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Classy

Classy

Overview

What is Classy?

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…

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

Classy has become a go-to platform for nonprofit organizations, offering a range of customizable features that cater to their fundraising …
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Overall great experience!

10 out of 10
June 13, 2022
At our organization, we use Classy as our online site for donors to make generous contributions. We also use Classy as a tool for …
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Classy

10 out of 10
November 18, 2021
Incentivized
We are able to create campaigns with Classy, track our donors and supporters, pull various reports, all while being able to be creative …
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Pricing

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What is Classy?

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…

Entry-level set up fee?

  • Setup fee optional
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://www.classy.org/fundraising…

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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Product Details

What is Classy?

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 GoFundMe have raised over $25 billion for good, collectively supporting the largest giving community in the world.


Classy Features

  • Supported: Peer-to-Peer Fundraising
  • Supported: Crowdfunding
  • Supported: Website Donations
  • Supported: Recurring Giving
  • Supported: Ticketed and Registration Events
  • Supported: Events with Fundraising
  • Supported: International Fundraising
  • Supported: Payment Processing
  • Supported: Embedded Donation Forms

Classy Screenshots

Screenshot of Campaign Designer: Campaign pages can be used to collect one-time or recurring donations through a customizable, mobile-responsive web page optimized for conversion.Screenshot of Peer-to-Peer: Mobilizes supporters with tools to fundraise on a nonprofit's behalf.Screenshot of Classy Live: Powers events of any size and location with an event fundraising platform that unites donors around a customized experience.Screenshot of Recurring Giving: To build a reliable revenue stream and appeal to more donors for ongoing support.Screenshot of Embedded Donation Forms: Maximizes conversion and revenue on websites using a form built for performance.Screenshot of Crowdfunding: To tell a story and inspire support for a cause with conversion-optimized crowdfunding campaigns.

Classy Video

Classy Product Overview

Classy Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo
Supported CountriesUSA, Canada
Supported LanguagesEnglish

Frequently Asked Questions

Blackbaud TeamRaiser, Blackbaud Luminate Online, and Give Lively are common alternatives for Classy.

Reviewers rate Support Rating highest, with a score of 9.9.

The most common users of Classy are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(79)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

Classy has become a go-to platform for nonprofit organizations, offering a range of customizable features that cater to their fundraising needs. Users rely on Classy as an accessible and easy-to-use online donation portal, providing a seamless experience for administrators and donors alike. With its user-friendly interface and flexibility in donation options, Classy serves as a one-stop-shop for donors, simplifying the process of making contributions.

One of the key use cases of Classy is its ability to create appealing web pages for ticket sales, merchandise, and event registration. This empowers users to raise more money for their cause by attracting participants and supporters. Additionally, Classy serves as a reliable and low-cost option for primary fundraising, seasonal appeals, and peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns. Its customizable features allow users to create comprehensive and easily digestible campaigns for fundraising events, offering different donation levels and showcasing the impact of each donation option.

Classy's integration with organizational accounting management software further simplifies fundraising operations by consolidating them into a single platform. This eliminates the need for manual data entry and ensures accuracy in financial reporting. Moreover, Classy supports the entire operation by flawlessly integrating with CRM systems, improving efficiency with data gathering for donation renewals, stewardship, and tax purposes.

Organizations have found Classy to be instrumental in capturing and retaining donors worldwide due to its excellent customer service and fundraising resources. The platform's ability to bridge the gap between donors and bank accounts has helped organizations double their online revenue and grow their programs. With its continuous improvements, Classy strives to make fundraising easier for nonprofits by providing a seamless user experience and robust reporting capabilities.

Overall, Classy serves as a versatile tool for various fundraising efforts, including crowdfunding campaigns, special events, general fundraising, ticketed events, and peer-to-peer fundraising. It offers a user-friendly interface for both donors and administrators, supports multiple payment options, provides customization options for campaign design, and seamlessly integrates with other systems for efficient data management. Users appreciate the helpful and responsive customer service staff, making Classy a reliable choice for nonprofit organizations in their fundraising endeavors.

