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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Blackbaud Luminate Online

    Score7.1 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

    Intuit Mailchimp

    Score8.4 out of 10
    N/AMailchimp is an email marketing and marketing automation platform. Beyond just tracking how campaigns perform, Mailchimp takes it a step further by analyzing data from over half a billion emails to show why campaigns perform, driving informed decisions.

    $0

    per month

    Pricing
    Blackbaud Luminate OnlineIntuit Mailchimp
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Free
    $0
    Essentials
    starts at $13
    per month
    Standard
    starts at $20
    per month
    Premium
    starts at $350
    per month
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Blackbaud Luminate OnlineIntuit Mailchimp
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeRequiredNo setup fee
    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 OnlineIntuit Mailchimp
    Considered Both Products
    Blackbaud
    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
    We've just begun evaluating other programs to see if there is an equivalent to Luminate. We are particularly interested in email management and have looked at Constant Contact, MailChimp, and other similar services. While we like the data management options that these products …
    Incentivized
    Chose Blackbaud Luminate Online
    I have used CrowdRise with other clients, and though these are easy to set up and maintain, they are not as easily customizable. I have worked with MailChimp on email marketing, but there is a limit on the number of fields in the database (using MailChimp).
    Incentivized
    Chose Blackbaud Luminate Online
    I have used much inferior products, like Artez and MailChimp and several others over the years. They do not even compare to LO in the integration with overall fundraising, ease of use, database integration, professionalism of the final product, graphic capabilities, etc. The …
    Incentivized
    Chose Blackbaud Luminate Online
    Only MailChimp and Constant Contact. Both were long enough ago that I don't think a comparison would be valid. More recently, though, I've used the following P2P resources, which far surpass accessibility from a user-standpoint, of TeamRaiser (though I can't speak to the admin …
    Incentivized
    Chose Blackbaud Luminate Online
    Previously we utilized Raiser's Edge on in-house servers, and managed email contacts through bulk email providers. The move to LO allowed us to integrate the database with the online outreach and payment processing in a far more effective manner. We have had limited experience …
    Incentivized
    Chose Blackbaud Luminate Online
    Compared with other email blast systems, LO has incredible flexibility and capabilities, as you might expect form a pay-for-use system. The interface is clunkier than MailChimp but similar in elegance to Constant Contact and Emma. If LO had a MailChimp-like UX, it would be an …
    Incentivized
    Chose Blackbaud Luminate Online
    There are a number of newcomers to the market, which we are watching closely. In particular, donate.ly looks like a promising alternative to many Luminate functions, and MailChimp seems like potentially a more effective and modern email marketing platform.
    Incentivized
    Chose Blackbaud Luminate Online
    I used MailChimp and Campaign Monitor to build e-communications pieces. They are both easier to use. The user interfaces are more non-technical user friendly. I use Wordpress to build my sites. Luminate's "mobile" compatibility is minimal and no where near dynamic.
    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
    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
    I find that other products seem to excel in specific areas where Luminate falls short (i.e., just emails or just donations), but we keep coming back to Luminate because it does it all - just not all well. If Luminate were an online dating profile, the headline should read "Jack …
    Incentivized
    Chose Blackbaud Luminate Online
    Salsa, Salesforce, Exact Target, MailChimp.
    Incentivized
    Chose Blackbaud Luminate Online
    Personally the only other CRM I've used other than Luminate is Salesforce.
    Incentivized
    Chose Blackbaud Luminate Online
    When it comes to meeting all of the needs for a non-profit to effectively fundraise – email, web, merchant services, advocacy, eCommerce, CRM – the Blackbaud ecosystem is the only one that can do everything in one place, and do so reasonably well.
    A stronger solution may be to …
    Incentivized
    Chose Blackbaud Luminate Online
    MailChimp
    Classy
    Kindful
    Incentivized
    Chose Blackbaud Luminate Online
    It was always in place.
    Incentivized
    Chose Blackbaud Luminate Online
    I looked primarily at iModules as an alternative and thought both were similar. While Blackbaud (then Convio) was a bit more expensive it had a bit more functionality with the constituent database that we needed, but I don't know that one is clearly better than the other.
    Incentivized
    Intuit
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    57%
    Would buy again
    4 Answers
    88%
    Would buy again
    251 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    50%
    Delivers good value for the price
    3 Answers
    91%
    Delivers good value for the price
    244 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    71%
    Happy with the feature set
    5 Answers
    89%
    Happy with the feature set
    255 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    91%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    215 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    94%
    Implementation went as expected
    247 Answers
    Features
    Blackbaud Luminate OnlineIntuit Mailchimp
    Email & Online Marketing
    Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Blackbaud Luminate Online and Intuit Mailchimp
    Feature
    Blackbaud Luminate Online
    -
    Ratings
    Intuit Mailchimp
    8.1
    586 Ratings
    5% above category average
    WYSIWYG email editor00 Ratings8.1538 Ratings
    Dynamic content00 Ratings8.1520 Ratings
    Ability to test dynamic content00 Ratings8.2500 Ratings
    Landing pages00 Ratings8.4405 Ratings
    A/B testing00 Ratings7.8435 Ratings
    Mobile optimization00 Ratings7.9536 Ratings
    Email deliverability reporting00 Ratings8.8569 Ratings
    List management00 Ratings8.1565 Ratings
    Triggered drip sequences00 Ratings7.7386 Ratings
    Lead Management
    Comparison of Lead Management features of Blackbaud Luminate Online and Intuit Mailchimp
    Feature
    Blackbaud Luminate Online
    -
    Ratings
    Intuit Mailchimp
    8.9
    76 Ratings
    12% above category average
    Lead nurturing automation00 Ratings7.466 Ratings
    Lead scoring and grading00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
    Data quality management00 Ratings8.373 Ratings
    Automated sales alerts and tasks00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
    Campaign Management
    Comparison of Campaign Management features of Blackbaud Luminate Online and Intuit Mailchimp
    Feature
    Blackbaud Luminate Online
    -
    Ratings
    Intuit Mailchimp
    7.9
    126 Ratings
    5% above category average
    Calendaring00 Ratings7.448 Ratings
    Event/webinar marketing00 Ratings8.4112 Ratings
    Social Media Marketing
    Comparison of Social Media Marketing features of Blackbaud Luminate Online and Intuit Mailchimp
    Feature
    Blackbaud Luminate Online
    -
    Ratings
    Intuit Mailchimp
    8.2
    125 Ratings
    10% above category average
    Social sharing and campaigns00 Ratings8.3117 Ratings
    Social profile integration00 Ratings8.2107 Ratings
    Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Blackbaud Luminate Online and Intuit Mailchimp
    Feature
    Blackbaud Luminate Online
    -
    Ratings
    Intuit Mailchimp
    8.4
    566 Ratings
    12% above category average
    Dashboards00 Ratings8.6230 Ratings
    Standard reports00 Ratings8.6561 Ratings
    Custom reports00 Ratings7.9131 Ratings
    Platform & Infrastructure
    Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Blackbaud Luminate Online and Intuit Mailchimp
    Feature
    Blackbaud Luminate Online
    -
    Ratings
    Intuit Mailchimp
    7.9
    133 Ratings
    4% above category average
    API00 Ratings7.9107 Ratings
    Role-based workflow & approvals00 Ratings8.571 Ratings
    Customizability00 Ratings5.62 Ratings
    Integration with Salesforce.com00 Ratings8.655 Ratings
    Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM00 Ratings8.747 Ratings
    Integration with SugarCRM00 Ratings8.12 Ratings
    Third-party software integrations00 Ratings7.9110 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Blackbaud Luminate OnlineIntuit Mailchimp
    Small Businesses
    Kindsight iWave
    Score8.5 out of 10
    Vbout
    Score9.9 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    GiveSmart by Momentive
    Score7.6 out of 10
    Bloomreach
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Kindsight iWave
    Score8.5 out of 10
    Iterable
    Score8.1 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Blackbaud Luminate OnlineIntuit Mailchimp
    Likelihood to Recommend
    3.7
    (87 ratings)
    8.7
    (609 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.0
    (21 ratings)
    10.0
    (55 ratings)
    Usability
    2.1
    (28 ratings)
    8.5
    (478 ratings)
    Availability
    10.0
    (3 ratings)
    9.5
    (6 ratings)
    Performance
    9.2
    (9 ratings)
    8.9
    (7 ratings)
    Support Rating
    5.0
    (32 ratings)
    8.8
    (20 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Online Training
    7.3
    (14 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    3.0
    (4 ratings)
    7.4
    (22 ratings)
    Configurability
    6.6
    (9 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    6.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.0
    (4 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    9.8
    (11 ratings)
    9.5
    (6 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Blackbaud Luminate OnlineIntuit Mailchimp
    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
    Intuit
    Mailchimp is fairly easy to onboard, even for those who would consider themselves less technologically inclined. It can be as simple as plug-and-play for simpler campaigns or scale up as needed. It also makes it easy to build, send out for internal review and feedback, and track all the needed changes.
    Incentivized
    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
    Intuit
    • Mailchimp allows you to manage your mailing list really well. You can subscribe people, unsubscribe people manage the mailing list directly into segments, and what not.
    • Mailchimp has features where you can create campaigns based on your mailing lists and send out newsletters to your subscribers based on a multitude of parameters that you can setup. Such as send email daily, weekly, monthly and they also have event based mails that you can send out.
    • Mailchimp also has a feature where you can design your emails. The look and aesthetics are very important when sending emails to your subscribers and all those needs are addressed here.
    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
    Intuit
    • The pricing tiers do scale quickly so if you have a free newsletter it may get expensive
    • The pricing is based on total emails so if you have users who you only email rarely it might not make sense to use Intuit Mailchimp
    • Customer support can be a bit lacking at times and their docs aren't always the best
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    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
