Political contribution history can be an extremely accurate indicator of giving potential, but the search tools to find them are often underutilized by prospect development professionals!
If it’s been a while since your last major campaign, or if you’re new to the topic, definitely check out our overview on the basics of prospect research.
Even if you’re experienced with donor prospecting, you might be unsure about how political contributions are relevant to your organization’s prospect development goals. Among all the metrics that you might use to guide your prospect development, this data can be the most useful mainly because it indicates demonstrated commitment and an interest in continual engagement with personally meaningful causes.
Political contributions search tools make a great addition to your other prospecting techniques, like a prospect generator tool. Having the full picture of your prospect as an individual is the key to an effective solicitation later.
Individuals who make political contributions of any size can become excellent prospects since they’re clearly willing to stand by their beliefs and are motivated by a desire to see their support in action.
As a result, political contribution searches can be an extremely effective development strategy if your organization is deeply cause-based or pursuing major or ambitious campaign goals. If this describes your organization in any way, definitely consider these top 3 political contribution search tools:
Read on to discover how these tools work and why they’ll help your organization to focus its prospect development strategies like never before!
1. DonorSearch
How Does This Political Contribution Search Tool Work?
Let’s say you’re developing a prospect strategy for an organization that works to empower young women who study law and political science. You’ve very generally identified one prospect, a guy named Bill Gates, so you do a quick search on DonorSearch’s political contribution search tool:
Does anything stand out? Gates’s major contribution to support women candidates for Senate is an excellent indicator that he’d also be willing to support your cause.
In this case, Gates would be a prospect with proven potential. Now imagine extending this idea to your entire prospect development strategy. With access to detailed political contribution data, you could more sharply focus your prospect development strategies, saving your organization time and resources in the process.
DonorSearch is a leader in prospect development resources because its databases and search tools are among the most exhaustive and accurate on the market.
By giving you the biggest picture possible of your own data and theirs, including invaluable political contribution information, you can make faster and smarter donor prospecting decisions for your organization.
Why Do We Recommend This Search Tool?
Unlike other prospect screening services that focus solely on wealth markers and statistics, DonorSearch’s suite of prospecting solutions will give you much a more comprehensive of who your prospect is as an individual.
With access to political contribution data, full philanthropic giving information, and professional histories, you’ll be able to fully integrate your existing database with DonorSearch software and augment your existing prospect profiles. It’s easy to generate longer prospect lists and identify potential major donors in your existing database by screening it with DonorSearch.
After all, identifying commonalities and trends between your donors and prospects is the first step to growth, especially when you have access to political contribution data.
Do you have any prospects that you’ve tried to approach unsuccessfully for years? Maybe their political contribution histories or other data will give you the breakthrough insight about how to individualize that strategy!
2. FEC.gov
How Does This Political Contribution Search Tool Work?
The United States Federal Election Commission provides a very handy search tool for its database of political contributions made by individuals:
In this federal database you can filter your searches with a number of fields, allowing your organization to identify individual potential prospects by location, employer, and contribution date and amount.
For instance, if you’re trying to identify potential donors for a hospital capital campaign, filtering the database by state and quickly browsing might yield you these results:
Immediately you find four individuals in your state who have supported a cardiology political action committee, one of whom donated $1,000. The database will provide you with the donor’s name and location, then by cross referencing your other prospect development resources you can find more detailed contact information and begin your appeal.
Why Do We Recommend This Search Tool?
The FEC search tool can be an extremely useful resource for your nonprofit’s prospect development strategies.
Refining your searches lets you easily find individuals with a proven commitment to financially supporting their beliefs and values. For the right organization this information can be invaluable.
Best of all, as a federal database, this tool is completely free to use. It can provide an excellent starting point for your donor prospecting, saving you time and effort in the early stages of identifying prospects.
3. Local Political Contribution Search Resources
How Do These Political Contribution Search Tools Work?
Do a little online research to see which political contribution resources might exist to report specifically on contribution data in your local area.
This Virginia political contributions database is a great example of the general features you’ll find in similar resources. You can search donors by name, city, and zip code.
Let’s say your organization is based in Newport News, Virginia. A quick search reveals the largest donors in the city, both individuals and other organizations, like the local shipbuilding consortium:
This search allows you to easily identify those in your area who regularly donate to political causes and candidates, indicating a proven commitment to financially supporting those whose work they believe in.
Why Do We Recommend These Search Tools?
If you already know that you need to target mainly local prospects, these niche political contribution databases should be your first step in the donor prospecting process since they let you completely focus your efforts.
With the ability to quickly identify and target political donors specific to their local areas, nonprofits stand a better chance of successfully converting prospects into major donors. Maybe you’re unaware of an individual or company a few blocks away that regularly donates to all kinds of causes!
The shared connection of community can be a powerful incentive to support nonprofit work, so understanding your local prospect environment is extremely important before expanding your scope.
Bonus Tip:
Political Contributions and Corporate Philanthropy
Political donations and corporate giving can be excellent links between one another!
Political contributions search tools, and especially exhaustive databases and tools like DonorSearch, will uncover the professional affiliations of prospects for your capital campaign or major fundraising project.
With this information, nonprofits can then reach out to businesses that employ major prospects, and together they can discuss elements of corporate giving, like:
Always remember to apply your strategies for individual prospect development to corporations, since corporations with demonstrated histories of supporting political issues are much more likely to invest in similar nonprofit causes.
If you’re beginning work on prospect development for your organization’s future fundraising projects, make sure political contributions are a core component of your prospect research strategy.
This metric is extremely valuable as an indicator of giving potential, yet it is often underutilized by nonprofits looking to build their prospect lists!
Rely on these political contribution search tools, and your organization will never miss out on strong prospects in your community and around the country.
Check out some additional resources on prospect development and political giving that you might find useful:
Our guide to Prospect Research: the Basics. Use this comprehensive guide to get started identifying new prospects today!
Atlanta, GA (December 5, 2019) — Double the Donation is proud to announce a new integration with DonorDrive, a leading provider of technology and marketing solutions to nonprofit organizations.
Through the new partnership, DonorDrive users can now enable Double the Donation’s matching gift automation with just a few clicks. Double the Donation then goes to work automatically identifying matching gift opportunities for every transaction passed through the DonorDrive system. The integration ensures that not a single matching gift opportunity slips through the cracks.
Double the Donation has built the most comprehensive database of companies that match employee donations. Their database automatically accounts for parent companies, subsidiaries, and spelling variations to make sure that donors are connected with the matching gift programs that they qualify for.
Using this extensive database, Double the Donation automatically triggers out customized emails to each donor encouraging them to check their match-eligibility and then submit those match requests to their employers.
“We’re excited to begin our work with DonorDrive because they work with real change-makers,” said Adam Weinger, President of Double the Donation. “It’s our mission to continue making it easier and easier for these organizations to take advantage of the $4-7 billion in matching gift revenue left on the table each year.”
The biggest hurdle to collecting that unclaimed matching gift revenue is donor awareness. Most donors don’t know that they’re eligible for employee matching gift programs, which is why Double the Donation’s follow-up communications are so important.
When a donation is made with a corporate email address, the donor is automatically sent their employers’ matching gift guidelines. Double the Donation offers donors a clear and simple breakdown of their employer’s matching gift program so that they can quickly and easily see what kind of match they are eligible for.
https://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Double-the-Donation-DonorDrive-Announcement.png368879Adam Weingerhttps://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/logo-dtd.svgAdam Weinger2018-01-03 15:30:082024-12-17 18:36:43DonorDrive Integrates with Double the Donation for Matching Gifts
The average officer worker now receives 121 emails a day. And your inbox, and mine, will only get more crowded in the coming years (it seems) making the need for your emails to stand out and get opened important. But that’s just the first step, what are you going to say, and how are you going to say it, if they do open?
Well, based on our research of 218 email experiments related to email messaging, here’s what you need to do:
Write your email like it is to a real person, from a real person.
It sounds simple, and at one level it is, but it’s a crucially important fundraising idea that can grow your online fundraising. For example, here’s an experiment from our research library where the control email was pretty good, informative, and used facts and figures to make their case to the reader:
Not bad right?
But for the treatment, they wanted to ‘close the distance’ between the sender and reader by making the copy, tone, and voice, in particular, more personal. More human.
Do you see the differences? They are pretty small but the end result here was that the one that was more personal, increased donations 328%. And revenue? It increased 716.3%!
Being more personal is the high level idea that you should be infusing all the elements of your email with because it speaks to donors — you, me, humans — the way we connect with people. The concept that we treat digital experiences as if they are with real people is called social presence and it’s the social presence that separates those two emails from one another and it’s using social presence that can help you engage donors and separate your emails from those 120 other emails people receive each day.
We created a free online training course on email fundraising optimization that covers all you need to know but in this post let’s simply look at how you can improve them by fostering a 1-1 communication style through these 5 components of an email body:
Design and Format
Salutation
Body Copy
Call-to-Action
Tone/Voice
1. Design and Format
Stripping down the design and branding of an email appeal is one of the first experiments we run with clients, one of the easiest things you can test in your next appeal, and one of the most consistent ‘wins’ we see in our library.
If you don’t believe me, check out experiment #4174. The control was their usual email:
Pretty standard email with the logo, image header, copy making the case, big call-to-action button, personal signoff, and a PS.
This isn’t a ‘bad email’ – according to best practices you’ll find online and from other organizations – and in many ways a pretty good one but the intent of this email is pretty clear and quite early. It’s a marketing email.
So we wondered what would happen if we took out the branding and even the template itself to create a more personal feel using the same copy and call-to-action button to make it feel less templated and designed and here was the result:
The stripped down email increased clicks to the donation page by 80.3% and because of that led to more donations.
But could we simplify and strip down even further? Let’s test it! Here was that new ‘winning’ email (now the control):
And this time for the experiment, we wanted to get even simpler and clearer with the ask so moved the logo/branding down to the signature block and took away the big button and replaced it with a hyperlink and ended up with this:
In this case, the more personalized email increased donations 145.5%!
Looking for more evidence? Check out experiment #5824. Or #7524. Or #7466. Or #6429. Or #483. Or… I think you get the point. Our experiments show time and time again that for fundraising emails less design is better.
Why? Because real people don’t send emails with logos, beautiful header images, and well crafted footers. Think about what design elements you’d have in a personal email to a friend or family member and try to mimic that.
Do you use a header image? A logo at the top? A button in it? A signature? If you wouldn’t send it to a friend, take it out of your design and test it.
