Best Investment Ever

I have nothing negative to say about this company, the platform or their employees, everyone I have had contact with has been more than helpful. The software is easy to use, but if you do have questions, the chat, email or phone availability of someone who can help you is amazing. They are prompt and efficient, which helps you to complete the task at hand and move on the next thing on your lsit!

Pros

What I like MOST about this software is the fact that people can participate in our auction from anywhere!!

Cons

HHHmmmm......the first year, the uploading process of the auction items was a bear, but they upgraded the software and since then it is SUPER user friendly!!!

We Are Beyond Grateful

I would recommend Givesmart to anyone looking to kickstart their fundraising and be more flexible with their events. Our nonprofit has seen unprecedented success using GiveSmart, even during such a turbulent year full of changes and unknowns. Our entire team of volunteers is thankful for this product and all that it has provided to us. Their platform, help team, resources, and webinars will motivate you to do more and be better for your organization and its mission.

Pros

This software is an incredible tool for nonprofits. Especially in a year with so many unknowns and endless virtual events, this software made it easier and less stressful to pivot, be creative, and fundraise for our cause. In 2020 alone, we have done five campaigns and have exceeded our fundraising goals. It is easy to use for both administrators and users, and is feasible for multiple different types of events (i.e. a golf tournament, a virtual auction, a gala, a 5K, a general fundraiser, a voting event, and so much more). The possibilities are endless with GiveSmart. In addition, their support teams and their resources provide tools for organizations looking for ways to improve and grow. I have yet to have a negative experience with the software.

Cons

The only issue I've had with the software is with a virtual auction. Anytime you share a link, be it to donate, or to view an item, etc., it just links to your general campaign and not to a specific component of that campaign. That being said, that's a minuscule detail in the grand scheme of things when planning and executing an event. This software is easy to use and navigate, and their support team is top-tier if you run into a problem or have a question.

I think the staff at Gesture are wonderful!

During this first year in using the software, I saw the additional benefit of securing bids in advance of opening the auction. This started us out thousands of dollars ahead of where we would have traditionally began at the event.

Pros

I love the ability to add photos, descriptions, bid, buy it now pricing, and much more all in a single entry of an item. I also really like the ease in which bidders can participate, get alerts, and have knowledge of their purchases. Finally, the added bonus of a PR team to work with was an extra perk I was not expecting!

Cons

There are certain gaps in the software we have discovered such as: Nowhere to record solicitors such as staff, committee, or Board member who was responsible for bringing in the item; Nowhere to record an individual's name associated with a company in donor details; Nowhere to record details for pledged item, such as when it will be delivered, staff pick-up needs, etc.; Need to have ability to check box if donor has already received thank you for their contributions (such as when it went unsold at a past event and is being used again); Non-transferrable input from one event to another such as donor information. I also have major concerns over the software abilities to capture donations during the ask. There is simply no way to ensure those that raise their hands, are actually hitting the button to donate that is texted to them.

The Best Choice

From beginning to end, my experience with GiveSmart was outstanding. I have recommended them to a number of other nonprofits. We will definitely continue to use them. They will do everything they can to make your event a success!

Pros

I was very nervous about setting this up for the first time. I'm a one-person development office, and I'm not extremely technology-savvy. But once I started, it was so intuitive that it practically told me what to do. And when I ran into something I needed help with, the tutorials were great, and if I still needed help, the customer support reps responded very quickly with exactly what I needed. There was no down time! It's also easy for our donors to use for bidding on our gala auction. We have received many compliments about that, so much so that we're using the software again on another fundraising program. The reports available to me during and after the event have been unbelievably helpful. There was no time lag waiting for results. I could watch the action results real time on my computer and send out appropriate messages. The software works seamlessly with Excel. There are great resources on their website from other organizations about how they used GiveSmart for their events. These were extremely helpful when we had to pivot from a live event to an online event. They took me from fear to excitement!

Cons

I wish I had set up our site earlier. I would have been able to use it for ticket purchases, sponsors and auction donations. I will next time!

Great resource and awesome personnel

The personnel and platform are excellent and make my job so much easier!

Pros

Givesmart is so easy to use and allows us to run different types of fundraising events. The more I use it, the easier it becomes, and I find myself thinking about new ways to use this platform.

Cons

The financial reporting can be a bit confusing but as I use it more, and with the assistance of Givesmart, I am able to navigate much better.

Great platform for events

Givesmart helps us to make attractive fundraising event pages that also allow for smooth communication with our donors.

Pros

The event landing page is very customizable and looks very high quality. On the back end it is easy to get the information you need plugged in for fundraising events. You can have an event page up and running in only a few hours time.

