1. Home
  2. Nonprofit Fundraising Software
  3. Blackbaud Luminate Online Reviews
  4. User Review of Blackbaud Luminate Online
Luminate Online: Bring your offline and online worlds together
February 21, 2017

Luminate Online: Bring your offline and online worlds together

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Modules Used

  • Luminate Online
  • Luminate TeamRaiser

Overall Satisfaction with Luminate

The organization already used Raiser's Edge/RE but was using Constant Contact for emailing/fundraising via email. The offline and online worlds were not integrated. Which resulted in many problems in donor communication and cultivation. We decided to purchase LO as a way to track offline and online donor activity. This was hugely successful in making sure that if a donor sends a check via mail they are not then emailed a day later asking for a donation....or vice versa. LO also makes donor accounts available online so the donor can print donation receipts or change address, etc. The best aspect is that is tracked donor behavior/responses. Meaning that if a donor gave on their first visit to the website, on their second visit the suggested amounts would increase and take into account the last donation amount.
LO is only used by Development/Fundraising teams, which also include communications department.
  • Integrates and streamlines offline and online donor communications.
  • Tracks donors and their giving history, making increasing donations easier.
  • Easily creates donor segementations for email fundraising/marketing.
  • The learning curve is steep. It would be difficult for the product to be [utilized] if nonprofits don't also invest in training.
  • The role out of the product is slow. When working for impatient CEOs, they want to see changes overnight and the entire roll out, with suggested training, can take up to one year.
I have only worked with Blackbaud's other products. I am trained and very familiar with eTapestry. I would not recommend to any nonprofit professional a switch to a company that is not familiar with fundraising/nonprofit sector. I have seen, from afar, switches to products like Salesforce and most of them ended in frustration for the nonprofit. This is not a switch I would ever recommend to the C-Suite in nonprofits where I work.
Luminate (LO) is well suited for any company that already uses Blackbaud CRMs, especially Raiser Edge/RE. It is a great product for mid-large sized nonprofits with a fairly established fundraising staff. The product does take up staff time and the roll out is lengthy. Any nonprofit purchasing LO should be willing to dedicate staff time for daily management and roll out time.
I would not suggest LO for small nonprofits or ones that are using other Blackbaud CRMs, such as eTapestry. LO is most powerful when it can integrate with the CRM. If budgets for CRMs, email marketing software, are small and fundraising staff is small, it is best to stick with more linear products like eTapestry.