Key Tip: Choose an email design that mimics what you would send to a friend.
2. Salutation
This is one of the first things people see and it’s also often taken for granted. “Easy” things like using the person’s name can do wonders for email engagement.
Here’s an experiment with the National Breast Cancer Foundation where we had no first name vs. with first name:
The email with the first name increased clicks 270%.
When real people send emails to real people they use their name!
Hopefully that truly is an “easy” one for you (and you shouldn’t have to test that one) but you can also make your salutation more relevant to the receiver with internal factors like:
Personal interests – How about those Ramblers?
Personality – Wazzzzzup?
Level of engagement – you’
Or external factors like:
Environmental changes – I hope you didn’t get the snow like we did…
Holidays – Happy Holidays!
Recent events – What a Super Bowl!
Recent actions – Thank you for signing our petition!
These salutations work because… that’s how real people start conversations. So give it a shot in your next email.
Key Tip: Start a salutation with their name and, if possible, a personally relevant introduction.
Body Copy
The question I get asked most often when it comes to emails is, “how long should our email be?” And in response I twist the classic consultant ‘it depends’ answer a bit to be, ‘however long you need it to be to effectively answer the main value proposition question’:
“If I am your ideal donor, why should I give to you, compared to some other organization, or not at all”
If you can answer that question in a sentence, then great. Your email could be a sentence. If you need 1,000 words, then so be it. Your email can be 1,000 words. But more often than not, your emails need to be a bit longer than you think and our research has shown that again and again.
Because you suffer from something called the curse of knowledge — a marketer’s fatal flaw where we assume the reader knows much of what we know — you end up writing fundraising appeals that quickly go through things like the need and solution — the value proposition — and get to the ask before the reader has have enough info to make a good decision. And since inertia or gravity is going against people giving their money away, they don’t.
Or even if you do spend time trying to answer the value proposition question and featuring something like a matching gift, you may answer it in your own words or language full of acronyms, technical speak, and insider terms that the reader may not even understand.
You have to make sure you have enough content, aka copy, to let the reader know and understand what you’re asking them to do which is often more info as opposed to less. And the only real way to know what your donors respond to or if they get your value proposition is to run tests and experiments.
Donors will tell you they want shorter emails, with less copy, and just the stats. But after looking through over 218 experiments, I can tell you that longer emails, with more copy, and emotive language raises more money.
Key Tip: Before you make a request, make sure there is enough body copy to answer the question why… both for the email and for the request.
Call-to-Action
Alright, you’ve done the hard work. Someone has opened your email. They’ve read through the main body. Now it’s time to present the call to action and move them on ‘down the funnel’ (or up the donor mountain as we like to say). Be clear. Be direct. Be simple.
Do you want people to learn more? Will they understand what it means to ‘stand with you’? No. You want people to give so make that clear in your call to action. Learn more or ‘soft’ calls to action like ‘stand with us’ language may get more clicks but they’ll often get less donations (here’s one example and here’s another one).
Key Tip: When you make a call-to-action request, be clear about your desire and intentions.
Tone/Voice
Remember the very first example with the slight differences that led to a 328% increase in donations? It not only was more ‘you’ focused and personal, it also was full of social cues and emotive language that a real human would use. Check it out:
It is full of emotive words like ‘turn up the heat’,‘desperately’, ‘incredible’, and ‘the fight begins’ but also human terms like ‘I’d be honored’, ‘Would you be able to help’, and the opening ‘I wanted to get this news to you as soon as I could’.
The combination of personal terms and emotive language sets a tone and gives a voice to the email that can engage and entice readers so when they reach the call to action (notice the raw link) they are on board. They’re motivated. They’re ready to join the fight.
Or if you zoom in a bit closer to the CaringBridge example above you may have seen that, beyond the design, we made a few other minor changes around the tone as well. Take a look at the first few sentences of each email a bit closer:
Again, the first email isn’t bad. It starts out fine enough, tries to develop some connection, and gets into a story. Another ‘best practice’.
But in the treatment, we used ‘I’ and ‘you’ language to be more like a human sending an email to another human and create a sense of empathy before jumping into the campaign even without the story ‘hook’.
The tone you have and voice you use through your copy sets the stage not just to lead up to the call to action but helps people put down their ‘I’m getting marketing to’ guard to engage with the content on a more personal and human level.
Key Tip: Read the email out loud and add/adjust content to account for tone/voice so it sounds like it is from a human, and makes you feel something.
Remember…
People give to people. Not email marketing machines. So best way to optimize your email fundraising is craft your email — from the design and format to the call-to-action — as if you were just one person writing to another.
Take the time and copy length you need to simply describe the value you are offering, don’t let your design distract from your message and connection, infuse some social cues, and clearly ask for a donation if you are indeed asking for a donation.
And just in case you skimmed everything up until now here is the…
5 Ways to Humanize Your Emails Summary
Choose an email design that mimics what you would send to a friend.
Start a salutation with their name and, if possible, a personally relevant introduction.
Before you make a request, make sure there is enough body copy to answer the question why… both for the email and for the request.
When you make a call-to-action request, be clear about your desire and intentions.
Finally, read the email out loud and add/adjust content to account for tone/voice so it sounds like it is from a human, and makes you feel something.
Good luck!
Author Bio
Brady Josephson is a charity nerd, entrepreneur, digital marketer, professor, and writer. He’s the Vice President of Innovation and Optimization at NextAfter — a fundraising research lab and consultancy on a mission to unleash the most generous generation in the history of the world. Brady lives just outside Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada with his wife Liz, dog Melly, and cat Thor. You can follow him on Twitter @bradyjosephson.
https://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/email-computer.jpg658960Adam Weingerhttps://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/logo-dtd.svgAdam Weinger2017-12-23 20:48:232023-09-14 19:58:195 Ways to Humanize Your Fundraising Emails (and Why That’s Important)
For most nonprofits, the topic of matching gifts is confusing enough as it is. However, the fine print can make it even more confusing, often turning donors away from taking advantage of corporate philanthropy. For instance, what happens when two spouses (both of which work for companies with matching gift programs) submit matching gifts separately to your organization?
Oftentimes, when a nonprofit’s fundraising team can’t find out the answer, the organization gives up when it could have received both matches. To fully understand situations like this, let’s dive into a few key questions:
Corporate philanthropy, like matching gift programs, is vital to nonprofit success. Let’s dive into common matching gift guidelines for situations like this.
1. Are Both Spouses Eligible to Receive a Match for the Same Organization?
In most cases, both spouses are able to submit a matching gift request to their respective employers. Assuming the standard case where companies match donations dollar-for-dollar, a single donation would effectively be tripled. We rarely, if ever, see a rule preventing a gift from being matched by multiple companies.
A more common occurrence is for both spouses to work for the same company that offers matching gifts. If that’s the case, one of three things typically occurs:
The company will provide a double match. For example, rather than matching at a 1:1 ratio, the company will match at a 2:1 ratio.
The company will provide the same matching gift ratio but will double the limit. For instance, instead of matching all donations up to $5,000 annually, the company will match donations up to $10,000 annually.
The company provides the couple with the same benefit that an individual employee receives.
To stay up-to-date on your donors’ matching gift eligibility, jump ahead to learn about matching gift databases.
2. How Can Nonprofits Promote Matching Gift Programs for Spouses?
Your organization may already incorporate many of our top ways to promote employee matching gifts, but don’t forget to also promote matching gifts for spouses.
For instance, do you provide donors with acknowledgement letters after they submit the matching gift request or upon receiving the actual grant from the company? If so, that would be a great time to encourage donors to ask their spouse if his or her company offers a matching gift program, too.
Simply reminding them that their donation could make even more of an impact increases the likelihood that they’ll look into it. Once a donor has gone through the match request process themselves, they’ll realize how straightforward it is.
From here, ask them to also find out if their spouse’s employer offers a similar program so the donation can be tripled! Since they’ve gone through the simple match request process themselves, they can relay the necessary information to their spouse.
Remember, if you subscribe to Double the Donation’s service, direct your supporters to your organization’s matching gift and volunteer grant webpage with our tool. That way, they can instantly determine their eligibility and submit the appropriate forms.
3. How Can a Matching Gift Database Help Identify These Opportunities?
While most employers will match both donations made by spouses, company guidelines do vary. As a nonprofit professional, you’ll need to stay on top of your donors’ personal data, such as their eligibility for matches through their employers. The research phase is an ongoing, arduous process. That’s where Double the Donation, the industry’s leading matching gift database, can help!
With Double the Donation, both your nonprofit team and your donors can instantly receive up-to-date information on their employers’ giving programs. This includes available guidelines, forms, requirements (e.g. donation minimums and maximums), and other relevant information. Plus, it easily integrates with other software, so you won’t have to worry about transferring all your data.
For larger organizations, check out 360MatchPro by Double the Donation. This comprehensive software enables email automation, customizable matching gift tracking, and other useful automation features!
With either platform, your nonprofit won’t miss out on important corporate giving opportunities. Whenever two spouses donate to your organization, they’ll instantly know if they are both eligible for matches through their employer, simply by searching their companies’ names. No more confusion on anyone’s part!
Matching gifts are not something your nonprofit wants to overlook. They’re fairly straightforward to acquire, but it can get tricky when two spouses both donate to your nonprofit. In some cases, they work for separate matching gift companies, and in others, they work for the same company. It’s all about making sense of companies’ guidelines.
Now that you know typical outcomes and how to identify these opportunities, start maximizing your matching gift potential!
https://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Spouses-at-Matching-Gift-Companies_Feature.jpg280725Adam Weingerhttps://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/logo-dtd.svgAdam Weinger2017-10-12 19:14:462022-06-20 07:54:00Matching Gifts: When Spouses Both Donate to a Nonprofit
Nonprofits all over the the world turn to industry leader Blackbaud for their data and donor management software needs. The entire suite of Blackbaud products spans a wide range of needs, offering appropriate tools for small local nonprofits up to huge enterprise-level organizations.
If your nonprofit has considered making the move to Blackbaud, chances are you’ve done a little research into Raiser’s Edge. This all-in-one fundraising and management platform is one of the most popular Blackbaud products, and for good reason. For context, here’s how the Blackbaud experts at TeamDNL rank Raiser’s Edge in comparison with other popular products in the suite:
The price point, comprehensive features, and target nonprofit size of Raiser’s Edge all make it an extremely useful platform for a wide cross-section of nonprofits.