Cons

Some of the back end features such as table assignments and ticket purchasing do not always function together smoothly. If a person purchases tickets or donates offline it is not always easy to get that plugged in nicely on the event site.

GiveSmart is great

Fantastic. Highly recommended.

Pros

Fantastic customer service. Like, seriously, the best. Better than any other vendor we use. The product is loaded with features, most of which we take advantage of -- auction items, auction packages, raffle tickets, event tickets, paddle raises, donations, users, registrants, etc. It's very intuitive to use; not difficult to set up a new event; very thorough and reporting capabilities; easy to process credit cards and receive payments...

Cons

The visual design is a bit bland. Could be more pretty.

GiveSmart helped us to Pivot!

Our overall experience with GiveSmart was amazing. It was what helped us raise money right when the pandemic lockdown had started. We chose GiveSmart because of the good reviews and one other person we knew having used this product giving a good review. We had to make a decision quickly and chose GiveSmart and it was the best decision! I have referred several nonprofit organizations to this product.

Pros

GiveSmart is user friendly. We had approximately a month before our annual auction and we were able to pivot from a live event to a virtual event DIY style.

Cons

There were a couple of features that we would have liked to see; a customizable graphic that counts our "paddle raise" (which in our organization is a reverse auction), and being able to highlight our larger sponsors (give them more visibility for their sponsorship)

Creat Experience

It was a much better program than our previous auction software. And the customer service is top notch! They even went above and beyond this summer with a webinar series that helped us share best practices across the country.

Pros

It is very easy to use, both on the admin side and for the users. It was very easy to customize on the back-end.

Cons

There are some glitches in entering donation items and I had some photos disappear after loading them, but they were minimal.

Great software for Online Benefit Auctions

They have a great costumer support team as well as on site team. Have had nothing but good experiences with their software and team.

Pros

I like that you can have multiple photos per auction item as well as items can be in more than one Category! These are GREAT features that separate their product from others.

Cons

The price is a bit too high for a lot of my clients, especially if its for a one off event.

JBWS GiveSmart Review

Our experience with GiveSmart has been extremely positive and I would (and do) recommend them to others. I would like to see more proactive information from GiveSmart for event planning in our new virtual world - the competition is in my email daily with free webinars and informative tips.

Pros

Indefinite access to past campaigns Reports and analysis Attractive event website Ease of use by participants (in most cases) Ease of uploading items (in most cases except for raffle items) Excellent support

Cons

- Inability to stratify sponsors - We have 5 tiers of sponsors but are limited to only standard & premium categories. Would be optimal to highlight them at their exact levels, especially title and top tier sponsors. - Inability to bulk upload raffle items. - Inability to bulk upload images. - Inability to reorder campaigns on the Campaign page. All our 2021 events appear first - I'd like to view active/current campaigns first. - Inability to copy an individual item from one campaign to another. - No log of sent text/e-mail blast messages. - Item title character limit is too short. - The term "User" for event participants/donors is confusing - they should be titled as participants/donors in their own category. It's confusing when every GiveSmart staffer who provided help is included in the list of event participants and donors. - If you are on the dashboard page of a specific campaign and want to get back to the main Campaign page, you have to click on your name in the top right corner. When you click on this, it gives you the options of Profile, GiveSmart Events, JBWS, Logout. "GiveSmart Events" is the intuitive choice but you have to click on the name of your organization (which for us is JBWS) to get back to the Campaign page. - Please add an option for guests to choose to be invoiced for donations. We have many donors give through foundations that need an invoice for the donation to be processed. We need to let them give through GS without our manual intervention.

Amazing Product

Most of our donors and guests loved the new aspect of our Auction, including switching to mobile bidding/checking in and out. Instead of the previous years of pen and paper bidding. There were only a few people that preferred the old method and just couldn't seem to get on bored. People were concerned that guests would be on their phones all night and no one would be interacting but it was quite the opposite. People had more time to mingle not having to go back and check the paper bid sheets since there were none.

Pros

We were looking for an affordable and easy to use mobile bidding auction program and this one did not disappoint. The company sends a representative to the auction to basically be the point person and fix anything that might come up and help with check in, entering data, etc. They show up early and stay through the event. They bring tablets that are easy to use for our volunteers and staff. Entering items and bidders is easy and functional. Your event can go live as soon as you'd like it to so that even donors that can't attend the night of, can bid on items. This increases revenue tremendously. They also helped us with not having small items but focusing on larger items of value and only having around 100-150 silent items. The colorful pictures and descriptions are easy to view on mobile devices. And if guests don't have a smart phone, we can help them bid on our tablets. Guests receive notification of being outbid, but you can add am amount you are willing to pay and Gesture will continue bidding on your behalf until the amount is reached. Guests are also able to check out from their device, so it makes check out a lot faster and smoother. It is a lot easier to collect on balances as well because we collect credit card information before the event. Guests received notification of being outbid, but you can add am amount you are willing to pay and Gesture will continue bidding on your behalf until the amount is reached.

