MaestroAuction

Benefits:

User friendly. Volunteers can easily assist with data entry.

Drawbacks:

Expansion packets are too expensive. Our budget does not allow us to try these benefits.

In sum:

We have used Maestro Pro for the past 10 years. The value is excellent for the price. In comparing this to other options, Maestro offered excellent features for a reasonable price.

Benefits:

The software is so easy to use and once you get some training, you're able to set up your auction site. The support is top notch, the MaestroSoft team really helped us before, during and after our auction.

Drawbacks:

None that I can think of! We used MaestroSoft's MaestroAuction Online and Text2Bid for our 2021 BVCS Auction & Take Home-Dinner and it was a huge success. We had more sponsors than last year, and we raised over $60,000 for our Impact Fund.

In sum:

The software helped us to manage our event, track all our donated items, bidders, and sponsors.

Benefits:

Integration with Raiser's Edge!

Drawbacks:

A little pricey for add-ons.

In sum:

If you use Raiser's Edge as you fundraising CRM and you're in need of event management software, then Auction Maestro is the way to go. The two companies have a partnership and so the two systems work very well together. Aside from nice integration features, AM has a really cool online auction and mobile bidding features, as well as a ton of other things.

Benefits:

Once you have get the swing of the data entry portion and navigating your way around, it is really nice for keeping your auction running smoothly . I do love that I can import the data and people from the previous year's auction in the new year data. It saves a lot of time.

Drawbacks:

It is kind of clunky and sometime I find it has too many options. It is also pretty finicky about how you enter and search for things. I also wish I had a little more training or that maestro offered training videos to help new user learn how to most efficiently use the program

In sum:

It helps us to manage our event, track all of the donated items, sponsorships, attendees and sale of items.

Benefits:

The way it keeps all our auction items organized and being easily to assign winners

Drawbacks:

So many built-in reports sometimes makes it difficult and time-consuming to find the report you want

In sum:

We use Auction Maestro for our benefit's silent auction and have found it to be a very good program for keeping the auction items and the auction itself organized and running smoothly from start to finish.

Benefits:

Nothing. Maybe just keep record of who is coming. This software is so annoying, I recommended multiple functions to make entering information easier. Thanks to me on the 5.4 update the software now will allow you to enter Merchandise under one screen and not 7 screens like on the 5.0 addition. I have used so many other software programs, not one makes you download the information, save on a hard driver and transfer all of that information to check guests out. STAY AWAY FROM THIS SOFTWARE!!!

Drawbacks:

EVERYTHING! Nothing works like it should. At the end of the night of our Gala, not one receipt printed out on time. No one knew if they won an item. This is the second day after the event and we are still unable to do anything because the software is down. We have to save it on a local drive, not a cloud base like most products out there .

In sum:

I was on the phone constantly getting assistance with things that went wrong. My time would have been better spent doing this in excel. HORRIBLE!

Benefits:

Comprehensive program addressing all gift and guest data storage and reports. Banquet registration, seating assignments, meals. Bidding and invoicing. WebMaestro for online data entry from anywhere there is internet access, by staff and volunteers. TextToBid.

Drawbacks:

It isn't the software, it's remembering all its features and how to use them, when under pressure. For example, when someone at the auction says: "What was the item number of the waffle iron," some people will scroll through the likeliest sections to find it, but in the Item Viewer there is a search option that is a shortcut. The more comprehensive a program is, the more the operators need to learn. It is worth it!

In sum:

As an auction consultant, I have assisted scores of charities in utilizing Maestro since 1995. Its many enhancements make it SO robust. The developers have listened to auction managers and added many features, countless reports, and easy self-generated data extractions for customized merging. Ease of use is correlated with use of webinars, online tutorials and experience. The more you know the easier it is! It is comprehensive, combining all aspects of gift and guest data management and integration. The WebMaestro feature allows access to the product from anywhere. It so easy for volunteers and staff to enter data at any time from home or office or literally any place that they have internet access. The money saved by engaging volunteers to perform what was once the task of overburdened and limited office staff, cannot be overestimated - not least by the staff! Not to mention that volunteers feel valued when given meaningful tasks that they can accomplish. Recent inquiries have received virtually immediate call-backs from technical support, much appreciated!

Benefits:

It was easy to install and use. I didn't have any trouble logging in and using.

Drawbacks:

I needed more experience for it to work for me, rather than against me.

In sum:

Our event went much easier with this software. If only our IT department didn't have so much protection on the computers, it would have worked better with our wireless printer.

Benefits:

It has a comprehensive compliment of features.

Drawbacks:

The interface is difficult to follow and the functionality is extremely difficult, especially for volunteers who are not real computer savvy. The user interface is outdated and does not rise to the current standards of user-friendly design. Help descriptions often do not match terminology or are not clear.

Benefits:

AuctionMaestro Pro is a very robust program, but it is not a super user -friendly program.

Drawbacks:

What I liked least about this program is that it's not online. It makes it clunky to use and keep updated. If there are many users in the program and one person forgets to save it can really mess you up. It also makes it hare to take the program to your events because you need to bring a server and hard wire everything.

In sum:

My overall experience with this program is stressful. We used it for over 5 years. each year it was hard to roll the attendee database over, it was hard to teach a volunteer to use this program at check out, often there were lots of mistakes with data entry, because there are so many steps to finishing a transaction, making it really hard to have correct reports. There were to many steps to any task you want to do in this program.