The most common recommendations from users are as follows:

  1. Users recommend trying Classy for its comprehensive collection of fundraising examples and best practices, which makes fundraising easier and more informative. It is particularly beneficial for small non-profits, but users suggest exploring other options as well.
  2. Users appreciate Classy's easy-to-use back end and organized interface, considering it the best platform for fundraising transactions. They recommend it for organizations looking to grow and collaborate with people who are passionate about their cause.
  3. Classy's beautifully designed campaigns and accurate data processing capabilities are highly praised by users. They find the interface, creative control, and customer support worth the investment. Users also encourage more non-profit organizations to use Classy due to its resources, support, and user-friendly functions.

While many users recommend Classy, some caution that needs and features should be thoroughly assessed before committing, especially for midsize non-profits. They suggest there may be better products available for peer-to-peer fundraising. However, Classy is highly recommended for non-profits already using Salesforce for CRM integration. It is also suggested to fully test customizations needed in Salesforce before utilizing Classy.

Overall, users find Classy to be an excellent online giving and registration platform that can help reach a new audience. Some users emphasize the importance of developing feasible fundraising strategies before signing up with Classy. While it may be more suitable for mid to large-scale nonprofits due to its cost, smaller nonprofits may still find value in trying out Classy, particularly for crowd fundraising initiatives. Users are encouraged to reach out to Classy's support team for any questions or concerns they may have.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-23 of 23)
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Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Classy as an online fundraising tool for our health system. Classy makes it easy to have fundraising pages, whether they are in-depth landing pages or ticketed event pages, or just simple donation forms. We love how user-friendly it is for our donors and supporters, while also being easy to use for administrators in the back end.
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Aesthetically-pleasing templates
  • Variety of payment options
  • Variety of donation pages
  • Not a complaint, but I know Classy doesn't have Zelle or CashApp payment yet
  • Design vs. Edit in donation pages can be frustrating. Should be able to make those changes all in one page instead of going back and forth.
I think Classy is a great solution for any nonprofit, whether large or small. With such great customer support, any organization would benefit from using the platform for campaigns, donation forms, donor management, events management, payment processing, and more. It is easy to integrate the platform with other fundraising softwares, which is very useful.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Classy is used as our main donation platform - for one-time donations, recurring donations, crowdfunding, and peer-to-peer campaigns. We chose Classy for its various payment options, donor self-service option, and user interface for both donors and administrators. It has solid integration with our CRM and supports the organization's ambitious fundraising operations. It has solid integration with our CRM, Salesforce (at the time of this review) which we have been happy with. It has an excellent internal reporting function, which has improved our efficiency with gathering data (for donation renewals, stewardship, tax acknowledgments, etc.) and also has pages that better help us foster a sense of community among donors. They have expanded their payment options since using the product, which has been a great benefit to us (now accepting Paypal, Venmo, ACH Bank Transfer, Apple Pay, etc.)
  • Donor Self-Service Portal - allows individuals to pause, start, and adjust their ongoing contributions as needed, as well as pull their own receipts.
  • Fundraising Campaign Templates - this has let us quickly make multiple pages for specific fundraising campaigns, especially useful during end-of-year when we have many donation pages within a given multi-channel campaign.
  • Mobile Responsive - provides a seamless experience and many payment options for those using mobile devices, including Apple Pay, ACH Bank Transfer, and Paypal.
  • Peer-to-Peer Campaign Template Options- certain design features require a more technical skillset or purchase of additional hours in order to implement.
  • The standard templates serve most uses, but users are somewhat restricted in moving around certain page elements.
  • Donation Acknowledgement Customization - wish Classy had the functionality to embed or upload our own graphics into the automated email templates for recurring acknowledgments so we can further personalize those communications.
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.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Classy to create website that support various fundraising events across Canada. Each year, we run 10 or more peer-to-peer campaigns and another 20 or more fundraising events through Classy. Classy allows us to offer and manage web-based donations in a way that serves all stakeholders well. Easy integration with our organizational accounting management software serves our accounting department. Simple easy to use design options allow event managers to create a professional website with all the right information. Participants seem to find their user experience is straightforward and easy easy to navigate. With all of those three things being easier, we can focus on our priorities like recruiting participants and ensuring a quality event. We have seen increased participation since using Classy and having measurably fewer user problems means having more returning participants year after year. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Classy became a huge asset as we pivoted to fundraising in socially distanced context.
  • Simple design tools for campaign managers
  • Excellent Support Team
  • Overall website design easy to navigate for users
  • Integration with accounting software
  • I'd like a sidebar option for content that remains on user page as they navigate
  • Alternative look options for fundraising progress bar
  • More "how to" support for integration with Mailchimp
If you need a website to support a fundraising event that has tickets, donations, or peer-to-peer capability, but your organization doesn't have an IT department that can create the solution for you - Classy is a great option for you. After various people being disappointed with our previous alternatives, all of our key stakeholders, both staff and volunteer, have been happy to thrilled with Classy.
November 30, 2021

