Blackbaud Online Express vs. Blackbaud Luminate Online

For 100% tax-deductible donations, I 9.5/10 recommend Blackbaud Online Express. The only thing is that it does not charge debit cards automatically, so I have to do it myself. Using Blackbaud Online Express forms for events gets more complicated. The way events work in Raiser's Edge in general is already complicated, so maybe it's more on Raiser's Edge than it is Blackbaud Online Express.

Incentivized

I feel the way Luminate handles donor information is very organized and full. I am a database/reports person so I love how easy it is to find and process information. Some portals don't allow that much information into donor's profiles but Luminate provides a lot of room for history and bio information that is great for reports.

Incentivized

• Automatically matches the donor to a constituent in the database, if there is one, and gives you the opportunity to search if a match isn't found.
• If gift is in honor or memory of someone, it matches the tribute in the database, if it already exists. If not, you are able to easily create a new one.
• Transaction reports are easily accessible on the Blackbaud Merchant Services site.

Incentivized

• The donation forms are easy to set up to start collecting donations instantly.
• Getting an e-mail out the door is fairly straightforward.
• The TeamRaiser module is great for fundraising for big events with multiple registration levels and allowing participants to fundraise on your behalf.
• Constituent management is fairly easy.

Incentivized

• Access via Blackbaud's web portal, and to Citrix, is clumsy and slow.
• User creation and management is also clumsy, slow, and error-prone.
• Integration with Raiser's Edge is a pro, but it also can make using Online Express more complicated than necessary for users just looking for a simple email marketing tool.

Incentivized

• The learning curve is steep. It would be difficult for the product to be [utilized] if nonprofits don't also invest in training.
• The role out of the product is slow. When working for impatient CEOs, they want to see changes overnight and the entire roll out, with suggested training, can take up to one year.

Incentivized

We’ve decided to leave Luminate and are moving to a system that better caters to our and our users needs. Luminate has proven difficult to use and has limited abilities when it comes to data management, events, and peer-to-peer functionality. Reporting is also very complicated and requires a great deal of time to utilize properly.

Incentivized

You have to be very tech savvy to use Luminate to its fullest potential. You can get buy with the training, but there is a steep learning curve and you almost need 6 months to 1 year of in-person training to really be able to anything substantial. The online training lessons are not going to cut it while learning this program.

Incentivized

It's a very rare occurrence if the system isn't available when I want it. I can easily log in from home after hours if need be, and the security is enforced, but simple when you're legit! They are very good about sending email reminders and updates when system maintenance will be performed, and it's always during middle of the night hours when you likely wouldn't be using it anyways

Incentivized

Pages load fast and 98% of the reports do run in a matter of secons/minutes. There is this one report I have that can take hours to run, but this is due to the amount of transactions being requested for one of our biggest online fundraising events (Transaction report)

Incentivized

Customer service for all of Blackbaud's products has really lacked over the years. They are starting to get better in the last year but it can very frustrating. The online knowledge base community is the best resource for information. At times it can take hours for a customer sect even rep to help with questions or problems which is not at all ideal in this industry.

Incentivized

Support staff are usually incredibly helpful and responsive. There are several ways to contact them (chat, logging a ticket, phone) which makes it easy to get help when you need it. Once in a while I get a support staff member who isn't quite as helpful, which is why I gave it a 9 instead of a 10, but that is rare and if I follow up with someone else, I get what I need.

Incentivized

Initial training was great and the instructor was very patient and helpful during the set up process. Blackbaud has a variety on online self-paced classes that supplement the training you receive. The only downfall is after training is complete. I've found the support for Luminate to be a tad lackluster. We often encounter issues that aren't on Luminate's development road map and have had a series of cases be opened.

Incentivized

When I used the training, I had actually been using Luminate Online but figured it might help me learn to use the tools more effectively. And it did. The sessions were helpful and even as a current user I felt like I learned how to use the tools more effectively.

Incentivized

Implementation of Luminate itself was rather smooth, but the process involved for TeamRaiser was very difficult. Even after implementation we relied on support to help with various aspects of TeamRaiser from page design to reporting and front end user issues. The support offered for issues with Luminate was very good, but again TeamRaiser support was lacking.

Incentivized

Blackbaud's Online Express is MUCH easier to use than NetCommunity. Having the ability to "drop" donation forms directly into our existing website is a big improvement over NetCommunity's web pages. Only wish Online Express offered the ability to track constituents sign up for different email communications rather than just one option.

Incentivized

I haven't used Classy directly, but comparing the platform from public information leads me to believe it is comparable to Blackbaud Luminate Online. It isn't possible to determine what future development efforts Classy has planned, which is important when we consider how Blackbaud Luminate Online is discussing improvements. This is relevant as AI begins having impacts on all companies.

Though I have my issues with Luminate, in terms of "scalability" it does have some decent flexibility to house additional information or add on additional products (Like LCRM, LO, Team Raiser, etc) that allows for added functionality as our data/needs grow and shift

Incentivized

• Regardless of project or initiative, all fund-raising efforts are managed in one place for the entire organization.
• Donor management is concise, thorough, and systematic - no individual or organization is overlooked.
• Snapshot reporting of successful grant applications and fund-raising are readily available.

Incentivized

• We've increased our online giving +200% although this is due in part to our focus on the channel and not entirely on the product.
• We've been able to increase employee efficiency by selecting email lists per message within Luminate Online. With our prior solution we needed to request data be pulled from our database for event email.
• We've really done a great job of growing our online tribute and memorial giving through the use of custom links and the pre-populated information has really helped with the back end processing.

Incentivized