Cons

If the tablets go down at check in, it pretty much puts everything at a stand still. Even though the tablets run without wi-fi. There are certain aspects that have to be changed or updated only by Gesture, we can't do it ourselves. Such as adding the individuals who receive notification of a payment or donation from the event. But they are usually quick about their customer service.

Great for in-person events, still working out the virtual event kinks

Overall, I would recommend GiveSmart, especially as I know they will continue developing their software to provide better solutions for virtual events. It is really easy to set up your site and auction, and once users are in it is easy for them to use as well. The account managers are really fantastic and willing to help you through any questions or customizations you want to try. Unfortunately, in a virtual setting, it seems less risky to run the site and auction yourself on the day of the event. I appreciate their display, reporting and communication options.

Pros

This software is extremely easy to use from the administrative side. I like how easy it is to upload and edit auction items and do small customizations to the page to display information and even things like sponsor logos. The display for a live fundraising appeal with all the names and real-time amounts is great. I like being able to send texts very quickly. The reporting function is amazing. There are so many different types of reports to really be able to analyze the data. I like being able to livestream a youtube video with the presentation view. The customer support team is fantastic. I am excited to use the new Champions feature for peer-to-peer fundraising.

Cons

The switch to virtual events has created some kinks that need to be worked out. Whereas they typically were registered ahead of time by us as being on the guest list, or could register at the door, in a virtual setting they had issues registering themselves, especially if they were trying to register for a second event. It is not very intuitive to sign in if you forgot your password. I wish that you could customize the fonts and the order in which ads are displayed. I also would like to be able to send an email through Givesmart that would show up as coming from me so it would be less likely to be missed by event attendees. While the support team is fantastic, the on-site/day-of specialists can be hit or miss in their effectiveness.

501 Auction to GiveSmart

I have used 501 auctions for a few years until GiveSmart took over. This is our first year working with the new company since the change and so far we have had a good experience. We assigned one staff member for all of our events, so it is great to have the same person so they are able to get the feel of the organization and the population we work with. Rather than having a new GiveSmart team member every time.

Pros

A pro of GiveSmart is the flexibility of being able to have several different campaigns for all the different events you are hosting. We have 4-5 events a year with silent/live auctions for each so this is a great way to use online bidding for each event. With the online bidding we are able to widen our reach to individuals who do not attend the event . We have seen an increase in money raised from silent and live auction with this feature. This also takes away the annoying bidder sheets and having to text/email winning bidders. The system will automatically send them a text that they have won an item and provide the item number. Another great feature is you can customized tests that goes out to bidders and attendees. This is a great way to keep your guest up to date with auction information and send text to encourage them to donate.

Cons

One con is you can not batch checkout any accounts that are 1,000 or more. A good portion of our guests usually donate/bid over 1,000 at our bigger events of 300+. This is going to be time consuming to checkout all of these individuals. It would be helpful to select the amount for each event since the giving culture at each event varies.

Gesture is the real deal for mobile fundraising; intuitive to use, with great customer support.

Pros

The software is intuitive to use and streamlines so many of the processes that eat up your time when you have to do them manually; we eliminated so many Excel spreadsheets, thanks to everything being easily captured, managed, and tracked right within the software - from auction packages to ticket sales to even the seating and meal requests. Beyond the software, Gesture's customer service was incredible; from the initial sales call all the way through to the event itself, every single Gesture representative we worked with was attentive, helpful, and genuinely interested in helping us have a successful event - which we did. In just the 48 hours since the event concluded, I've received multiple compliments from guests who expressed how "smooth" the night ran and how "seamless" their experience was, from check-in to bidding on auction packages to purchasing raffle tickets to checking out when they won auction packages. We will definitely be using Gesture again, for next year's event!

Cons

Since our event is coordinated by a mix of paid staff and volunteers, it would be helpful to have an administrative access level in Gesture that is "view only" - currently, it's all (full admin rights) or nothing. It would also be helpful if raffle winners could be "drawn" right in the software, rather than needing to use a random number generator on a third party site.

The software is easy to use and provides a seamless experience for our staff and event guests.