However, it’s important to remember that any new software is an important investment for your organization and requires careful consideration. Before moving forward with Raiser’s Edge (or its newest iteration, Raiser’s Edge NXT), you’ll need to determine that it’s the right fit for your nonprofit.
To help you navigate all the product reviews out there and cut down on research time, we’ve compiled the most significant benefits and potential drawbacks you’ll need to consider.
1. Pro: Nonprofits can use Raiser’s Edge for virtually all of their fundraising needs.
If you need expansive fundraising software, Raiser’s Edge won’t disappoint.
With features designed to improve operational efficiency, enhance donor acquisition and engagement, and of course, boost fundraising revenue, Raiser’s Edge is truly comprehensive.
While nonprofits of all sizes can use Raiser’s Edge, its broad functionality makes it an ideal fit for nonprofits who need to store a significant amount of data and implement more complex fundraising strategies.
For instance, Raiser’s Edge can play an instrumental role in streamlining all of the following processes:
Data enrichment.
Communications and marketing.
Online payment processing.
Event management.
Wealth analytics and prospect research.
Crowdfunding and social engagement.
Of course, this also means your team should be prepared to learn about as many of these tools as possible. Take some time beforehand to consider how each member of your team will need to use the platform and what features are immediately relevant to each role. This can greatly streamline the training process.
Having an overwhelming set of fundraising resources in front of you with no idea where to start is a position no nonprofit wants to be in. To avoid that situation, make sure you’ve done your research to find out exactly what kind of fundraising software you need.
Or, seek out the help of a nonprofit technology consultant who can guide you through the implementation process and ensure you’re on track for success!
2. Con: Raiser’s Edge isn’t a quick solution for inexperienced nonprofits.
Because Raiser’s Edge is so multifaceted, some nonprofits have a difficult time finding their way around the product. Specifically, smaller organizations might struggle to get up and running quickly with the Raiser’s Edge platform.
However, this isn’t due to any major flaws in the software’s user-friendliness or design. Rather, it’s because Raiser’s Edge is such a comprehensive and highly-customizable platform. This can make it a difficult adjustment for organizations that have never before used a dedicated, professional-grade data and campaign management system before.
Small, local organizations that might only have a few (or no) paid employees typically rely on a mixture of more informal tools, spreadsheets, general accounting software, and word processors. Upgrading an all-in-one system is an important step in nonprofit development, but merging all those historical processes can be a strain on small teams that aren’t used to such major changes.
Typically, small organizations struggle with a few important aspects of the Raiser’s Edge system:
Implementation. For organizations that aren’t used to comprehensive database platforms, it can take a lot of trial and error, testing, and training to really learn the ins and outs. If your smaller nonprofits needs to get up and running with Raiser’s Edge quickly, expect at least a little frustration with the learning curve.
Creating queries. Raiser’s Edge provides the ability to pull information on specific groups or segments of constituents using their query tool. However, organizations with smaller donor pools might find that this feature is difficult to understand and utilize. The tool’s value becomes much more apparent as nonprofits grow.
Generating custom reports. While Raiser’s Edge allows organizations to run reports on virtually any metrics within their database, users at small or young organizations will likely be less familiar with the process and scope of analytics reporting.The platform offers preset reports that are certainly helpful, but small organizations will need to take the time and learn more and adjust them as needed.
Raiser’s Edge is an ideal fundraising and donor management platform for mid-sized organizations. That’s not to say that smaller nonprofits can’t find any value in it, but they are more likely to run into challenges along the way. This is especially true if they’ve never used a dedicated management system like Raiser’s Edge before.
Blackbaud has a highly competent support team who can walk you through these issues if you do encounter them. Or look for a third-party support team that specializes in Blackbaud’s suite of products. Not only can they walk you through the ins and outs of Raiser’s Edge, they can ensure all your essential integrations are up and running properly.
3. Pro: Raiser’s Edge is a highly customizable platform.
For organizations who like to get under the hood of their fundraising software and design a platform that’s fully unique, Raiser’s Edge may be a good fit.
With a multitude of configurable settings and customization options, Raiser’s Edge is most useful when organizations take advantage of the ability to adapt the platform to their needs.
Let’s look at just a sampling of what your team can configure:
Role-based views and permissions.
Donor profile settings, including addressees and salutations.
Business rules and defaults.
Tables.
Constituent categories.
Fields.
Integrations and links to other platforms.
And that’s truly just a taste of what you can customize!
However, it’s important to understand that Raiser’s Edge configuration is not a task just anyone can try their hand at, particularly if they’ve never worked with a Blackbaud platform before.
To truly capitalize on the advantage of in-depth customization, your organization will need to work with an experienced professional.
A web developer or nonprofit technology consultant with Blackbaud expertise can save you time, headaches, and potentially damaging mistakes. Plus, a nonprofit consultant can take the time to understand your fundraising strategy and then implement the customizations that are proven to put you on the path toward success.
When Raiser’s Edge is already such an investment, you need to go the extra mile to make sure your configurations are in line with your goals and fundraising needs. A nonprofit technology consultant can be that missing link!
4. Con: Raiser’s Edge is a long-term investment that requires additional strategy.
Comprehensive fundraising and donor management platforms like Raiser’s Edge are major investments for nonprofits; when properly implemented and customized, this software can make a huge difference for their campaign results and donor retention as they collect and use data in smarter ways.
Without an initial gameplan, however, organizations of any size can easily be overwhelmed by all these capabilities. Those that are less experienced with platforms of this scale risk not making the most of their new investment, or worse, misusing it.
You’ll most likely need to seek out some form of training and strategy support for your team as you get started with Raiser’s Edge.
While there are plenty of online and in-person Raiser’s Edge training resources offered by Blackbaud, researching all of your options can be a challenge. If you’re new to Blackbaud products more generally, just determining what type of support you need can make the implementation process even more challenging.
This master list of Blackbaud training resources covers can help alleviate some of the time you spend on research, but it’s more important that you take the time to gauge your needs before purchasing Raiser’s Edge. Consider your organization’s current software habits and your team’s levels of experience with different types of systems.
Try to determine how much and what sorts of support you’ll need and plan accordingly. For instance, for a first-time transition to a professional-grade database and management system, budget for nonprofit strategy consulting.
An expert guide can offer a personalized training plan with role-based paths, in-person coaching, and general counsel regarding using Raiser’s Edge as part of your fundraising strategy.
5. Pro: Nonprofits can integrate matching gifts into their Raiser’s Edge platform.
Saving the best perk for last, we can’t forget that Raiser’s Edge makes it possible to seamlessly incorporate the oh-so-important matching gift process right into your fundraising software!
You already know how vital matching gifts can be to your fundraising strategy. Raiser’s Edge accounts for this by making it easy to store matching gift information within your database and use that intel to (literally) multiply your gifts.
Within a Raiser’s Edge donor profile, you have the ability to view corporate giving data in a dedicated Matching Gifts section. All the relevant information, such as the company, match amount, and date, will be visible in one central location to make it easy to keep track of your matched funds over time.
Let’s look at a few ways you can take advantage of this pro:
Store donors’ employer information. You’ll have a hard time securing matching gifts if you don’t have your supporters’ employer data on file. You can request this information through event registration or donation forms, or simply reach out to donors to ask.
Create constituent profiles for employers. You should keep employers’ data on file in separate constituent profiles. That way, you can centralize important data such as matching gift ratios, deadlines, and eligibility requirements. Having their contact information on file also makes it easier to send them their own communications and thank-you notes for each matched gift.
Integrate a matching gift tool into your donation process. If you’re using Blackbaud NetCommunity as part of your Raiser’s Edge system, don’t forget to integrate Double the Donation’s easy matching gift tool on your donation confirmation pages and acknowledgement emails! Read this simple integration guide to find out how.
And if you’re a larger organization interested in implementing matching gifts into your fundraising strategy, see how 360MatchPro can help you take your efficiency to the next level through a Raiser’s Edge integration!
Raiser’s Edge is a powerful campaign management and donor database platform, and it’s provided countless organizations with game-changing features and capabilities to support their growth. Ensuring that your organization is in a good position to adopt a new tool of this scale, however, is essential.
Carefully consider your size and level of experience, and weigh these elements against the huge potential benefits of implementing Raiser’s Edge into your nonprofit’s operations.
Learn more about fundraising software by checking out these additional resources:
The Top Nonprofit CRMs. Read our reviews of the top constituent relationship management software on the market to find out which tools are best suited for your organization!
Our Favorite Donor Management Solutions. Find out how to boost donor engagement (and retention!) by investing in the best donor management software you can find.
If your organization is considering upgrading to new constituent relationship management (CRM) software, the well known product Blackbaud CRM might be toward the top of your list.
While Blackbaud is known for having a wide range of versatile nonprofit software products, Blackbaud CRM is a unique solution designed specifically for established organizations with highly expansive fundraising and constituent management needs.
That being the case, you’ll need to think carefully before choosing to invest in this powerful software.
To help you figure out if this CRM is the best fit for you, we’ve put together a list of 5 tell-tale signs that you should continue considering Blackbaud CRM:
But before we start, make sure that you’re familiar with Blackbaud CRM by reading this helpful guide from Blackbaud experts and nonprofit consulting firm DNL OmniMedia.
1. You’ve outgrown your current CRM.
As you may know, Blackbaud CRM was built for enterprise-level nonprofits and includes tools tailored to organizations with large-scale needs.
With that in mind, it makes sense that you should only consider Blackbaud CRM if your existing CRM system doesn’t meet all of your data management, fundraising, or donor engagement needs.
While some CRM software is built to be more lightweight to accommodate small or midsized organizations, if growth is a priority for your team, you’ll need a CRM with scalable functionality and a variety of features to support your many needs.
Blackbaud CRM comes with all of the following features to meet a diverse array of nonprofit needs:
Total relationship management for donors, volunteers, members, and more supporter types.
Support for multiple nonprofit chapters, field offices, departments, or programs.
Dynamic communications and marketing tools.
Custom analytics to measure success in all areas of your organization.
Plus, Blackbaud CRM can be even further expanded through configurations or integrations.
It’s important to note that if your organization doesn’t need access to tools that cater to such far-reaching needs, you’ll likely not want to invest in a platform as massive as Blackbaud CRM.
Blackbaud CRM might be right for you if… your fundraising and donor management needs aren’t met through your current CRM solution.
2. You need a CRM that can centralize your operations.
In addition to enhancing your CRM functionality, Blackbaud CRM can also streamline your overall nonprofit operations in a holistic way.not
If your organization is currently relying on a variety of disparate fundraising platforms, donor management software, and other data sources, Blackbaud CRM can centralize those efforts.