Consider Classy!

Rachel Carey | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Classy as our payment processor and fundraising tool. Classy has allowed us to mobilize our community through peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns, our main donation page, individual links for board soliciting and tracking, and (eventually) event ticketing. The platform allows us to easily brand pages that look incredible and communicate different needs for specific campaigns. There is also an email platform built-in for specific campaign solicitation, but we only use the email receipt feature. It is highly customizable depending on individual campaign/fundraising needs.
  • Peer to peer fundraising / crowdfunding campaigns = new donors.
  • Highly customizable and brand-able.
  • Ease of use on the backend (tracking/reports/donor info).
  • Classy is easy to use but could offer more flexibility by giving a coding option for more advanced users.
  • Some templates (like internal receipts) are unable to brand/change.
  • Would love a specific campaign type for recurring donors.
Classy is well suited for an organization that has the structure and capacity to support large-scale peer-to-peer / crowdfunding campaigns. It takes a lot of marketing effort for these campaigns to be successful, even for someone whose full-time job is to plan and execute campaigns of this type. If your donors prefer to give via mail, Classy can be an expensive payment processor, so you really want to ensure that you're able to utilize their specific tools to gain and steward new donors for your cause.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We utilize Classy for our peer-to-peer general donation page, our annual giving campaign, as well as a specialized campaign for a specific partnership. We like the fact that we can customize donation pages towards specific campaigns because of the fact that - as a non-profit - we have to keep track of who is donating to us, which programs are receiving the donations, what the donation goals are, and we also want a user-friendly experience for our supporters.
  • Customer service.
  • User-friendly platform.
  • Multiple Payment Processors.
  • Easy to access tutorials.
  • Adding Venmo and Cash App as payment processors.
  • Decreasing the amount of service fees taken from donations.
  • Possibly adding a field for donators to state they are a "first-time" giver or "recurring" giver - for CRM purposes.
Classy has been a solid platform that our organization has used for several years. We use it for our annual giving campaigns, our general capital campaign, as well as Program-specific campaigns. We can customize the campaign pages to fit the narrative of specific programs within our organization. I cannot think of other scenarios where it is less appropriate other than possible organizations who would want to avoid the service fees - but those fees are minute compared to the value Classy adds to our organization.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Our organization uses Classy to support with fundraising efforts, both ongoing annual campaigns and peer-to-peer fundraising. It is primarily used by our centralized Foundation team which manages fundraising. Classy acts as a super helpful "one stop shop" for our donors to easily make donations, and gives us flexibility to offer different donation options.
  • Robust native integrations with other applications like Salesforce
  • Helpful support team to troubleshoot issues and support with building out campaigns/business
  • Building out a basic campaign is very straightforward; platform is easy to learn
  • 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.
Classy would be extremely well suited for any nonprofits, particularly mid-larger size nonprofits that may have multiple campaigns in a year for which they need fundraising support. Given the cost, it would probably not make as much sense for a very small org or an organization without at least some existing donor constituency.
November 18, 2021

Classy

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We are able to create campaigns with Classy, track our donors and supporters, pull various reports, all while being able to be creative with our designs. Most of our team uses Classy. Classy allows us to capture donor/supporter data and filter it into our CRM.
  • Accurate data.
  • Easy UI.
  • Easy to make quick changes.
  • Customer Support access (chat).
  • Column options aren't universal among all reports.
  • Emails to registrants: no option to provide a calendar invite.
Classy allows us to create various campaigns for different events. These campaigns can range from our general foundation funds, specific events (virtual or in-person), or campaigns such as GivingTuesday. We are able to design each campaign with their provided tools and also send out confirmation emails and email reminders. The second biggest plus, to us, is their immediate access to their customer support team (chat). We are able to get questions resolved very quickly.
November 17, 2021

Classy is wonderful!

