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Blackbaud Luminate Online

Blackbaud Luminate Online

Overview

What is Blackbaud Luminate Online?

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 supportersMake the right ask at…

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Recent Reviews

Blackbaud Luminate Online

8 out of 10
December 30, 2023
DFCI Philanthropy uses Blackbaud Luminate Online for our online fundraising efforts, including but not limited to directed and …
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New to Luminate

6 out of 10
May 29, 2018
Incentivized
Luminate Online is being used by our organization for online donation form capabilities - monthly, one-time, in celebration, in memoriam. …
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Awards

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Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Pricing

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What is Blackbaud Luminate Online?

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…

Entry-level set up fee?

  • Setup fee required
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://www.blackbaud.com/online…

Offerings

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

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Product Details

What is Blackbaud Luminate Online?

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 appeals. Smart online and mobile donation forms dynamically tailor the ask and provide flexible options like recurring, matching and tribute gifts to optimize conversion and maximize giving.

Passions, preferences and giving history trigger additional campaigns building stewardship through more relevant interactions and opportunities to engage. The company also aims to offer top notch support and numerous free resources. All clients receive a personal Customer Success Manager to offer best practices and resources to succeed.

Blackbaud Luminate Online Features

  • Supported: Dynamic Email Campaigns
  • Supported: Online Fundraising with Smart Donation Forms
  • Supported: Donation Processing
  • Supported: Fundraising Analytics & Reporting
  • Supported: Calendar Events
  • Supported: eCommerce Capabiltiies
  • Supported: Engagement Factors
  • Supported: Luminate Advocacy
  • Supported: Peer to Peer Fundraising with Luminate TeamRaiser

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.

Blackbaud Luminate Online Video

National Center for Lesbian Rights has Love for Luminate Online™ and Raiser’s Edge NXT™

Blackbaud Luminate Online Competitors

Blackbaud Luminate Online Technical Details

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Salsa Engage, Classy, and Bonterra Development + Digital are common alternatives for Blackbaud Luminate Online.

Reviewers rate Availability highest, with a score of 10.

The most common users of Blackbaud Luminate Online are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).

Blackbaud Luminate Online Customer Size Distribution

Consumers0%
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)30%
Mid-Size Companies (51-500 employees)50%
Enterprises (more than 500 employees)20%
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(154)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-3 of 3)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
July 07, 2017

