What are Get Connected users saying about the software?

Beautiful and flexible

Largely really good! The app is just so-so, and there are places that would have been nice to see some changes/more options, but overall it's really good.

Pros

The capacity to really build community through the platform is awesome. It's easy to brand to look like everything else you're doing.

Cons

It's pretty pricey and there's a bit of a learning curve for sure.

Recruit and coordinate help you need quickly

While the set up and implementation was really hard for me, the company took my feedback and has created a more hands-on implementation process for new users (which is awesome). The training required on the front end is a time investment and can be a little intimidating for some, and some of our volunteers who aren't comfortable with computers struggled a little. That being said, with some training materials built and after getting comfortable using different features, the platform does make recruitment and tracking so much easier. There are so many useful tools that have made the past year of trying to respond to a pandemic MUCH, much more successful than if we were using the tools we had before (meaning, manually responding to inquiries). We have a really large volunteer program (upwards of 9,000 volunteers coming through the program in a year), and this system has made it much easier to communicate important information quickly and mobilize help when it's needed LIGHTNING FAST. I think that the investment in time/training up front is worth it, though I would plan to set resources and staff time aside to really devote to getting comfortable using the platform (so you can then devote time/resources to making sure your volunteers are supported in using it).

Pros

We were able to recruit people VERY quickly to get the right amount of people to help in really dire situations throughout the last year. Some features we like: Scheduling features, qualifications, eBlasts, shifts, check-in/kiosk, automatic notifications, customization and look/feel of website, customer service that helps with brainstorming/finding solutions, the company's responsiveness/adaptability to feedback, Teams/group volunteering featuers, and features for grouping together volunteer opportunities (making it easier to run dynamic reporting, share certain types of opportunities with new volunteers, etc)

Cons

Not user friendly for older users/non-tech friendly folks; some features that we sought out DO exist, but not necessarily in the way we needed them to work; some reporting/filters seem counter-intuitive to working with the population system was built for (ex: very difficult to narrow down active, current volunteers based on how recently they "worked" or submitted hours); does require a LOT of training for both staff and volunteers

Great product

Pros

I like that the Qualifications page allows us to allow and prevent people from registering for certain opportunities. This allows us to increase the safety of clients.

Cons

The site is not user-friendly for site managers, managers, and users because it is not intuitive enough. I also do not like the integration of Sterling because when people do not complete their background check orders, the site blocks them from going back and completing it again. There are also some simple features that I believe should be available and when I submit a ticket, staff ask me to write a suggestion for the "suggestion box".

Get Connected Galaxy Review

I have had great experience with Get Connected. It is very helpful in managing volunteers and it is easy to use.

Pros

I enjoy the ease of this software. It is very user friendly and intuitive. The previous software I worked with was the opposite so it is refreshing to no longer deal with that.

Cons

I wish that the software had a function where you could print mailing labels for event invitations to users.

GET CONNECTED!!

Get Connected helps us bridge the gap between nonprofits and volunteers. It is bringing our community together to collaborate on how to make our community better and safer for all.

Pros

The product is very easy to use and is user friendly. There are so many helpful tools that many any situation seem possible. The features are awesome for the nonproducts as well as for the users (volunteers).

Cons

I don't think I dislike anything, as the team tries to make upgrades based on our feedback. I do want the calendar to sync to Outlook for Microsoft.

Get Connected is a flexible and useful volunteer tool.

Overall Get Connected is a wonderful product. My only wish is that all nonprofit organizations would set up an account for their volunteer and event needs.

Pros

It is very easy to use for both the user and the agency. I love that I can "assume the primary manager" and make changes for our partners, if needed. I love the email tool as a boost in communicating an event or need - when someone receives a personal email the response is always greater. Our specific program, Volunteer Connect, is integrated with our local university's South Serves. That is a valuable way for the students at South Alabama to give back to the community outside of their school needs.

