Greater Giving

We use it for an annual auction event

Kommentare: It works perfectly for our client to do their annual fund raiser

Vorteile:

It is now all done on a web page. This has been a large improvement over the older versions. It is quick and easy for our volunteers to use. Support is excellent when you need it.

Nachteile:

It can sometime time out when your are in a conference center wifi. Logging in can be confusing for volunteers

It is good, bu so hard to use and understand!

Kommentare: Overall the experience was ok. If 501 Auction had the same price as this one, I would go with 501 no questions asked. This one has a better price and better annual plan, but boy oh boy, it was hard to use!

Vorteile:

What I liked the most was the price and the plan they offered us. It was considerably cheaper than other fundraising platforms and in the demonstration called that we had with them looked so easy and logical (beware!)

Nachteile:

It is not easy to use AT ALL! It is super confusing to set up packages, import supporters, donors. Just building the website was a little nightmare. If it is your first time using this software make sure to have someone to hold your hand during the process. I really thought it would be easy to use, since I have worked with other fundraising programs before. Mistake! It took me a while to work around it and the tutorials didn't feel like enough to me.

Glitchy, clumsy, not intuitive

Kommentare: Clumsy, glitchy, counter-intuitive program. I work with computer programs all day long, and this one is just wayyyyy too complicated for what it is. And the webpages look like they’re designed for Netscape 98. Shouldn’t be this hard.

Vorteile:

It is a platform that collects money. But that’s about all that I can say positively about Greater Giving. Their customer service and technical support is helpful, but I shouldn’t have to call them as often as I do.

Nachteile:

The page formats are really outdated looking. Customization is limited and glitchy. Reports are hard to understand. Everything seems to take 10 steps, when it could be done in 2.

Would recommend!

Vorteile:

It's user friendly and the donor-facing software is intuitive even for less confident users. Of all of the software platforms I have used, Greater Giving by far has the best help/support features and chat. I don't think I've ever waited more than 2 minutes for a response to a question.

Nachteile:

It would be nice to have a little more customization opportunity in the event building on the back end. But overall it works for what we need.

Great tool for our annual GALA fundraiser

Kommentare: Overall, great experience. I have used Greater Giving for years and specifically, appreciate the customer service. Questions are answered in a timely fashion by knowledgeable representatives. This makes my job so much easier when we are in the throes of putting on a GALA! Thank you Greater Giving.

Vorteile:

Very helpful that we can go back to this product each year - our database is maintained. Our employees are trained on the product and able to pick it up quickly or train new volunteers.

Nachteile:

The sales/payment reporting function is cumbersome. Wish the details were itemized on the emailed statement rather than having to log in and pull reports.

Good for basic needs

Vorteile:

Greater giving has an amazing customer service team that is supportive and clear to work with. Having all of our constituents filed over the years makes the process of opening a new event easy and seamless.

Nachteile:

The flexibility of the software can be very clunky and not so user friendly. The household verse individuals is very confusing and has caused errors in the past.

Simple Event Software

Kommentare: We have used this company for years and will continue on.

Vorteile:

Greater Giving made the event process so much easier with transitioning into an online event during Covid. We were still able to host a fundraising event and families could still participate from the comforts on their home.

Nachteile:

We have not had too many issues with Greater Giving.

Greater Giving is the best auction management software in the market.

Kommentare: Using Greater Giving allows my clients the time to focus on the important jobs of procuring auction items, sponsorships and partners. It adds credibility to their fundraising efforts and creates a better donor experience.

Vorteile:

If a client is planning on incorporating an auction (in any format - online, in person or hybrid,) the Greater Giving is a great investment. It creates efficiency and professionalism in all aspects freeing up staff and volunteer time to do other important tasks.

Nachteile:

There are always ways to improve and as they tackle some, others will pop up. Currently, I would love to see a direct export for Quickbooks. I would like to see more reports that combine donor info over multiple projects.

Essential Tool for Fundraising

Vorteile:

We have used Greater Giving for years while fundraising for our private elementary school. Having the consistency & info between the years is really helpful as the volunteers change each year. The available tutorials make it easy to search for whatever topic you need to learn and anytime we've had to call customer service they have been prompt and friendly in their response.

Nachteile:

The cost of setup and annually can be a bit high but doesn't outweigh all the benefits.

Great for Online Auction Fundraising

Kommentare: Helpful improvements are made and functionality is added on a regular basis. Easy to use and reasonably priced.

Vorteile:

I would highly recommend Greater Giving. It is a great event management tool for any non- profit fundraising events.

Nachteile:

Website updates can take a while to learn.

