--- title: "CharityEngine Reviews, Pros and Cons - 2026 Software Advice" description: "Reviews of CharityEngine. Learn how real users rate this software's ease-of-use, functionality, overall quality and customer support. Talk to our advisors to see if CharityEngine is a good fit for you!" source_url: "https://www.softwareadvice.com/crm/charity-engine-profile/reviews/" page_type: "reviews" language: "en" --- 1 million+ businesses helped. Get advice Get Free Advice [Home](https://www.softwareadvice.com/) / [Nonprofit Software](https://www.softwareadvice.com/category/4280-nonprofit/) / [CharityEngine](https://www.softwareadvice.com/crm/charity-engine-profile/) / CharityEngine Reviews Software Advice offers objective insights based on verified user reviews and independent product and market research. When our advisors match you to a software provider, we may earn a referral fee. [Overview](https://www.softwareadvice.com/crm/charity-engine-profile/) Reviews # CharityEngine User Reviews ## Reviews summary - Overall rating: 4.2/5 - Total reviews: 33 ### Secondary ratings - Ease of use: 3.9/5 - Customer support: 4.1/5 - Value for money: 4.2/5 - Functionality: 4.3/5 ### Rating distribution - 5 stars: 17 reviews (52%) - 4 stars: 8 reviews (24%) - 3 stars: 6 reviews (18%) - 2 stars: 1 reviews (3%) - 1 star: 1 reviews (3%) ### Most mentioned pros - This feature alone is saving us money by helping us retain donors. - There's definitely a longer learning curve but once figured out this automation is helpful. - Easily generating a visual diagram of the database schema allowed new Developers to quickly come to speed at ATC by further understanding the underlying data construct. ### Most mentioned cons - One thing that should be stressed in all training on using CE is that if you don't have a form set up first, it ain't going to work. ## CharityEngine customer reviews Showing reviews 1-25 of 33 (page 1). ### Power behind your reporting - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Michelle H. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: November 2020 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros CharityEngine is a great CRM tool, for me the feature I use most often is query builder to create custom reports of specific parts and types of data. I love the functionality available in Query Builder, and since my organization has some pretty complex data structures, CE makes it really easy for me to get exactly the data I need at any given time. #### Cons Sometimes when there are updates to the software, some functionalities are down temporarily, but their team always works swiftly to make sure everything is running smooth! #### Reasons for switching to CharityEngine We needed more everything! --- ### Not just Donor Management - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Benjamin M. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used weekly for less than 2 years - Reviewed: August 2019 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered The system not only solves some of the most complex donor management system needs, but in some cases it's working for my association customers to manage membership needs as well. As for associations that have a donor arm, which is where we've done a lot of work, this system is easy to integrate as needed but is a real 360 degree view while also having top notch web forms, marketing automation and other critical items that are huge money and time savers for nonprofits #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros For a multi-tenant system, I'm really surprised at the extensibility of the system. Without "customizing" everything, it's really flexible and configurable to meet a lot of different business rules that are unique to my customers. Their data model and ability to query and layer queries is really impressive compared to similar systems in the market. #### Cons Hard to say, I think it may be somewhat difficult to set up if you aren't trained on it like my team is as an integration and implementation firm. We work with many similar systems in the market though and I'd say comparatively, it's easier to set up than most other member and donor management systems. I wish it had some additional functionality like the Association Management Systems (AMS) market has around testing, certification and things like that, we could have consolidated down to fewer systems in the stack for our customers who we implemented it for, but that's not what we bought it for. I'm super pleased with what's there. #### Reasons for choosing CharityEngine After spending months to consider a CRM based approach and all of the additional customizations and other 3rd party systems that would be needed to accomplish our customer's goals, the cost to stand up the system and get up and running was cheaper and faster while the customer felt they did not sacrifice quality or support. #### Reasons for switching to CharityEngine Our customer would say that the functionality was greater and more all-inclusive, and the pricing model is surprisingly creative and flexible for the enterprise level system you get. --- ### Design seems tailored more to mass mailers than high dollar cultivators - Overall rating: 3/5 - Reviewer: Margie E. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: July 2020 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. I was brought in to the organization after they had spent 9 months trying to transition to Charity Engine. I found that the data transfer from our old system was not done correctly and it took a lot of time to get that sorted out. It isn't intuitive, and is over complicated. It is hard to find what you are looking for in the navigation. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 2/5 - Value for money: 3/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros Query capability. Online forms. Payment processing. #### Cons We can't use for generating acknowledgement letters because they won't format correctly. We didn't use initially for email communication, but they have improved that feature. It is very clunky to add or update individual records, requiring user to go in and out of many screens and remember to flag things, such as address is preferred, and remember to click a save button. Far too many steps. It doesn't help with grant management. Event management also is not good. It is difficult and time consuming to record activities (meetings, phone calls) that you have had with your donors, and then they are not exportable on reports. #### Reasons for choosing CharityEngine IDK #### Reasons for switching to CharityEngine I don't know - I wasn't here then. #### Vendor response Margie, thank you for your feedback. It looks like we missed on training here. Many of the issues you've cited, such as properly formatted acknowledgement letters or recording and reporting on activities are core capabilities and we're going to make sure we get you up and running. Better knowledge around how to navigate the platform may also help lead to less clicks to get what you need. I believe our team has already reached out to you for additional help and training and hopefully you are already on a path to a better experience. Thank you for your partnership and for letting CharityEngine be part of the wonderful work you are doing at Center for Education Reform. Replied September 2020 --- ### Connect, Customize and Collaborate - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Christina J. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Broadcast Media - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 12 months - Reviewed: September 2021 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by the software vendor to submit an honest review. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros The tool is feature rich. I find new options that will improve our productivity just about every week. One of my favorite features is their robust import tool. They make is so easy to bring data into the system. #### Cons Charity Engine offers a wide variety of features, but some have not been developed to the level of sophistication we need. The good news is they have an excellent process for submitting and reviewing enhancement requests and so far, all our requests have been submitted for future development. #### Reasons for choosing CharityEngine We chose Charity Engine because of their API capability, donor retention program and they offer the ability to customize just about everything within the tool. #### Reasons for switching to CharityEngine Allegiance did not offer the ability to integrate with other technology platforms which is critical for the long term growth of our organization. #### Vendor response Thank you for your insightful review. We appreciate you sharing your experience with us. Replied October 2021 --- ### Great comprehensive solution! - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: John C. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: August 2019 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros - Flexibility and ease of use - Robust functionality that facilitates/addresses all of our fundraising, marketing and donor management needs. - very responsive customer support #### Cons No complaints. This is a great, very cost effective solution. #### Reasons for switching to CharityEngine We needed a more dynamic product to address our unique needs. Blackbaud was the opposite of that for us. --- ### Good product, could use some growth - Overall rating: 3/5 - Reviewer: Becky B. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Food Production - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 6 months - Reviewed: July 2020 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 2/5 - Value for money: 3/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 3/5 #### Pros The look, and multiple tab usage, I like that you don't have to open a new software to look at multiple things #### Cons user interface, building reports are not easy, training has been almost non existent. #### Reasons for switching to CharityEngine We outgrew Donor Quest and needed more features. #### Vendor response Becky, thank you for your feedback. We are glad you have already begun to see some of the efficiencies of an integrated platform. We're sorry that you were not able to get the training you had hoped for thus far. We are working to address that with your team and you should soon see the benefits of our unified platform. Training will pay great dividends in terms of eliminating some of your challenges like building reports and will hopefully have you enjoying your new capabilities and features. Replied September 2020 --- ### An Easy, One-Stop Shop - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Shalin D. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: January 2022 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by the software vendor to submit an honest review. Charity Engine has provided a one-stop shop CRM solution for the Appalachian Trail Conservancy for the past five years, providing a powerful tool to help grow the organization’s constituency. The one-stop shop aspect has been very helpful — everything is one place. Data collection, data management, campaign management, email distribution and so much more. We do not have to manage multiple vendors and contracts, we can track work and performance in one system, and we have one account manager ensuring our needs are met. We both appreciate and have enjoyed the support of the Charity Engine team and we know other organizations will too. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 3/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros We loved that it's a one-stop shop, reducing the need to manage multiple contracts or engage in various conversations with multiple vendors. #### Cons The software could be more user-friendly, supplemented by robust customer support. Fortunately, Charity Engine is expanding its account management/customer support team(s) so improvements are ahead. #### Reasons for choosing CharityEngine We chose Charity Engine because it offered us a one-stop shop for all of our needs. #### Vendor response Shalin - thank you for your thoughtful and thorough review. We pride ourslelves on being a true all-in-one CRM that doesn't require expensive integrations and puts the data in your hands, in one place. Thanks again! Replied February 2022 --- ### A True Partner - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Dana B. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: 1001-5000 employees - Product usage: Used other for more than 2 years - Reviewed: September 2019 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered I've worked at start ups and with more mature fundraising programs and the level of transparency I had into our business, especially payment processing is unmatched. The experience with Charity Engine felt more like a partnership than a vendor / client relationship and I believe this contributed to our overall success. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros A monthly giving program can provide a stable source of income for an organization and Charity Engine software was integral to the implementation and ongoing success of our monthly giving program. Our strategy included moving off of our existing online fundraising platform and finding a better option for payment processing. Direct Response Television (DRTV) is a considerable investment and it was the primary acquisition method for our program. We wanted a solution that could charge recurring gifts (monthly, quarterly, annual) and process ACH and credit card donations across all channels and we didn't want to deal with file transfers. Charity Engine worked with us and the software accommodated all of our needs - the donation page integrated seamlessly with the website, we passed through our source code logic and the inbound contact centers could authorize and process transactions in real time (no batch processing) through Charity Engine's open API. What I like most about this experience with Charity Engine software - flexibility. Charity Engine felt like a solution with plenty of functionality I could use right out of the box but that also incorporated features designed specifically to meet my program's needs. Later, with a smaller organization, I found my favorite thing about Charity Engine software - other than the cost (per contact record fee structure) was the intuitive interface that made it easy for a few people to manage events and peer to peer marketing/fundraising. #### Cons As a Charity Engine admin/user at the first organization, we identified a need for user manual/training resources. Also, entering offline donations (literally entering check information) was a pain point, however, offline donation entry is problematic for peer to peer fundraisers/organizations still today - I don't think any software has the perfect solution. --- ### Data Warehouse Capabilities and SQL Integration - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Kristi K. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 2 years - Reviewed: January 2022 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Charity Engine has expanded its one-stop shop CRM solution by also providing Data Warehouse capabilities and SQL integration. This DBaaS (Database-as-a-Service) offering has been instrumental in our Data Analytics Strategy. Easily generating a visual diagram of the database schema allowed new Developers to quickly come to speed at ATC by further understanding the underlying data construct. Developers could leverage their pre-existing SQL skills rather than learn different data extraction and querying tools. Additional efficiency was gained when interrogating data by allowing for infinite ways to join tables, filter data, and extract meaningful insights rather than be limited by rigid pre-established querying structures. The added benefit of Charity Engine’s hosted database service is that their team handles the infrastructure, storage, data replication, and backup automation, ensuring that the organization’s data is secure and accessible which is a priority for any organization. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros The expansion of the native CRM solution with Data Warehousing capabilities and SQL Integration. #### Cons Proprietary report writing and querying tool native in the product. This limitation was overcome by the release of the new data warehouse that allows for querying via SQL Server Management Studio (which is a well known industry standard). #### Vendor response Kristi - thank you so much for your review and specific feedback about our dBaaS offering. We're excited too about this offering! Replied February 2022 --- ### New partnership with Charity Engine - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Catharine S. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Philanthropy - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 6 months - Reviewed: June 2021 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered We just partnered with CharityEngine. I asked them to do something with a very short time line and they were wonderful- delivered on time and wonderful to work with. Great product. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Great team, easy-to-use, looks great for donors #### Cons Nothing at this time- so far Charity Engine has delivered as promised. #### Vendor response It is wonderful to partner with you, as well. Thank you for the kind review. Replied October 2021 --- ### Thank you! - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Marcella B. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 6 months - Reviewed: February 2022 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Thank you to the entire Charity Engine team specifically [SENSITIVE CONTENT] ! [SENSITIVE CONTENT] is a great communicator and team leader. [SENSITIVE CONTENT] is beyond incredible!!! She walks you through every aspect of utilizing the website to its fullest potential. She is so patient, organized, and thorough. We are excited to use this for our organization and have everything be organized and user-friendly. #### Cons Not applicable, So far everything has been great! #### Vendor response Marcella - thank you so much for your review and positive feedback about the team! Replied February 2022 --- ### The Good, Bad and Ugly (but overall good) aspects of Charity Engine - Overall rating: 3/5 - Reviewer: James B. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Religious Institutions - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 2 years - Reviewed: June 2026 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Operationally, Charity Engine is not as fast as I would like especially in registering guests for an event or entering in check and cash transactions. I think this is something that they can fix. And the complexity of the system often leads to difficulty getting things done. I would love it if CE worked from the perspective of a user who has a moderate or high number of transactions to process each week. Reporting is still arduous and every transaction needs to be pristine if the standard report is to be accurate (That could be on us). The queries and the fancy things you can do with them are more difficult than what we experienced with our previous vendor. Reaching out to donors or participants via email works well and we hope to get the SMS messaging working soon. The screen showing an individual donor's contribution is easy to read and provides useful information. One of their strong points are the staff that answer questions and fix bugs when you identify them. They do acknowledge your ticket quickly and keep you appraised on the status through their website. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 3/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros 1. The staff are very helpful. When we ask them for direction on topics, we are not familiar with, or problems that we encounter they create short videos showing how to perform the tasks we're working on. Their weekly show and tell sessions are informative and there are a lot of prerecorded videos and descriptions of how to use the features of the system. 2. Overall, the system can handle not only maintaining information on donors and their interactions but also events that they have attended. 3. Overall CE is responsive to recommendations for changes to the system. There is one drawback listed below in #3. 4. Sending and automating thank you letters for donations is wonderful once you figure out how to find and use the tokens and set up forms. There's definitely a longer learning curve but once figured out this automation is helpful. #### Cons There are a couple of things to be aware of: 1 - CE (Charity Engine) will create multiple records for the same individual if the individual doesn't type in their name, address, email, and telephone number closely or exactly the same when making a donation or registering for an event. CE provides a way to merge two records together, but this is time consuming. In our previous system, all transactions were held in a queue, and we would review them before they a new constituent was created. 2 - Entering transactions in batches never seems to work the way we had hoped. We reverted to (based on CE's recommendation), to go on-line into one of our forms and individually add the transaction (which triggers the problem #1 described above) in order to link a transaction with the event. In our previous system we created batches, selected the individual, identified the G/L code and event and everything was linked. CE just take a bit more staff time to do all this compared to our prior experience. 3 - CE staff are always improving the system functions and are to be applauded for this. CE does announce new features. Yet sometimes they make system changes on the software in production and not first in their development sandbox. We've seen changes made mid-working day to the ways queries, registrations and forms work. Most of the time the changes work but sometimes they break something else. I would want them to test more and not make changes to the live system. 4 - and this is personal preference - simple designs are always better than complicated designs. I appreciate that you can get to the same place in CE by 3 or 4 routes, but it makes it difficult to teach and learn how to do things. CE has a long list of information that can go into a person's donor record or an event record, but it can be difficult to navigate because of the different routes. It's like "all roads lead to Rome" except sometimes you can't find Rome. 5. One thing that should be stressed in all training on using CE is that if you don't have a form set up first, it ain't going to work. Intuitively I would think that you set up an event or a donor page and then attach a form to that. It's actually the opposite. As a fan of RPN (you HP calculator users know what I'm talking about) there's a little too much "Reverse Polish Notation" in the way CE works. I wouldn't change this (I like RPN) but only 5% of the population thinks in this way. Just train forms, forms, forms before anything else. 6. If you want to place your donors in specific categories ("tags" in CE) there is a marvelous multi-mention tag field that is difficult to report on. We often have to download reports with a comma separated field (singular not plural) that we then need to break out into multiple fields to find the one tag we're looking for. It's just awkward and there must be a better way. #### Reasons for choosing CharityEngine We hoped that CE's features and support would be better than other options. Their support has been strong, and the features mostly exist. #### Reasons for switching to CharityEngine Cost and features mostly. Blackbaud's Raisers Edge is expensive for a non-profit of our size. --- ### New client to Charity Engine - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Kristine V. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 12 months - Reviewed: March 2026 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Overall experience has been good. Our account manager is good at responding and does check in to make sure everything is going well for us. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros Charity Engine is a good CRM that keeps all information about our constituents in one place. We are able to track and tag donations for ease of reporting. Our management team has found the system easy to navigate and find answers to most of their questions without needing another staff member to get the answer for them. The sales and support team have been responsive to all questions and concerns that I have voiced and have helped to get to an answer to everything. #### Cons Still early in learning all the features of the system. The help center has come in very handy with the learning process. #### Reasons for choosing CharityEngine It offered more to our organization then the other options we explored. #### Reasons for switching to CharityEngine It was not a good fit for our organization. There was no membership tracking and the nonprofit option lacks many features that our Development Team counts on when managing our donors. --- ### Charity Engine, donor retention and constant improvements and new features. - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Jennifer G. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: March 2026 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered My experience with CE has been a great one, they are very helpful to help you learn new processes, they have help articles that teach you things step by step and they are always available when you need them. Our implementation process was smooth, and we were walked through it step by step. I am 4 years into working with CE and learn new things that this database can do regularly. They have webinars to show you how to use the features they currently have and webinars to introduce new features that will be rolling out, these new features are usually a suggestion from the non-profits using it. I have no regrets in switching from our previous CRM to CE. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros I like that we have everything we need in one CRM. It has easy to use out of the box reports, or you can use queries to deep dive to find information and data that you need. Donor Management is much easier in CE than our previous CRM, our recurring sustainers just run in the background, and with the built in Credit Card updater, we have a much higher donor retention than with our previous CRM. This feature alone is saving us money by helping us retain donors. #### Cons I have not found anything that I don't like, but if we find something that we think should be implemented to make things work smoother, we reach out with feedback and they usually take our suggestion and implement it. #### Reasons for switching to CharityEngine We liked that we could have everything we needed in one CRM. We can send emails, receipts and SMS messages straight from CE. We can create our online giving forms in CE and we can can create and send our newsletters as well. Everything links together and works together without having to use additional companies or platforms. --- ### Flawless transition and great price for a great product! - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Chase T. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Religious Institutions - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 6 months - Reviewed: March 2026 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered 100/100! 5 stars out of 5 stars. The worst part of our experience was having to say goodbye to the team that helped us transition. They were amazing from start to finish! Our new team of support is also amazing but I wish we could have kept in touch with all of them! #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros From the beginning, the competency, efficiency, kindness and support from Charity Engine has been amazing. The price point has saved us so much from our previous company. The weekly meetings during our onboarding were always helpful and succinct. The entire team was great and our team is now proficient in all we do with Charity Engine because of our training. #### Cons Truly, I cannot think of a con. The experience has been ideal in every way. We knew in advance there would be a learning curve but the Charity Engine staff walked us through so much more than I anticipated and made it easier than I could have imagined. #### Reasons for choosing CharityEngine After the first meeting with CharityEngine, it was hard not to go with them. #### Reasons for switching to CharityEngine Price point was the intitial reason. Customer service also played a role in looking for a new product. --- ### Getting There! - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Carrie H. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 12 months - Reviewed: March 2026 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered All in all, despite some speed-bumps, our experience (especially with [sensitive content hidden] , in the last few months) has been favorable. In my heart and soul, I truly believe that any issues we encountered previously were as a result of "growing pains" on the part of Charity Engine over the last year. Things are on track now and I am positive that Charity Engine is going to be exactly what we were hoping for in the near future. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 3/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros We did a lot of research prior to signing up with Charity Engine. The reason we chose them was because of their robust capabilities. We felt the had the most options in respect to our needs. #### Cons Time to get fully up and running. It's been a bit of a process. Some delays did occur causing us to be behind our projected "go live" date. #### Reasons for choosing CharityEngine Seemed to be a better fit for our needs. More capability. --- ### The Simplicity of Charity Engine - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Courtney R. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 6 months - Reviewed: March 2026 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Overall, the experience with Charity Engine has been a complete success. It simple to use, and its simple for others to learn as well. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros I like the ease of use of it. I like how I can see the donors giving on one page. I like how when I have an issue there is always someone willing to help me when I need it. #### Cons The fact the training video go away after so long. It would be nice to be able to refresh the mind on certain things. #### Reasons for switching to CharityEngine Needed something easier to manage and to get more help when needed. --- ### CharityEngine User - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Adam H. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: 201-500 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 12 months - Reviewed: December 2024 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Overall experience has been very good. Excellent customer support. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros The automated functions make my job much easier. #### Cons There are some functions that I don't know how to use well or don't work well. #### Reasons for switching to CharityEngine Customer support and sunsetting of the product I was using. --- ### A view from a non-profit Food Bank. - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Nick L. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: July 2019 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered As the donor database manager, I spend each and every day within CharityEngine. Processing donations, tracking pledges, building forms, event management, reporting and more. The overall experience I have had with CharityEngine is hands down some of the best. Each and every feature within CharityEngine continues to inspire individual growth within myself as the opportunities are endless. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros The convenience, and ease of all fundraising streamlines comes within CharityEngine. From simple donation processing, to online forms, event registrations and individualize marketing tools, CharityEngine is the powerhouse software. CharityEngine continues to improve with each and every release bringing more and more improvements for continued growth in the fundraising segments. Managing our major gifts program through CharityEngine has allowed our gift officers to track opportunities, pledges and payments, reporting and all, in real-time. #### Cons Although we integrated CharityEngine just shy of a little over two years ago, it seems like just yesterday! We continue to grow as an organization, and within that growth we continue to grow within CharityEngine. That being said, each and every day I continue to learn more and more that CharityEngine can do. Of course, we run into a hurdle here and there, but fortunately, we have a great support team behind us, and for that fact we really haven’t run into anything we find as a dislike. #### Reasons for choosing CharityEngine Choosing the right platform requires that you ensure you have all that you need within the product. CharityEngine provides just that. The decision was made to convert to CharityEngine for that, and it was the right choice for us! #### Reasons for switching to CharityEngine The switch to CharityEngine was made for growth. At the time, our previous software had not allowed the growth factor that CharityEngine allowed. The online presence was an important move that my organization had prioritized to improve. After reviewing, and testing a number of CRM software's, the decision to move forward with CharityEngine boiled down to the support behind the product. A focused and dedicated support team provides valuable knowledge and potential to continue growing. --- ### Highly-Customizable, Powerful & Accessible, Best Price - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Dana C. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Fund-Raising - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: Used weekly for more than 2 years - Reviewed: January 2022 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered We use Charity Engine for on and offline monthly/quarterly/annual recurring donations and all online donation forms. We have a different CRM for sending email to our 250,000+subscribers and to host our actions to legislators and corporations. And another CRM for our direct mail constituents. Some at the organization argue that we should have one CRM to do all this--but I never expect that out of a company. Charity Engine clearly specializes in online donations and recurring donations, including an advance fraud suite that prevents the fraudulent testing of credit cards on their system (and fees associated). Monthly processing and all the management of credit card updating, both automatic and personal updates, are a breeze. And Charity Engine has made it clear that the data is ALWAYS ours. (Other companies we have worked with said they have the right to withhold credit card information of recurring donors, if you ever try to move off their system.) #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 3/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 3/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros You can do pretty much anything with either the front-end or back-end design of Charity Engine forms. This power and flexibility are exactly what our medium to large non-profit needs as we are testing and improving our online fundraising. The user interface is intuitive and user-friendly. I am not a developer and over the years I’ve learned how to navigate most things within the system, it is complex, but well organized. And if you are not technical or don’t have the time, Charity Engine will connect you with a developer. I appreciate how we have the capability to add code to our forms and