Pros

The software is easy to use. It's intuitive and easy to navigate. It makes my job as an event manager much easier. Adding auction items, auction close out, and financial reporting are a breeze. It is also a smooth process for our guests. Bidding on auction items or making a donation is very easy for them, which means more donations for our cause. We set up our auction online in advance of the event. This gives guests an opportunity to start bidding on silent items, and become familiar with live auction items. All of this leads to more revenue to support our mission. I also appreciate the ability to customize our site so it looks like us. This creates a cohesive experience for our guests and helps us put our brand front and center. As a site administrator, I love the ability to download the generated auction sheets. This is a huge time saver. We also download the receipts and send to guests with a thank you letter after the event. It calculates the tax deductibility automatically on the receipt which is an essential feature.

Cons

There are a few custom queries/reports I would like which are not currently offered. It can be confusing as an admin to see clearly what funds have been paid and not paid. However, the staff are great and have helped me figure things out. They even created a custom report for me.

The best campaign based fundraising tool on the market!

Overall, we were very happy with our decision to move forward with GiveSmart. We recently renewed and extended our initial agreement for an extra two years.

Pros

The flexibility and detail that is offered with in the GiveSmart interface to admins is truly custom. We were able to set up our auction event and run multiple raffles, instant buys, and silent auctions along with our oral auction. The seating/reservations module was an amazing addition to the transparency and planning of our event. In the end, the team support from Givesmart made this transition and the overall event set up so easy.

Cons

The donor receipts are one per item and are not very custom or adaptive. This created additional work that should be captured in the software package.

GiveSmart Review

Boys & Girls Clubs of Larimer County uses GiveSmart frequently for events and other giving campaigns. It is super easy to set up campaigns and run them yourself. The GiveSmart staff is incredibly helpful on event days.

Pros

User friendly Clean, presentable look Unlimited events

Cons

Setting up new users with passwords tends to be difficult for us

Virtual Auction Support & Success

Pros

GiveSmart allows you to retain auction item and participant information from year to year, saving significant time on data entry.

Cons

The label printing functionality needs to be expanded/further developed.

Excellent customer service and product was perfect for our 250 person fundraiser!

Streamlined auction process before, during and after event. We went "paperless" and didn't have to fuss with paper bidding forms and associated headaches. We raised more than $10,000 more than we ever raised before using an online bidding system. We look forward to using again next year!

Pros

Very easy to navigate the dashboard to build fundraising website and to upload pictures and descriptions of auction items. Bidders loved how easy it was to register for the silent auction, and we benefitted greatly from launching the website and opening the auction prior to the event. There were many easy tutorials for our volunteers to watch so that they could get comfortable with the online bidding system, and they were well equipped to handle questions from guests. We benefitted greatly from having an onsite specialist with us at the event. She was extremely professional, smart, highly capable and knowledgeable about the software, and she worked nimbly and confidently throughout the night to answer any questions and even offered suggestions that contributed significantly to the success of our auction - and on top of that, she was very enjoyable to be with! After the event, we were able to easily close our books and to process all payments (a significant improvement from many years of dealing with cash and checks and tracking down payments) and to run reports providing incredible data for us to review and learn from.

Cons

I cannot think of anything to improve this software. It was perfect for our event - simple to use and very geared toward serving a volunteer-based event!

Amazing event support

GiveSmart provides much needed day of event support as well as an easy to use interface for auction bidding. Reporting has helped ease the closeout process and assure everyone receives their items and we receive payment. They send continuous follow-up to donors for payment post event. You also have access to crowdfunding for 6 months after your event has ended.

Pros

Easily create auction website to link to your website. Bidders receive texts when they have been outbidded. You are able to create endless silent and live auction items for your page. Event support is so responsive and you are able to customize your support needs for in state and out of state events. Their team arrive to your event with ipads to complete donor bidder profiles on site. They will come to your booth in exhibit hall and encourage people to register for bidding. They are super friendly and outgoing and are great as live auction spotters. They raise far more than their cost and double our giving. You are able to even enter in different pledge amounts as donation items on the auction site.

Cons

They are a little costly however it's worth it for a smooth, successful event. I do wish the website was a little more attractive and grouped the silent and live items together. The items appear kind of small and cramped together.

The best product I have found in the online event fundraising market

I've worked with GiveSmart for many years -- from the time they were Auctions By Cellular, Gesture and now GiveSmart. I have also worked with competitors and GiveSmart is the best product on the market due to their easy-to-use platform, staff support throughout the event planning process, and their onsite staff teams.

Pros

GiveSmart has excellent staff support and they are always quick to respond to questions, timely with email responses, and most importantly their onsite staff is excellent.

Cons

Not a great platform for live auctions - still not good enough to substitute for an "old fashioned" paddle raise. Lack of customization (font size, spacing around images, content) opportunities for the auction displays.

Perfect Addition to Our Events

We looked around for awhile at a lot of different products before we settled on GiveSmart. Ultimately this one provided everything we needed with the perfect value for our money. So glad I found it!

