Great product for our event needs!
July 23, 2018

Great product for our event needs!

Lindsay Cleland | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Greater Giving

We use Greater Giving to manage (most of) our event-related needs. We use it not only to manage a day of event registration but also to keep track of historical information - sale dates, etc... so that we can track how we are doing year after year.

I am the primary user who manages the data input and preps our volunteers. We have volunteers who use the software to help us with on-site registration and credit card processing at events.

The software is excellent at doing the following:
1. Allowing us a user-friendly platform to manage our event day registrations
2. Giving us the option to swipe a credit card (or save a credit card) so that our attendees can both make contributions and purchases during an event using only their bid number

Pros

  • Credit card swiping at registration is important to us. It allows our attendees to have the option to make a contribution during our special appeal, purchase silent auction items, etc... without having to make a payment each time.
  • The day-of-event registration is so easy. As long as our host has provided us the name of the attendee registration is a breeze.
  • The ability to send out post-event tax receipts

Cons

  • My main issue with Greater Giving is that they do not allow us to pass on the fees to the purchasers, which is why we do not use them for pre-event admission and sponsorship sales.
  • I wish that the event registration webpage could be modified more so that it can be brand compliant and look like it belongs on our website.
  • It is slightly more expensive than some of the other options - but for the reasons I stated in the pros section, we find that it is worth the extra cost for our event-related needs.
  • We have had our attendees say that our check in/check out process is really well done, which I think leads to additional purchases not having to worry about paying each time you make a purchase/contribution. Since we don't have any pre-event Greater Giving numbers to compare it to it is hard to compare.
  • I do struggle with the cost as we are a small nonprofit and the annual fee + the processing fees are higher than other event-related software companies I have spoken to, but Greater Giving is the only one that can meet our needs at this price point. The other software companies that can meet our needs are more expensive.
We currently use Eventbrite for our pre-event ticket and sponsorship sales as they have a much more streamlined webpage that is customizable, they allow us to pass on the fees to our purchasers, AND they do not charge an annual fee on top of the processing fees.

However, they do not have the ability to let you swipe a credit card in advance - you need a membership to Bidding for Good to do so. We tried using Eventbrite and Bidding for Good for only 1 event before we switched back to Greater Giving. Neither platform allowed you to send out tax receipts and the on-site event management was subpar compared to the ease of Greater Giving.
For our organization, Greater Giving is the best option because of the credit card swiping, the ease of the registration, and the tax receipts alone. I do wish that it would allow us to pass on the credit card fees to the purchaser, but for that reason, we don't use it for registration.

For an organization NOT needing to swipe credit cards at the event for on-site purchases or using their tax receipt software, I do think that there are more affordable options.

Comments

More Reviews of Greater Giving