A unified system that delights both internal and external users

Overall, a great experience. The team at Foundant is very responsive and the software is easy to use.

Pros

Unified solution, clean & simple interface, the dev team is very open to suggestions and using IdeaLab, users can submit and vote on desired features/functionality. Tech support and service is phenomenal. Going from a non-unified system to a unified system has been like night and day. Being able to offer our Fund Advisors an online portal where they have 24x7 access in a clean site has been a long-awaited feature for us.

Cons

That we didn't have it implemented sooner. It has saved so much staff time.

Finally, A Modern Software Solution Catering Specifically to Community Foundation Needs!

We have what I would call "a beautiful relationship". Not only do we know our team at Foundant, we like them and enjoy hanging out with them. They are constantly seeking ways to improve their product and provide the best customer experience possible. They do that by seeking to better understand the way we function and anticipating industry trends. Additionally, they have made allowances for direct buy-in/investment from a number of community foundations, thus insuring that the company and the company's interests will remain true to community foundations for years to come. No other software provider in our field has taken that step so far as I am aware of.

Pros

There are three things I like most about this software: 1) It is designed specifically for use by community foundations - they get "it"! 2) The customer service. Second to none. Responsive. Knowledgeable. Experienced. Resourceful. Caring. Oh, and they are a heckuva a lot of fun, too! 3) Migration. Rarely is the term "easy" used in close quarters with discussions of transitioning from one core software package to another. However, the good folks at Foundant specialize in this process. In fact, it may be the only company out there that has customers who consistently use the term "flawless" when describing their data migration (at least from FIMS to C-Suite). Basically, Foundant has built itself upon the idea that community foundations are their niche market. Make that "only market". Community foundations (CF's) are their only customers. What's more, a large portion of their staff have past personal work experience either with CF's or with the former industry-specific software, FIMS, from which the majority of community foundations have or are in-process of migrating from.

Cons

There is no perfect solution (yet) for community foundations. While Foundant comes fairly close by providing a ready-made solution, it is not as customizable as our particular organization would prefer. While it appears to be able to handle all of our required needs, we will be employing a few work-arounds and changes to our processes to make it fit those needs. Ideally, a software solution would allow the client to change the program to suit its workflow. Not exactly so with C-Suite. That said, it is a HUGE improvement in terms of integration and report generation over FIMS. It also increases functionality at least 10 fold. Not looking to purchase an additional CRM solution (cough...Salesforce...Raisers Edge...cough)? C-Suite is still a huge upgrade over FIMS.

It's a frustrating system that is missing so much compared to other options.

Pros

It is cloud-based. Unlimited Users. The accounting system seems to work, though I am not an accountant so who knows.

Cons

Donation pages are not customizable or user-friendly. There is no way to track the source of donations (even though the description says donation tracking). If you want to track ROI on your website, ads or communications, you can't. There's no integration with ANY other software(other than Stripe). They do not verify users by email address, so you constantly have to be on top of duplicate accounts from donations. The ticketing system is barebones and difficult to set up. There's no custom reporting.

Community Suite is an amazing solution

Our reporting, which is vital for an organization like ours, is so much easier. Training was spectacular. They CSM folks continue to be super helpful.

Pros

This software consolidates everything a foundation needs to function fully and efficiently. Our staff is thrilled with it.

Cons

Some of the task descriptions are a little confusing. But otherwise, it's been easy to navigate through and to search for things. Creating merge templates for automated tasks has been challenging.

CommunitySuite provides platform to grow our foundation

CommunitySuite allowed our Community Foundation to fully automate our operations relatively early in our growth as a Community Foundation with very limited resources. It set the stage for the rapid growth that we've experienced and was definitely worth the investment.

Pros

CommunitySuite provides an integrated platform to run our Community Foundation at a price that is affordable for even a very small Community Foundation. The support and training provided through the implementation process made it possible to implement the software with very limited staff. Once implemented, the simplified fund accounting process made it possible to offer more options to our donors, including the introduction of non-endowed funds and multiple investment portfolios. These increased options have helped us to more than double the size of our foundation in less than two years. We could not have accomplished what we have without CommunitySuite.

Cons

The campaign process is my least favorite part of the software. While it is nice to have an integrated system to manage events, mailing lists, etc., those who are accustomed to using dedicated event management systems may find the features somewhat limited. It works fine, just without a lot of bells and whistles. Since we generally don't need bells and whistles, and we appreciate the integrated aspects of campaigns, we happily use the features provided. It is simply an area that has room for improvement.

Outstanding Software Solution

Great experience from the beginning and have made many personal connections with many of your employees.

Pros

Ease of use, continued updates, and great customer service.

Cons

Due to business growth on your end and staff changes on our end there have been a few times that has caused some stresses but everyone continues to be helpful.