Pros

Very user friendly, all of the features we were looking for in a software program.

Cons

There are certain things we cannot change/update ourselves. We have to contact support and have them do it.

VERY PLEASED AFTER 10 YEARS

I have used since the early days of the company (ABC) for several different nonprofits I ran. The ease of use and customer support has been terrific and is THE main reason I come back year after year.

Pros

Ease of use. Intuitive. GREAT support. Love the addition of the "Champion" fundraising option

Cons

It is a little costly but still in line with other "similar" software

Great resource for virtual fundraising

GiveSmart has been a great resource for our online fundraising. We used the platform prior to the pandemic, and have increased our usage since. With endless access to the platform during the subscription period, we are able to come up with unique ways to fundraise and know the platform will help make them happen.

Pros

GiveSmart is fairly intuitive and easy to use. There are a lot of guides that are easy to follow. The GiveSmart team has been very helpful in assisting our organization transition to virtual fundraising during the pandemic. GiveSmart has offered numerous webinars filled with tips regarding virtual fundraising. We love being able to customize many aspects of the platform to fit our fundraising needs and like that we have endless possibilities and uses for the platform. We are grateful for the ease of pulling comprehensive reports. This allows to easily and accurately move the data into our data collection system.

Cons

Be sure to read and understand each feature and ask questions if something is not clear. We had an issue thinking that a feature on the auction meant one thing, but in reality it meant something totally different. The GiveSmart team was able to help us easily remedy the problem the miscommunication created on our end.

Great product and support team!

We started using GiveSmart in 2016, and we see no reason to go with a competitor. We have been very pleased with our overall experience.

Pros

This software is easy to implement for our annual Gala fundraising and auction. The support team is always very responsive if we have questions, and the platform is easy to use for our attendees. The back-end reporting is also very easy to run. We always have several GiveSmart reps help at our event, and they have always been professional, capable, and helpful.

Cons

We'd like to see some sort of real time thermometer incorporated to help track our progress during the event. Other software alternatives seem to have this capability.

Fundraiser Support

Easy input of our items & images, because of the Excel sheets provided. Really happy with the reports available.

Pros

We have used GiveSmart for almost 3 years. Everyone I have been in contact with has been helpful, will go that extra step to make sure I understand. I'm including the Resource area, I have used it several times and if I need more help I use chat. We usually have a large Fundraiser set up each year with Sponsor Recognition, Silent & Live Auctions and we have GiveSmart provide us with 6 GiveSmart support. They help with Registration and Checkout, which makes the fundraiser very streamline. This year is different, we have had two Virtual Fundraisers, which was a very quick transition for us. GiveSmart was a great help and the first one was a great success and we are currently doing the second one now and so far no problems.

Cons

The only problem is that we do not have an easy connection between GiveSmart & our accounting system. Our Treasurer has trouble with what she receives from GiveSmart.

Give Smart for Non Profit Gala

The past two years have been a good experience with Give Smart. The support team and the Customer Service Teams are professional and extremely helpful.

Pros

The software based on our users feedback is easy to use. Once someone is registered they appreciate their data remains in the system. We did a virtual gala this year, and with help from the Give Smart team, we were able to set up our entire gala on Give Smart with not alot of effort. The mobile bidding is easy for users for our silent auction and this year being virtual for our "live" auction as well.

Cons

We feel that some features could be improved. One is when adding sponsors even though there are two categories, premium and standard, if you add a premium sponsor after adding other sponsors they show up in random orders. It would be helpful if once you added the sponsors you could drag and drop them in the order you would like them, especially since most sponsorships are based on a dollar range. On the global settings screen and the home page there should be more flexibility with fonts and ability to add additional items not just the specific ones that are there like location and date and time.

Improving their platform more and more each year!

GiveSmart makes it easy to enjoy an event/fundraiser by taking care of all customer needs and questions.

Pros

The event page was a very clear and concise hub to drive people towards our silent auction. I loved the customization that allowed you to match the design of the link to your event, in addition to the generic donate button.

Cons

The fact that the back end of the items tab didn't show a photo preview icon on each line. Also, that there isn't a comprehensive final report you can direct download all at once. Instead, you must click into each category of results you want to see one by one and download.

HIGHLY satisfied customer for over 5 years now. Amazing customer support!

Nearly full event management by using this software.

Pros

Easy to use, customize and edit and update. Features offered have improved each year we have contracted with Givesmart. "One stop shopping" for event and auction management. We have utilized more features each year. What started as just utilizing auction management capability with limited effort into making the online auction site attractive has evolved to guest ticketing, table assignments, a highly customized auction site that reflects the event theme and with real time auction progress and bids scrolling on large screen ad televisions throughout the event venue to increase people's competitive bidding nature. After action information has been vital to determining what auction items had the most interests and highest profit margin. Has enabled us to better focus solicitation efforts for the next year.