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Classy is used as our online giving platform to further our mission. It also supports donor development and relations.
  • Easy and user-friendly campaign set up.
  • Accessible ways to communicate with current donors.
  • Provides various options for donors to give and advocate for our organization.
  • There are some functions that are missing functionality on the backend, but Classy is responsive to feedback.
Classy's platform allows us to showcase the different needs of our organization and gives donors various opportunities to further our mission through online giving.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
My non-profit, illuminAid, is using Classy to build a campaign for a Giving Tuesday event through a foundation in our geographic area (North Valley Community Foundation). We're strictly using it for fundraising purposes at this time, and Classy has been amazing! It allows us to amplify our public profile in a comprehensive, yet easily digestible way. It also allows us to offer different donation levels (such as $20, $50, $100, $500, and more), along with disclosing the impact to our organization with each donation option. This is very significant, as it provides data regarding measurable impact to prospective donors, and that has helped our fundraising ambitions immensely. We highly recommend Classy!
  • Campaign Creation
  • Enhanced Marketing of Public Profile
  • Measurable Impact of Different Donation Levels
  • Troubleshooting Support
Classy is very appropriate for organizations that are wishing to fundraise or use it as a CRM. Speaking on behalf of a non-profit, I can see it being very valuable in those ways. Outside of the non-profit world, I suppose that it can be valuable for corporate purposes as well, but I really advocate for its utilization in the non-profit space.
Nick Shoff | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Classy helps us with peer-to-peer fundraising. We have young people who are interested sign up for their own page, create a profile, and share with their family and friends. We also use it for fundraising pages. We have certain fundraisers throughout the year, and Classy helps us create beautiful pages that handle all the backend work and integrate with some of the other software we use. It has been beneficial to us as a small non-profit.
  • Beautiful Fundraising Pages
  • Easy Peer-to-Peer Fundraising
  • The fees are a little high
  • I wish there were more customization options for emails and page design
Classy is excellent for organizations that utilize peer-to-peer fundraising and several unique fundraisers a year. It is excellent for small non-profits who do not have the personnel or time to make our own pages or do the behind-the-scenes work. However, it is a little pricy for really small non-profits, and there may be better options out there, but this works if you want a great company with hundreds of online resources.
August 03, 2021

Easy of Use

Cindy Hollister | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Our primary use of Classy is as our peer-to-peer fundraising platform for our DIY Walk of Hope program. We occasionally also use it for event related fundraising.
  • The Classy platform is easy to use, both for the staff and our volunteer fundraisers
  • It's easy to build a great looking fundraising page
  • Classy support (particularly chat and phone) are attentive and responsive. Every one there is smart and nice!
  • There is a tradeoff between ease of use and rich functionality. While there are usually work arounds, there are occasionally things we would like to do that are not included in the platform.
Classy is great for our DIY Walk program. Staff easily creates and maintains fundraising campaigns that look great. Volunteers easily learn how to customize their pages and use them effectively to ask friends and families to support us.
July 29, 2021

