Excellent Membership Management

Our organization consists of 50 clubs spread throughout the Province. Each club maintains their own data which is visible only to them and to the organizations head office. This allows for consistent reporting around the Province. Implementing the system was completed within 3 months, including converting existing spread sheets and uploading them onto the database. Training was conducted in person and online. Sumac provided initial training for the Bowls BC Administrator.

Pros

The Sumac membership management system is flexible and easily customizable. Out of the box it can be used immediately but can also be tailored to specific requirements. The Cloud based database combined with its data security allows each clubs data to be maintained separately and securely.

Cons

It is sometimes difficult to load the software onto Mac computers. This mainly due to the Mac security system that is not always fully understood by the user. Loading the software onto a windows machine is very easy.

We looked long and hard to find appropriate software.

We are a non-profit ministry and needed software that tracks donors/donations, accommodates product sales, tracks memberships and renewal dates, and handles event tracking. It is VERY CHALLENGING to find non-profit software for a mid sized organization that handles all of these functions. Sumac does all of this in addition to being a very affordable solution. Also, we needed rather extensive custom programming to handle some of our more specialized batch processing functions. Sumac did the custom programming for us. I think one of the most compelling reasons to use Sumac is their customer service and support. I have done business with a large number of software companies during my career and few if any have been as responsive to customer needs as Sumac.

Pros

If support is paramount, Sumac is a great choice. Sumac covers a broad scope of functions, including donations, memberships, sales and events. The software is very easy to use. Built in import functions are very user friendly and very complete. Transferring data into Sumac from another system is not difficult and the error checking before import is very good. Contact history is strong and allows drill downs into all the underlying documents. Contact records allow the addition of extra user-defined tabs and fields which is a great asset.

Cons

Inventory tracking functionality could be more robust. Mail merges currently allow links between contacts and one other view, such as donations, memberships, etc. It would be helpful if more than one additional view would be supported. Reports could be improved, but this problem is easily resolved with a good report writer that links with an ODBC driver.

Sumac - robust and affordable CRM

Pros

We started using Sumac for organizing our data a couple of years ago. Before that we were swimming in excel sheets and having multiple users access the same information was problematic. We use Sumac for ticketing, memberships and donations. I like that we have one system that organizes these three aspects, as there is (as one would hope) quite a bit of overlap between those three actions. It is also useful for organizing mailing lists (either hard copy or email) and analyzing data. But most importantly for us, it's an affordable option. There are CRMs out there that are more robust but for a small non-profit we wouldn't be able to afford them. Sumac is a really cost-effective option to suit our needs.

Cons

Sumac has a lot of software updates. These updates don't fundamentally change the look or experience of using it, but the updates often require us restarting our server. The other aspect is, though they are working on this, is that the web integration is not as customizable as one might like. It's difficult to change the look or flow of it to go with our branding. Finally - there are just a lot of pop-ups for any application while using it (do you want to record this, do you want to save this, etc.) which seem unnecessary.

Really, really helpful and easy-to-use software

Pros

Sumac has everything we need -- keeps our database, sends out our communications, keeps track of all our donations and receipts/acknowledgements. It is set up in a straightforward way and, when I first researched CRMs, it was the only one where I could understand the setup from the start (I think the others were not set up logically). Also, the support team at Sumac is wonderful; attentive, understanding, they are really willing to help me solve all my problems, whether it is a quick question or a larger issue that needs much more overhaul. In fact, they resolved the biggest problem I had with the software: I frequently must bulk import changes to my data, and there were parts I had to do manually because the contact types weren't available to use in the import workspace. But they have recently changed the import workspace to be more flexible, at least partly in response to my comments, so now my bulk imports go much more quickly. In addition, the program has many optional add-ons that can help with courses, volunteer hours, registrations, silent auctions and so many other bits of software that anyone might need. Also, it is very reasonable priced.

