GiveSmart Reviews

“Impressive fundraising hub

Pros

To run fundraising events through this platform has been a really positive experience especially for auctions, galas and other large-scale programs. One of the biggest advantages for our school system is how flexible the platform is. Being able to assign campaign admins to each school means individual teams can manage their own programs, auctions and events on their own while still staying under one centralized system. The mobile bidding works very well and the overall guest experience is excellent and simple to navigate which really helps boost family engagement and revenue. On the admin side, it's incredibly helpful to have ticketing, payments, donor information and communications all together in one place and that makes my work much more manageable.

Cons

The biggest downside is definitely the cost. Even though the platform is very user-friendly for participants, the backend can feel somewhat complicated at times especially when building more customized campaigns, auctions and events. There's also a bit of a learning curve for new users, particularly for staff at the individual school level.

“costly platform with constant failures

Pros

Unfortunately, we didn't come away with anything positive from using it... both the platform and the support team fell short of even the most basic expectations.

Cons

It has been unpractical, poorly supported, hard to integrate and painfully slow when critical issues come up. Even after paying thousands for the platform, we've still had to build our own workarounds just to get things functioning.

“A smartt platform

Pros

Every online platform comes with strengths and weaknesses and this one has been one of the better ones we've used. It does a lot really well and they seem to be actively fixing the few issues that still come up. I'd absolutely recommend it to others and most of the trouble we ran into was due to user error on our side.

Cons

There's a lot of training included with the annual subscription. We ended up having to pay for extra training before we could fully make use of all the tools.

“guest-friendly

Pros

This platform was quite simple to use for both us and our guests.. they also had a really positive experience with it.

Cons

Costy! The price is a little high for us. Sadly, as a nonprofit, we just couldn't keep it in our budget but if the pricing works for you, it's a very valuable tool.

“Great features

Pros

I like the feature set, it covers all what we need. Customer service has also been consistently helpful which has made the overall experience even better.

Cons

There are cheaper alternatives on the market that provide many of the same features.

“A polished frontend

Pros

From the user side, this platform looks polished and includes all the features I was accustomed to and the pricing was better too. After I spent some time learning the back end, I was able to get my site set up without much trouble.

Cons

For us, we took a while to get comfortable with it, at least for me and it didn't feel as user-friendly as some other platforms. A few parts weren't very adaptive and required a lot of trial and error to understand. Learning the system took quite a bit of time and there are still several features missing.

“fantastic event organization toolkit

Pros

This tool has been a great fit for us because it helps me keep the company's event planning fully organized. It covers multiple tasks really well and I can manage everything in one place and the user experience is absolutely worth it since the platform is well optimized and backed by strongtechnical support.

Cons

Pricing is the real downside for this platform cause it sits somewhere in the middle range.

“limited customization

Pros

Very useful for us to have event registration, seating and fundraising all handled in one system. It was also helpful that sponsors, vendors, volunteers and attendees could each have their own separate registration page for the same event.

Cons

We ended up not using the Auction component at all and switched to pen and paper once we saw how the Givesmart Auction feature actually worked. It wasn't visually appealing and it didn't feel adaptive or enjoyable for attendees trying to browse and shop while actively using the platform during the event. There was also almost no flexibility when it came to fundraising for units of impact instead of standard dollar amounts. Alsoo, I had very little control over shaping or redefining the attendee experience within the platform. Even very basic updates to the giving forms took weeks sometimes months, of repeated requests. Customer support was also disappointing. A few weeks before my event, they contacted me to ask whether I was using every available feature and pushed me to add more at a point when the project was already far along. It felt like there was very little awareness of the user's actual planning timeline and more focus on meeting sales goals before renewal came up.

“amazing support for campaigns

Pros

Whenever I had questions, the customer service team has been incredible. The chat support has guided me through all kinds of issues, helped me set up campaigns in real time and saved me from making mistakes along the way.

Cons

The ticketing feature feels less adaptive than the auction feature and it's frustrating that information cant be carried over between the two.

“poor customer support!!

Pros

Bringing items into the system works fine and the reporting after an event is decent.

Cons

The training really needs improvement. When we asked for help setting up our first auction, the platform's rep just sent over a video to watch instead of actually walking us through it. The template options are limited, the graphics feel restrictive and the platform isn't adaptive. Their customer service was basically useless.

“Good product overall

Pros

Back when the pandemic hit, this platform gave us a way to keep our silent auctions running online and that filled a real need for our team.

Cons

Lately, we've run into more and more roadblocks with the product. Our team keeps having to contact support for things that feel like basic features should already handle, such as deleting a custom page created within a campaign. We've also dealt with a number of glitches, including donors being charged multiple times and admins not being notified about gifts at all.