Classy

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Classy for a multitude of services. Online donations, event registrations, campaign management to name a few. Classy is very user friendly and has made managing events, donation collection and fundraising as a whole seamless. It communicates with our CRM seamlessly and is a wonderful product. Switching to Classy has saved our organization time and money, and in the non-profit sector those two things are priceless.
  • Campaign Management
  • Donation Collection
  • Event Registration
  • We've only used the product for a little over a year and have not found any flaws as of yet
I would 100% recommend Classy to a colleague. Classy has saved our organization time and money.
Emily Westergaard | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We transitioned to Classy as our primary electronic donation system. While our donor database has credit card processing and form creation abilities, we found it to be clunky, not very pretty, and difficult to customize. Now we link our "Donate Now" button on our website directly to Classy. We can completely customize the look of the page, and change it quickly to highlight different campaigns or funding priorities.
  • Easy customization.
  • Pages can be designed to match your website and brand.
  • Quick editing is possible.
  • Great customer service.
  • It is pricy. Classy is more expensive than our donor management software but doesn't have the robust donor management tools to replace it.
  • Want the ability to allow donors to cover fees in all transactions (currently, Classy only gives the option in some set-ups).
We love using Classy, and appreciate how easy it is to change priorities, add fundraising goals, show progress toward goals, and customize the page to feel updated. From the user perspective, we've also heard that it's significantly more user-friendly than our previous online donation pages created through our donor management software. As online shopping has become so ubiquitous, it was important for us to have a giving page that seemed up to date and current. Once we transitioned to Classy, we increased our online donations pretty significantly. Classy also has great integration with social media.

I will note that the fee structure of Classy is more expensive than our previous solution. However, the features have made it a worthwhile investment. The annual contract fee is also expensive.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Classy provides a user-friendly interface for accepting online donations as well as a reliable Salesforce integration for real-time gift tracking. Classy has great, reliable support so we never encounter issues, they’re dealt with fairly promptly and courteously. We use Classy for peer to peer fundraising and crowdfunding mostly. We also started using your event campaign functionality and, though limited, it’s good for free or low-cost events and our users like the ease of use it provides.
  • Peer to peer fundraising.
  • Crowdfunding
  • Customer support and communicating with their customers about their roadmap.
  • Very limited in customizable options across the platform.
  • Reporting. It’s all filtered based and hard to use, but powerful.
  • Events. Classy is a donation platform so events are set up with this in mind. You can’t take offline donations/registrations on the front end (a user will have to input them in the back end) and you cannot customize the thank you message after registering the same way you can after donating. You also cannot message your event supporters individually.
Classy is great for donations! Classy is bad if you need a great deal of flexibility and for events. It’s getting better, but not quite on par with competitors. Classy has a great, reliable Salesforce integration and a very good control panel to maintain and troubleshoot the integration on your own so you don’t have to contact support everytime you need something.
Ashleigh Kincaid | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I've used Classy to run fundraising campaigns for 4 years now and it couldn't be an easier user interface. They offer everything a non-profit needs to raise money, including ticketed events, crowdfunding and peer to peer. On top of that, their reporting capabilities are top notch and they are continuing to bulk up their marketing communications option within the platform as well. Classy is always thinking of new ways to make the job of non-profits easier!
  • User Interface.
  • Clean design.
  • Reporting.
  • Marketing automation.
  • Better communication tools.
Great for small to large non-profits that do events, peer-to-peer or even just for classic donation pages.
Brent Earwicker | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Classy is our all-in-one fundraising platform, our online payment processor, and acts as CRM for our financial support team. It puts everything we need for receiving donations into one central location.