Cons

The only things that I find difficult are remembering all the little details of complicated searches, downloads, and the steps of emailing. But I am not very technologically savvy, and others will not be as easily frustrated as I am.

SUMAC - great CRM

After struggling for several years with an expensive database that was not intuitive and did not meet our needs, our organization looked into several others to replace it including Sumac which was recommended to us by another not-for-profit. We scheduled a demo with a Sumac Guru for our entire team and we were all captivated by the ease of use and functionality it offered – almost everything on our “wish list” (and much more). We then decided to purchase Sumac and have not regretted our decision. While there were a few hiccups with our data migration, overall we have been very impressed. It is very user-friendly, fast, and has features that we are still discovering a year after we started using it. The Sumac team is amazing and has been very responsive, accommodating and helpful when we have needed assistance in using the tool and putting through change requests when we have suggestions and identified areas for improvement.

Pros

User friendly Excellent customer support New releases on regular basis

Cons

Online functionality for some add-ons is very basic (e.g. ticketing) or not available yet (e.g. sales) The User Guide is good at describing each of the many fields in the database but limited in explaining how these are used together (processes)

Sumac is a compact and powerful tool. Our challenge is developing internal skills to use it fully

Consolidation of our enrollment and donation systems. Capacity to communicate with students and donors online.

Pros

Ease of interface after basic orientation. Exportable data. Capacity to track giving, enrollment, volunteer roles, auction, etc. It integrates all of the different dimensions we need to manage for our student, supporter and partners.

Cons

To fully use Sumac requires a growing understanding of the tools and strategies you can use to extract information and access the data you need. Building this capacity inside an organization takes a focused and sustained effort. In other words - at times we wish Sumac was more intuitive but we realize its diversity of features is probably more important than its ease of use.

Sumac Nonprofit software is fabulous and very USER-FOCUSED!

Money saved, and a whole lot of hassle and time saved!

Pros

They provide great customer service; regardless of whether you are a small or large nonprofit. Their software is very well organized and user-friendly. Their documentation and training are excellent and again, very user-focused.

Cons

Mail merging to Microsoft Word is not flawless. Sometimes we get errors, and many times spaces that follow mail merged values are deleted, which has caused problems in our donor letters. Sumac can't find a solution, so I plan to mail merge only to tab delimited text files in the future, and use the Microsoft Word built in mail merging, which works better anyway.

Sumac is very user-friendly. I like how we can use it for donors, volunteers and clients.

The best benefit is being able to maintain all information in one database. Many donor management systems do not allow for volunteers and clients. Also, I believe this software is flexible with many features, yet you can still use it with other software systems like Constant Contact, etc.

Pros

You are able to add categories and information you need for your organization. You are able to personalize the database. In addition, the reporting helps you to save time managing and sharing information with your nonprofit board and constituents.

Cons

The only con is you have to take the time to learn how to use it. Sumac has the ability to have so much information that you need to know how to utilize that information for you. Luckily, the Sumac tech team is always available to help you and they have great tutorial videos for all aspects.

The IT guys have been great and very helpful.

Accuracy. Mail merge. Email mail merge. Donations management. Excellent. They understand the work of a non-profit.

Pros

It is accurate. Based on the cloud and reasonable for all you get. I can customize the columns, data that I need which is quite different from other non-profits. I can have different "offices" which really helps with the multiple projects that I am responsible for.

Cons

I still need help in using the Campaign feature. It might be me, but I haven't quite got that figured out.

Okay.

Nothing special.

Pros

Fairly easy to customise, fairly intuitive, once gets into it. Search Builder is nice, once understood.

Cons

Cluttered. For example, Having all gifts in the same group as any other notes and points of donor contact is rather frustrating due to the cluttered nature. Likewise the Contacts page- much prefer single Search field, then a full list which is searched. And I have no idea if there's an easy way to see direct mail statistics (i.e., % of responses, average raised based on responses, etc.). That's a feature I've become very accustomed to and am missing greatly. Not a bad donor database; but honestly? It's not DonorPerfect.