Cons

Really very few cons for the software. Only limitation observed was limited printing options for auction item description for printing on card stock. There needs to be several options for the size and information/photo of the descriptive card tents.

Gesture offers excellent professional software with outstanding customer service.

Pros

Gesture's software is user-friendly, fun to utilize and has a clean, professional look. I thoroughly appreciate Gesture's frequent software updates. They are continuously in search of even better ways to improve upon the customer experience, which they communicate through their Gesture Innovation Center emails. I believe that they value customer opinions and implement suggestions, accordingly. As an event planner, other companies often approach me, but none offer the experience Gesture has given my clients over the years. Our account manager, Allie Erickson is on top of our every need, patient, accessible, friendly and helpful. Our on-site manager is thoughtful, communicative, professional and kind. The Gesture team is trustworthy, diligent and fully dedicated to their customers. Every year, our attendees highly rate Gesture in our post-event survey. We have remained loyal to Gesture for many years and will continue for many more to come.

Cons

I would like to remain logged onto the system longer, but I understand that the system logs me off for security purposes. I really don't have any complaints.

Covers All The Bases

Not a fan of the fact that someone on our dropped the fee for user support and had us go DIY but that's on us and I made it work anyway

Pros

Fairly easy to figure out. With enough lead time a and lab scenario deployments most folks can work it out.

Cons

Little cludgy trying to get the card readers and IPADs. Come on now, one stop shopping. E en if you use two vendors you can mask that with software so that we don't have to know. I have had many complaints from folks trying to purchase the online raffle tickets. Once they click the buy they get the message that KS for your purchase. They have actually added multiple tickets to their cart trying to figure out how to actually purchase the tickets. You should change the phrase to "you items have been added to your cart" and NOT thank you for the purchase. Or add verbiage that says now click the "Pay" button to continue.

GiveSmart for Nonprofit fundraising

I like GiveSmart and so far our experience has been good. I look forward to using the platform with the assistance at our live event.

Pros

The GiveSmart platform was easy to get started and use as a landing page for our virtual fundraiser and for our golf benefit. The tracking of donations and ticket sales was convenient and well broken down in reports. We were unable to use the on site feature since the event was cancelled so I cannot speak to that.

Cons

Though we did not utilized the auction page with items, aesthetically, I do not prefer the format, it looks too busy once you have multiple items. We saw an auction in the office from Auctria and their item format was more aesthetically pleasing, not so busy. The page design feature has quite a few steps to create multiple pages with little flexibility in changing fonts, colors etc. I found I used Word Publisher to create a flyer then uploaded the flyer into the space as an image.

Great assist for raising funds in our community

Overall our club's experience with its fundraiser using GiveSmart was great. You can have several administrators to share the load of work when you are an all volunteer organization. Our

Pros

The Customer Service is right by your side in setting up your site and they provide a great "help" base with written and video information. Once you get the hang of uploading your donations it's quite easy. I like that once your account is secured, you can begin working on the site. We start up on our next event in August just lining things up and continue to refine it until our event in April. Takes the pressure off of the volunteers.

Cons

I have sent suggestions based on a previous product we've used to their IT and wish I would hear back. I also would like to see the company provide a separate pricing index for organizations that are strictly community service and all volunteer. We're working hard to raise funds for our community and have no hired leadership. Makes it tough. A drawback for us has been the ability to create and send a personalized thank you identifying the object and tax information to donors as I upload their donation. We have to do an extra step outside of the product.

Worth the investment to skyrocket your event fundraising!

Pros

Ultimately, it has very clear ROI for the agency. The transition from paper building to mobile has drastically increased our pre-event and day of event fundraising. My favorite part about the software is the increase in funds collected the night of the event. It was incredibly unfortunately how much staff time we had to dedicate post event to collecting money, for many of our events we not have 100% funds collected the night of the event, which frees our staff up to focus on thanking donors. Lastly, the interface is very easy to understand and navigate. We have a number of events that have more mature attendees, who were skeptical when we began to make the transition from paper to electronic. After one use they all required we use the technology at future events. This is also a credit to the Gesture onsite staff who really meet the attendees where they are at and give extra attention when needed!

Cons

I guess my comments would be both a pro and a con. The fact that Gesture is constantly evolving and improving the technology it can sometimes be hard to keep up with all of the current offerings and capabilities as a client. This is one of many vendors you work with so it can be hard to keep yourself educated. Although, this is when you really rely on your account manager to relay this information to you, which our, representtaive, does a wonderful job.