“Terrific fit for gala auctions

Pros

After using GiveSmart for our Gala auctions over several years, it has consistently been a really positive experience. The platform helps everything run seamlessly, the checkout process is simple to use and the reporting feels very adaptive. Whenever questions come up, the support team has also been helpful and responsive.

Cons

One thing we did prefer in the past was that GiveSmart used to send staff members to help run events and we've been told they no longer offer that. Having their team there during in-person events was something we really appreciated.

“paid features never delivered

Pros

Unfortunately, I never really got to use the software as intended because we didn't receive the service we had paid for. Without the included benefits package especially the text-to-donate feature during the event which is supposed to be the key tool for helping a company raise funds... the software ended up having no real value for us.

Cons

I don't see any value in paying for this software.

“user-friendly for every role

Pros

It's very simple to use, whether you're managing it as an administrator, working with it as part of the team or accessing it as a customer.

Cons

This platform isn't really built for it but having an optional CRM module available as an add-on would be a nice extra.

“Ideal if you deal with frequent events

Pros

Positioned as a premium option, this product is priced accordingly. We used it because we were running around 10 to 12 events each year and it made it very convenient to duplicate data from one event to the next. It really wouldn't be a cost-effective choice if you only needed it for a single event.

Cons

Support can be hard to reach and the response time doesn't feel very strong considering how much the product costs.

“Strong event pages

Pros

The event landing page stood out for how customizable it is and how polished it looks. Plus, getting the key details entered for fundraising events is pretty simple and it's possible to have an event page built and live within just a few hours.

Cons

There are still some rough spots on the backend especially with features like table assignments and ticket purchases not always working well together. When someone buys tickets or makes a donation offline, it can also be a hassle to add that information cleanly into the event site.

“endless possibilities for fundraising

Pros

With so much uncertainty and so many virtual events, this software has been an amazing resource for our nonprofit. It took a lot of the stress out of having to pivot, think creatively and keep fundraising for our mission. In 2020 alone, we ran five campaigns through it and ended up surpassing our fundraising goals. The platform is user-friendly for both admins and participants and it works well for all kinds of events like golf tournaments, virtual auctions, galas, 5Ks, general fundraisers, voting events and plenty more. There are really so many ways to use it and their support team and helpful resources give organizations useful tools to improve and continue growing. I honestly have not had a bad experience with it.

Cons

A small issue I've run into was during a virtual auction. Whenever you share a link, whether it's for donating or viewing an item, it sends people to the main campaign page instead of directly to that specific part of the campaign. Even so, that feels like a very minor issue compared to the bigger picture of planning and running an event. The software is still simple to navigate and their support team is excellent whenever a question or problem comes up.

“Bidding and check-in made easy

Pros

This simplified ticketing, check-in and bidding and payment processing for us. Most of our guests commented on how convenient the bidding and payment experience was. It also clearly boosted our online participation.

Cons

The software froze or glitched for several volunteers and for me during the event which created frustration and delayed a few things. Finding the post-event reports was also harder than expected. We did plan to use it again for future events but after the first one, Im not as confident it will deliver for the rest the way the demo initially made it seem.

“Reports and analytics are quite valuable

Pros

i really like how i now have permanent access to past campaigns and it is a big plus. The reporting and analytics are very useful, the event website looks polished and participants usually find the platform simple to use. Uploading items is generally simple as well, aside from raffle items. Customer support has also been excellent whenever help was needed.

Cons

There are still several limitations that make the platform frustrating at times. Sponsor levels cannot be properly segmented so even though we have five sponsorship tiers, we are restricted to just standard and premium. It would be much better if sponsors could be displayed at their actual levels especially title sponsors and other top-tier sponsors. There is also no way to bulk upload raffle items or images which adds unnecessary manual work. On the Campaign page, campaigns cannot be reordered so all of our 2021 events show up first when I would rather see active or current campaigns at the top. Another missing feature is the ability to copy a single item from one campaign into another. There is also no log for sent text or email blast messages. The character limit for item titles is too restrictive. The label "User" is confusing for event participants and donors since they really should be identified by those categories instead. It is also confusing that every staff member they havee who has helped us appears in the list of event participants and donors. Navigation could be clearer too... when you are on a specific campaign dashboard and want to return to the main Campaign page, you have to click your name in the top right presents Profile, GiveSmart Events, JBWS and Logout. "GiveSmart Events" seems like the logical option but to get back to the Campaign page you actually have to click the organization name which in our case is JBWS. One more important improvement would be allowing guests to choose invoicing for donations. Many of our donors give through foundations and need an invoice before the donation can be processed so right now that requires manual intervention instead of being handled directly through the system.