OneCause (formerly BidPal) Software

Our guests can monitor and place bids on the convenience of their cell phones

Pros

It's so easy to upload your guests, silent auction items, photos, etc., and the support team is there to help you every step of the way.

Cons

This software can be a bit tricky if you do not have great cell service. We live in a rural area so cell service is not always reliable.

It made tracking, organizing, and check in and out so much easier than the last program we used!

Pros

I love how intuitive the entire process is to set up and run an event. And the reports are awesome! I actually had fun running different reports to see the information available to us! Check in and check out were super easy for our guests and our volunteers which made the event stress free.

Cons

Probably the only thing I would like to see there be a way to email select guests with a link that they could use to upload their guests names as the event gets closer. We have many supporters who purchased a table before they had their guest list complete.

Our silent auction proceeds doubled.

Pros

We found that OneCause was very intuitive and easy to use. When we did run into questions, we found on-line chat and other support was excellent. The technology was also easy for our guests to use.

Cons

We would like to have a software that was more vigorous for a live auction. We found that because the software was geared toward silent auctions, it was lacking in some of the functions we needed for our other points of purchase.

Pros

It is very user friendly - and the reports are amazing! Whether it is getting the most recent statistics or running table lists, or packaging auction items or donations or ads, it's there. And communicating with our donors and guests at the event was literally as simple as one click.

Cons

The software has some very specific auction based language that we would have liked to not use in some places. It also forces some numbers like the number of items left to sell, that in some cases we would rather have not used - like selling ads or sponsorships - fixed price items. The ability to eliminate or choose when to use some information or labeling visible to the donor would be better.

Pros

It is very user-friendly, especially when navigating post-event. I can very easily see who won specific items, who donated via fund-a-need, total amounts per person, and overall amount raised.

Cons

It took a while to figure out the best way to upload photos to set up our main pages for the customer view (i.e. Welcome page)

Pros

BidPal has great customer support from day one to post event. With their helpful staff, we were set up and ready to go live within a few days.
Easy set-up and user friendly for guests.

Cons

I wish there was a cheat sheet for reporting and a wording on some successful text messages that have been used.

Pros

I think the customer service is great with OneCause. I have specific people assigned to help me but if it is out of normal business hours I can call the support line and they will help walk me through any process. I also really like the mobile bidding feature, this has become 1st hand to all of our donors and really make the process easier for everyone.

Pros

OneCause enables nonprofits, schools, churches and more to use several different fundraising tools to raise awareness about your mission and organization. Not only is their software simple to use (my tech skills are minimal!), their customer support is amazing. You might think you cannot afford this type of software if you are a nonprofit but by using very 'a-la-carte' pricing model, it is now affordable to raise the fundraising bar to meet your goals! I am a strong advocate for this product!

All the details of my event in one place, ease of creating reports, great organization of a silent auction, ability to assign (and change right up to the even time) bidder numbers, a nice-looking site to promote auction items ahead of time, support onsite at the event and after the event, and -- perhaps most important-- support whenever I needed it on the phone.

Pros

The customer support. They have a team that is nearly always immediately available, and can answer almost any question. If they can't they figure it out with you on the phone, or confer with others and call you right back. They are wonderful.

Cons

The complicated way that money is handled. It's not their fault, though. It is simploy complicated. I think they have a gret product. It is up to the user to be sure they fully understand what to do during and after an event -- and this is worth going over with support before the event.

Pros

Ease of use. End user friendly. Variety of reports to review your results. Stock letters, forms, print aids are great!

Cons

Would love to see a button that adds all silent auction item proceeds as bids are placed. We were able to come up with an easy work around for it though.

Everything is pretty self explanatory but before inputting data, you must make sure your excel data sheet is perfectly up to date or data will be uploaded incorrectly.

Pros

I like how hands on the staff at OneCause are, they consistently check-in to make sure you are prepared for your upcoming event and are diligent about reviewing the data entered into your page to make sure the day of goes seamlessly.

It helped us set a record for our annual fund raiser. Initially we were concerned about the cost, but in the end the program allowed us to make more than enough to exceed past years numbers and pay for the license.

Pros

The support was immediate, detailed and with caring followup. The support staff was very professional. The accounting features, the sign in procedures and the software for the silent and live auctions were superb. We were extremely happy with the program.

This software was invaluable in providing the timely access to bidding on our fundraiser. We had over 500 packages available and over 5000 total bids. The scoreboards were easily integrated into the video displays and AV equipment. This software assisted in a volunteer group pulling off a very professional silent auction and live auction.

Pros

I appreciate the checklist and the tutorial videos. The tools to build an engaging fundraising interface are intuitive and capable.

Cons

The import tools are very handy but they do not yet contain full functionality. A second import of updated supporters actually creates a second entry rather than an update to an existing entry.

I think we raised more money because of this electronic solution.

Pros

easy to use. support was great. having someone on site was critical. when the scheduled person couldn't make it a back up was right there

Cons

the software took some training but made sense once trained. loading and learning the registration process was confusing, smartpay anywhere was confusing.

Our event ran much more smoothly with the use of BidPal software.

Pros

It is all inclusive - allowing us to do everything from selling tickets to running post event reports. It also creates a catalog, gift certificates and item labeling materials.

Cons

The system could be more user friendly (intuitive), but current updates are helping it get there. Sometimes it is difficult to locate the features you need, but customer support is always there to help.

Pros

BidPal is easy to use, intuitive and all encompassing. The new One software is easy to use and transitions smoothly from pre-event to event to post-event.

Cons

It would be nice to have a volunteer entry site so that donation collectors could enter them themselves without having access to the rest of the administrative site.

We recieved a significant increase in revenue from the silent bidding.

Pros

It was easy for several people to be involved in different uses of the software at the same time! Very easy to learn and use. The reports generated after the event were great!

Cons

A few people had trouble downloading the app after the new release but the issues were easily resolved.

The guests enjoyed a flawless experience with online bidding and donating. From a planning side of things, I loved that it was one less thing I had to worry about. It worked seamlessly, and each and every person I worked with was fabulous.

Pros

BidPal is such a user-friendly platform. It allows the guests to have an easy and enjoyable experience, while the planners have one less thing to worry about. It is truly a wonderful service!

Great accurate reports, helpful service as we are approaching our event and a quick and accurate representation of how our event went

Pros

The import feature when it comes to importing our donations, attendees and donors. It's really simple and the customer service is helpful when it comes to answering questions. It's helpful to know what features are out there that we might not be currently using that would be helpful to us and they do a good job of explaining the new things and taking feedback directly to the developer to make improvements.

Cons

It's confusing to me who is my direct contact with bidpal sometimes. I worked with Sherilyn pre-event and at the event but received communication from several different people related to bidpal and feedback, event details etc. that I found to be confusing. It would be helpful to just work with one person consistently rather than getting various forms of communication from different people.

It was easy to find our clients and it allowed us to set up our silent auction and receive bids through it weeks before the event, not just day of. It also allowed us to be able to have people who could not physically attend the event still bid and win items in our silent auction.

Pros

The availability to use it on the go and make quick changes if needed; the fact that the updated registration check in software was super easy to use and easy to make changes in if needed; the fact that we were able to set up the fundraising page quickly and that it was very clean and presentable; the fact that customer service was easy to get in touch with and would answer any questions that we had and help us pinpoint any issues as needed.

Cons

If you weren't aware of the way that items would roll over to packaging that you would have to do double work in that area (example: inputting item information so that it would roll into the packaging without having to reword descriptions, etc).