Blackbaud CRM seeks to simplify the nonprofit management experience by giving you access to all of the information and tools you need in just one system.
Through the Blackbaud CRM platform alone (i.e., without any third-party software integrations), you’ll be able to manage all of the following aspects of your organization’s fundraising and constituent relationship management efforts:
Annual or capital campaign giving.
Major and planned giving.
Volunteer systems.
Social media.
Peer-to-peer fundraising.
Web design.
Multi-channel marketing.
(And more, if you can believe it!)
Having access to a full scope of fundraising capabilities in one system gives your nonprofit ultimate flexibility when it comes to planning out your strategies.
While you can always integrate external software or build out custom solutions, Blackbaud CRM comes equipped with a robust feature set that can allow you to manage every aspect of your nonprofit in one place, thus limiting the need for complicated data migrations and mitigating the risk of lost or damaged data.
Blackbaud CRM might be right for you if… your organization is using a variety of disconnecting platforms to manage your fundraising, donor management, and constituent engagement efforts.
3. You’re prepared to implement your Blackbaud CRM.
So far, we’ve spoken pretty highly of Blackbaud CRM. It’s multi-functional, powerful, and scalable—what’s the catch?
It’s true that Blackbaud CRM can do a lot, but before you can capitalize on all of its features, you’ll need to successfully implement the system at your organization.
The Blackbaud CRM implementation process can be complicated, time-consuming, and costly. If it is the right software for you, the payoff will be well worth the time you spend getting set up with the product; however, you’ll still need to carefully consider if you’re prepared to take on such a project.
Here’s what we recommend doing to make sure you can move forward with implementation confidently:
Set an implementation timeline. To stay on track and limit unnecessary interruptions, your team will need to establish a timeline for the implementation process. If you’re working with a nonprofit technology consultant, they can help you set a realistic time frame, complete with benchmarks along the way.
Appoint an implementation manager. Not only will an implementation manager help keep the team on track, he or she will also help resolve any confusions, report progress to stakeholders and your board, and work with your consultant to document your process and establish best practices moving forward.
Determine the best path for training. After you get your platform up and running, you’ll need to train your staff on how to actually use the Blackbaud CRM system. Know your resources and be aware that you’ll want to receive the most comprehensive training possible, not just a hodgepodge of videos and how-to articles.
Be forewarned: while it might be tempting to manage your CRM implementation and training on your own to save some money, when it comes to Blackbaud CRM, implementation is not a one-person job.
You’ll receive help from your vendor (and hopefully, your IT department), but we strongly recommend seeking the help of a nonprofit consultant to walk through the process with you as well. They’ll be able to provide structured support, guidance, and training, as well as an expert’s perspective on how to maximize your new system.
Blackbaud CRM might be right for you if… you’ve spent some time considering the implementation process and have mapped out a plan to minimize risks and maximize long-term success with your new software.
4. You have a plan to customize Blackbaud CRM.
To really get the full Blackbaud CRM advantage, you’ll need to make your software your own.
How do you do that? Simply put, you’ll need to customize your CRM to fit your nonprofit, which you can do in a variety of ways.
Working with an experienced developer or Blackbaud consultant, you can integrate third-party platforms or build out completely custom solutions within your CRM.
For examples of how you might integrate your platform, you might consider adding:
Integrations can be more complex than you might think, so before you decide what you’ll need to add to make your CRM complete, make sure you have professionals on hand to conduct the integrations.
In addition to integrating existing software, you can also work with a nonprofit technology consultant to build out your CRM in ways that are totally unique to your organization.
Before you dive into the search process for your perfect consultant, though, take some time to assess your current fundraising and stewardship strategies to find out how Blackbaud CRM can enhance your efforts. What areas could be improved through existing software? Where do you need to take a more custom approach?
Blackbaud CRM might be right for you if… you know how you’ll include integrations and configurations in your software, and you’re ready to work with a nonprofit technology consultant to carry out the customizations.
5. You have room in your budget for Blackbaud CRM.
With so much to consider, it’s no surprise that Blackbaud CRM implementation will cost a bit more than some other CRM choices.
While you’ll need to reach out to Blackbaud for an exact quote, what we can tell you is that you can’t expect to get such a full-service CRM solution for a minimal fee. Blackbaud CRM is a pricey solution built for organizations who need—and are prepared for—a long-term investment.
Of course, you’ll need to consider your Blackbaud CRM price quote before deciding if you can move forward with purchasing the software. But if you’ve been paying attention so far in this post, you’ll already know that you should also consider such expenses as:
Integrations. Syncing your CRM up to other software? You’ll need to pay for any products you don’t already own, and you may also need to purchase connector applications or pay for a third-party developer to conduct the integration.
Training. Blackbaud typically only offers the lowest level of training with their product packages, so you’ll need to either opt in to their more exhaustive training programs, or work with a nonprofit consultant to develop a personalized training plan that fits your needs and budget.
Additional fees. If you’ve ever used a CRM, you’re probably aware that you should add padding to your software budget to account for payment processing fees, expansions, upgrades, or other “hidden” costs you might incur down the road.
While some costs (such as a nonprofit consultant) are vital to your success, other costs (such as paying for constituent profiles or user access) may not be as necessary. Make sure you’re only paying for what you need and that the benefits of the software will outweigh the costs over time.
If you ultimately find that Blackbaud CRM is too much for your team right now, it’s not too late to backtrack and find another more cost-effective option!
Blackbaud CRM might be right for you if… you’ve laid out enough room in your budget (with some give-or-take for unexpected costs) and feel confident selling the purchase to your stakeholders and board.
Blackbaud CRM is a big purchase, so don’t take the consideration process lightly! Make sure Blackbaud CRM fits into your strategy perfectly and that you’re all set with the tools you need to use it effectively.
Need to learn a little more about Blackbaud CRM (or CRMs in general) before making your move? Read these additional resources to get up to speed:
The Nonprofit’s Guide to CRM Software.Learn how CRM software can impact your data management and donor engagement strategies by reading our essential guide to nonprofit CRMs.
Raiser’s Edge Pros and Cons to Consider. If Blackbaud CRM isn’t right for your organization, check out Blackbaud’s fundraising software Raiser’s Edge! Our post breaks down the highs and lows of this popular software.
https://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/blackbaud-crm.jpg321845Adam Weingerhttps://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/logo-dtd.svgAdam Weinger2017-08-15 17:53:512023-09-14 15:04:25Blackbaud CRM: 5 Ways to Know If It’s Right for You
A popular solution for for-profit businesses, Salesforce has earned its place as one of the most comprehensive CRM software options on the market. With so many companies relying on it for sales, marketing, and more, you’re probably familiar with Salesforce to some extent—but did you know that your nonprofit can take advantage of the full range of Salesforce features too?
How is Salesforce used in a nonprofit?
Salesforce CRM can be a powerful tool in your constituent management and fundraising arsenal if you know how to maximize your use of this robust software.
Since nonprofits have such specific needs, you’ll have to know how to use Salesforce the right way to stay on top of your most important efforts, including:
Yes! In this post, we’ll walk through how you can use built-in Salesforce features as well as powerful Salesforce apps and integrations to manage all of your most vital nonprofit initiatives and actually enhance your strategies through your CRM’s innovative functionality.
Ready to learn how Salesforce for nonprofits can push your organization forward? Let’s get straight to it!
1. How to Use Salesforce for Constituent Management
Potentially the most important task for any nonprofit is staying on top of all the supporter information you have access to and then using that data to drive more effective fundraising and engagement strategies.
Without your constituents, your organization wouldn’t be able to move your mission forward through fundraising campaigns, volunteer work, or advocacy initiatives. That’s why it’s imperative that you know who your supporters are and how to properly connect with them!
As a CRM, Salesforce should be your first resource for managing constituent data. Let’s lay out a few of our favorite strategies for using Salesforce for better donor, volunteer, and other types of constituent management:
Consider Salesforce’s nonprofit products. Did you know Salesforce offers “re-imaginations” of their core products built expressly for nonprofits? With the Nonprofit Success Pack, you’ll gain access to all the features of standard Salesforce CRM pre-configured to better meet nonprofit donor management and fundraising needs.
Build out your supporter profiles using custom fields and relationships. Anyone can add custom fields, objects, relationships, and other elements to their CRM without being an IT expert. By creating unique data sets, you’ll see a more intentional view of your constituents, which can then inform all of your strategies.
Use Salesforce’s web-to-lead feature to capture information online. Salesforce’s web-to-lead feature automatically converts online forms into lead profiles in your CRM. That way, anyone who signs up for more information online (e.g., signing up for your mailing list or requesting a volunteer schedule) will instantly be logged in Salesforce.
Proper constituent management can also inform your fundraising strategies, specifically how you incorporate important elements such as corporate giving!
When you have complete, manageable data sets, you’ll be able to better target matching gift prospects and communicate opportunities for corporate philanthropy to the right supporters.
An integration with 360MatchPro by Double the Donation can help large nonprofits use their Salesforce data to power more effective matching gift strategies. 360MatchPro breaks down the constituent data you’re already storing in your CRM by matching gift eligibility and status. This powerful matching gifts software can put your constituent information to good use with actionable matching gift reports:
The more you lean on Salesforce for nonprofits to manage your constituent data, the more time you’ll have to focus on other things—like actually using that data to drive your fundraising tactics!
For many nonprofits, fundraising events are the cornerstone of their fundraising efforts. Whether you’re planning a variety of small-scale events or one extensive annual fundraiser, you’ll need a way to manage your event logistics, guests, marketing, and more.
While you can look to a third-party solution to plan your event, having access to all of your event management features within your Salesforce system will provide a more holistic view of your efforts and allow you to streamline many of your event-related tasks.
While you can use some of Salesforce’s built-in features to plan your event, to truly maximize your event management experience, we recommend finding a native Salesforce app to extend your CRM’s functionality to include dedicated event tools.
With the help of the right Salesforce event management application or integration, you can tackle all of the following vital event elements without ever leaving your CRM:
Event registration. Set up a fully customized event microsite with an intuitive registration process. Set up multiple ticket types, build out tracks with unique sessions, and even offer merchandise as an add-on to registration using an interactive eStore interface.
Total logistics management. Track speakers, sponsors, venue arrangements, and other necessities within your CRM. Since no two events are alike, make sure that your app can accommodate whatever you’re planning, from golf tournaments to mega-conferences to stakeholder meetings and more.