Solid for CRM

Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Luminate Online (LO) for our CRM program. It is used for online fundraising, email marketing, advocacy actions, and less often for events. Two departments (communications and development) within our non-profit use the service; as well as our outside consulting firm. It allows us to manage our CRM database and communicate with constituents.
  • Customized donation pages.
  • Email marketing.
  • Advocacy actions (communications to Congress).
  • Mobile friendly event pages are not available currently, from what I understand.
  • Multi-language support.
  • Customer service could use improvement.
Luminiate Online (LO) is very well suited for mass emails, tailored and targeted groups of constituents segmented by donation level or other characteristics. LO is also suited for personalization of those emails (i.e. inserting the name or location of the constituent inside the email). LO is not suited for on one one communications.
Salsa was the previous CRM platform. We migrated from Salsa about 5 years ago as we prefer Luminate. EveryAction is a newcomer which appears to be competitive to Luminate Online, but we haven't reviewed their features yet. In any case, we have a strong preference to work with a company focused on the non-profit sector, versus more traditional or generic online marketing and payment processing providers, as non-profit focused companies know our business model and are more likely to support our values.
5
Our non profit marketing, development and communications teams use the system daily.
2
We don't have enough support in my opinion (nd Luminate does not offer great support either); our team doesn't quite have the skills to
fix bugs and implement solutions so we often outsource to a vendor.
  • Fundraising emails
  • Surveys
  • Action alerts
  • We have used it to ask our email list to share a graphic to social media.
  • Embedding video or other dynamic content into donation pages
  • End of year fundraising progress meters
  • Not sure
  • Not sure
  • Not sure
We don't love it, to be honest. I find the service difficult to use and the support is lacking. However the pain of migrating to a new CMS might just keep us with Luminate for now.
  • Buggy forms have lost us donations so that is a negative impact
  • On the other hand, using daisy chain donation asks following an action has bumped up donation amounts
Yes
Salsa was replaced prior to me joining the org so I don't know why the switch was made
  • Product Reputation
  • Existing Relationship with the Vendor
  • Analyst Reports
  • Third-party Reviews
I am guessing at these factors because I wasn't part of the selection process. My org adopted Luminate in 2012 and I joined the org in 2013.
I would look at usability (ease of using the software), price (Luminate charges extra for so many things!), and deliverability of emails.
  • Vendor implemented
  • I was not part of the implementation process.
Neutral rating is based on the fact that I was not involved in implementation.
No
We pay so much already that we don't want to pay more.
Because while issues might get a response or
resolution, it's slow and impersonal.
Yes
Nope.
I can't think of one.
  • Simple donation forms
  • Surveys
  • Simple emails
  • Action alerts
  • Targeted emails
  • PageBuilder pages
No
For all the reasons previously stated.
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We purchased Convio Luminate Online and the Convio Go! Program about 2 years before it was acquired by Blackbaud. It is currently only used by the Philanthropy department to support fundraising, alumni relations and some donor and event communications, however it may potentially be used more broadly down the road. This was our first external online giving solution and it replaced Constant Contact for our email marketing. We have seen tremendous growth in online giving through the use of this product.
  • The Go! Program was a big time commitment but definitely increased our bandwidth and expertise with the product. If you are going to being using Luminate Online and have no prior experience with it, I highly recommend the Go! program.
  • The ability to set up custom URLs, pre-populated giving links, embed appeals codes and pre-select allocations has been really great for us, particularly with our tribute program.
  • The email marketing tool is OK, but the ability to sync data between Luminate Online and our offline database has really expanded our ability to segment and use "fresh" data.
  • The WYSIWYG designer and whole email set up is a bit lackluster. There are no set email templates where you can point and click to build your email. You really need some help or some HTML background to get anything that looks good.
  • The whole interface is a bit clunky. Some aspects live in seemingly incongruous areas of the platform such as reports. There are multiple types of reports that can be run from various sections and they each have slightly different functionality.
It's great for smaller nonprofits with one key constituency and simple mission. Since we're a hospital and a university we have dozens of constituent types and while it is effective for those it takes more management and know-how, and has also limited us in being able to use it more fully.
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.
15
Various teams from the office of Philanthropy -- Annual Giving, Gift and Record Services, Events, Donor Communications, Stewardship, Alumni Relations
0
N/A
  • Making online gifts
  • Sending email messages and appeals
  • Allowing online event registration
  • We've really grown our memorial giving via the URL shortcut tool
  • More leveraged use of the interest flags and personal giving pages
While there are some limitations it is working for us. We just renewed and likely will again in the future. You have to invest a lot of money and time to get it set up and so the decision to switch to another vendor would need to be a big one. If costs continue to rise or performance declines relative to peers we would absolutely consider switching but for now, as long as it's one of the frontrunners and the cost is appropriate, we will continue.
  • 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.
Yes
Constant Contact (email marketing) and and in-house online giving solution. CLO replaced both for us so that we could use constituent data for email messages and have it synced with our online giving platform.
  • Price
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
  • Product Reputation
  • Vendor Reputation
  • Third-party Reviews
Product features were obviously the most important factor. If it couldn't do what we needed done we wouldn't have bought it.
I would have talked once more iModules to see how they stacked up in some other aspects, but I suspect I would have ended up in the same place.
  • Vendor implemented
  • Implemented in-house
No
Change management was a small part of the implementation and was well-handled
While the implementation was not broken into phases for the product, we did break our use of various functions into phases which made it a much more manageable process.
  • Building the custom data sync --- just a complex undertaking
  • Setting up designated giving
  • Setting up paid even registration with designated giving
  • Setting up the Personal fundraising module
There's a lot of functionality so it takes a lot of effort to "turn it all on". Go into it with realistic expectations.
No
Unnecessary.
While new enhancements take a while, regular support issues are completed very quickly. I've had very good experience using the support chat function which I never expected to use but am very glad that it's there.
Yes
We have had a few technical bugs. The response has been satisfactory but not everything has been completely resolved due to technical issues that I don't fully understand. Nonetheless, Support was pretty responsive and helpful in addressing them and communicating with us.
Nearly every time I've used the support chat function I've had really great, prompt responses and appropriate follow through. I've been very impressed by this.
  • Constituent management
  • URL Shortcuts
  • Email design (WYSIWYG)
  • Personal Fundraising
It has most of the functionality that you need but is not the easiest or most intuitive product to use. While it's email module isn't as good as say MailChimp and surveys aren't as good as SurveyMonkey, having it all in one product does make a difference.
August 18, 2014

