Blackbaud Luminate Online vs. Mailchimp

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Blackbaud Luminate Online
Score 5.7 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
Mailchimp
Score 7.9 out of 10
N/A
Mailchimp is the email marketing and marketing automation platform. Most email marketing platforms tell you how your campaigns perform, but Mailchimp goes a step beyond and tells you why by analyzing the data from half a billion emails sent through the platform every day to offer personalized recommendations for improving content, targeting, automations, and driving revenue using emails
$0
per month
Pricing
Blackbaud Luminate OnlineMailchimp
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Blackbaud Luminate OnlineMailchimp
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 OnlineMailchimp
Considered Both Products
Blackbaud Luminate Online
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 …
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 …
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 …
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.
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 …
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 …
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).
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.
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 …
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 …
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 …
Chose Blackbaud Luminate Online
MailChimp
Classy
Kindful
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 …
Chose Blackbaud Luminate Online
Personally the only other CRM I've used other than Luminate is Salesforce.
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 …
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.
Mailchimp

No answer on this topic

Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Blackbaud Luminate OnlineMailchimp
Email & Online Marketing
Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Blackbaud Luminate Online
-
Ratings
Mailchimp
8.0
472 Ratings
3% above category average
WYSIWYG email editor00 Ratings8.1437 Ratings
Dynamic content00 Ratings7.8420 Ratings
Ability to test dynamic content00 Ratings7.9401 Ratings
Landing pages00 Ratings7.5325 Ratings
A/B testing00 Ratings8.0356 Ratings
Mobile optimization00 Ratings8.1431 Ratings
Email deliverability reporting00 Ratings8.5459 Ratings
List management00 Ratings8.1459 Ratings
Triggered drip sequences00 Ratings7.7317 Ratings
Lead Management
Comparison of Lead Management features of Product A and Product B
Blackbaud Luminate Online
-
Ratings
Mailchimp
9.1
2 Ratings
17% above category average
Lead nurturing automation00 Ratings6.22 Ratings
Lead scoring and grading00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Data quality management00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Automated sales alerts and tasks00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Campaign Management
Comparison of Campaign Management features of Product A and Product B
Blackbaud Luminate Online
-
Ratings
Mailchimp
8.1
48 Ratings
6% above category average
Calendaring00 Ratings8.443 Ratings
Event/webinar marketing00 Ratings7.734 Ratings
Social Media Marketing
Comparison of Social Media Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Blackbaud Luminate Online
-
Ratings
Mailchimp
8.2
42 Ratings
9% above category average
Social sharing and campaigns00 Ratings8.340 Ratings
Social profile integration00 Ratings8.134 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Blackbaud Luminate Online
-
Ratings
Mailchimp
7.5
457 Ratings
0% above category average
Dashboards00 Ratings7.7120 Ratings
Standard reports00 Ratings8.0455 Ratings
Custom reports00 Ratings6.948 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
Blackbaud Luminate Online
-
Ratings
Mailchimp
7.3
41 Ratings
4% below category average
API00 Ratings7.831 Ratings
Role-based workflow & approvals00 Ratings6.26 Ratings
Customizability00 Ratings5.62 Ratings
Integration with Salesforce.com00 Ratings8.320 Ratings
Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM00 Ratings7.517 Ratings
Integration with SugarCRM00 Ratings8.12 Ratings
Third-party software integrations00 Ratings7.636 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Blackbaud Luminate OnlineMailchimp
Small Businesses
OneCause
OneCause
Score 9.2 out of 10
Vbout
Vbout
Score 9.4 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
OneCause
OneCause
Score 9.2 out of 10
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.3 out of 10
Enterprises
Blackbaud CRM
Blackbaud CRM
Score 7.5 out of 10
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.3 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Blackbaud Luminate OnlineMailchimp
Likelihood to Recommend
7.6
(85 ratings)
8.1
(496 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.0
(21 ratings)
8.5
(51 ratings)
Usability
6.0
(26 ratings)
8.4
(373 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(3 ratings)
9.5
(6 ratings)
Performance
9.2
(9 ratings)
9.0
(7 ratings)
Support Rating
5.0
(32 ratings)
7.8
(14 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
7.3
(14 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
3.0
(4 ratings)
7.5
(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 OnlineMailchimp
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.
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Mailchimp
With Mailchimp we are able to revive and enhance our personal connect with the customers. The easy-to-use tools allows us to personalize the email content, segregate and target important leads & send relevant messages. Also, it offers interactive analysis on the performance of a particular campaign. We can judge the effectiveness of our mailers in real time.
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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.
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Mailchimp
  • 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.
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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.
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Mailchimp
  • The interface remains a cluttered, non-intuitive mess. That's true from the haphazard way features are organized to the actual email layout.
  • Analytics have never been a priority, and I don't see that changing with Intuit's new ownership. I'm very frustrated over the limited choices for reporting, even when using third-party solutions. If I needed that function, I would not use MailChimp.
  • I would love to develop a workflow screen that lets me focus on the things that I use all the time. Customizing the interface where the content actually goes into the software would help.
  • I never understood why we couldn't import a document into a MC template. At best, we're spending time copying-and-pasting from one app into MC.
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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.
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Mailchimp
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.
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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.
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Mailchimp
Our team use Mailchimp almost every week. Overall UI is simple for anyone to get started with it. The resource library around using particular features is also there, so we don't have to train our team on this product. We also used a lot of other features as well.
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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
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Mailchimp
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
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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)
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Mailchimp
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
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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.
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Mailchimp
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!
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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.
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Mailchimp
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.
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Mailchimp
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.
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Mailchimp
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.
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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.
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Mailchimp
Mailchimp is a means to an end and a way to stay within GDPR laws. We may not use it if this wasn't a requirement. Other platforms are better for design or management of contacts, but Mailchimp offers that secure storage of data that is required. I have not tried other bulk mail applications, so am unable to compare these.
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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.
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Mailchimp
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.
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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.
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Mailchimp
  • Mailchimp has allowed us to communicate effectively with thousands of customers with ease.
  • Mailchimp's use during our second year of business helped us expand our list of brands considerably (almost 30% YTD) because of regular interactions that we've launched.
  • Mailchimp ramp-up time is minimal for new users so I can turn things over to junior staff - saving me time and money.
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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.

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.