Guest experience. Empower guests to build and manage their own event agendas, share your event with friends via social media integrations, and complete pre- and post-event surveys to provide invaluable feedback to your event team.
With the power of Salesforce for nonprofits and the right event management app, you can centralize your event planning efforts and design a more productive (profitable!) event for your donors.
Next Steps for Using This Salesforce Feature
Find the right Salesforce partner for your next event by reading our reviews of the best event solutions on the AppExchange. Each of these tools can help your nonprofit’s next event thrive in a unique way, so all types of nonprofits can benefit from integrating these helpful solutions.
3. How to Use Salesforce for Fundraising Campaign Management
It goes without saying that in order to keep your organization’s mission moving forward, you need to find creative ways to bring in money for your cause.
Those efforts typically combine a lot of different fundraising techniques and strategies, from hosting fundraising events to cultivating long-term major donor relationships to simply setting up an online donation form.
Thankfully, your Salesforce CRM can help you balance all of your fundraising efforts in a way that drives your campaigns forward (and hopefully, above and beyond expectations).
By using Salesforce’s features and a few well-placed integrations, you can manage a multitude of fundraising tactics, such as:
Online fundraising. Being able to accept gifts on your website is essential! You can customize your web-to-lead capture so that online donation form data appropriately transfers to any field in your database, or work with an online giving tool that offers a custom Salesforce integration.
Matching gifts. A vital part of many nonprofits’ fundraising strategies, matching gifts can have a place in your Salesforce system, too! You can manually track employer information on your donor profiles, but for best results, you’ll likely need to implement a custom integration.
Peer-to-peer fundraising. By integrating a peer-to-peer fundraising platform with your CRM, you’ll be able to seamlessly transfer all of your fundraiser and donor information into Salesforce. Because peer-to-peer fundraising is so unique, it’s important to find an app that can map your data to Salesforce in a streamlined way.
You’ll be able to track all of these campaigns within Salesforce so that you have a real-time snapshot of who is donating, how you’re collecting donations, and how you’re measuring up to your short- and long-term fundraising goals.
Next Steps for Using This Salesforce Feature
Fundraising campaigns are the backbone of nonprofit organizations. Get started building out a Salesforce system that can cater to your fundraising campaign management needs (and other vital nonprofit efforts) by checking out these top nonprofit Salesforce apps.
4. How to Use Salesforce for Marketing and Communications
Whether you’re getting the word out about fundraising projects or inspiring supporters to make a donation, your marketing and communications initiatives can have a huge impact on your overall fundraising and donor engagement strategies.
However, with so many channels through which you can communicate, it’s difficult to nail down how you’ll connect with your supporters and how you’ll track those efforts within your CRM. Luckily (you guessed it), Salesforce for nonprofits can help!
Within Salesforce, your nonprofit should be able to manage your marketing and communications in a comprehensive way, taking advantage of all the most relevant, engaging channels, such as:
Email marketing. Perhaps the most universal communication channel around, email can be your go-to for newsletters, donation solicitation, acknowledgments, event marketing, and virtually anything else. Design branded email templates and build out custom automations based on content or recipient list.
Social media. Whether your supporters are using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or all of the above, your nonprofit’s web presence relies on active social media profiles. Store your constituents’ profile information within your CRM so that you can keep track of their interactions and manage your own posts effectively.
Direct mail. If you think direct mail is out-of-date, think again! Still a powerhouse marketing means for many organizations, direct mail appeals to individuals of all demographics. Streamline your snail mail efforts by creating unique direct mail workflows and tracking responses in Salesforce.
No matter what type of communication you choose to employ, Salesforce for nonprofits should make it easy to organize and segment your recipient list, design professional materials, and track responses and interactions intuitively.
Next Steps for Using This Salesforce Feature
To actually follow through with these efforts, you can take advantage of the Salesforce Marketing Cloud, which offers all-in-one marketing solutions, or look to third-party integrations or Salesforce apps. If you’re interested in exploring your options, take a look at our list of the top nonprofit marketing software.
5. How to use Salesforce for Reports and Dashboards
With all of the data you’re compiling in Salesforce (not to mention any apps or integrations you’ve paired with your CRM), you’ll need a way to make all the information you’ve stored meaningful and useful.
Salesforce for nonprofits has a wide range of built-in reporting tools to help you make sense of your different data sets. With Salesforce, you’ll be able to pose questions in order to generate custom reports. Then, you can display those reports visually using dashboards.
What kind of questions might you ask in Salesforce? Here are just a few examples of how Salesforce reports can help you break down data:
Donor acquisition. Measure how many new donors you engaged during your last fundraising campaign or at your last event by running reports on new leads generated or contacts added during a set time frame; you can even automate these to run on a schedule that keeps you updated regularly with no extra effort on your end.
Fundraising progress. Discover how your organization is tracking against your goals by building a dashboard to show a real-time picture of the revenue you’ve earned toward your end goal. Don’t forget to display this dashboard on your Salesforce home page so it’s always at front of mind!
Survey responses. A great way to measure engagement, surveys can provide you with a large amount of data at once. After building a custom object for your survey in Salesforce and the mapping that data so it flows into your CRM in a meaningful way, you can then run reports and generate dashboards for all of the information you collect or break down the answers into smaller reports.
You might also view dashboards related to donors’ matching gift eligibility, as shown with 360MatchPro:
When you have a clear view of how your nonprofit is performing in all the most important areas, you’ll be able to move forward with a stronger vision than ever.
Next Steps for Using This Salesforce Feature
Salesforce’s analytics features can help you determine a more strategic plan forward in terms of fundraising, donor engagement, and other vital areas. For more help putting together your nonprofit strategy, check out this post!
Now that you know how useful Salesforce can be, it’s time to start making the most of this impressive CRM!
But before you dive into your Salesforce strategy, check out these additional resources too:
Top 10 Salesforce Apps for Nonprofits.Learn how to take your Salesforce system from adequate to out-of-this-world by implementing these amazing Salesforce apps, all designed for nonprofits!
Salesforce Event Management: The Ultimate Guide.If event management is your Salesforce goal, you’ll need to know the best ways to go about it. Fonteva’s got you covered with this thorough guide!
Top Nonprofit CRMs.If Salesforce isn’t quite your speed, you’ve got plenty of other nonprofit constituent relationship management software options. Check out our favorites!
https://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Salesforce-for-Nonprofits-Feature.jpg275725Adam Weingerhttps://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/logo-dtd.svgAdam Weinger2017-08-11 19:43:572022-06-20 07:54:47Salesforce for Nonprofits: 5 Features You Need to Know
Eventbrite is a popular web-based event management app designed to simplify ticketing and registration for any type of event. Individuals, organizations, businesses, and virtually anyone else can use the platform—even Salesforce users!
If your organization uses Salesforce to manage constituent data, you’ll need to integrate Eventbrite with your Salesforce CRM in order to see all of your important information in the same place.
While an Eventbrite Salesforce integration is a viable option to manage events in Salesforce, you should be aware that the data migration and platform implementation processes aren’t always as seamless as you might think.
Before you opt for Eventbrite as your event planning tool of choice, let us walk you through our key takeaways from the Eventbrite Salesforce integration:
When you know what the Eventbrite Salesforce integration really entails, you’ll be able to decide if it’s the best path for your organization to take!
Not confident Eventbrite is the right event management software for you? Take a look at this list of excellent Eventbrite alternatives instead!
1. You have options for how you implement the Eventbrite Salesforce integration.
Before we can dive into our thoughts on the Eventbrite Salesforce integration itself, let’s discuss how exactly you can get these two platforms to work together in order to plan your event.
BecauseEventbrite was not designed for Salesforce, you’ll need to manually integrate the two systems so that you can store your event details within your Salesforce CRM.
Essentially, to integrate Eventbrite and Salesforce, your organization will need to take one of the following routes:
Utilizing a third-party connector app.
Creating a custom integration using the Eventbrite API.
Let’s run through an overview of the potential pros and cons to each path.
Eventbrite Salesforce Connector Apps
A third-party connector application essentially does the hard work for you by transferring data from Eventbrite to Salesforce.
You can find these platforms on the Salesforce AppExchange, or you can do some independent research to find the best connector tool for your specific integration needs.
It goes without saying that the major advantage to using a third-party integration platform is that they take away the need for any knowledge of coding or API. Instead, you can implement scheduled imports following preset parameters or create your own configurations using a user-friendly field-mapping alternative.
However, if you choose to go with a dedicated connector app, keep in mind that there’s always a risk when you automate any data transfer. You’ll need to pay careful attention that the data is migrating in the way you want it to, and that you’re not losing any data along the way.
Custom Integrations
If you’re especially Salesforce-savvy, you can forgo the middleman completely and perform the integration yourself.
The benefit to working directly with the Eventbrite API is that you’ll have full control over every aspect of the integration.
Of course, in order to confidently (and successfully) pull the correct event data and send it to the right location in Salesforce, your organization will need to have a fairly robust IT department on hand to facilitate the integration.
If not, you can opt to work with a nonprofit technology consulting firm who knows their way around the Salesforce interface and can make the necessary configurations to get your team synced up to Eventbrite.
Key Takeaway: Before you can integrate Eventbrite with your Salesforce CRM, you’ll need to decide if you’ll use a third-party connector app or manage the data transfer yourself (and you’ll need to understand the challenges for each route).
2. Customization can complicate the Eventbrite Salesforce integration.
No two Salesforce systems are alike, and most likely, your organization has already gone to some length to configure a CRM solution that uniquely fits your needs.
So, how does Eventbrite fit into the mix when you already have a complex CRM system? From our experience with the Eventbrite Salesforce integration, there are 3 considerations to keep in mind:
Connector apps may limit your Salesforce functionality. If you’re using preset formulas to dictate how to transfer your data, keep in mind that these will only work effectively if your existing CRM uses the same fields. If you’ve got highly customized fields and data relationships, the connector apps will need to be customized too, which may take some time (and trial and error).
You may sacrifice some custom data during the import process. Depending on how you’ve integrated Salesforce and Eventbrite, not all data may make it from point A to point B. For example, if you ask questions on your registration form that aren’t tied to a specific Salesforce field, those answers may get lost during import, leaving you with holes in your data set and more manual data entry to do on the backend.
You may need additional tools to manage every aspect of the event. Since Eventbrite’s functionality is relatively limited, you may find yourself integrating other apps (such as accounting tools, speaker/vendor management tools, etc) as well. Beware—the more integrations you have, the more data you’ll have in transit at any given moment, meaning you’re more likely to lose or damage information along the way.