Meristem - Happy Customers!

Kommentare: I have had an excellent experience with Greater Giving so far. We have had two events since last November, and both were very successful using Greater Giving as our platform!

Vorteile:

I really appreciate the customer service Greater Giving provides. We ran our first silent auction and fund-a-need using Greater Giving last November. I had about 3, 1-hour phone calls asking questions and troubleshooting. Everytime I called, I was able to make great progress in the system.

Nachteile:

Honestly, I have no complaints. Greater Giving is wonderful!

Great Software for more than just Auctions

Kommentare: Overall, it has been a very positive 10+ years working with Greater Giving. As the years have gone by it has become more and more value added.

Vorteile:

I love the capability to produce websites where tickets can be purchased and it can be used for so many different platform. We use it for T-Shirt Sales in the summer, Golf Tournament in the Fall, Donation Tracking, and for our major Fundraising Auction yearly in the spring.

Nachteile:

There are some Day of Auction Glitches, like logging people out of the system and screens freezing during bidding.

Alzheimer’s Disease Association of Kern County

Kommentare: We have been utilizing Greater Giving for our annual fundraising events. It is easy to operate and allows us to be confident in tracking and managing our sponsors, attendees and funds collected.

Vorteile:

Text to donate is what our organization utilizes the most. It has been very easy to set up and operate and we are very happy with this feature. The support staff is always helpful and aides in any questions we run into quickly and professionally.

Nachteile:

There is a little bit of jumping around when setting up a project and some double entry, but that could easily be user error!

Long-time Greater Giving User

Vorteile:

We’ve used Greater Giving for years for our various fundraisers and the best feature is being able to use the same features year after year especially with our sponsor levels and perks. It’s easy to use as well!

Nachteile:

There are so many reports and sometimes I’m unsure about which one to use or is beneficial.

Keeping my life sane!

Kommentare: Using the Greater Giving Software has allowed me to really be in control of the data and the ROI of my events. The software is very easy to use and set up. It has tremendous functionality and flexibility to engage multiple users. We look so professional at our events at check in and check out and guests love it. I have been using the product for three years and have hosted 10 different events through the software. Mobile bidding is beyond amazing! It has transformed our event and put the fun back in the cocktail hour because we are able to open up the bidding the day before the event to allow guests to browse and start the bidding process in the comfort of their own home or coffee shop. The reports have been invaluable to use with new committee members year after year to really hone in on the auction items that sell the best. The database makes connecting with the audience easy, year after year. One of the most important areas is the upper management. They actually listen to the clients and work to make needed changes to the product to be the most customer friendly product out there. The concern upper management has for the end consumer shows in the call center support. Their customer service staff is always available to answer questions and help guide me through anything I am doing or stuck on. This is great product that is just getting better each year!

Vorteile:

The database features and fields, mobile bidding and ease of email campaigns.

Nachteile:

Some of the fields could be located on different pages to make the work flow more integrated

Could not do what we do without Greater Giving!

Kommentare: I sourced Greater Giving back in 2010 when we were producing our first Gala. I wanted software that would easily keep track of people and items. The ability to create a website was a bonus! Greater Giving performed like a champ before, during and after the event. I also began using the website capabilities for other events/fundraisers. The sites are pretty easy to set up and maintain. When I have needed more help, customer support is always there. They were really there for me at our second gala when the power went out. We had just finished the silent auction and the guests were seated for dinner and being served when the power went out. We were able to process all the silent auction items as we worked from the software and not the cloud. We decided not to have the live auction or fund a need. Instead, Greater Giving assisted us in creating an online auction and worked with us every step of the way. Their expertise and great products helped to save what could have been a disaster. Hospice East Bay has about 4 events a year where Greater Giving is utilized. As long as I am the Development Associate for this organization, we will be continuing our relationship with Greater Giving!

Vorteile:

Easy to use. Great customer support. Full reporting capabilities. Easy customization.

Nachteile:

When the website gets updated and things move around or there are different ways to do them. No manual updates when that happens.

Good, but not for us

Kommentare: It made us realize that we needed another product. I know this sounds harsh but it was not a match, we needed something simpler moving forward.

Vorteile:

Very detailed in nature, this is great for a larger company that has the capacity to look through everything and be incredibly detailed. There are many features we did not use.

Nachteile:

Because it was so detailed, I would get frustrated at times. In my brain, having to activate one switch on a completely different page and category was difficult for me to understand.

Visually Appealing and Functional Auction Software

Vorteile:

Greater Giving is my preferred auction software - the main page is visually appealing and straight forward and the Greater Giving team continues to make updates that amplify the platform for virtual events (for example, their engagement center where you can embed a video). The thermometer view that can be shown during events to capture live donations is better than any others and that alone usually convinces my clients to use Greater Giving.

