Item: GiveSmart by Momentive
Rating: 10
Author: Jeanie Gundlach

Overall Satisfaction with GiveSmart

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

GiveSmart is the platform we use for online giving or event management in fundraising efforts for our school. It is used by me as the primary fundraiser and by the business office in financial management. It is a user friendly product for our donors, and people participating in events, such as golf tournament or online auctions.

Pros and Cons

Pros

It has a great reporting system that allows for smooth transactions and follow through.
It is easy for our community users/donors/ticket buyers/bidders/ or those just wanting to support our school to use. I have had very few questions arise or people having problems understanding how it works.
Technical support is very responsive and answers my technical questions in easy to understand instructions. I use them frequently and appreciate the service they provide.

Cons

When you are on a Dashboard the "tips" screens are always up and in the way. You have to click out of them to see what you need. Also, the red buttons are all flashing. I think that is important when you are new to it, but now it's annoying.
Also, on the Items page in admin and you click on the item to view/edit the info, you have two open pages to scroll up and down on and sometimes you have to adjust one to see what you need to see on the other. It's time consuming and awkward.

Return on Investment

Ease of sharing links has made it nice for online payments. People tend to use something that is easy.
Having the option of people being able to pay their credit card fees has saved us thousands.
Having the ability to put sponsors logos on the website has inspired more people to sponsor, particularly the golf tournament.
Monthly recurring gifts have increased with GiveSmart.

Alternatives Considered

MemberClicks and OneCause

Night and day between MemberClicks and GiveSmart with GiveSmart in the lead. Have not used any other products, have just done a bit of research.

Usability

I give it a 9 because nothing is perfect.

Support Rating

Tech support gets a 10 because they have always answered my questions or have given me advice that solves or makes my issue better.

Other Software Used

FACTS Student Information System (formerly RenWeb)

Likelihood to Recommend

I use it for my annual fund, have used it for an online only auction, and a golf tournament. They all worked well for me.
I did not use the seating feature for golf teams because I wanted to be able to print that info into a spreadsheet to use at the tournament. Also, I used a different method for registering golf teams that did not want to pay by credit card. This particularly applies to corporate teams and sponsors. I used a Google form for that.
It works great for my annual giving campaign, and great for my auction.

Comments

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Smart to Choose GiveSmart!