While Eventbrite is a solid web platform for lightweight event planning, you should understand that the Salesforce integration will not suddenly turn this tool into an end-to-end event management solution. In fact, the more you try to build Eventbrite out into comprehensive, customized software, the more complicated your event management process will be.
Key Takeaway: The Eventbrite Salesforce integration offers some customization options, but Salesforce users who need a highly robust event management solution should likely find software that’s more inherently built to support complex needs.
3. You’ll want a data manager to oversee the Eventbrite Salesforce integration process.
As with any integration or data migration, your nonprofit should expect to spend some time getting to know the new system and ensuring that all aspects are working properly before rolling the product out to your whole team.
With the Eventbrite Salesforce integration specifically, we found that the best way to streamline your integration efforts is to appoint a data manager to oversee the entire process.
This member of your team will be responsible for:
Working with your nonprofit technology consultant or IT team to determine the best path to integration.
Communicating with your board to establish a feasible budget for the integration.
Developing a timeline for the integration.
Overseeing a clean-up of your database prior to integration.
Documenting best practices for data entry moving forward and communicating those policies to the team.
Testing your new processes prior to full implementation.
Establishing a plan for training the team on using the integration.
Depending on your resources and the extent of your integration, you may need to appoint a small committee or task force rather than an individual. That way, no one person is burdened with the entire project.
In order to effectively incorporate Eventbrite into your event management strategy, you might need to utilize other tools to get all the functions you need. If you do appoint a small committee to handle data migration, it’s important that they’re aware of any other Salesforce apps that you’re using.
For instance, if you’re hosting a silent auction during your event, you’ll need an additional Salesforce app to manage bidding and checking guests in and out. It’s important that your team knows what data needs to be migrated from which tools so that your Eventbrite data is as comprehensive and effective as possible.
Key Takeaway: Because the Eventbrite Salesforce integration can be complicated, your organization should consider appointing a team leader to guide the rest of your staff through the integration process.
4. The Eventbrite Salesforce integration might be costly (and time-consuming).
Any new software is going to cost your team some time and energy—and money, of course! But let’s be honest: your organization spends a lot of time laying out a workable budget and hiring the right staff to keep your operations efficient and productive.
That being the case, one of your chief concerns going into any software purchase or integration process is going to be the amount of precious time and hard-earned funds you’ll be spending to obtain and implement your new product(s).
When it comes to the Eventbrite Salesforce integration, costs (of both time and money) will vary depending on a number of factors, but here are some considerations to keep in mind as you’re budgeting:
Using a custom API may require significant time and money. If you have your own IT department to handle the project, you’ll cut back on expenses, since an outside developer or consultant won’t come free. That said, a consultant can help you save on time, since they’re proficient in the systems and can walk you through the process with your timeline in mind.
Connector tools are an additional cost to consider. On top of Eventbrite’s fees, you’ll also have to pay for any connector apps you use. As third-party platforms, these tools have their own sets of fees that you may incur upfront or over time.
You may need third-party counsel or training. If your integration is especially customized or extensive, you may need a professional’s help to oversee the implementation and train you on how to get the most from your newly improved CRM. Eventbrite’s training options are limited, so you’ll most likely need to pay for a third-party consultant.
If you don’t think you have time to create and implement a custom Eventbrite solution, the alternative would be to search for a native Salesforce event management application (i.e., one that doesn’t require integration).
Native Salesforce apps are built in Salesforce, so you don’t have to consider any extra time or money spent on data migration and integration. All of your data is automatically synced in your CRM, and all you have to do is click “install.”
Native event management apps can still be customized, but since they’re designed for Salesforce, the process is much more intuitive and streamlined than any integration. You can learn more about the benefits of native Salesforce applications by reading this helpful post from Fonteva!
Key Takeaway: Any integration will cost time and money, and the Eventbrite Salesforce integration is no exception. If you want to avoid spending all of your resources fretting over integrations, turn to a native Salesforce event management app instead!
With these 4 takeaways in mind, your team should have a much clearer picture of what the Eventbrite Salesforce integration looks like. Now all you have to do is decide if it’s the best route for your organization!
For more insight into Salesforce event management, check out these additional resources:
Our Favorite Eventbrite Competitors. If Eventbrite isn’t for you, never fear. There are plenty of amazing Eventbrite alternatives that can help you stay on top of your events and engage your constituents better than ever.
Top 10 Cvent Competitors. Also a popular event management tool for Salesforce users, Cvent is a widely used app—but it may not be the best one for you! See the top Cvent competitors to find out if there’s a better event management app for your organization.
10 Best Salesforce Apps for Nonprofits. If you’re looking for more apps that integrate with Salesforce, check our in-depth list. We cover apps for event management, peer-to-peer fundraising, charity auctions, and much more!
No two nonprofits are the same. All organizations have their own unique aspirations, limitations, and culture that shape the way you serve your community.
One thing all nonprofits do share? Every nonprofit could benefit from assessing (or reassessing) their fundraising strategy.
No matter how well you feel your organization is doing, it’s always worth it to take a step back and see if there’s anything your nonprofit could be doing better.
Similarly, if your nonprofit is running into roadblocks but you can’t quite identify where the trouble stems from, a comprehensive fundraising strategy assessment might help reveal your organization’s blindspots.
Ready to revamp your nonprofit’s fundraising strategy? Let’s explore each category in more detail.
1. Fundraising Strategy Planning
At the heart of your organization, you need to have an intimate understanding of your nonprofit’s direction before you’re ever able to strategize the fundraising process. Before focusing on specific arms of your fundraising efforts, you need to look at the big picture of your nonprofit.
To get a better idea of the scope of your organization’s fundraising needs, here are a few important questions to ask yourself:
Do you have clear, realistic goals?
Your organization should know what it wants and be able to clearly articulate what you’re trying to accomplish as a nonprofit. You’ll likely have a variety of interrelated aspirations, and by identifying them you’ll better be able to strategize fundraising. For example, you may be interested in developing goals related to:
Fundraising.
Donor acquisition.
Donor retention.
Once you’ve determined your goals, share them with the rest of your team so that everyone is on the same path to realizing your objectives.
What is your budget?
You should not only be familiar with how much you’ve allocated to spend on your organization in total, but also know how much you’ve set aside for individual projects. Keep your budget as detailed and forward-thinking as possible. Your budget should account for:
Fixed operational costs (rent, taxes, payroll).
One-time expenses.
Projected revenue.
Your budget should also take into account unexpected circumstances so that you’re prepared for everything.
Do you have a gift range chart?
A gift range chart is a diagram that breaks down amount of funding you’ll need to collect to reach a goal. The chart can illustrate:
The number of donors you need to reach your fundraising goal.
The number of individual gifts needed to reach that level.
A suggestion of how fundraising should be distributed among major gifts and smaller donations.
Gift chart are often used for larger fundraising campaigns like capital campaigns, but they can be used for virtually any campaign.
Do you have a case for support?
Your case for support is the elevator pitch of your organization. Why should donors care about your cause? What makes your nonprofit special? Your case should communicate:
If you’re not sure where to get started with your case statement, you can always hire a fundraising consultant. This professional will help evaluate your goals and determine the best way to translate them into a case for support.
Have you delegated responsibilities to a capable team?
Successful nonprofits always delegate responsibility among capable team members. Identify areas where duties need to be more evenly shared, or where individual staff members need to pick up the slack. Some ways you can support task delegation include:
Creating subcommittees within departments.
Sharing your fundraising calendar across your team.
Using a calendar matrix to indicate task responsibility.
Be clear when delegating tasks so that there is less confusion between team members.
Fundraising channels determine the audience you reach when making the case for support from potential donors. Depending on trends in your constituency, you might rely on:
Direct mail.
Phone calls.
Events.
Donation pages.
Social media.
Using multiple online and traditional communication methods will ensure that you’re reaching all of your supporters.
Have you outlined fundraising sources?
To fundraise efficiently, you should know exactly where you’ll be focusing your fundraising efforts. You can use prospect research and wealth screening tools to determine good candidates for giving. Some fundraising sources to consider might include:
Major donors.
Corporations.
Foundations.
Grants.
Additionally, consult your nonprofit CRM to segment your various supporters so that your outreach is effective.
Have you developed a calendar of fundraising events?
With an organized calendar of events, you’ll have a better idea of when to start promoting events or follow-up with donors after a campaign ends.
Do you have the necessary software to support your fundraising plan?
Nowadays, fundraising software is the workhorse that nonprofits rely on to help carry out the basic functions of their day-to-day operations. Is the software you’re using helping you achieve your goals? Your nonprofit might benefit from:
Does your board support your fundraising strategy?
Determine if your board supports your fundraising strategy. With a supportive board, you’ll be better equipped to achieve your goals. If your board doesn’t support the way your fundraising strategy, your assessment is the time to ask why.
Takeaway: Doing a big-picture assessment of your fundraising strategy can give you an idea of where to focus any further investigations. If you’re analyzing a specific fundraising project, a feasibility study will cover all of these bases, helping you understand if your project is viable.
2. Fundraising Strategy for Communications.
Now that you’ve looked at your overall fundraising strategy, it’s time to turn the spotlight on individual arms of your fundraising efforts. In particular, the way your nonprofit approaches communications can influence the success or failure of your fundraising strategy on the whole.
You can identify areas where your nonprofit’s communications techniques need improvement by asking:
Have you determined viable communications channels?
What communications channels result in successful donations? Are there lines of communication you rely on that don’t seem to connect with donors? Some ways to determine channel viability consist of:
Using A/B testing to evaluate channels.
Collecting communications preferences from donors.
Collecting data on which channels lead to the most donations.
Moreover, don’t just stick to one communication method. Diversify your channels so that you can connect with as many supporters as possible.
Have you developed a marketing plan?
Your marketing plan is a key tool in your arsenal that will help you successfully fundraise. If you haven’t developed a marketing plan, take the time to create one that is tailored to the fundraising needs of your organization. Your marketing plan should:
Target key donor segments, such as major donors, volunteers, recurring givers, etc.
Address donors at every stage of the donor life cycle.
Not only focus on fundraising, but also donor growth, retention, etc.
Refer to your overarching goals when creating a communications plan because it will help you determine the types of content that you’ll send to donors.
Is your online content optimized?
Make sure that your content is as user-friendly as possible. Most donors will interact with your nonprofit online, so it’s important to make the process seamless. Focus your efforts on:
When your content is accessible on multiple devices, it’s not only more user-friendly but also available to a larger group of users.