Great customer support

I loved the platform and the interface. The customer service it fantastic - especially that they have people come out and help with your events that truly care about the nonprofit sector. They really went above and beyond to help us close the auction and get the data inputted correctly!

Pros

I really liked the salespeople and the way thy helped you with anything you needed. This is the best customer support I've seen from all mobile bidding sites.

Cons

My only negative is the price for small nonprofits. If it were more affordable, I would use them again and again!

My experience with the gesture site was easy, worry and stress free.

I had a wonderful experience with this software. I found it was easy to make my own auction site.

Pros

The gesture software is very easy to learn. I am new to the website and it only took me about an hour to figure everything out. Everything is pretty self explanatory. I had to create an auction site for a silent and live auction. Adding each item came with ease. When you go to add an item each section is categorized telling you exactly what information to put in. I also found it very easy to go back and change things if I had made a mistake. The site is easy for others to use and view the auction items I posted. I felt that the crowd we were trying to attract was the older generation of people and this site allowed them to have the ability to see each item without complication. I really liked that the software told you who was watching certain items. It was easy to generate an item sheet in order to print them out and post them for our auction.

Cons

I think my least favorite thing about this software is trying to figure out when someone bids higher than you and who it is. I found that I had trouble when I bid on an item. My friend and I really wanted an item and we kept out bidding each other but didn't realize we were the only two bidding. I wish it would tell you who is bidding against yo.

Auction & Reservations

GiveSmart was such a game-changer for our event. It streamlined the entire evening and provided a smooth way for our guests to interact with bidding, and our team to coordinate the winning details. The reports were a great feature, and having the details instantly was a huge win. Our account manager and the support staff in the chat feature were always very responsive and helpful.

Pros

We love the functionality of live-time updates in a program that tracks and manages the bidding at our auction. It's wonderful to streamline both bidding participation and ticket reservations all in one place. And the support team at the start and end of the night is a great feature to have day-of.

Cons

There are a few functionality pieces we wish we could have customized to our specific group. Not every component of the reservations process is editable, and that would have been helpful. The support staff was great to have on-site, but some of them seemed very confused by the program and the flow of our evening. It would be nice to have slightly more aware team members to help, or even a training with them the day before the event so everyone was on the same page. A few of the support team members gave inaccurate information to our guests.

Good event fundraising and mobile bidding solution

Good overall experience, we will use them again next year. Custom service for the software is very responsive. Most of the people they send to the event are very polite and professional, but we have had a couple of people that have not been the best at representing our organization.

Pros

We have used this software for two years now for our annual charity golf outing. It's a fantastic tool for mobile bidding at auctions and overall "day-of-event" fundraising. Easy to use and navigate. In addition to the software, you get actual people that run the software the day of the event.

Cons

One challenge I have found is that the information from last year's event doesn't carry over to the next year. Since we typically get a lot of the same donors, I have to re-enter donors from scratch instead of having the system "remember" them from last year.

GiveSmart is a smart choice!

Pros

GiveSmart is a great platform for events -- either DIY or staffed by their team. I've worked with them for many years in three different organizations. They are solid, professional and goal-focused.

Cons

There are some limitations with customization for displays, but that's minor, in my opinion.

Fun, Easy to Use Software

The first year, we did not feel the support was adequate on the night of the event. Last year, we had a dedicated GiveSmart person in our organization and we were very satisfied with the support we received. Also, the support from the beginning of the campaign until weeks after was very good. We are a nonprofit organization composed of an all volunteer workforce. We needed help and it was available. We are using GiveSmart again this year. We look forward to another successful event.

Pros

We use this software for our annual fall fundraiser. We utilize the functions for Silent Auction, Live Auction, Ring The Bell, First Choice, etc. it is extremely easy to add, delete and correct items. Downloading the reports to Excel take seconds. If mistakes are made, they are easily corrected. Our members enjoy using the product, even though many of them are not computer literate. It’s easy to use! We have had a lot of success using this software.

Cons

I wish the list of available reports had names that better defined the reports.

GiveSmart Review

It has been a great relationship for us. We had onsite support for our first event and she was fantastic (and kept me sane). They are usually timely with responses. The only difficult time was when we were sent the wrong cc swipers for an event. Luckily we were able to get it rectified prior to the event date but I kept getting pushback as it was something we were doing incorrectly instead of having the wrong equipment that GiveSmart gave to us directly.

Pros

+It incorporated everything we needed from ticket sales, to auction items to general donations

Cons

-The display banner that showcases the donor names isn't customizable. You can change the color of the font or other display features.

Overall, great product

The account managers have been a pleasure to work with. We've also utilized the in-person staff for our auction event. They were professional and helpful.