Cons

My experience and use is rather basic, therefore I do not have any suggestions for improvements. It seems that getting our "inside" volunteers i.e. [SENSITIVE CONTENT] to log their hours is cumbersome. I would like a simpler way for them to do so, as they are very busy in their day to day work and volunteer jobs. As an agency we want everyone who gives their time to us to be recognized and for us to note how many hours they give. We just have trouble with convincing them to create an account and record their time for each individual event/meeting etc.

Get Connected is a good investment in Volunteer Management

I find the software easy to use from the administrator viewpoint and easy for the public, as well. The customer support is excellent! They have been very responsive, in a timely fashion, and always willing to help with whatever issue I might have.

Pros

It's easy to use and most of the public can use it relatively easily.

Cons

Would like more reporting functions (more detailed). Although I can get all the info on an excel spread sheet, since we've had this system since Aug. 2013 and there are 5,000+ users in the system, that's a lot of info to have to filter through to get what I need.

It's all about the Customer Service... Add a great product and room to grow= A+++ rating!

When West Virginia University decided to upgrade our volunteer management software, there was a lot of time and research put into the process. We have many "moving parts" to our needs, including integration with university data, single-sign-on, special reporting, large day of service coordination, and academic service-learning. No only did Get Connected turn out to be the best fit after our initial examination of the options, but WVU is very happy with our choice--mostly because of how much we admire and appreciate the caring, dedicated, smart, and cooperative staff at Galaxy Digital! Anyone who does work in the community knows that customer service is KEY. Galaxy has figured this part of their business model out to the fullest. 24/7 support online coupled with quick and effective communications via phone/email really has been instrumental in successfully launching our system. WVU is a large client for Get Connected (40K+ users with 7,500 hours tracked in our first 6 weeks) and the company has just been wonderful to collaborate with in the process. Open to system enhancements every 8 weeks or so, Get Connected has ALREADY implemented WVU's suggestions for system improvements, and has been a great partner to discuss future development opportunities. The software is a great match for our needs, and more importantly will be able to grow with the needs of our students and community. All users, including our students, faculty, staff, and community partners have loved the change and especially appreciate the clean navigation in Get Connected as well as the mobile functionality. Whether you're a small organization or a large land-grant institution of higher education, Get Connected is worth exploring if you need volunteer management software. We're happy to be part of the Galaxy Digital family, and hope those folks know that they're now part of our Mountaineer Family!

A useful and easy platform to use and implement

Pros

The most impactful part of this software is allowing nonprofits from all over the county to house their volunteer opportunities under one umbrella to be easily found and promoted

Cons

There should be more features available to agency partners, instead of just site managers. The surface-level features for agencies has turned many organizations away from joining our platform

Good customer service and

Pros

I like the hours tracking tool that shows where our students volunteer. The customer service team is very helpful and quick.

Cons

You have to "respond to a need" on the site (basically register for things) but it confuses our students a lot that they have to do this before submitting hours.

Since launching the platform, we are experiencing an even greater interest in volunteering.

Ease of use, better coordination of volunteers, increased marketing and awareness.

Pros

The software is easy to use, looks great online and offers rather robust back-end features for our partner agencies and as the site manager. It's also very user friendly for both agencies and volunteer team managers. We are very excited about the growth we've seen and the positive feedback we've received by our agencies and volunteer users.

Cons

There is nothing that we like least about the software! It's so useful to organizing volunteers and helping us streamline many processes. We still have the issue in our community that we have more volunteers than needs available or posted on the platform. While we have created a custom form on the site for a group of volunteers to request a volunteer need (specifically for teams of 5 or more people), we could use a few more features to help manage these company-based groups and to be able to streamline the process between the group's request, submission of project/needs from agencies specifically for a group, and actually matching the group to a need. We have also had more companies ask about collecting t-shirt sizes or other data from their employees upon sign-up, and I'm still working on a few work-around ideas for this. To address this process, we are currently utilizing a combination of the private volunteer need setting, user groups and initiatives. We may also start setting up custom pages on the site to organize a company's series of private volunteer needs into one centralized page that doesn't initially require a login by the user to view the need.

Connect with Community with Get Connected!

The benefit of being a centralized location where volunteers can come to browse a catalog of available volunteer opportunities and organizations. It was extremely valuable during March of 2020 at the onset of COVID.

