Digital prior to using Luminate. Similar to Luminate we used it for advocacy, email, online donations and event registration.
    Incentivized
    Chose Blackbaud Luminate Online
    We have used Kintera before they were purchased by Blackbaud and have also used Blackbaud's NetCommunity.
    Incentivized
    Chose Blackbaud Luminate Online
    Luminate Online replaced an in-house option.
    Incentivized
    Chose Blackbaud Luminate Online
    CrowdRise and it's peer-to-peer fundraising model is much more out of the box user-friendly, in areas like the following: setup / dashboards / page creation / registration for participants or donors. However, in the end, their integration with a CRM is limited to CSV file …
    Incentivized
    Chose Blackbaud Luminate Online
    The products I've used that compare to Luminate are also Blackbaud products- Blackbaud NetCommunity and Sphere: Friends Asking Friends. Luminate Online certainly has more advanced functionality but could still benefit from an interface update and modernization. The choices can …
    Incentivized
    Chose Blackbaud Luminate Online
    We have used Artez/Frontstream for donation pages and peer to peer but it doesn't seem to offer the flexibility and donor experience as well as Luminate Online does. Emailing is limited and user experience for peer to peer is basic. Not as much support or interest in helping to …
    Incentivized
    Chose Blackbaud Luminate Online
    The only other product I have used for this type of fundraising work is NetCommunity and it hasn't been as scalable or versatile. It doesn't really offer the peer to peer fundraising of Luminate or the constituent management, web page development and considered donation forms. …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    57%
    Would buy again
    4 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    50%
    Delivers good value for the price
    3 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    71%
    Happy with the feature set
    5 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    Best Alternatives
    Blackbaud Luminate Online
    Small Businesses
    Bonterra Network for Good
    Score9.3 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    GiveSmart by Momentive
    Score7.5 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Kindsight iWave
    Score8.4 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Blackbaud Luminate Online
    Likelihood to Recommend
    3.7
    (87 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.0
    (21 ratings)
    Usability
    2.1
    (28 ratings)
    Availability
    10.0
    (3 ratings)
    Performance
    9.2
    (9 ratings)
    Support Rating
    5.0
    (32 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    Online Training
    7.3
    (14 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    3.0
    (4 ratings)
    Configurability
    6.6
    (9 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    6.0
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    9.8
    (11 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Blackbaud Luminate Online
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Blackbaud
    Blackbaud Luminate Online is an excellent solution for online giving, providing a wealth of tools for producing donation forms. It also is outstanding for peer-to-peer fundraising, such as event-based efforts like walks, cycling tours, and so forth. The Email module is outstanding if you need an internal solution for communicating with your donors and supporters. It provides a wealth of tools for crafting emails, and for reporting on the results.
    Read full review
    Pros
    Blackbaud
    • House Donor Information. Easy report pulling. Queries and lists.
    • I like how everything is housed on one platform. Webpages, emails and donor profiles. User friendly.
    • It works nicely with other blackbaud products such as Raiser's Edge. Easy importing and exporting options.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Blackbaud
    • Reporting needs some work, this is being worked on in their new BETA program.
    • The eCommerce module needs some work. It would be great to have more ability to customize parts of it without having to rewrite the code.
    • The Events module could use some improvements as well.
    • The Personal Fundraising module needs a lot of work. It really cannot work as needed right now. We started using TeamRaiser to handle this, but it could be great.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Blackbaud
    We’ve decided to leave Luminate and are moving to a system that better caters to our and our users needs. Luminate has proven difficult to use and has limited abilities when it comes to data management, events, and peer-to-peer functionality. Reporting is also very complicated and requires a great deal of time to utilize properly.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Blackbaud
    You have to be very tech savvy to use Luminate to its fullest potential. You can get buy with the training, but there is a steep learning curve and you almost need 6 months to 1 year of in-person training to really be able to anything substantial. The online training lessons are not going to cut it while learning this program.
    Incentivized
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    Reliability and Availability
    Blackbaud
    It's a very rare occurrence if the system isn't available when I want it. I can easily log in from home after hours if need be, and the security is enforced, but simple when you're legit! They are very good about sending email reminders and updates when system maintenance will be performed, and it's always during middle of the night hours when you likely wouldn't be using it anyways
    Incentivized
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    Performance
    Blackbaud
    Pages load fast and 98% of the reports do run in a matter of secons/minutes. There is this one report I have that can take hours to run, but this is due to the amount of transactions being requested for one of our biggest online fundraising events (Transaction report)
    Incentivized
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    Support Rating
    Blackbaud
    Support staff are usually incredibly helpful and responsive. There are several ways to contact them (chat, logging a ticket, phone) which makes it easy to get help when you need it. Once in a while I get a support staff member who isn't quite as helpful, which is why I gave it a 9 instead of a 10, but that is rare and if I follow up with someone else, I get what I need.
    Incentivized
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    In-Person Training
    Blackbaud
    Initial training was great and the instructor was very patient and helpful during the set up process. Blackbaud has a variety on online self-paced classes that supplement the training you receive. The only downfall is after training is complete. I've found the support for Luminate to be a tad lackluster. We often encounter issues that aren't on Luminate's development road map and have had a series of cases be opened.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Blackbaud
    When I used the training, I had actually been using Luminate Online but figured it might help me learn to use the tools more effectively. And it did. The sessions were helpful and even as a current user I felt like I learned how to use the tools more effectively.
    Incentivized
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    Implementation Rating
    Blackbaud
    Implementation of Luminate itself was rather smooth, but the process involved for TeamRaiser was very difficult. Even after implementation we relied on support to help with various aspects of TeamRaiser from page design to reporting and front end user issues. The support offered for issues with Luminate was very good, but again TeamRaiser support was lacking.
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    Blackbaud
    The only other product I have used for this type of fundraising work is NetCommunity and it hasn't been as scalable or versatile. It doesn't really offer the peer to peer fundraising of Luminate or the constituent management, web page development and considered donation forms. NetCommunity didn't even come close which is why we replaced it with Luminate.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Blackbaud
    Luminate Online is a great scalable product as it provides various price points dependent on your quantity of email addresses. This allows both small and large organizations to utilize the product, which has strong email capabilities. It also means smaller organizations aren't forced to pay astronomical fees in order to have access to a quality product.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    Blackbaud
    • We've increased our online giving +200% although this is due in part to our focus on the channel and not entirely on the product.
    • We've been able to increase employee efficiency by selecting email lists per message within Luminate Online. With our prior solution we needed to request data be pulled from our database for event email.
    • We've really done a great job of growing our online tribute and memorial giving through the use of custom links and the pre-populated information has really helped with the back end processing.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Blackbaud Luminate Online Screenshots

    Screenshot of Email Overview DashboardScreenshot of Luminate allows you to enable multiple types of giving - from recurring to matching and everything between.Screenshot of Luminate enables you to reach out to supporters in multiple waysScreenshot of Luminate Peer to Peer fundraising with DIY events, also enables your supporters to fundraising on their behalf.