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GiveSmart

GiveSmart

Overview

What is GiveSmart?

GiveSmart, a Community Brands company, offers a full-service event management platform supporting event website, event registration, attendee tracking, donor management and data insights, and full customer service for entities wishing to raise funds via an auction or charity event. The…

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Recent Reviews

Good Entry Value

7 out of 10
July 15, 2023
Incentivized
Givesmart has been used as a primary online fundraising tool. We create personalized donation landing pages for donors from different …
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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 GiveSmart?

GiveSmart, a Community Brands company, offers a full-service event management platform supporting event website, event registration, attendee tracking, donor management and data insights, and full customer service for entities wishing to raise funds via an auction or charity event. The platform…

Entry-level set up fee?

  • Setup fee optional

Offerings

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

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Product Demos

Take a Tour of GiveSmart

givesmart.wistia.com
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Product Details

What is GiveSmart?

GiveSmart is an online fundraising and donor management platform designed to elevate fundraisers. From mobile-friendly silent auctions to dynamic peer-to-peer events and guest management to donor engagement, the solution helps to turn mission into something that moves donors.

The vendor states that their software has helped thousands of nonprofits raise $6.2+ billion. The full GiveSmart suite of solutions and expert support helps exceed fundraising, event, and donor management goals, and helps users focus resources and make an impact all year round.

GiveSmart Screenshots

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GiveSmart Video

GiveSmart Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo
Supported CountriesCanada, United States

Frequently Asked Questions

GiveSmart, a Community Brands company, offers a full-service event management platform supporting event website, event registration, attendee tracking, donor management and data insights, and full customer service for entities wishing to raise funds via an auction or charity event. The platform also integrates technology from Community Brands brand Gesture to provide a comprehensive suite of services. GiveSmart replaces the former 501 Auctions, a platform to support charity auctions, mobile bidding, and general event management with automation for nonprofit fundraising.

OneCause, Greater Giving, and Eventbrite are common alternatives for GiveSmart.

Reviewers rate Usability highest, with a score of 8.5.

