Blackbaud Luminate Online

Benefits:

It is powerful in the use of the data and also in the production of web pages.

Drawbacks:

It seems like every time we pay for some customization, then not long after, it becomes a feature or fix in a future release. I just feel like we're not being advised very well. We aren't a cookie-cutter blackbaud client, so it doesn't always fit with what we are trying to do.

Benefits:

I like that it syncs with Raiser's Edge and is very easy to upload data into the system.

Drawbacks:

I wish the donation pages were a bit easier to design.

Benefits:

Lots of features built in if you have the time to learn them

Drawbacks:

A bit too complex for your everyday user and pretty pricey for smaller companies/nonprofits who may need to utilize something like this.

Benefits:

It's a great tool for event, volunteer management and crowdfunding. The TeamRaiser portion of Luminate offers a crowdfunding feature where you are able to create different fundraisers and share links via your website to direct people to make a gift.

Drawbacks:

Not very user-friendly and very tedious to me as far as the TeamRaiser software part of Luminate. It's very time consuming and tedious to create crowdfunding pages and requires you multiple steps to create a profile for another donor. I spent an hour trying to create one before giving up. If you want to create fundraising pages and share via your website it's easy however it gets complicated if you want to have your donors create their own pages and share with others as it requires just one person to manage all accounts so basically we need to create their profiles for them and all donations from their personal link go through my one email for all donors.

In sum:

I have used TeamRaiser in Luminate a few times to create fundraising pages for kids in need of care and shared giving links via our website, social media however we weren't very successful with campaign and the platform could be updated as far as design, templates offered.

In sum:

Luminate's email marketing tools are clunky. The segmentation is challenging as is building split tests. The support materials are dense but the support team itself is knowledgeable, which is the only saving grace in this review.

Benefits:

Honestly, I cannot think of any pros at this time.

Drawbacks:

Nothing about Luminate Online is intuitive. It does not integrate well with other Blackbaud products. We have had to purchase other third-party software to send information between Altru and Luminate.

In sum:

We use it for transactional and reminder emails for registered programs, and marketing emails.

Benefits:

Overall, I really like Blackbaud. I'm an expert user/administrator of several of their products. And to be perfectly frank, Blackbaud is THE industry standard software. You can go with another vendor, but Blackbaud WILL end up buying that product out. Luminate in all of its iterations is a perfect example of this. It used to be Convio, its own, standalone non-profit software company. It is now a product in the Blackbaud family. I use Luminate in conjunction with Raiser's Edge via a Blackbaud-provided integration plugin. One thing I really like about this is that my two database software components communicate with one another. I also really like that you can use formulas--from simple to complex--to generate targeted ask strings for constituents in emails and donation forms. And that is the best thing about Luminate Online. It is powerful and customizable. It is capable of nuance and automation. It has API access for developers. These things are vital in the world of internet marketing, communications, and donation processing. I am also thrilled with its capability to automate recurring giving, providing recurring donors with logins to self-manage some of their giving information. Recurring giving in Raiser's Edge is a relatively manual process still. For orgs with large recurring donor groups, this product can help save a lot of time and energy by automating many of the aspects of managing these donors.

Drawbacks:

My biggest beef with Luminate Online is that it is ill-equipped to deal with non-individual, organizational records, such as businesses. There really is no functionality for org-type records, let alone the ability to manage and communicate with contacts. I would really like to see this part of the product fleshed out more in a similar way to the Raiser's Edge. I also really dislike the event management piece of Luminate Online. It lacks basic functionality, such as the ticket buyer being able to provide guest names (!). It's almost unbelievable that any 21st century software product that provides event management functions would be incapable of collecting the most rudimentary, necessary information for an event. Both of these issues are points in the software that make it clear this product was acquired by Blackbaud and not designed from the ground up by Blackbaud. Small snags in integration and imperfections in the product become sore points after a while, and the only way to overcome them is to have some serious web-developing firepower at your command. Many of Luminate Online's issues CAN be overcome by having a consultant or in-house web-developer customize the product for you. However, small non-profits rarely can afford this.

Benefits:

Very professional and prompt on getting back to me

Drawbacks:

It's sometimes hard to reach people. Initial contact is hard.

Benefits:

It is easy to use once you spend the time to learn the product and receive the appropriate training.

Drawbacks:

The learning curve is steep. There is a big up tick in learning the product and using it to meet best practice standards.

Benefits:

I love that I can do everything in one tool. The initial training and ongoing resources are great. The support team is helpful, and if you ever use client services, they are even better.

Drawbacks:

The price is a little steep, and the reporting could be a little more in-depth.