GiveSmart Erfahrungen

Gesture's software is user-friendly, fun to utilize and has a clean, professional look. I thoroughly appreciate Gesture's frequent software updates. They are continuously in search of even better ways to improve upon the customer experience, which they communicate through their Gesture Innovation Center emails. I believe that they value customer opinions and implement suggestions, accordingly. As an event planner, other companies often approach me, but none offer the experience Gesture has given my clients over the years. Our account manager, Allie Erickson is on top of our every need, patient, accessible, friendly and helpful. Our on-site manager is thoughtful, communicative, professional and kind. The Gesture team is trustworthy, diligent and fully dedicated to their customers. Every year, our attendees highly rate Gesture in our post-event survey. We have remained loyal to Gesture for many years and will continue for many more to come.

I would like to remain logged onto the system longer, but I understand that the system logs me off for security purposes. I really don't have any complaints.

I like that you can have multiple photos per auction item as well as items can be in more than one Category! These are GREAT features that separate their product from others.

The price is a bit too high for a lot of my clients, especially if its for a one off event.

We have used GiveSmart for several years for our Gala auctions and we have had wonderful experiences with the software. This has made our auction seamless to run, and the checkout is simple to use. All of the reporting is very intuitive and the support staff is helpful is you have questions.

GiveSmart used to send staff to help run your events and we are told this is no longer the case. We liked having their team available to help at the in person events.

Everything is centrally located on the campaign dashboard and you can use it with other events as well. Allows for ease when trying to organize many events.

Because there are so many features to this software, the learning process is a little daunting. However, once you get through it you'll have all you need to make sure that each campaign is successful.

I like the fact that it is very user-friendly. There are various webinars that are helpful, videos that are always accessible, and the GiveSmart helper is very nice.

I wish that this software was easily implemented into DonorPerfect.

The Givesmart platform is fairly easy to use and intuitive. Customer service is very responsive to questions.

I wish there was more options for customizing text and layout within the pages. Adding photos takes a lot of playing with as they look different live than on the admin side. Also, the photo size limit is challenging. More customization of donation pages would be helpful as well as adjusting sizes of the pages.

Ultimately, it has very clear ROI for the agency. The transition from paper building to mobile has drastically increased our pre-event and day of event fundraising. My favorite part about the software is the increase in funds collected the night of the event. It was incredibly unfortunately how much staff time we had to dedicate post event to collecting money, for many of our events we not have 100% funds collected the night of the event, which frees our staff up to focus on thanking donors. Lastly, the interface is very easy to understand and navigate. We have a number of events that have more mature attendees, who were skeptical when we began to make the transition from paper to electronic. After one use they all required we use the technology at future events. This is also a credit to the Gesture onsite staff who really meet the attendees where they are at and give extra attention when needed!

I guess my comments would be both a pro and a con. The fact that Gesture is constantly evolving and improving the technology it can sometimes be hard to keep up with all of the current offerings and capabilities as a client. This is one of many vendors you work with so it can be hard to keep yourself educated. Although, this is when you really rely on your account manager to relay this information to you, which our, representtaive, does a wonderful job.

I like the ease of use in uploading auction items. I also like the customer service we received when we had questions.

It sent out notices to our guests (when we were changing their seats on the seating chart, etc.) without our knowledge. It also sent out invoices and receipts without our knowledge at the end of the gala (there were some whom we were working on case-by-case basis).

Also onsite registration was not easy to do through this software.

The software is easy to use. It's intuitive and easy to navigate. It makes my job as an event manager much easier. Adding auction items, auction close out, and financial reporting are a breeze. It is also a smooth process for our guests. Bidding on auction items or making a donation is very easy for them, which means more donations for our cause. We set up our auction online in advance of the event. This gives guests an opportunity to start bidding on silent items, and become familiar with live auction items. All of this leads to more revenue to support our mission. I also appreciate the ability to customize our site so it looks like us. This creates a cohesive experience for our guests and helps us put our brand front and center. As a site administrator, I love the ability to download the generated auction sheets. This is a huge time saver. We also download the receipts and send to guests with a thank you letter after the event. It calculates the tax deductibility automatically on the receipt which is an essential feature.