Pros

I appreciate how we can filter out and target specific volunteers based on interests, causes, etc. It allows for a strategic and target recruitment strategy. The E-blast function is the most used function aside from creating opportunities and organizations. Customer care is always on point with our multi-layered questions and are very responsive in a timely manner.

Cons

There are a few strange nuances, but once you learn what those are, you can overlook them.

Get Connected is Amazing

We have been able to successfully navigate difficult times with a pandemic thanks to GC. It's a fantastic product, and I would highly recommend.

Pros

GC is amazing for dynamic institutions. Rapidly having the ability to update volunteer opportunities, track volunteer hours, contact folks, send out e-blasts and communications really makes all the difference! Also their support team is AMAZING. Highly responsive and kind, I had never worked with such a wonderful group of support folks before.

Cons

There is a substantial learning curve to it. Sometimes, you have to really be familiar with the way things are set up in order to get the information and data you're looking for.

Get Connected is hands down AWESOME!

Pros

The software is user friendly, looks amazing on any device, and is incredibly versatile whether you are a macro level organization coordinating your catchment area's volunteer center, a single nonprofit looking to ramp up their volunteer engagement, or an individual searching for volunteer opportunities. Additionally, the support team is one of the best I've ever worked with. Huge props to the crew at Galaxy Digital for working with us whenever we need assistance or help brainstorming!

Cons

There's really nothing to complain about in terms of the software - we made a giant leap forward when we decided to move to Get Connected/Galaxy Digital and couldn't be happier!

Get Connected Saves the Day for our United Way

Pros

We love how easy this software is to use - for our organization and for our volunteers. Ease of navigation is huge when you are working with a population that includes people who may not be particularly tech savvy.

Cons

I wish that the ReDi disaster response module were available for free. Of course. :) We are a small, but mighty nonprofit, looking to manage our disaster response efforts through Get Connected. At this time, we are unable to afford it. But! The team at Galaxy Digital and the Get Connected support staff worked with us to find a solution that works for us within the Get Connected platform.

Do Not Recommend!

First, the platform is not at all geared towards raising money. I should have realized this because they do not heavily advertise this feature. However, the sales rep made it seem like it would be easy to add fundraising and convinced me it would work. Second, the platform is not quick and easy to get up and running. You have to complete HOURS of training that has to be scheduled weeks out in advance. This was also not revealed to me by the sales rep until after they got my money. So my attempt to get a platform up and running within a few days of the disaster turned into 6 weeks. Note, I completed all the training as soon as possible (I took the earliest class and did all the self-paced training) and this was still how long it took. Third, you need a full-time person to manage this platform. It is not something that will run seamlessly in the background. It is basically a database. So you need to have a dedicated person that is pretty tech savvy that is able to spend AT LEAST 20 hours a week managing your platform. Fourth, all the volunteer groups have to ALSO have a dedicated person that ALSO has to go through training! This was a huge turnoff to the civic groups that I pitched this platform to. Finally, after all of these issues, I contacted the company within 6 weeks and explained that this was not what I thought it would be. I asked for a refund. I was denied. They said they do not offer refunds. That meant I was out nearly $5,000 of my own money that I donated to the

Pros

Nothing. I liked what I saw in the demo. But what I actually got after the company had my money was very disappointing.

Cons

Amount of training required to use. Amount of time required to manage. Amount of admins required. Poor customer service.

Advanced Events are A MUST!

Our volunteer center could not do the work we do as easily and efficiently as we can when using the Advanced Events module. Being connected to a United Way, we run several large citywide Days of Caring each year. The Advanced Events module allows us to attach our 30-40 projects to an overarching event. Both our nonprofit partners as well as our volunteers have shared how easy it is to post their opportunities and register team members. In the past we "held" spots for corporate volunteers that many times did not get filled and left the partner organizations with unfulfilled needs. With the ease of the team functionality, that no longer happens. United Way works with hundreds of companies in our community. We believe everyone can be a philanthropist, it doesn't matter where you live or how much you make. It's the act of giving that binds us together. In addition to reporting what a company gives financially and the impact of their donations, we're able to use the Advanced Event module to track all volunteer engagement for the year. A number when converted to dollars back to our community (love that on the individual profile pages!) sometimes exceeds a financial gift. The only functionality that would make that even better would be to have the ability to hide or reserve by password a project for a certain department within a company's Advanced Event. (ex- project posted for only executives or for a certain geographic location)

I have used this product for 6 years and have always been very happy with it.