Classy won me over with their abundance of helpful content, followed by their friendly sales staff. Once I committed to switching to this all-in-one fundraising platform, I've enjoyed the user-friendly interface, and the quick, knowledgeable support Classy offers to its users.
  • Classy offers excellent educational value throughout their company--they consistently provide valuable content to enhance our fundraising strategies.
  • Classy has great design. Their page creators are easy to use and we are able to use our own branding in a way that is truly classy.
  • Classy's customer service is excellent. They have helped me troubleshoot a number of issues and have assured me of product updates to come.
  • I could use better searching and integration of offline donations added manually to the site.
  • More integration to social media would be amazing - more than just sharing is needed.
  • The cost is prohibitive for smaller organizations, particularly the percentage on top of Classy's ongoing fees and credit card processing fees.
Classy seems best for a growing organization that is actively seeking to increase its revenue through online fundraising campaigns. If most of your donations come offline and you just need online management of donations, the cost would not be justified.
Monica Graffius | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Classy is utilized by everyone in our organization. The platform tracks ALL of our donations. It is the system that manages our donor profiles for one-time or recurring donors. We utilize Classy to create appealing web pages for tracking ticket sales, selling merchandise, and tracking free event registration. Utilizing Classy has allowed us to stay organized and empowered to raise more money for the children with cancer we support.
  • Classy provides incredible customer support. We have a private representative who assists us in formulating fundraising ideas or answering questions we have. We also have access to a technical support team who has never failed to assist with Platform questions we have.
  • Classy has two different options in designing a campaign page. One is extremely user-friendly and the other is a little more complex but opens the door the create design options that are professional and appealing.
  • Classy is an extremely "personal" platform. They ensure they stay updated with the growth of our organization and accommodate to our goals/needs through optimal utilization of the platform.
  • The design aspect of the platform utilizes an open color guide, making it more difficult to maintain a consistent color scheme throughout the page.
  • Thank you emails sent to donors are customizable but it would be better if more options were available (possible block options).
  • The design aspect of the platform could provide more options for picture arrangements and different design blocks.
Our organization tracks ALL of our donations through Classy. It is the system that manages our donor profiles for one-time or recurring donors. We utilize Classy to create appealing web pages for tracking ticket sales, selling merchandise, and tracking free event registration. Utilizing Classy has allowed us to stay organized and empowered to raise more money for the children with cancer we support.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Classy is used by our fundraising team, specifically for online. We utilize the Classy platform to create donation pages, time-limited and crowdfunding campaigns and peer-to-peer campaigns. They are the centerpiece of our rapidly growing online fundraising efforts.
  • Compared to other online platforms for nonprofits, Classy offers much more versatility in designing the look and feel of pages, emails, receipts, thank yous and more. The elements which cannot be adapted are well-done and rarely an issue.
  • The reporting tools for analyzing and tracking gifts are quite sophisticated and allow you to drill down to individual donors, types of gifts, time periods, individual campaigns and more.
  • They are always improving their tools. innovating ways to raise more funds (for example, by allowing you to request credit card processing fees and set the percentage requested and by making monthly giving a more prominent option for donors).
  • The sizing and manipulation of background images can be trial and error at times. This functionality could be made more straightforward.
  • A "mobile view" preview for donation pages, landing pages, etc. would be great!
Prior to signing up with Classy, our online fundraising consisted of the occasional site visitor making a gift and now and then a crowdfunding campaign on a platform like YouCaring. Online revenue was not a significant part of our income. Since using Classy, our online revenue has grown at a rate of close to 30% a year for 4 years and growth continues in 2019. For nonprofits who have substantial online traffic already and a reasonable size email list, Classy is a great way to tap the fundraising potential contained in those channels. Whether the same would be true for a nonprofit who did not have a significant online presence already, Classy might not be as good a value.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use the Classy platform to manage fundraising across the organization. It's primarily the development and marketing staff who utilize Classy and then our controller will use the reporting functions. The Classy platform allows for online donations and forms to be processed and automatically synced to Salesforce along with some extra features, such as sending automatic custom receipts/thank yous, peer-to-peer fundraising, crowdfunding, processing event registrations/ticket sales, and more.
  • Lots of options for customization - everything from web page design to custom questions to learn more about your donors
  • Donors can elect to cover transaction fees
  • Automatically sends custom receipts - you can also add a personal thank you note to send separately with only a few clicks
  • Automatically sends notifications when requested if a donation is made in honor of somone
  • Reporting made easy
  • Syncs to Salesforce
  • Dedicated account manager to help get you up and running with Classy
  • Limited options for compatible payment processors
  • You can process event registrations/ticket sales, but you can't do a guest check in or redeem the tickets in Classy
  • It's not cheap.
If Classy is within your budget, I'd go for it. If you're looking for a platform that will not only allow you to process donations on your website, but do so much more (i.e. crowdfunding, peer-to-peer, campaign tracking, automation, customization, sync to Salesforce, etc.) and have someone hold your hand as you work through the set up process and beyond, then Classy is for you.
July 19, 2018