Luminate Online Rocks

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Luminate Online is primarily used by the Communications department for PageBuilder, Email Campaigns, Teamraiser, Donation forms, etc. Development department also utilizes it to research donors, thank major donors, tribute pages, and development online appeals. It addresses our online constituents and ensuring that we are communicating with donors, volunteers, clients, and the general public that is interested in MSAA.
  • TeamRaiser
  • Donation Campaigns
  • Emails
  • Interests/ Group Categories
  • Pagebuilder pages
  • Sustainers
  • Import/Export
  • Merging
Definitely ask if the program is too robust for your organization. It may be able to do too much for smaller nonprofits. Currently we do not utilize the advocacy portion.
  • eTapestry,Salesforce.com,PIDI (Public Interest Data Inc)
Luminate Online has more options than eTapestry and easier to use. PIDI does not offer the same options and Salesforce you would need to add on additional apps from the exchange.
5
Communications and Development departments
2
Communications Manager and Communications Coordinator support in-house Luminate Online.
  • TeamRaiser helps us connect to volunteers
  • Email campaigns help us generate additional funds and easy to use for End of Year
  • Donation forms are simple to create and manage
  • We use Teamraiser to create a virtual volunteer opportunity, and have been improving each year for the last few years.
  • We imported an email purchase group and created a separate group and interest for them.
  • Events calendar makes it easy to publish events quickly and update our website.
  • Not sure, it meets our needs right now!
We have had Luminate Online for over 5 years and are very happy with the support from Blackbaud.
  • Increased donor retention
  • Increased communication between MSAA and donors/clients
  • Streamlined process for sustainers
  • Automated receipt responders increase efficiency
  • Professional services company
Yes
I was not a part of the implementation process but it is usually lengthy, at least 4-6 months at other organizations.
  • Time
  • Layout
  • Website wrapper for pages
  • Email header consistency
MSAA was happy with the implementation and has continued to work with the partner on other projects within Luminate Online - Teamraiser to be more specific.
  • Online training
  • In-person training
  • Self-taught
Good details and explanation of various things you can do in Luminate Online.
Good video tutorials
Yes, some things were easy to learn from the FAQ.
I think that it is just right for this type of product. There is only so much you should want to customize because it already does so much.
Be sure to work with a good implementation partner and ask questions before making any change to the system since it can change the whole thing.
No - we have not done any customization to the interface
No
They are very helpful when you need them and answer any questions we have. However, sometimes during busy season, as with anyone, they get a bit behind which can be expected.
Yes
Yes, it was resolved within a few days!
We were unsure where to upload the information from our email append so we worked with our team from PIDI and Luminate at Blackbaud to help us import to the right fields.
  • Donation Forms
  • Page Builder
  • Email Campaigns
  • Teamraiser - to set up
  • Import/Export
  • Custom Queries/Reports
Very easy to use once you know the program. It can be time consuming to learn it at first because it is so complex and can do many things.
Luminate Online is a good product!
Do not have many issues with Luminate Online. Whenever we do, Blackbaud team fixes it almost immediately.
Luminate Online is a good product!
  • PIDI
Difficult and the integration is not seamless. Blackbaud purchased PIDI and did not create an easy way to integrate the two platforms.
  • Salesforce
  • Quickbooks
  • Peachtree
  • File import/export
Luminate Online is okay to integrate with but hard with some other platforms.
Be sure that all of Blackbaud products integrate with each other.
I was not a part of the sale/purchase process
Blackbaud is fairly easy to work with and our account manager as well.
Not sure, I was not part of that process.
No.
  • Bugs are fixed
  • Additional capabilities
  • Not sure, I am not in charge of the upgrade process.
No
No
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