Nachteile:

Greater Giving is not as affordable as other platforms and if my clients decide not to use it, it is usually because of the price - specifically because of the online auction add on. Greater Giving really corners the market but I wish it was less expensive so I could more fully recommend it to non-profits with less resources and smaller budgets.

Like it for Galas

Kommentare: Greater Giving really helped us to track our auction donations and number them, to track our bidders and assign them a number for bidding for Fund the Need and kept everything in one easy place for reporting. We were then able to export the data into our donor software. It simplified our process for the auction, quite simply.

Vorteile:

We have used this software for our gala for many years. I inherited it and began using it and found the transition to be pretty smooth. I really like it for assigning bidders to tables and to individuals and for tracking auction donations and values.

Nachteile:

My least favorite thing was the lack of online bidding software but I believe they now have that too. We are not doing our gala anymore so we were unable to try that feature.

After extensive research very happy

Vorteile:

Greater Giving is an evolving company and continues to improve their product. It is extensive having many features, reports and different ways of going about getting things done. They are PCI compliant which takes away worry about security and adds value to your overall event. Whether you are a small shop or large, any nonprofit can use it with a little bit of training, some practice and time. It is cost effective and adds value to our events. It is amazing that anyone from volunteer to staff can reach out to tech support. I like that it is web based and that you can have multiple events simultaneously. Also the capability to have different permissions for each user including multiple account admin helps s multi department development team like ours. Relatively speaking the mobile bidding works easily.

Nachteile:

The "join me"feature is still new and we haven't been able to master it's use yet. The website capability is great but requires a little extra training. However the tech support is excellent with an almost 12 hour a day call hour. If the tech can't answer the question they get back to you. Most often though they will walk you through a step.

Functional Mid-Range Difficulty in Use

Kommentare: Customer service is top notch. My questions are always answered very quickly and there is always someone willing to walk me through what I'm doing. The team is wonderful over there.

Vorteile:

It can do a LOT. You can do events in person, virtually, run raffles, sell tickets, etc etc etc. It covers the gamut of fundraising activities.

Nachteile:

It is not super easy to use. Perhaps because it is capable of doing so many things that is why, but it requires more than a few calls and trainings and help manuals to figure out what you need to do in order to get what you want to happen.

Too difficult for average volunteers

Kommentare: Greater Giving is very feature-rich. Too feature-rich for my needs, it turns out. We are a small private school and used Greater Giving for 2 years for an annual gala with an auction as well as a Fun Run fundraiser. I liked the flexibility to customize reports and printed materials, but the way it handled auction items was extremely time to consume. You are required to enter each thing as a single item, then create a package. It didn't matter if it really was a package of 2 or 3 items or if it was just one thing - everything had to end up a package. That basically doubled the amount of data entry for me. I found the program far too difficult to use with volunteers - way too much of a learning curve. I did really like the event-night software and found it easy to use, even with the volunteers.

I'm a Greater Giving Fan

Kommentare: We have used Greater Giving for several years to manage our online giving pages and our school's fundraising event. This year, we added the mobile bidding component. This was the second time we've used mobile bidding, the first with a different company. I was looking for a product to easily manage all the auction and mobile bidding steps myself. This produce was so easy to use. The customoer support throughout the event was wonderful, often responding the same day when contacted, always by the end of the next business day. We are most likely planning to use mobile bidding again at our event in 2017, and I am already considering ways to use what I learned at the last event to make this one even easier, all using the things I learned through using Greater Giving. We are a happy user. Thank you. I highly recommend this product for anyone looking to increase revenue at an event and enhance the experiences of the attendees

Great Event Management Software

Kommentare: Greater Giving provides all the functionality we need at a very reasonable price. The event registration and check-in/check-out process is easy and much appreciated by our guests. Silent auction online bidding has become very popular, and we've seen a dramatic increase in the amount of money raised through the auctions.

Vorteile:

Nice set of features for the cost. Online auctions have been a tremendous benefit for our organization

Nachteile:

Admin interface is sometimes difficult to work with, and could use a redesign. Reporting is also a bit cumbersome.

Used For Multiple Black Tie Balls

Kommentare: I have worked for a company who has used Greater Giving for Multiple fundraising galas. The software is very easy to use as a volunteer and great interface for the donor.

Vorteile:

-Ease to Use - Staff able to help onsite -Great Customer Interface

Nachteile:

-difficulty pulling reports -other than that not a ton of cons