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

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Reviews and Ratings

(184)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-25 of 144)
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Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use the product for fundraisers to help manage donations and donors
  • data review
  • help chats
  • call customer service
  • mobile use
I think GiveSmart is fine to use with younger donors but with older donors we sometimes have issues with them remembering how to login
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use GiveSmart Fundraise primarily as our online donation software. We have also used it for event pages for different fundraising events and were users of MobileCause before it was bought out by GiveSmart. It serves as an event fundraising platform as well as point of service credit card processor when you use it alongside the MobileCause app. We have also used it for hybrid and live-stream events effectively.
  • The event pages are excellent. They offer just the right amount of flexibility while making sure the user gets a clean experience. My only qualm with them is that they are housed on the GiveSmart URL and there is no way to house them on our URL.
  • It processes payments smoothly and efficiently with no hassle for donors.
  • It has some basic reporting on campaign transactions.
  • It has some very solid P2P fundraising features.
  • Their customer service team does an excellent job of working with clients (Shoutout to our amazing Customer success manager Carissa Jay!).
  • It doesn't have a Mailchimp integration which is an unfortunate downside for us.
  • The ticketing and check-in feature is painfully slow when trying to check people into an event. This is true even with fast wifi/data.
Probably my favorite aspect of GiveSmart Fundraise is how easy it is to make excellent event fundraising pages that are easy to navigate. The text to give and mobile responsiveness of the event pages and forms is excellent. The analytics are there but don't expect anything more than basic campaign tracking, but it is effective. The point-of-service credit card donation app is effective and generally works smoothly.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Our school uses GiveSmart as an online giving tool. The form embeds nicely into our webpages keeping the look and feel of our current website. The forms are very pleasing to the eye and user friendly both on a computer as well as on a mobile phone. The software allows text to give which we also take full advantage of during our giving events. The setup and reporting are very intuitive. We also are very happy with the fair pricing of the software. Overall it has been a great experience.
  • Text to Give
  • Allowing the option to pay a total sum on a payment plan - Recurring Gifts
  • Allowing a payment plan without the need to set up an account and login
  • The option to report total dollars on a fiscal year basis, not only calendar year would be so helpful.
  • The option to view how many total payments are remaining on a total sum/pledge - currently it only shows based on what is remaining per calendar year.
If you are looking for simple online forms that are user friendly to set up and also user friendly for the donor/client, this is the software for you.
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We have used GiveSmart for ticketing at our events, for silent auctions, and for fundraising. We selected the program because it could handle all of these functions. Previously, we had been using a number of programs to accomplish these tasks.
  • Silent Auction Management
  • Seamless credit card processing
  • Need option to link different bank accounts--currently only one can be used
  • Batch reporting--hard to match bank deposits to items paid
  • Navigation within the program is not user friendly
  • Auto response customization could be improved
It is definitely well suited to fundraising and the silent auction functionality is great. In my experience, the event side needs work to be more user friendly.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use GiveSmart for fundraising and to communicate with donors and potential donors. GiveSmart gives us many options for fundraising campaigns and makes it easy for donors to connect with and support our organization. We are able to create newsletters, message through social media and accurately receive and acknowledge contributions.
  • Creates easy to use text to give codes
  • Automatically acknowledges donor gifts
  • Creates messaging to use with donors
  • The limits on number of donor emails should be larger at the initial level
  • Ability to link directly with social media
GiveSmart is terrific for creating fundraising text to give codes for multiple chapters or fundraising teams. The platform is easy to use. If you plan to use it as a donor database, it has not proven to replace the need for an in-house database and we have not been able to link it to our existing database.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use GiveSmart for our nonprofit. We setup several different types of forms depending on what the funds are being collected for. GiveSmart allows us to tailor a form for a specific need or fund. It helps us to not only collect donations, but important information to follow up with donors in the future.
  • Customizable Forms
  • Able to integrate with other programs
  • Customer Service
  • There are a couple fields on the forms that are permanent. Would be helpful to make them optional.
  • A mobile app
  • The manage columns section could be easier to use, ie drag and drop
You can basically make any form with any fields you need. The sky is the limit on what you can do with it. We have yet to run into an issue where GiveSmart is unable to create a form that we need. I do think extracting the data to a spreadsheet is a bit cumbersome. The manage columns area is where there could be some improvement. It would be nice to extract it right to an excel file as opposed to a csv file.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use GiveSmart to fundraise for our events and to facilitate online auctions. GiveSmart helps us organize ticket and item auctions to benefit our programs. It helps streamline the movement of money between our donors and our organization. Guests are able to make their own accounts, view items available for purchase/auction, and even choose how they would like to pay for their purchases. On the backend, GiveSmart batches reports and helps us keep track of fulfilled and unfulfilled pledges. In addition, I've found that their support team has been a great resource in times when we've needed to troubleshoot an issue.
  • Their site is very organized and easy to navigate.
  • They offer in-person support when we host our fundraising events.
  • They offer flexible payment options and help keep track of fulfilled and unfulfilled payments.
  • It might be helpful for to have 2 support representatives at large events instead of one.
  • I wish I could click on the batch report and it would give me the option to download the CSV report specific to that batch (instead of having to look for it in another location on the site).
I really like that they send out representatives to our events to help facilitate staff/volunteer training and to help troubleshoot any issues. It makes a huge difference having someone there vs having to make a call and be on hold. I love this service and cannot speak highly enough about it.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use GiveSmart for fundraising through static gift forms, the creation of crowdfunding campaigns for both short (~24 hour) and midrange (~3 month) campaigns, and for event registration and management. We have recently begun making use of the text features as well to great success, by uploading lists and using them to send potential donors to existing gift forms.