It allows our community to have a portal for volunteering.

Pros

Easy to use and allows people from different skill levels to navigate it easily. It is a great portal for volunteers and agencies.

Cons

Sometimes I have to remember the steps to accomplish a task that I do not do frequently. I have to go to the help screen and figure out what it is called to search.

Best volunteer management software on the market!

Our user engagement has increased by 38%.

Pros

This tool allows administrators to have master control over the site. Users can easily view and respond to volunteer opportunities. Agencies can quickly and easily export their responses. The best part for our organization is the automated reminder and confirmation emails. The customer care team is top-notch and they respond quickly.

Cons

Using this software as a manager takes a little bit of training, especially as a manager. The dependence on an email address as the user's login or check-in has resulted in some users having multiple accounts.

Get Connected provides a hub for volunteerism in our community.

The ability to educate and inform our community about the specific volunteer needs of local agencies, while providing those agencies with tangible support and a framework for managing their volunteer programs.

Pros

Get Connected is perfect for our needs. Agencies have autonomy over managing their individual pages, and users have control over the level of communication they receive. There is a robust help platform, and numerous features we haven't even had time to explore yet.

Cons

Nothing - the software is easy to use, has wonderful features, and the company is constantly making improvements. As an administrator, I found the communication filters a little confusing initially, but found all the support I needed in the help center.

FRFB Get Connected Review

The last non-profit company I worked for utilized a different software for recording and engagement...it can't even compare to Get Connected. There is an ease to Get Connected that I haven't experienced with any other database management for profit and non-profit purposes. And if I have any questions, I can always reach out to Tech Support.

Pros

It's a one stop shop! I can easily access the information I'm looking for and pull reports as needed.

Cons

Some functions have too many steps and sometimes the steps just don't make sense. I should be able to do and access whatever I need to for a specific volunteer right from their account but it doesn't always happen.

Great customer service!

Pros

Whenever I run into a snag, customer service is friendly and prompt and takes care of my issue immediately.

Cons

Maneuverability is an issue. It could be a bit more straight forward in some of the more complicated features, or provide detailed instructions.

Easy for managers and for users!

Pros

Get Connected has a clean and modern look, and it is easy for administrators to make updates, customize, and gather data. They offer training videos for all types of users and are quick to answer support questions.

Cons

To sign up for a volunteer activity you must have an account. As a volunteer management agency, this is actually a pro, but some users do not like creating an account.

As a volunteer center, we are pleased with the ease of use and the look of GC for our users.

It is our main tool to connect volunteers across seven counties in Southern New Jersey.

Pros

The easy to use functionality. And that we can connected with other volunteer centers who are on the same platform.

Cons

We are connected to another Volunteer Center but we cannot filter out our own agencies and needs. Users on in our local area cannot easily filter out the other Volunteer Center Agencies and needs.

Easy to use but would like more options for customization

The software is easy to use for the volunteer which is VERY important. There a lot of options for information from the agencies to be provided. We receive positive feedback from agencies as well. We used Volunteer Solutions before and even though it was cluncky, I find myself missing the customization features of it. It would be nice to have more options on reports. We have reports that we have to provide for our HON affiliate report and I have to create a reporting system outside of Get Connected to collect data that I need to report. It would be great to be able to choose what is the default of the site, for example to have the default view be list view instead of grid view. For large events that have many opportunities, the list view has more per page and grid view creates more pages to sort through for the volunteer. I would like to create standard volunteer questions (such as a t-shirt size question) that I could just choose instead of having to enter it each time an event is created. It is also laborious for the event manager to go back and post the hours after a large event, it would be helpful to have the option of mass approval of hours for an event instead of individually.