    Intuit
    We've had Mailchimp for about ten years, I want to say. I started with the company about four years ago, and I don't see us ever diverting to another source. It's easy for us to use, and we have all our clients already built into the database. I imagine we'll use them for as long as we have the company.
    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
    Read full review
    Intuit
    It is easy, but some things you need to learn from their resources. Mailchimp is one of the most popular email marketing platforms because it combines email marketing, automation, audience management, and analytics into a single tool that's easy to use and scale. Simple solutions and drag-and-drop edits make it easy.
    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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    Intuit
    I have, in the 4+ years that I've used Mailchimp, never seen an issue that restricted the use of their software/tools. I don't know of a single time when they're system crashed or went down. I could be wrong, but I honestly haven't experienced any issues with outages, errors or unplanned downtime
    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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    Intuit
    I haven't noticed any slow speeds from Mailchimp or their tools. I think the landing pages load quickly and look nice. The email reports and editing operates smoothly and doesn't take time to load. Additionally, when I use Mailchimp in conjunction with Zapier + Hubspot I don't notice any drag between any of these tools
    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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    Intuit
    Website tools were easy to use and understand so a novice can easily meet or exceed their client's expectations! Loved that we were able to totally customize so that the e-mail we created conveyed our client's overall messaging consistent with their branding! Client love that we can provide turnkey services to support their sales and marketing teams!
    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
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    Intuit
    No answers on this topic
    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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    Intuit
    No answers on this topic
    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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    Intuit
    It's pretty easy to get up and running! There's a slight learning curve on a few things, but once you find where everything is located, you can import your list and send your first email. It really makes our clients feel great to see how quickly they can get that first email out.
    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
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    Intuit
    I used Intuit Mailchimp, and I would say other software I used is equally good and competes with Intuit Mailchimp. Well, Intuit Mailchimp's reporting is better, and ActiveCampaign has more affordable pricing, so in the end, it all comes to what you need. What we needed was available in cheaper price in other software as well. But I would definitely say Intuit Mailchimp has its own advantages too.
    Incentivized
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    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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    Intuit
    Mailchimp over the years I've used it has grown in leaps and bounds. They have added so many additional features than were previously available. They are truly an all-in-one marketing platform now. If you're a small operation and just want to add email to your marketing efforts, they're there for you. If you're a larger operation and want to start sending postcard advertisements, they can do that. If you'd good with that and want to kick up your marketing by going social, you can do that on their platform. They are truly able to be as small as you need, but also get quite large in whatever it is you'd like to do through their system.
    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
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    Intuit
    • One of my retail web store clients was sending out email specials and notices about once a month. After clicking the send button, we would watch Google Analytics and the current site users would light up immediately. Often, the current site visitors would pop up to 20, 30 or more after the email was sent. On a normal day, seeing 1 or 2 online users would be OK.
    • Pretty much in all cases, we could see an uptick in positive activity after sending out a Intuit Mailchimp email to a list.
    Incentivized
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    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.

    Intuit Mailchimp Screenshots

    Screenshot of Mailchimp's advanced analytics and reporting tools. These are used to monitor trends, track performance, and get actionable insights that help users to create better campaigns and drive customer engagement.Screenshot of Mailchimp's precise audience segmentation. Its AI simplifies the workflow by generating complex customer segments for highly personalized campaigns.Screenshot of omnichannel marketing. Campaigns can be built across multiple channels, and then managed from one convenient place.Screenshot of marketing automations with the Customer Journey Builder. This is used to reach the right people with the right message at exactly the right time, which helps to drive more repeat business, increase customer retention, and see more orders.Screenshot of Mailchimp's SMS marketing. SMS can be integrated into email, automations, and social campaigns.Screenshot of Mailchimp's AI, used to deliver relevant content faster. It can generate professionally written, on-brand marketing emails with the press of a button. The user only needs to review, edit, and send.