Sumac is an affordable, customizable system for case management and reporting.

Pros

Sumac provides a customizable platform for managing our programs and services, tracking communications and case management. We are planning to expand our use and utilize more modules and expand our use of existing ones. The software is growing with us as we move a team into an online Case Management model after 30 years of pen and paper. We have set it up so we master uses one at a time and have eased the transition of staff. This has been a blessing as I have worked with other organizations that have lost staff as an out of the can software full of bugs was implemented with little room for transition. While for some the customization may be a challenge the benefit is huge. If you do not have someone to work with to complete the customizations there is an affordable option available working with the Sumac team.

Cons

The email component does not allow for, (or I have not figured out how to), multiple emails, so we only use it for mass emails as the responses can only go to one address.

Sumac is a great option for not-for-profit organizations that are looking for database management.

management of 5000 items in a database; tracking attendance, sending newsletters, and tracking donations and issuing tax receipts, sending mailouts

Pros

A great way to manage show attendees, we like that we can track who has donated and who has seen performances and what dates; contact types are very useful, as is the search builder function.

Cons

Very difficult and time consuming to upload batch information, especially if we do it infrequently enough that we need to relearn each time. Not intuitive in that way, annoying that you have to go through and have events set up first before you can attach an email or campaign to them - not very flexible in that way and requires you to always remember how the system works and the multiple steps involved with each new data capture.

We had a challenging start, but over the past 6 months have had much better results with support.

Pros

It is customizable to our needs (mostly). Some of the features we would find beneficial are not available.

Cons

We have encountered a number of bugs over the past few months in working with our trainer. She has been awesome in documenting and reporting them but the training time it ends up taking up in trying to find work arounds or confirm that it is in fact a bug is frustrating.

Sumac is a great value if you are a small nonprofit, even for an arts organization.

Pros

It is very basic and easy to use. The support is great. It is also on the cloud. Reporting is great for most functions.

Cons

We were never able to integrate our ticketing and donations so have to import everything from other systems. We were not able to batch import so it is very time-consuming. Same is true of our marketing email.

Sumac has been very useful with my everyday tasks for our adult literacy program.

Pros

I like that I'm able to keep track of all my students activities in one place. I'm able to track and log any and all communications, their records, any book distributions, book inventory, and so much more.

Cons

I do have some trouble with reports, where one area of Sumac doesn't speak to the other. I also don't like that I can't delete/dropping a student from one area without deleting their whole history.

We purchased Sumac to bring together numerous spreadsheets and software that we used to track data.

Pros

So easy to customize! I am not computer savvy and I was easily able to customize fields for a variety of programs and services we offer.

Cons

I find I need help building specific searches but thankfully tech support is always there to help me out.

Serena Richardson

Pros

User friendly interface and the customization feature "grow your own". Support staff are helpful and I love that training videos are provided as well.

Cons

I would love to see the development of connecting related emails directly to the database contact records so that the added steps of using the "communication" function were not needed.

Good value for the price for not for profit organizations. It does everything that we need it to do.

Pros

Excellent features and value for the price, especially for not for profit organizations who do not have a lot of funds but really need and can benefit from this software. Excellent customer support, not a long wait either.

Cons

Sorting and queries are complicated and not as automated or easy as I would like and there are some limitations.

SUMAC has been a great tool in assisting us on managing our client information and donations.

Pros

It is very user friendly and customizable. It is easy to add additional users and input information. Additionally, it is very cost effective for small not for profit.

Cons

The data merging process can be a bit complex depending on what function you are trying to perform. The feature could needs to be simplified.

It's a great tool for our organisation!

Pros

Entering and managing all the contacts in the database. Being able to connect contacts and have all the history of each contact is very useful.

Cons

Lack of editing features for e-mail campaigns. The whole program lacks user friendlyness. It is hard to find easy ways of personalizing the database.