The Ronald McDonald House in Baltimore, actually the one and only RMH in the State of Maryland, is hosting its first 5K event next month. This is the first time we have used fundraising software for an event. We researched a couple of different software packages prior to choosing FirstGiving. Based on the feedback we received from our event participants, the software has been very easy to use, which is very important to our Charity. We wanted to choose software that people would be willing and able to set up on their own. Our success and experience with FirstGiving has been great! One of the criteria in selecting fundraising software for our Charity was support; what type of support would be offered and at what level? Well, we are pleased to pass along that FirstGiving has EXCEEDED every expectation in terms of support and response to our questions! From day one to now (one month prior to our event) Nick and Camille in the Support Center have not only answered every question I called or emailed about, but they did so quickly and kindly. There was never a time when I was apprehensive about contacting them. One of the key aspects to a successful event is support and making sure that everyone involved with the event has a good experience. For our 5K, the capability of online registration and online fundraising was the key to raising key dollars to benefit the care of the Ronald McDonald House families. We are so excited about our 5K and looking forward to Race Day on April 15th. We would strongly recommend using FirstGiving as fundraising software; we are totally hooked and will continue to branch out and use this software in helping our Ronald McDonald House raise support in the future! Thank you FirstGiving, but a BIG THANKS to Nick and Camille for doing such a great job everyday in helping people and organizations like the Ronald McDonald House produce successful events!

We at Junior Achievement of the Upper Midwest have been using FirstGiving for the last few years for our biggest fundraiser, bigBowl. This is personally my first year running the event and I have been nothing but impressed with the support provided by FirstGiving. The bigBowl event has increased this year and we have over 3,000 bowlers. With the 3,000 bowlers come plenty of questions, which come through me, and I pass them along to the FirstGiving support team. I am beyond impressed by how quickly they answer my questions and make adjustments for our bowlers. Not only are they very timely (most of the time within a few hours), but also they are extremely polite. Even after the second or third email request I send to them on any single day, they have continued respect for the easiest question. I never feel like my questions are irrelevant. The support team helps me learn more about the program, which I am very thankful for. With the support of the FirstGiving staff and our increased knowledge of the site, we have increased our fundraising greatly from this time last year. I can't thank the support team and out account leader, Lucas, enough for all of their help in making the fundraising process VERY easy. THANK YOU!

I have been working with FirstGiving fundraising pages since 2004 when it was still named Justgiving, was still centralized in the UK, and was fairly new to the U.S. market. Online fundraising was in the infancy stages and we needed a way to do this without investing time and capital in building and maintaining our own system. FirstGiving was the answer for us. There have been many reasons why we "stuck" with Firstgiving over the years. The webpages are easy to build. The cost is minimal compared to other online fundraising pages we investigated. The donor data was secure. We did not have to deal with any credit card information. We would get a check every month from the active pages we had available. FirstGiving had a strong customer service and support staff. Most of the time, they were quick to answer my frantic calls. FirstGiving's pages were not set up to make it easy for them, but with the potential donor in mind. They were always asking the question, "What will encourage this person to give?" That made sense to us, but we really liked was the option for each donor to make a comment on the page that showed their support for the fundraiser. That's huge! Thanks, FirstGiving!

Falling Down In Service

I have had to complain twice about the same technical issue. The problem takes weeks to get fixed. People don't call back when they say. I won't use them again after this year unless I see noticeable changes.

Pros

Relatively easy to use and ability to generate reports. The money easily transfers into my account; no issues with that.

Cons

Some parts of the interface don't work and it takes weeks for the company to fix. Only three customer service people tend to the entire country; very poor efficiency.

FirstGiving is awesome

Pros

This is one of the most easy fundraising software programs to master. Super user friendly and easily adaptable to any event or organization.

Cons

It can be a little tougher to import or export from the software for some reporting aspects. But, there are really not a lot.

They stole our money. Seriously.

Cons

We received donations via FirstGiving. The check we received from FirstGiving BOUNCED (seriously, bounced). They gave us some BS excuse about writing it from the wrong account but more than a month later and we haven't received our money and now they aren't answering our emails. We are out a substantial amount of money and our donors were defrauded. STAY AWAY FROM FIRSTGIVING AT ALL COSTS.

Works well enough

Pros

It's easy to use and reasonably priced. Because so many people use it, it's imperative that I not have to take a significant amount of time explaining it. FirstGiving is simple enough that I don't have to.

Cons

There's nothing that I don't like about it, although there are at least a couple of other products that are comparable, and it needs to do a little more to stand out.

Great for hands-off peer-to-peer

As a nonprofit, we do not have a lot of spare time. It is important that those who are looking to fundraise for our organization's mission trips do not need too much assistance with giving pages. We wrote out instructions one time and our fundraisers have been using FirstGiving for 3 years now. It is extremely user-friendly and provides a safe and secure platform to raise funds. The customization options are amazing, you can make the individual pages all look to the same brand!

Easy to use. A convenient way to make a donation.

Pros

This product is easy to use, and provides me with a safe, secure and trackable way to make a donation.

Cons

I did not like the additional charge to the nonprofit, but I did like the fact that I could elect to pay the fee instead of having the organization I was donating to pay the fee..

FirstGiving review

Pros

They are easy to work with and we receive our money in a timely fashion.

Cons

I think that the percentage that they charge for their fees is a bit high. I realize they need to make money but I think their fees are one of the highest.

FirstGiving

Pros

It's very user-friendly and easy to navigate and share with others.

Cons

Sometimes the pages and events can be confusing. You don't know if you are signing up for an event, donating to a cause, or starting your own page.

setting up site was far more difficult than advertised.

Pros

i like the support team and the reasonable cost. i also like the way reports are set up and accessed.

Cons

I don't like the many difficulties I had setting up site and having to rely on customer support for some of the administration. I also don't like having to use first giving's url instead of being able to go straight to site through my onw url.

FirstGiving as a Way to Collect Donations

Pros

It was easy to log on, set up an account and start collecting money.

Cons

I didn't have any dislikes about this vendor. The sign on was easy and friends accessed it easily.