Have you provided clear calls to action (CTAs) for donors?
Your online content should prominently feature CTAs to direct your visitors to donate. These streamline the visitor-to-donor pipeline by making it easier for individuals to complete a donation, as well as encourage donors to give specific amounts. A strong CTA:
Uses action words.
Is concise.
Stresses urgency.
Your CTAs should be specific and clearly stat what action you want supporters to take.
Takeaway: When it comes to your fundraising strategy, your communications assessment should focus on what your nonprofit is doing to ease engagement between donors and your organization.
3. Fundraising Strategy for Events.
As with communications, your fundraising strategy is intrinsically tied to your approach to hosting events. Events help anchor your fundraising efforts as well as unite your donors as a community.
To guide an evaluation of your event fundraising strategy, you should ask yourself:
Do you have clear goals for each event related to your overall fundraising strategy?
Are you giving enough attention to the specific goals you’re trying to accomplish by holding your event? Depending on the type of event you’re holding, your goals may vary. For example:
Stewardship events will focus on donor retention and engagement with fundraising being a long-term goal.
Fundraising events might have a specific fundraising goal they aim to meet, focusing efforts on immediate accomplishment.
Be sure to set individual budgets for each event you hold. Know up front what each event will cost and plan accordingly. You don’t want to be caught with any surprises! Leave room in your budget for:
Event-specific marketing.
Venue costs, catering, clean-up.
An emergency fund.
Your strategy should also take into account ways you can raise money for events in case you go over your budget. By raising event donations from corporations, restaurants, and individuals, you’ll be able to stay within budget (or even save money!).
You should draft a marketing plan specifically designed to promote your events. Your events will need special attention, so don’t just rely on general marketing efforts to get the word out. You can promote your events by using:
Social media.
Event micro-sites.
E-mail campaigns.
Use the communication methods that your donors are actively using.
Do you have a follow-up and retention plan?
Events can help grow your organization, but only if you follow up with your constituents after-the-fact. Keep track of the donors you engage with, and use the event as an opportunity to collect their contact information if you don’t have it already.
You can increase retention by sending these donors thank-you letters following events, using the attendance list of an event targeted donor outreach, and requesting attendee feedback to shape how you plan future events.
Do you have a clear base of staff and volunteers who can run the event?
Your volunteers and staff will be the ones who make your event a success. Be sure you know who you can count on, and keep track of them as well as you do your donors. A great way to mobilize volunteers and staff is to break them into subcommittees. At an auction, for example, one might need:
A procurement committee to handle the items on auction.
A marketing committee to promote the event.
A stewardship committee to follow up with donors after the event.
Committees have clearly defined goals so that no task goes to the wayside.
Do you have corporate partnerships to support your event?
Corporate partners can help bring your event to the next level, and they’re also a great source of fundraising revenue. Seek out corporate partners who:
Takeaway: Other arms of your organization, such as marketing and fundraising, all intersect when it comes to your organization’s events, so it’s important to take the time to assess how well the moving parts work together.
4. Fundraising Strategy Evaluation.
Evaluation should be a core part of any nonprofit’s fundraising strategy. Without assessing how well your fundraising strategy is performing, you won’t know where to make improvements.
(With the help of nonprofit event fundraising software, your organization can collect and analyze important data to see where these improvements should be made.)
To assess how well you’re evaluating your fundraising strategy, you should ask yourself:
Do you have metrics to determine the success of your fundraising strategy?
Have you been collecting performance data, and has the data been collected consistently? Tracking performance metrics will help you understand trends in your nonprofit. Some areas to track include: cost per dollar raised (CPDR), return on investment (ROI), and conversion rate.
Do you have a team member in charge of revising the fundraising strategy?
Your nonprofit should have a dedicated staff member in charge of revising fundraising strategy so they can stay focused on the big picture of your fundraising efforts. The responsability might fall on your:
With a designated person revising your fundraising strategy, you’ll have someone that can make changes when your goals evolve.
Have you established milestones for your strategy?
To see how your organization is progressing, you should establish milestones for your nonprofit to evaluate itself. They might relate to:
Donor growth/retention.
Webpage views/CTA clicks.
Major giving.
These milestone will make it easier to measure the success of your goals.
Have you designated times in your calendar to check in with your fundraising strategy’s performance against key metrics?
You should periodically review your fundraising performance strategy. This way, if a strategy isn’t working, you can fix what’s broken. Consider reviewing strategy:
Annually.
During campaigns.
Following fundraising events.
Use your fundraising software to analyze data to gain a better picture of how your fundraising efforts are progressing and make changes accordingly.
Do you have a process in place for updating the fundraising strategy?
Making regular adjustments to your fundraising strategy is an integral part of keeping your fundraising process optimized. Be sure it’s easy to correct course and that you can make changes as you go along. You might regularly consider adjusting your fundraising strategy by making evaluations after:
Bonus! One surefire way to evaluate your fundraising strategy effectively? Enlist the support of a nonprofit consulting firm.
Takeaway: If evaluation isn’t a part of your strategy, your fundraising efforts are likely not as effective as they could be. Keep comprehensive, consistent data, and use that to inform how you move forward.
Now that you’ve assessed your fundraising strategy, your nonprofit is ready to get started on your next successful campaign. Use what you’ve learned to guide your strategy moving forward, and be sure to periodically assess your strategy to stay on track. Good luck!
Want to learn more about improving your fundraising strategy? Check out these additional resources to improve your nonprofit’s approach.
Fundraising Software: Expert Tools for Smart Nonprofits.Looking to improve your fundraising strategy further? Consider investing in fundraising software. Read this guide to get to know the different fundraising software solutions on the market.
Online Fundraising: The Ultimate Guide.Your nonprofit likely depends upon online fundraising as an important way to access donors. Consult this guide for more ways your nonprofit can improve your strategy by better understanding online fundraising.
Let’s set the stage: your organization needs to plan a killer event that will engage your constituents and enhance your fundraising power (without causing too many headaches for your event planning team). You search for an event management solution to help you streamline the planning process, but software like Eventbrite doesn’t have the tools or capabilities to meet all of your unique needs.
If this situation sounds familiar, don’t fret! To help you find an event management solution that can meet all of your needs, we’ve taken the liberty of reviewing the top Eventbrite competitors on the market.
In this post, we’ll highlight some top solutions that are like Eventbrite, but even better:
Each of these Eventbrite alternatives offers a unique take on event management, so every organization can find a solution that’s perfectly suited for their needs.
1. Our Top Eventbrite Competitor: Mobilize
Product Overview
Mobilize is the leading events management and volunteer recruitment platform for mission-driven organizations.
This comprehensive solution makes it easier than ever to create new in-person and virtual events, recruit attendees, and boost engagement. Their top features include:
Quick and easy event creation and customization
Automated email and text communication
Seamless signup and peer-to-peer recruitment
Access to a growing network of over one million volunteers nationwide
Robust data reporting and analytics to review your performance
With a set of intuitive event management features and an impressive network of resources, Mobilize generates more value for your organization over time than single-use event registration sites. This solution will help you empower and connect with more supporters, volunteers, and event attendees.
Comparison to Eventbrite
The online Eventbrite platform can be a good choice for one-time ticketed events. However, mission-driven organizations like nonprofits and advocacy groups often have more complex, long-term needs than the typical Eventbrite user.
One major difference between the platforms is how supporters discover your events and opportunities. With Eventbrite, you send your event listing to a list of supporters. With Mobilize, you can promote your events to existing supporters and tap into a rapidly growing network of (over 1.7 million!) passionate individuals looking for their next volunteer opportunity.
This is amplified by the platform’s automated social recruitment features and cross-promotion opportunities between organizations. Organizations can also enable all-star volunteers to host events on their behalf, drastically expanding their reach.
With access to the Mobilize network and its amplification features, your organization will reach much wider audiences than if you relied on your contact list alone. Plus, plenty of CRM integrations make it easy to record new supporter details and post-event feedback, driving even more engagement over the long-run.
For mission-driven events of all sizes, Mobilize is the best choice for long-term value. Its toolset and expansive network of volunteers and partners make it a no-brainer.
2. Eventbrite Competitor: Fonteva Events
Product Overview
Fonteva Events is an all-in-one event management solution designed for Salesforce users.
With Fonteva, you’ll have access to virtually unlimited tools to plan, execute, and follow up on your event. Their all-encompassing features include:
Total logistics management, including event setup, speakers, vendors, and sponsors.
Attendee management tools such as a guest agenda builder.
Intuitive registration and ticketing options.
An event microsite generator.
Hesitant about using such a comprehensive platform? Trust us: Fonteva’s software could not be more user-friendly. Your staff will have no problem implementing the solution and actually capitalizing on all of its features.
Comparison to Eventbrite
Eventbrite was designed as an online solution, so Salesforce users who want to create Eventbrite events will need to integrate the platform with their Salesforce system.
Fonteva, on the other hand, was built explicitly for Salesforce users. Fonteva Events is a native Salesforce application, meaning there’s absolutely no integration required to sync up the two platforms; Fonteva and Salesforce work hand-in-hand!
If your organization already uses Salesforce, you can still use an external platform like Eventbrite, but you’ll be spending significant time and money to force the two solutions to work together. Why not spend that time planning your event instead?
3. Eventbrite Competitor: Soapbox Engage
Product Overview
Soapbox Engage offers a comprehensive suite of Salesforce apps for organizations of all sizes. Specifically, their tools are designed to help smaller organizations get up and running on what can otherwise be a complicated platform for newcomers.
Their Events app includes a number of robust features:
Unlimited event creation with customizable ticketing options
Built-in analytics tools to track traffic and registration metrics
Flexible options to choose your own payment processor
Customizable and fully mobile-optimized registration pages for your site
Most importantly, as an app for Salesforce, all of your registration and engagement data will report seamlessly from the Soapbox Engage platform into your CRM. It’s the easiest way to start making the most of Salesforce for your events.
Comparison to Eventbrite
Eventbrite is a web-based platform, making integration for Salesforce somewhat difficult. For Salesforce users, bouncing between two completely separate tools can become a major time-waster and distract your team from planning the event.
Staying within the Salesforce app ecosystem is the best way to see returns on your CRM investment, both in terms of raising more money with your event and saving more energy overall. This is especially true for smaller organizations just getting started with the platform.
Plus, as a full suite of online fundraising and engagement apps, each Soapbox Engage tool works seamlessly with the others, giving you more intuitive features and comprehensive views of your data.
