CharityEngine

I've worked at start ups and with more mature fundraising programs and the level of transparency I had into our business, especially payment processing is unmatched. The experience with Charity Engine felt more like a partnership than a vendor / client relationship and I believe this contributed to our overall success.

Vorteile

A monthly giving program can provide a stable source of income for an organization and Charity Engine software was integral to the implementation and ongoing success of our monthly giving program. Our strategy included moving off of our existing online fundraising platform and finding a better option for payment processing. Direct Response Television (DRTV) is a considerable investment and it was the primary acquisition method for our program. We wanted a solution that could charge recurring gifts (monthly, quarterly, annual) and process ACH and credit card donations across all channels and we didn't want to deal with file transfers. Charity Engine worked with us and the software accommodated all of our needs - the donation page integrated seamlessly with the website, we passed through our source code logic and the inbound contact centers could authorize and process transactions in real time (no batch processing) through Charity Engine's open API. What I like most about this experience with Charity Engine software - flexibility. Charity Engine felt like a solution with plenty of functionality I could use right out of the box but that also incorporated features designed specifically to meet my program's needs.

Later, with a smaller organization, I found my favorite thing about Charity Engine software - other than the cost (per contact record fee structure) was the intuitive interface that made it easy for a few people to manage events and peer to peer marketing/fundraising.

Nachteile

As a Charity Engine admin/user at the first organization, we identified a need for user manual/training resources. Also, entering offline donations (literally entering check information) was a pain point, however, offline donation entry is problematic for peer to peer fundraisers/organizations still today - I don't think any software has the perfect solution.

The system not only solves some of the most complex donor management system needs, but in some cases it's working for my association customers to manage membership needs as well. As for associations that have a donor arm, which is where we've done a lot of work, this system is easy to integrate as needed but is a real 360 degree view while also having top notch web forms, marketing automation and other critical items that are huge money and time savers for nonprofits

Vorteile

For a multi-tenant system, I'm really surprised at the extensibility of the system. Without "customizing" everything, it's really flexible and configurable to meet a lot of different business rules that are unique to my customers. Their data model and ability to query and layer queries is really impressive compared to similar systems in the market.

Nachteile

Hard to say, I think it may be somewhat difficult to set up if you aren't trained on it like my team is as an integration and implementation firm. We work with many similar systems in the market though and I'd say comparatively, it's easier to set up than most other member and donor management systems. I wish it had some additional functionality like the Association Management Systems (AMS) market has around testing, certification and things like that, we could have consolidated down to fewer systems in the stack for our customers who we implemented it for, but that's not what we bought it for. I'm super pleased with what's there.

As the donor database manager, I spend each and every day within CharityEngine. Processing donations, tracking pledges, building forms, event management, reporting and more. The overall experience I have had with CharityEngine is hands down some of the best. Each and every feature within CharityEngine continues to inspire individual growth within myself as the opportunities are endless.

Vorteile

The convenience, and ease of all fundraising streamlines comes within CharityEngine. From simple donation processing, to online forms, event registrations and individualize marketing tools, CharityEngine is the powerhouse software. CharityEngine continues to improve with each and every release bringing more and more improvements for continued growth in the fundraising segments. Managing our major gifts program through CharityEngine has allowed our gift officers to track opportunities, pledges and payments, reporting and all, in real-time.

Nachteile

Although we integrated CharityEngine just shy of a little over two years ago, it seems like just yesterday! We continue to grow as an organization, and within that growth we continue to grow within CharityEngine. That being said, each and every day I continue to learn more and more that CharityEngine can do. Of course, we run into a hurdle here and there, but fortunately, we have a great support team behind us, and for that fact we really haven’t run into anything we find as a dislike.

Vorteile

- Flexibility and ease of use
- Robust functionality that facilitates/addresses all of our fundraising, marketing and donor management needs.
- very responsive customer support

Nachteile

No complaints. This is a great, very cost effective solution.

Wish I could give a rating of the quality and functionality to CE, but we never got that far. The implementation just didn't deliver, and we had to pull the plug before launch. My advice: ask lots of questions, trust but verify.

Vorteile

It was accessible, intuitive, and promised all the functionality we needed for our social fundraising campaign.

Nachteile

We didn't kick the tires thoroughly enough on this product: Some of the core functionalities we expected just weren't there at implementation.

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Know what you need, and ask lots of questions.