templates. This has enabled us to better track conversions, ecommerce, Google Analytics, and Facebook website verification. The donation data is all there, you can query on anything and export it into excel to analyze. Note: We added custom hidden fields to help with tracking donations from third party sites and other CRMs. Sustainer charging is very simple within Charity Engine. The amount of work required once you have someone set up in it is minimal. The help files are actually helpful, and are clearly written to walk you through things you need to do. #### Cons We cannot use the “standard donation form” to meet our fundraising needs. We have custom forms and once you make custom forms, if they break, Charity Engine support (often) can’t fix. You need to go to a developer. Good news is forms don’t break often. Not a system flaw—rather warning to the user, because the tool is so powerful and hands on, you do have the ability to do almost anything, including break the forms. More than once I have wanted to test something new, so I tinkered with the forms and broke something else. Always create copies of forms and test them out before changing in a live environment. Sometimes, the Charity Engine staff seem to have limited experience with, or solutions for, integrating CE with other platforms. For example, we spent months trying to get Google Tag Manager to work correctly on Charity Engine forms so we could run a functional Facebook Ad campaign. Another example, we had a comma issue with our forms that makes $1,000+ transactions register as $1 in Google Analytics. We had to work with independent contractors to resolve both of these issues, even though we imagine they are issues all Charity Engine clients must face. The system can be a little buggy, so you have to pay attention to things—especially patterns. Example: every now and then the amount a donor has entered into specific form changes on its own after they hit the submit button, but because it can’t be consistently reproduced, there’s nothing they can do about it. #### Reasons for choosing CharityEngine In 2015 we researched Salsa's donation forms, Salesforce, and Blackbaud's Luminate. We were impressed with Charity Engine because they understood the importance of allowing back-end users (people at our org) to access all functions, data, and operations of the system--it is well-organized and accessible. Before our most recent contract renewal, we have researched SALSA Fundraise and Blackbaud's Luminate to sync with Raiser's Edge, because they were two other CRMs our org is currently using. When shopping around, we focused how these other platforms handle monthly processing, because that is where the majority of our donations come from. Although we also need dynamic highly customizable online donation forms. It is important to keep in mind that these companies make their money off you donation/payment processing--so keep a close eye on these fees, more than what you are paying monthly to use the system. Charity Engine matched our current rates and therefore won on payment processing for both Credit Cards and ACH. Charity Engines monthly payment processing, credit card updater, fraud protection suite, and manual processing is far superior to SALSA Fundraise. Luminate cost considerably more than Charity Engine to process monthly donations and to set up their platform. And why? Luminates functionality was far behind Charity Engines (in 2021). Example, BB said they would be rolling out PayPal on their donation forms "soon." --- ### Wish We Still Had Our Old, Out-dated CRM Tool - Overall rating: 1/5 - Reviewer: Carol Z. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 6 months - Reviewed: July 2020 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Dismal. Frustrating. Disappointing. And we just came through a global pandemic with the heaviest donation period in our history with a sloppy, non-user friendly tool that doesn't provide the depth of data we need and were told we could anticipate. And now we are headed toward year-end fundraising season with a tool that doesn't allow segmentation of our donor data. We are -- or WERE -- a high performing fundraising team before we got Charity Engine. It's a joke. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 1/5 - Value for money: 1/5 - Customer support: 1/5 - Functionality: 1/5 #### Pros It's got a nice dashboard. But, four months in, we still don't know to navigate the tool, pull reports or find information easily, even when using CE every day. #### Cons The product was grossly over-sold by the sales team. We had an old, outdated CRM that we had out-grown, but I would take it back in a heartbeat because it did so many things that Charity Engine does not do. We were so excited to have a new database, but this CRM is really not a fit for our needs at all. Absolutely NO training available. We are still in "sandbox" mode after four months very poor, slow, unresponsive customer support, not intuitive or user-friendly. Lots of mistakes pulling in new donor data. Wish I had something good to say, but I don't. #### Reasons for switching to CharityEngine We thought we needed a more modern, robust tool -- Charity Engine isn't the answer, for sure. Big mistake. #### Vendor response Carol, thank you for sharing your experience thus far. Since your review, we have engaged with the team to make sure that all stakeholders are trained on the platform. It's clear that we have not set you up to do the things you need the most in your role and your frustration is completely understandable. Your voice was heard and we are committed to making sure that we address your concerns. Replied September 2020 --- ### Over-promised and still waiting on the delivery - Overall rating: 3/5 - Reviewer: Tiffany P. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Fund-Raising - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 6 months - Reviewed: July 2020 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. As a user, the system is not as user friendly as other databases, requiring a few hoops to jump through before finding the solution or answer you were looking for. It has the ability to be a robust tool, but not sure it will deliver on the promises made. I am making this review as an individual and not on behalf of my organization. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 2/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros Disclaimer: I am making this review as an individual user and not on behalf of my organization. It looks prettier than our old system. That's about as far as I can go at this point. We are three months in and still trying to work with the CE team to resolve issues and set-up some of the features. #### Cons Features were promised, as well as a seamless integration. We asked if there would be interruption for our partners when migrating their donation pages, we were told "no not at all". Teams were missing, fields were mis-coding creating more manual work. Front-line fundraiser dashboards are proving to be cumbersome and still awaiting the final creation. Still haven't figured out a solution for non-monetary gifts such as volunteer hours, gift cards, in-kinds, or poundage. #### Reasons for switching to CharityEngine Our organization outgrew its capabilities. #### Vendor response Thank you for sharing your feedback. We hear you loud and clear. As I believe you know by now, we are working with your team to get everyone across the organization up to speed, trained and seeing the positive impact gained from our platform. Additional training on the specifics of the platform in relation to your job are clearly warranted. We did promise a lot, as your needs were quite extensive, and we are fully committed to making sure your needs for better operations are met. Replied September 2020 --- ### Mission Partner - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: James M. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used weekly for more than 2 years - Reviewed: October 2021 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by the software vendor to submit an honest review. Excellent. We have looked at other fundraising and donor management platforms. While some have cleaner dashboards, no one can match the functionality that Charity Engine has to offer. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Charity Engine took our fundraising to the next level by magnitudes of scale. It professionalized our messaging and operation, enabling us to attract new supporters, excite current donors, and direct attention to key initiatives at a critical time. #### Cons The customer service provided by Charity Engine staff is exceptional. They are responsive and professional every time I ask them for help. The self-help tutorials are good, but for a very small and lean nonprofit, we just didn't have the time to learn the platform as well as we could have, so we relied on Charity Engine staff and they walked us through it every step of the way. They understood our requirements and worked with us to achieve those goals. #### Vendor response James, we appreciate being part of taking your fundraising goals to the next level. Thank you so much for your kind words. Replied October 2021 --- ### Needs to be more nimble and adaptic and intuitive - Overall rating: 3/5 - Reviewer: Whitney P. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Philanthropy - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: July 2020 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 3/5 - Customer support: 2/5 - Functionality: 3/5 #### Pros The layout of records is good and analytics on campaigns is informative. #### Cons Queries are not intuitive and overly complicated. The way data is broken down into silos makes if very difficult to do anything more than the most simple queries easily without jumping through multiple hoops. Tracking of changes to records is not captured as to who made changes and when which can be a problem. I would like to be able to customize my dashboard to see items of importance to me quickly. #### Vendor response Whitney, thanks for your feedback. Your organization has been doing amazing things with the CharityEngine platform and we need to make sure that great work is making its way to you and the work you do in your role. Your insights have incredible value and we will be reaching out to help you improve your experience using CharityEngine. Replied September 2020 --- ### Full time daily user - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Holly L. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Environmental Services - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 12 months - Reviewed: July 2020 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. I am able to keep really good track of the donors I am responsible for, so CharityEngine is a very effective tool for me. It is the primary tool I use on a daily basis, and I am regularly finding ways to produce data and reports from queries that are replacing our old spreadsheet tracking methods. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros I appreciate that I can easily track things I have done, or need to do, with regard to a specific People record. I use the "Activities" module for every donor change (or review) I make. I also very much appreciate being able to write complex queries and then schedule them to send me reports as frequently as I want them. #### Cons There are a few things that could be streamlined, such as when it is time to change the entry in the "Solicitor/Account Manager" field. However, the customer support team takes our concerns and our suggestions seriously, and I have been impressed by the proactive response to recommendations from users. #### Reasons for switching to CharityEngine I don't know - it was before I worked at RT. #### Vendor response Thank you for you great review and partnership! Replied July 2020 ## More reviews [Next reviews](https://www.softwareadvice.com/crm/charity-engine-profile/reviews/?page=2) --- CharityEngine Reviews, Pros and Cons - 2026 Software Advice