Our previous vendor was very static, visually unappealing, and lacked a great deal of overall flexibility and did not allow us to do Days of Giving at all. Using Givesmart has given us both flexibility and powerful reporting, as well as the ability to create and use the gift and registration forms we need when we need them with a minimum of fuss.
  • Image integration with gift form for visual appeal
  • Flexibility for public-facing fund names and donor options
  • Customizable forms and response emails to donors and staff
  • Reporting ouputs are overly complex
  • Two different kinds of searchable reporting, which could be combined into one
Givesmart is an excellent tool for those looking to make their first transition from older legacy products to a flexible, appealing, easy-to-use gift form and registration form system. The ways to customize gift and registration forms are endless, the outputs (while very complex) contain literally all of the information a user could ever need, and the ability to text donors straight through the system provides a great way to continue to engage past donors and collect new ones.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use Givesmart as the main source of how our donors give to support our mission. We also use the fundraising platforms for in-person events and virtual campaigns. This allows our organization to raise the necessary funds to operate how we care for orphaned and vulnerable children in Honduras.
  • user friendly platform
  • Ability to create professional looking landing pages
  • Easily track and manage donations for particular purposes.
  • Adding the ability to make notes on a donor's profile.
  • Allowing text messages to be a bit longer
  • Allow the dashboard to be more customizable
GiveSmart works great as a fundraising platform. Making everything very simple to use and allows our workers to save time actually talking with donors and pointing them to the things we have created.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use GiveSmart to create event pages and GiveSmart Fundraise to create select campaign donation forms. One of our largest fundraising events requires a user-friendly peer-to-peer platform and GiveSmart worked well for this. The home page was easy to design and received well by our audience.
  • Easy to create and design an event website.
  • Easy to create multiple campaigns at once.
  • Donation forms are straight forward.
  • Integrate the peer-to-peer functionality better into the event page home page.
GiveSmart has been a great choice for our organization and has allowed us to combine campaigns in ways we haven't been able to do so before. We have enjoyed the peer-to-peer capabilities as well as the donation forms, and the website is user-friendly and easy to navigate. So far we have successfully run several campaigns through the platform and have been satisfied with our experience.
July 15, 2023

GiveSmart Thoughts

Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use GiveSmart as a fundraising platform. I enjoy the aesthetic and ease, but the costs can be quite expensive.
  • Aesthetic
  • Easy to use platform
  • Well-rounded information about the company and how to use the site
  • Cost
  • More options for style
If you are a well-funded organization, it is a great platform.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
GiveSmart is the platform that captures our online donor activity. It allows users to make credit card and paypal donations directly to us. Users are able to designate their donation as well as leave notes for memorial gifts. The back end of the site allows for quick reporting and custom donor detail.
  • Stops fraudulent transactions
  • Easy reporting
  • Customization
  • There are not a lot of bells and whistles
This is a basic webservice that suits our non profit needs. There is no max amount of users, which is a nice feature. My whole team has access and can download the customizable reporting. Customer support is readily available, if you find yourself in need of having any questions answered.
July 15, 2023

Good Entry Value

Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Givesmart has been used as a primary online fundraising tool. We create personalized donation landing pages for donors from different companies and accept online credit card donations. We also use Givesmart to collect pledges from donors and transfer them to our internal database.
  • Flexible and extensive form creation allows for complex logic of fields on the forms
  • Relatively low transaction fees
  • Responsive customer support
  • Inability to map complex forms to sync automatically with Salesforce
  • Unintuitive reporting tool
Givesmart can fit companies that don't require extensive data collection at the stage of donation, but want to maintain automatic transfer of data to the database. If the organization needs to create complex forms and collect multiple layers of data, automatic transfer of data may not be possible.
Clarissa Ayala | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use GiveSmart as our main fundraising software. Fundraising plays a crucial role in supporting the operations and mission of nonprofit organizations.
  • The platform itself is incredibly user-friendly.
  • It facilitates seamless transitions.
  • It provides comprehensive reporting and analytics.
  • I would like a little more functionality with the fundraising thermometer.
Based on its features and capabilities, GiveSmart is well-suited for charity galas and auctions, virtual fundraising events, and peer-to-peer fundraising. It may be less appropriate for small-scale or informal fundraising, for nonprofits with limited tech infrastructure, or nonprofits with specific customization needs.
July 14, 2023