Pros

Ease of use, able to quickly set-up a new event and make changes as needed. Encompasses most of our fundraising needs

Cons

Limited P2P fundraising abilities, which they have started incorporating

Great company, easy to use, lots of great features!

I have been able to generate reports that I need for sharing with my committee and for tax letters. Also, the on-line bidding system is a favorite of our guests. I love the messaging too. It allows me to send messages to my guests pre, during, and post event.

Pros

I love that you can generate reports (I use Excel) with information you need for money raised on tickets-silent-live-raffle items, $ raised by donor, FMV vs what was donated for tax purposes, and the list goes on. The spreadsheets can be sorted as you like for your purposes. I also like the messaging. You can send out text messages to your guests for reminders like auction open for bidding, parking, auction closing, links to photos post event, etc. You can also generate tax letters from the site. A lot of great features!

Cons

The only thing I wish it could do is generate tax letters for each guest separately. If you need to make a change for one guest, you have to generate all letters as they go into a single PDF file. You can't just generate them for one guest. Not a major problem, just wish it was a feature. Overall it is a great system!

Affordable single use platform

We decided to try GiveSmart for a second year. We felt that we learned so much from the previous year that it would not hurt to try it one more year. We are a small organization with older donors so we are manipulating the software to work with out the online bidding. The live auction works great. Silent is a bit of work but we think we have it figured out this year.

Pros

Excellent reports. table seating. customer relations management.

Cons

Last year we were not familiar with the software an did not have enough training. We did not know that day of support was an option.

Definitely recommended!

The company & employees are top notch, knowledgeable in their industry, and seem very eager to help. We were able to get some items/issues addressed and fixed prior to launch. Other items were 'dealt with' on our side because there was no work around. They have rolled out a couple of changes we requested as product enhancements since then. Reporting leaves a lot to be desired, but you don't realize it until you are in the thick of it. Was cost comparable to other companies we researched and worked with.

Pros

We have worked with the company for several years now on a single event and have appreciated the seamless transition from year to year on the event. We are now planning to utilize it for other events and look forward to working with their great customer support group!

Cons

Some things are very customizable, and some things are not. It would be beneficial to have more flexibility and less rigidity on parts of the website design, automated forms/responses, etc.

BEST ONLINE AUCTION RESOURCE OUT THERE

Cannot sing their praises more. If you want to go with a group that honestly cares about wanting to make your event a success, use GiveSmart.

Pros

Customer service is INCREDIBLE. The organizations has utilized GiveSmart for 4 years and has never had an issue. When they assign an event representative to you, you can be assured that any question you may have in setting up the auction site or any technical problems that you may have will be resolved immediately by the assigned rep or they will ensure that they find the right person to correct the issue or answer the question if they cannot immediately help. In addition to the auction management, their pacakge allows for FULL event management; everything from

Cons

Cost of using the service would be the only negative, and not really a negative because their costs are actually lower than some other options that the organization looked into.

Gesture use for our annaul Gala

Aside from the comprehensive report, everything else with gestures was fairly simple and easy to use. The staff from gestures that helped during the event was knowledgeable and able to help and respond quickly and effectively during the event went on which made it less chaotic feeling for us.

Pros

I love that gesture was easy for our guests to use at our gala. We used it for check in and the process was simple and easy to understand for our volunteers at registration to find info. We used it for our silent auction and guests were able to see the items from their phones and bid very easily and they received notices when they were outbid or when they won. We used it for general donations, selling centerpieces, and checkout. Overall pretty easy to use during the event.

Cons

During the check in process we were unable to search by table number which would have been helpful because sometimes we are asked who is sitting at a certain table and it would be nice to look up by table. Also after the event we needed specific reports to be able to input all of the money we received and record all of the info and gestures did not yet have one comprehensive report to give us what we needed, instead I had to modify and combine several reports to make it work for our needs.

Ease of Event Management

The experience with Givesmart has been very good so far. The support team is always good about answering questions or getting back to me quickly when we are the middle of an event crisis. We have used the on-site staff to help us at the live events and I cannot say enough wonderful things about how smoothly our event ran, the helpfulness of the staff and the ease of keeping the data accurate during the event.

Pros

The software is pretty user friendly. There are various options for reporting tools to access the data stored per event which makes it handy for when I need to reconcile an event.

Cons

The option for customizing the home page is still not as easy to arrange as I would like it to be.

Worked Great For In-Person & Virtual Events

We love using Givesmart. We have used them for both virtual and in-person events and they have been so easy to work with. They are able to help us customize their product to our events and make it seamless for the volunteer/donor.

Pros

-Trainings -One on one support - Ability to customize

Cons

-Challenge when using a bid number system when money is going to certain volunteers - hard to import volunteer information