Keeping it Classy

Peter Gjerset | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We began using Classy close to 6 years ago for their peer-to-peer fundraising tools. Shortly after, our primary fundraising page became unreliable and so we researched and investigated multiple fundraising options, eventually settling on Classy for their low fees and ease of use. Since then, we have used them for our primary fundraising, including seasonal email and social media appeals, as well as our peer-to-peer fundraising vehicle. Classy allows us to keep all of our online fundraising in one place, and it is easy to create a central hub out of which to manage all of our peer-to-peer fundraisers.
  • The back end makes it easy to create sleek, professional-looking pages that encourage donors to get involved.
  • Event management is a breeze, and we can easily send messages to event attendees with details, as well as follow up messages.
  • It is easy to track campaign performance and produce detailed reports.
  • It seems like updates seek to "fix" issues that were never broken for us, and we now have sync issues that were previously not an issue due to the latest update.
  • The recurring donor tool does not allow us to change the recurring donation amount, so we need to cancel and recreate donations when a donor wants to increase their gift.
  • Since the last update, we have seen a sharp uptick in donors complaining of freezing donation screens that go nowhere. In these cases, donors are frustrated that they have lost all the information they entered into the donation page.
Classy is suited to general fundraising for larger organizations that can afford the monthly/quarterly fees and want to step up their fundraising efforts. It is also suited to organizations with donors who want to get involved but may not have the personal means to do so. I would not recommend Classy for small organizations without a reliable source of funding, as the fees may be prohibitive.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We help nonprofits implement fundraising and payment processing solutions. Classy is one of the solutions we recommend to our clients. It takes donations and brings them into Salesforce. This allows our clients to then have a clear view into their constituents and their giving history.
  • Great Peer to Peer fundraising platform
  • Very visually attractive, and easy to make beautiful donation pages
  • Clear fee structure
  • Classy is more expensive than other options.
  • The Salesforce integration is not as deep as some other options.
Classy is best suited for situations where a customer will be doing a lot of peer to peer fundraising. If you are just doing straight up donations and are low budget, then the cost might be prohibitive.
Brenna M. Humann | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Such a great tool, but difficult to convince management to switch streams. So I started to use myself, and I find it a great workflow tool. Others are slowly starting to be convinced, just due to the value of the support material and publications Classy produces as well.
  • Streamlined, easy design
  • Great support and information
  • Publications and information are great tools for coworkers and constituents
  • More mobile payment options would be helpful
  • Integrates with Salesforce, organization uses a more antiquated CRM
  • Some of the segmenting reports can get complicated, as with all fundraisers
Excellent mobile options for reaching new constituents. Design look merges with your organization brand/URL. Customization and option of peer to peer sub-pages is great -- not all fundraising sites offer these on demand. Donors love the interface. Analytics are great and supportive information and publications are stellar. Design and overall feel is so great, wish they integrated with other CRMs.
August 30, 2016

Easy to set up

Daniella Dowiak | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Classy is being used by the organization as a whole as the peer to peer fundraising system. This organization is a start up and has very limited funds and needed a way to be able to raise money without making an investment. Classy provided a fundraising system that didn't have an upfront fee associated with it which was exactly what the organization was looking for.
  • The fundraising website is easy for a nonprofit to set up. You can customize things like colors and logos and the rest of it is taken care of for you.
  • Fundraisers (constituents) have a pretty easy time using Classy. The system is pretty straightforward with how you sign up to create a page and then it's pretty easy for users to edit their page and share to fundraise.
  • Classy's reporting options are pretty good and allow an organization to view information about fundraisers.
  • The customization is limited, so if you're looking for something that you can make a lot of changes to, this wouldn't be the program to use. That does make it easier to set up, but you have to be mindful that you'll only be able to change so much.
  • Classy also isn't a full CRM program (it doesn't claim to be so that's no fault of theirs). Just something to keep in mind that you'll end up with fundraising data here and eventually you're going to want to be able to pull all this info into your main database to be able to properly communicate and maintain these records.
  • The admin tools are a little confusing for someone who is new to the system. It's pretty easy to fumble around and find what you need, but some of the features don't quite make sense as to where you'd find them (for example, if you need to delete a fundraising page, it's a little hard to find where you'd do this). Just a bit of a learning curve as there would be with any software.
I would recommend Classy depending on what an organization is looking for. If you're looking for a cheap, easy to set up fundraising tool that you can implement quickly, then this is a great solution. If you want something that looks more seamless with your website, that you can make a lot of customizations to and that you can integrate with other databases, this might not be the best tool.
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