Good product

Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use it as a user to pull donations into our Database.
  • report feature to pull data
  • easy to navigate
  • easy to sign on
  • In my experience, recurring gifts not easy to see if a user changed the dollar amount
  • In my experience, if a user gives multiple gifts it's not always clear
Easy to pull reports and import data. I don't believe it is clear on a donors record where they have multiple donations; they are grouped together.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We oversee a high-end event with over a million dollars in transactions and GiveSmart has consistently helped us manage with minimal issues.
  • Highly organized
  • User friendly website
  • Creative
  • Updating the site’s graphics to look more modern
  • Limited number of site background images
  • As a backup, would like a Save button so I’m assured the edits were received
Overall, GiveSmart is user-friendly and worth the investment when the event needs all aspects to the program.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We primarily use the text-to-donate functions. We do 2 specific fundraisers a year and then use the donate function on our website. We have used the ticketing function also.
  • Very easy to use
  • The technical support is outstanding
  • In my experience, Our account rep is pretty much MIA. I rely on tech support when I have questions
  • I believe The account rep should be recommending classes when there are software updates
  • I believe The archive function should allow you to see forms/campaigns but not allow you to change them. Right now when you 'archive' something, it disappears, I've found.
We use GiveSmart for text-to-donate.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I used GiveSmart for a fundraising Gala to support my school. GiveSmart made our auction process so much more professional. It allowed us the opportunity to share our auction items with alumni all over the country, therefore with people who could not attend the gala to purchase items. This increased our revenue significantly. Also, at the event, it allowed our guests to bid throughout the evening rather than hopping up and down to write their names on a traditional bid sheet. We are already securing auction items and will use GiveSmart again!
  • Using auction item description and uploading photos in GiveSmart is easy.
  • GiveSmart allows us to reach a larger audience to bid on auction items.
  • GiveSmart also offers on-site support at an event, which we utilized.
  • GiveSmart has a great telephone training team!
  • I suggest making auction item revenue vs. attendance revenue easier to distinguish.
GiveSmart is best suited for events with an auction. It's less appropriate for something like a 5K.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We are using Givesmart as our software for an upcoming dinner event with a live and silent auction.
  • Registration
  • Mobile Experience
  • Integration with other formats
  • Design of website
  • not user friendly
It seems like a good all-inclusive option for doing a fundraising event. I wouldn't use it unless there were a specific event, though, because it is not particularly user friendly
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use this software for texting, text to give, event registration, and bringing in new member information. The opt-in campaign is likely the hardest part, and that i not to do with the software, but rather getting people to do the simple sign up. For event registration, such as our annual golf tournament, we are able to add graphics to create a great looking platform. The system allows us to capture specific details needed for the event, and to then generate reports for check-in.
  • Event registration
  • Mass texts to groups
  • Text to give is simple and user friendly
  • The menu is not user friendly for finding WHERE to create a specific event or payment form
  • Customer service online is not the best, but sending an email to them works wonders.
  • Menu explanations for certain parts of the software
We are a church and it fills many gaps for us. Over the years, we have expanded the usage. We are a leader in our industry, and many newer institutions seek guidance from us. Just yesterday, I gave the information about GiveSmart (formerly MobileCause) to a growing ministry. Some parts are very easy to use - mass texts.
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use GiveSmart for the fundraising needs of our nonprofit. We needed a way to make it easier for donors to give to us electronically and to manage recurring sponsors and donors. We also needed help learning how to fundraise and create and foster relationships with those interested in our ministry or currently giving.
  • Customizable donation forms
  • Quick payment processing
  • Large learning center and numerous webinars
  • More ways to accept payments (ACH, Venmo)
  • Integrations with their CRM, QuickBooks
  • Donor portals for donors to be able to change donation dates, contact information, and donation amounts on their own
  • Better tech support
  • Better customer support from sales rep
The company seems slow to progress with any changes customers ask for. I feel the lack of concern and contact I have had with the company has really left a bad impression on our organization. I contacted our sales rep a couple of years ago with a need, only to find out she had moved to a different position months prior, and we had a new contact. There was never any contact with us to let us know, in my experience, there was never an introduction with the new rep. I have never been able to get ahold of our new rep on the phone, nor has she ever responded to the voicemails I left. I only will get responses by email. We have never had any contact outside of contract renewal time to see if everything is ok, check to see if new features might apply to us. I never get any contact from the company as to new features, or what is happening, all I get are emails about webinars. When I raised concerns we had over a year ago in regards to functionality and things our donors were asking about, in my experience, there was no conversation about if they might implement these needs, if there was a workaround, or if they even took our thoughts as important. In my experience, when they were merging from Mobile Cause to GiveSmart, I kept waiting and being told they were going to have a CRM, which they knew was a HUGE need for us. Months of waiting later, I learn that, in fact, the CRM will not be part of what we have, but a stand-alone product and won't even integrate together. I just constantly shake my head at this company.