There are a few custom queries/reports I would like which are not currently offered. It can be confusing as an admin to see clearly what funds have been paid and not paid. However, the staff are great and have helped me figure things out. They even created a custom report for me.

Fairly easy to figure out. With enough lead time a and lab scenario deployments most folks can work it out.

Little cludgy trying to get the card readers and IPADs. Come on now, one stop shopping. E en if you use two vendors you can mask that with software so that we don't have to know.
I have had many complaints from folks trying to purchase the online raffle tickets. Once they click the buy they get the message that KS for your purchase. They have actually added multiple tickets to their cart trying to figure out how to actually purchase the tickets. You should change the phrase to "you items have been added to your cart" and NOT thank you for the purchase. Or add verbiage that says now click the "Pay" button to continue.

I liked the ability to manage event registration, seating, and event fundraising in one place.
I liked that sponsors, vendors, volunteers, and attendees could all have their own registration page for the same event.

We did not use the Auction component and actually opted for pen and paper after realizing the Givesmart Auction functionality. It does not look appealing or feel easy-to-shop for an attendee who is immersing in the software during the event.
There was almost NO customization available for fundraising for units of impact as opposed to dollar amounts. The user (me) had very little ability to redefine an event attendee's experience on the platform. I had to spend weeks if not months requesting very simple changes to the giving forms.

My experience with customer support was poor. They would reach out to me a few weeks before my event to see if I was using all the software features available and push me to integrate them that late in the project. There seemed to be no consideration for the user and where they are in the planning process versus what sales objectives they needed to accomplish before my renewal period arrived.

I like that you can use it for multiple fundraising campaigns. I also liked the presentation view so participants can bid and watch simultaneously on one screen.

A little clunky. Not super user friendly. I needed guidance and tips and tricks for best practices but I don't feel like I really received that. I feel like there were a lot of features and customization options within the site that I didn't take advantage of because I didn't know how best to utilize them. I also didn't find the help pages that useful which was where I was directed to everytime I asked for help. They need to be more descriptive overall. I also didn't realize that our tax preferences weren't properly set up until after the event was over and it was too late to do anything about it. My nonprofit ended up eating the tax that should have been charged to the purchaser (according to the law) and we lost over $1000 having to pay that bill ourselves. I would suggest including this to planning agendas for future events. Or reset the default.

This system works very well for us for its silent auction capabilities. Easy to use and increased our revenue from a paper system. Also great for instant buys (wine pull, raffle tickets) and donations. Easy to use system for guests.

I wish there was more flexibility in the ticket purchasing side. Guests that are part of a group of tickets that have been pre-purchased are not able to go on to update their own information. This makes the check-in process longer as we try to capture the information that is needed (addresses). Did not like having to buy their specific swipers at such a high cost to use once a year.

Easy to use. Downloadable reports. Mobile friendly

Entering items and descriptions are very time consuming. IT would be nice to figure out a faster and better way to do this

The software allowed us to get rid of excel sheets and a separate ticketing vendor. We like the auction capabilities and simplicity of use. We like that Gesture makes enhancements and improvements based on user feedback. We like the ability to use the helpdesk chat function when we have a question. We like the dashboard and reports. Unrelated to software , but a nice customer service perk is that you have a rep designated to you.

A few improvements can be made (as with any software) and when I suggest them, they are escalated.
I have been very pleased over the years and plan to continue to use Gesture.

Easy to use. Extremely user friendly for donors/users. Thorough, meets all of our fundraising needs, including: online auctions, live auction, paddle raise, donations, pledges, raffles, dinner reservations & seating and more. Extremely robust reporting and analysis capability.

What's not to like? Although, we would appreciate a customized donor/user data import<>export between GiveSmart & Raiser's Edge.

It makes every aspect of running the inside logistics so much easier. Auctions raise more money, texting keeps all communications flowing and ultimately drives revenue.

There's still some room to grow and some features that can be implemented that would be so helpful.