Not a great fit for small organizations.
July 14, 2023

Not a great fit for small organizations.

Emily Kendall | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with GiveSmart

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.

Pros

  • Customizable donation forms
  • Quick payment processing
  • Large learning center and numerous webinars

Cons

  • 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
  • Increased fundraising revenue
  • Increased work load for creating forms, events, etc.
  • Required too much extra work to get needed information to a CRM or accounting system
  • In my experience, did not help us in cultivating and maintaining relationships with donors
There is a lot to learn to be able to use this effectively. In my opinion, not great for small organizations as it's too overwhelming and creates a lot of extra work.
In my experience, support was awful from both the tech side and our sales contact.
It truly is very customizable, and we really appreciate that fact. The customization does come at a cost of more work to customize it all.

Do you think GiveSmart delivers good value for the price?

No

Are you happy with GiveSmart's feature set?

No

Did GiveSmart live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of GiveSmart go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy GiveSmart again?

No

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.

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