The plus side is they make everything very customizable for you, and you are able to make donation pages, events, etc., look, feel, and act like you want them to. In my opinion, that is also the downside. There are a million different places where you have to add text, choose colors, etc. It requires a full-time position to do it all. I am a one-person fundraising team with a full-time job elsewhere. I don't have the time to learn everything. It is just too much for a small organization.
Carol Ann McCurdy | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Originally, I chose GiveSmart Events when I was the Executive Director of a nonprofit organization that supports a public school system. We were migrating from another CRM to Salesforce and needed an event platform that could accommodate a variety of event types. GiveSmart was compatible with Salesforce and was easy to learn with responsive support. After retiring, I started a consulting company that support nonprofits and one of my clients asked for a recommendation for an upcoming event. We chose a package that included both GiveSmart Events & Fundraise and I've now used both platforms. It would be great if GiveSmart could merge the two platforms. Fundraise is far more versatile and attractive from a user perspective. Events, however, is your only option for an online silent auction. The support team at GiveSmart is extremely responsive and when we approach them with an issue, it is usually easily resolved or a workaround is suggested. Over the past three years, I have also seen improvements made based on user recommendations.
  • Support - Extremely responsive
  • GiveSmart Fundraise - Attractive interface for users
  • GiveSmart Events - Easy-to-use Auction features
  • The resources provided online are overwhelming. Would be nice if there was a downloadable reference guide.
  • The video tutorials need to be updated and it would be great if they were "chunked" to take viewers to the section they need, without watching or fast-forwarding through sections that are not needed.
  • Contracts should include some personalized training. It actually might help you "sell" the $200/hour training if people saw how useful it is. It would have been helpful to have someone provide an overview of the features and vocabulary.
  • Calling everyone "users" is confusing. Consider calling staff "users" and everyone else can be donors or guests.
  • It would be helpful to be able to include hyperlinks in the text when creating Fundraisen activity landing pages.
When GiveSmart is integrated with a CRM, it is a great platform for events, crowdfunding, and online fundraising. I have not had the opportunity to use the GiveSmart CRM, but I would imagine it would be a powerful combination to have all three platforms working together seamlessly.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use GiveSmart for 2 signature events each year and for limited campaigns as well. GiveSmart is easy to use and set up quickly and has yielded strong fundraising results for our organization.
  • Campaign Set up
  • Recurring Giving
  • Reporting
  • Financial Reconciliation reports
  • Integrations
  • Design
GiveSmart is great for Galas/Auctions and other special event fundraisers and is one of the more easy platforms I have used in terms of set up and functionality.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We have been using MobileCause for many years but they merged with GiveSmart about a year ago. The look and feel is still MobileCause so the transition for us was pretty seamless. We use GiveSmart/MobileCause to accept and process online donations for our organization. Potential donors visit our website, click on the "Donate" button and are taken to a web page where they can enter their donation/payment information. We process monthly recurring donations and one-time tributes via this page as well. We will periodically change the form or create a new one to match a solicitation we are sending. We've even themed the form to match an event like a golf tournament or gala.
  • Allows for the donor to easily include the credit card processing fees in their donation.
  • Easy for the donor to enter their information and process their gift quickly.
  • Easy to export information from GiveSmart/MobileCause.
  • When selecting fields for exporting, it would be nice to see the form name attached to the field name. We have multiple forms and some of the field names are the same/similar from form to form. It's almost impossible to tell which field belongs to which form.
  • Since GiveSmart merged with MobileCause, we are having difficulties paying our quarterly fee via credit card. We have signed up for this process a few times but still have issues getting our payments properly (and timely) processed like we did before the merge. (Our payments were automatically processed with MobileCause but it's been difficult, almost impossible, to get this process set-up with GiveSmart, even though they now offer it.)
  • Hearing from our account rep every now and then would be nice.
I can only speak to the MobileCause side, which worked great. Since the merge, things have continued to function well like before, but I noticed the admin side of things (billing, help, etc.) from GiveSmart could be handled better.

I think that they are great for online donation forms, event sign-up forms, and survey forms. They are pretty easy to create and maintain.
Score 3 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We were not very pleased with this platform. Our customer service was greatly lacking, and the platform had multiple glitches and the functionality wasn't up to par with what we were promised. However, the bones of this platform seem great! I think with better customer service and more functional and adaptive platform this could be great.
  • Silent Auction
  • Use of QR codes
  • Customer Service
  • Functionality
Well suited for non-profits, however it's less appropriate as an all-encompassing platform. I would definitely suggest it for silent auction management.
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