4. Eventbrite Competitor: Snowball
Product Overview
Snowball is an easy-to-use, all-in-one platform for nonprofits. Their suite of tools is designed to help smaller organizations clear the hurdles that often stand between them and sustained growth.
For growing organizations, planning fundraising events can be particularly challenging. That’s because the costs of separate ticketing, online fundraising, text-to-give tools, and more can very quickly become overwhelming.
Snowball solves this problem by giving you a full suite of nonprofit-specific tools for an affordable price. Their tools include:
Event ticketing tools
Customizable donation pages
Fundraising thermometers
Text-to-give services
Peer-to-peer fundraising options
For organizations just getting started, being able to host events with efficient online ticketing and intuitive giving options like text-to-give can be a game-changer!
Comparison to Eventbrite
Using multiple separate platforms, especially for complex tasks like planning a fundraising event, is not usually a good idea. As a standalone web platform, Eventbrite will most likely operate very separately from the rest of your toolkit. For individuals planning one-time events like concerts or parties, a standalone platform could work well.
Nonprofits, though, rely on their events to accomplish a number of very important and interconnected tasks, namely engaging their guests, raising awareness for their missions, and soliciting donations. Working with a set of interconnected tools is the best way to save time and effort while also making sure no important data slips through the cracks.
Snowball’s suite of all-in-one ticketing, online fundraising, and text-to-give tools make it a powerful choice for smaller organizations. Centralizing your tools makes your job easier, creates a more streamlined experience for supporters, and gives your team fuller access to the important data you generate.
5. Eventbrite Competitor: Doubleknot
Product Overview
Designed for specific types of nonprofits including zoos, museums, and retreat centers, Doubleknot offers intuitive event registration and program management tools to make event planning easier.
Doubleknot’s software comes with rich features to help you manage all types of events and programs. With Doubleknot, you can:
Configure a custom event with ease.
Build registration forms that capture all the guest data you need.
Manage capacities and waitlists per session or event.
Create unique event categories based on your organization’s common needs.
You’ll also have access to all of Doubleknot’s impressive integrated nonprofit features, such as communications and marketing, reporting and analytics, and payment processing. Everything you need will be visible in one simple solution!
Comparison to Eventbrite
Eventbrite doesn’t provide half of the program management tools you’ll gain with Doubleknot.
Because Doubleknot was created with unique organizations in mind, this software allows you to design events and programs that are truly complex. Whether you’re planning a straightforward fundraising gala or an ongoing class with multiple track options, Doubleknot can adapt to your needs—not the other way around!
6. Eventbrite Competitor: Regpack
Product Overview
Designed as an all-in-one system for registration, email marketing, and report creation, Regpack’s software comes with a variety of amazing features to help you manage events and enrollment.
With Regpack, you can:
Embed your form right on your website
Create new registration projects with ease
Easily communicate with registrants
Create and trigger discounts
Offer payment plans
Allow one person to register multiple people for your event
You will also be able to effortlessly manage your events, with automated workflow, data filtering, dynamic reporting tools, and data backed up in the cloud.
Comparison to Eventbrite
Regpack and Eventbrite both offer the ability to duplicate events that you host each year, so you only have to set them up once. However, Regpack offers more flexibility with registration types, such as conferences, one-day events, and trips. Their software offers an easy solution for even the most complex registration needs.
Regpack also offers a dedicated support team and a project manager who can build out your system based on your needs. Take advantage of their comprehensive knowledge database, too!
7. Eventbrite Competitor: Ticketbud
Product Overview
Ticketbud is an online ticket sales and event registration platform designed for event organizers.
Its comprehensive features are perfect for nearly every single event type out there. You have a wide reach with a lot of different ways to sell tickets through these Ticketbud features:
Sell tickets at the door and collect card and cash payments with the Ticketbud point of sale system.
Sell tickets on your website and Facebook page with the Ticketbud ticket widget.
Track all of your marketing efforts with Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel integrations.
Manage collaborators and volunteers in one place.
Comparison to Eventbrite
Ticketbud has a fairly similar feature set compared to Eventbrite.
However, where they differ is that Ticketbud offers daily payouts for ticket sales, whereas with Eventbrite you have to wait until after your event to get paid. Also, with intuitive data reporting tools and customer support available by both phone and live chat, Ticketbud focuses more on the organizers and their needs.
8. Eventbrite Competitor: Eventbee
Product Overview
Eventbee is an online event management software available for any type of event, from small-scale parties to business events, festivals, or conferences.
Eventbee offers a number of features that are similar to Eventbrite, such as:
Online ticketing and customizable registration forms.
Flexible payment processing options.
Branded event pages on Eventbee’s website.
Check-in via Eventbee mobile app.
Plus, Eventbee offers event management options specific to businesses or nonprofits, so any type of event planning team can access the most useful tools.
Comparison to Eventbrite
Eventbee stands out from the crowd thanks to their flat fee pricing, making them a cost-effective alternative to Eventbrite.
They offer four distinct fee structures ranging from $1 to $3 per ticket sold. You can even use their handy cost calculating widget on their website to find out exactly how much you’ll save when you switch from Eventbrite, Ticketmaster, or Ticketleap!
9. Eventbrite Competitor: Gather
Product Overview
A comprehensive event management solution, Gather can provide a robust look at all the elements that make up your event.
Designed for venues, hospitality groups, and event planning organizations, Gather includes features such as:
Workflow and team management tools.
Events calendar with past, present, and future viewing options.
Custom reports and data tracking.
Responsive web app for planning events on the go.
Gather also offers a number of useful guides and other resources to those who subscribe to their event management newsletters!
Comparison to Eventbrite
Because Gather is designed for event planning professionals, it provides a much more inclusive look at event management than Eventbrite does.
While still easy to use, Gather is a better choice for organizations and businesses who know their way around event planning software. If you’re new to event management or have only sporadic event planning needs, you might be better off choosing a more lightweight Eventbrite alternative.
10. Eventbrite Competitor: ZapEvent
Product Overview
ZapEvent is a web-based event registration platform designed to make selling tickets simple and secure for organizations of all sizes.
With an extremely user-friendly interface, ZapEvent provides all of the following essential tools:
Custom event pages.
Social media integration.
Flexible ticket and payment options.
Preset registration and financial reports.
Not only does ZapEvent make setting up your event easy; they make pricing easy too! ZapEvent’s flexible pricing model allows organizations to choose how they’ll handle processing fees, and they provide a price calculator to make mapping out a ticket strategy that much easier.
Comparison to Eventbrite
What sets ZapEvent apart from other event apps (including Eventbrite)? Their customers would agree that ZapEvent’s exceptional customer service seals the deal on the event management experience.
ZapEvent provides a wealth of videos and other online resources to help both novice and veteran event planning teams get the job done most effectively. On top of that, their team of event specialists are available to help you personalize your event and optimize your strategy.
11. Eventbrite Competitor: Fundly CRM
Product Overview
For small to midsize nonprofits who want to manage constituent data and event logistics in the same system, Fundly CRM can provide all of the tools you need to do both (and a lot more).
In this robust constituent relationship management software, you’ll have access to built-in event management tools including:
Customizable registration forms.
Event project management tools.
Sponsorship management.
Peer-to-peer fundraising tools.
Unlike some nonprofit CRMs, all of Fundly CRM’s event management tools are included with their base package, so you don’t have to break the bank to afford these fantastic features!
Comparison to Eventbrite
Fundly CRM isn’t just an event management platform; it’s an all-in-one nonprofit constituent relationship management software.
If your organization already uses a nonprofit CRM to manage supporter data, you’ll have to integrate outside event management software to use both platforms simultaneously. Because integrations can be costly (and often ineffective), it might make more sense for your organization to upgrade to a CRM that can handle all of your fundraising needs, including event planning!
12. Eventbrite Competitor: SimpleTix
Product Overview
SimpleTix provides an intuitive, flexible ticketing solution for any organization holding an event. SimpleTix users range from pumpkin farms to culinary festivals, from zoos to performing arts centers. It’s intuitive enough for first-time organizers and powerful enough for organizers hosting big-time events.
SimpleTix excels at reducing friction in the ticketing process by providing features that allow organizers to customize their ticket structure and remove the burden of manual administrative processes. Their top features include:
Instant payouts, thanks to their official partnership with Square payment processing
Unlimited, customizable ticket types for early bird discounts, member rates, multi-day packages, and more
Customers can change ticket dates and time slots on their own
Sell concessions, merchandise, and on-site tickets from the same platform
The SimpleTix team constantly adds new features and refines existing ones, and its YouTube channel shows tons of tips and tricks for making the most out of the platform. The platform comes with adjacent functionality like QR code-enabled etickets and mobile scan-and-go capabilities that make it easier to keep the line at the gate moving. Though SimpleTix may be a fairly single-point solution, SimpleTix integrates widely with other apps like Zapier, MailChimp, SalesForce, to name a few.
Comparison to Eventbrite
Like most ticketing platforms, Eventbrite holds ticket revenue for days or weeks after the event is over. SimpleTix’s official partnership with Square sets it apart in this regard. SimpleTix pays out ticket revenue immediately, which lets organizers use presale revenue to finance other aspects of their event. Eventbrite is notoriously bad at facilitating refunds, but SimpleTix makes that refund instantly accessible. Organizers can even offer a refund in the form of a Square gift card, which allows the organizer or venue to keep the revenue without sacrificing attendee satisfaction.
SimpleTix provides an event website that keeps your event front and center. Unlike Eventbrite, SimpleTix’s site builder doesn’t clutter your page with branding and promotions for other events.
Now that you know your options, it’s time to start planning your event!
Check out these additional resources for more event management help:
Top Cvent Competitors.Didn’t find the event management solution you were looking for in this post? Check out our breakdown of the top Cvent competitors to continue expanding your knowledge of the best event management products around.
Salesforce Event Management Guide.If you’re planning an event using your Salesforce CRM, look no further! Fonteva has the ultimate guide for using Salesforce to plan lucrative, effective events your constituents will love.
Our Favorite Event Fundraising Solutions.Discover even more nonprofit event management solutions! We’ll walk you through the top fundraising software to meet any need your organization has.
https://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/top-eventbrite-competitors-reviews.jpg375725Adam Weingerhttps://doublethedonation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/logo-dtd.svgAdam Weinger2017-08-02 19:11:522023-10-02 13:06:54The Top 12 Eventbrite Competitors (Reviewed and Tested!)
